Do you register and distribute your music?

[JimKen]

Hi,

I have learned from Taxi support that we should not register our songs with our PRO before submitting to a listing. Does anyone know about this?

Also, do you distribute your music before submitting? Or do you keep all your songs offline and just submit them to listings?

Thanks
Marcus

[IanJames]

I register my songs with my PRO before i do anything else.

I'm always afraid I'll forget to otherwise, plus the more times i log onto the PRO website the better chances of me remembering my password...

[VanderBoegh]

DON'T register your music if you plan on signing the tracks to music libraries. 99 times out of 100, the library will handle it for you. If you do it yourself, you create extra hassles for the music library, and it could perhaps turn into a deal-killer.

~~Matt

[JimKen]

DON'T register your music if you plan on signing the tracks to music libraries. 99 times out of 100, the library will handle it for you. If you do it yourself, you create extra hassles for the music library, and it could perhaps turn into a deal-killer.

~~Matt

Thank you Matthew!

[Paulie]

What Matt said is absolutely true... do NOT register your music if your goal is to get it into libraries. I'm in quite a few libraries and only ONE of them asks for composers to register them before accepting them. So, don't make this Critical mistake.

Also, many libraries will not accept music that is published, it creates more hassles for them. Best to shop your stuff as much as you can, and then maybe publish if you don't get any interest. Also, posting your music on Soundcloud is not really "publishing" per se, most of the time people are talking about using something like Distrokid to upload your music to Spotify, Apple Music, etc.

[JimKen]

So, when I get it right, I should not register any songs with my PRO even when submitting directly to a music supervisor. Is that correct?

It's also not recommended to distribute any songs on Apple Music, SoundCloud, or other streaming services.

Fazit: I should keep everything offline, correct?

Respectfully,
Marcus

[ochaim]

Hey Marcus,

Submitting to publisher/library, do not register with PRO.

Pitching to music supervisor, DO register with PRO. You’re not pitching music you have with an exclusive library, right? If its in an non-exclusive library, you “should” be able to pitch it on your own and have a unique PRO registration of your own so it does not duplicate the non-exclusive’s PRO registration and assign royalties to that non-ex library incorrectly.

Why do you want to release it on your own via streaming/soundcloud? If it is allowed by the publisher’s agreement, you can do so AFTER it is signed to their catalogue. You wont necessarily know whether the agreement allows it beforehand so it’s an unnecessary risk to encumber a track with that.

Hope that helps.

[JimKen]

Hey Marcus,

Submitting to publisher/library, do not register with PRO.

Pitching to music supervisor, DO register with PRO. You’re not pitching music you have with an exclusive library, right? If its in an non-exclusive library, you “should” be able to pitch it on your own and have a unique PRO registration of your own so it does not duplicate the non-exclusive’s PRO registration and assign royalties to that non-ex library incorrectly.

Why do you want to release it on your own via streaming/soundcloud? If it is allowed by the publisher’s agreement, you can do so AFTER it is signed to their catalogue. You wont necessarily know whether the agreement allows it beforehand so it’s an unnecessary risk to encumber a track with that.

Hope that helps.

Hi Ochaim,

Thanks for your help!

No, I am not pitching any works associated with an exclusive library.

You are right about releasing music. I will wait and see what the rules are when it comes to a singing.

Thank you

[Casey H]

What others ^^^^ said.

Don't register songs if you plan to pitch to music libraries unless they ask you do (Only one we know of does).

Don't release songs to streaming, etc. if you plan on pitching to exclusive music libraries since some allow that and some don't. You have know way of knowing until you sign a deal.

Regarding pitching directly to music sups... Even then I wouldn't register unless you know there is a serious, imminent chance of placement. There is plenty of time if that happens. You might not get the placement and decide to go the library route later.

Best,
Casey

[JimKen]

What others ^^^^ said.

Don't register songs if you plan to pitch to music libraries unless they ask you do (Only one we know of does).

Don't release songs to streaming, etc. if you plan on pitching to exclusive music libraries since some allow that and some don't. You have know way of knowing until you sign a deal.

Regarding pitching directly to music sups... Even then I wouldn't register unless you know there is a serious, imminent chance of placement. There is plenty of time if that happens. You might not get the placement and decide to go the library route later.

Best,
Casey

Thank you Casey!