Legal Name or Friendly name (TAXI TV)

[Rockinpop]

Watched TAXI TV a few weeks ago discussing Legal Names vs other Names to be used for sites etc.

My BMI Account is registered in my legal name as Ronald D Svoboda Sr, but I have 2 IPI numbers... Svoboda Ron and Svoboda Ronald D Sr
Not sure why both were generated.

After listening to Michael, he claims I should have the same name for all of my accounts and activities. This would mean I should be using my legal name for the following:
TAXI
Music Websites
Music Facebook
Soundcloud
Business Cards
Contracts with Collaborators
etc.
forums...not worried about

I'd rather use Ron Svoboda Sr but am willing to change sites etc., to meet the industry's needs.

What would the best advice from the long-time successful TAXI members? Now is a good time for me to make changes.

Thanks,
Ron Svoboda Sr.

[Casey H]

I can't speak to the rest but 2 BMI accounts isn't the best as it could create confusion and *possibly* affect you getting paid. I would contact BMI and see if you can get that squared away, maybe merge. Are you signed with libraries? If so, which IPI # do they have?

[Casey H]

Also, many have an artist name and a legal name. Others who do that can chime in.

[Rockinpop]

I can't speak to the rest but 2 BMI accounts isn't the best as it could create confusion and *possibly* affect you getting paid. I would contact BMI and see if you can get that squared away, maybe merge. Are you signed with libraries? If so, which IPI # do they have?

Hey Casey,
I only have one BMI account #, but two different IPI numbers...and I'm not alone on this one. Others have a similar set up. No signed deals yet, using BMI.

I'm mainly concerned about across the board. I'm ready to change whatever I need to before printing new cards etc.

Maybe this is a question for Michael, since he talked about it on TAXI TV for about 15 minutes. Maybe someone could bring this to his attention.

Thanks,
Ron

[Casey H]

Hey Ron
You may want to check with BMI on that. But if 2 remain, I would consistently use the same one for any and all deals.

I'm a worst offender on the inconsistent name thing as my nickname is "Casey" but by legal name is "Ch*rles P Hur*witz". I'm Casey or CaseyH on many sites but always use the full legal name on contracts which is the right thing to do.

My personal thought for you, since your name is a mouthful (like mine), especially with the "Sr" suffix, would be to create an artist name for your websites/internet presence and your full legal name on contracts-- publishing, WFH, collab agreements, etc. My biz cards show both my nickname "Casey" and my full legal name. Your website bio could open with "Rockman (R*n Svob*da Sr)" is a blah blah blah..." (Rockman, just an example).

And lastly, don't forget to focus on the music.

PS Every time I see your name I'm reminded of the former Mets baseball player "Ron Swoboda".

PPS I used some '*' in the names above in case we don't want this to come up in a Google search of our names.

[PDebik]

Actually, for marketing you should always create a Pseudonym that sounds most iconic for the production. For example when you sell Country, you would not want to do it as "Jonas Nightengale" and when you sell Gospel, you would not want to be "Jack Jones". For the PROs only the composer is relevant, so as long as you list with your real name as a composer with them, things should work out fine. For German GEMA I know that you can have as many Aliases as you like as a composer, too. So all your pseudonyms end up in the same account. This is something that BMI might also offer, not sure, but likely other PROs are doing the same, because many artists run different projects under different artist names.

[LarryR]

I asked ASCAP about pseudonym names. They said it doesn't matter if you used them because they track payment to your IPI. You may have 1 and only 1 IPI for Writer acct and 1 and only 1 different IPI for Publisher acct.

[irthlingz]

I asked ASCAP about pseudonym names. They said it doesn't matter if you used them because they track payment to your IPI. You may have 1 and only 1 IPI for Writer acct and 1 and only 1 different IPI for Publisher acct.

Ron, I wonder if this could be what's happening in your case -- i.e. you have 1 IPI as a Writer and 1 as a Publisher?

===Michael===

[PeteCrane]

I spoke to my PRO (APRA) about this when I landed an album in a music library that didn't have capacity to use my "friendly" name - the music library only wanted my name exactly as it's registered with my PRO. My registered name is the same as my "friendly" name, just with middle names and stuff and I wanted to keep it consistent so people could discover my other material if they looked it up.

At my PRO's suggestion, they registered a separate IPI for my "friendly" name, but linked to my main account. It works great. The music library registered my album and all songs turned up in my PRO account as expected.

To be clear, if the music library were able to accommodate an artist name to display as the "Composer" of the album, I wouldn't have needed to register a separate IPI. You don't need a separate IPI for every pseudonym or artist name you have. It was just in this unique situation where the music library only wanted my name exactly as it was registered with the PRO and I wanted to be 100% safe so checked with my PRO who recommended this course of action.