Should I register my songs with BMI?

[brennanhester]

Hello people who are smarter than I,I have been a member of BMI for 15 years or so.I was wondering if it would be smart to register all of my songs with them. Do libraries like to see that your stuff is registered with BMI, or do they not?If my kids would quit climbing on me I'd find out myself, but since they won't I figured I'd ask you for opinions.Thanks!

[hummingbird]

Quote:Hello people who are smarter than I,I have been a member of BMI for 15 years or so.I was wondering if it would be smart to register all of my songs with them. Do libraries like to see that your stuff is registered with BMI, or do they not?If my kids would quit climbing on me I'd find out myself, but since they won't I figured I'd ask you for opinions.Thanks!This is a good question. My PRO (Socan) states that I should register all my works with them. However, if I do that, what happens if the work gets signed by a publisher & I have it already listed on Socan with myself as 100%? Seems to me it would be more advisable to wait and let the publisher register it.Secondly, assuming the publisher registers the work with the appropriate shares when the deal is signed or when the first placement is made... what happens when revision clicks in... does that song's registration get removed or changed at the PRO?Maybe Matt could weigh in on this

[matto]

There's no point registering your songs unless they are about to generate performance royalties.I've never heard of a library checking your ASCAP or BMI catalog to see if they should be doing business with you ...and even if they did check, they'd see that the songs are either not published or self-published...which is really the same thing as having an "empty" catalog. So there's no advantage.The main disadvantage was pointed out by Vikki, namely that if you later sign a pub or co-pub agreement on the song, the registration has to be modified.As far as the reversion...most publishers that have exclusive, non-retitle agreements with a reversion clause will wait to register the song with the PRO until the song has been placed. At which point the reversion becomes void (as most reversion clauses are conditioned on the song not being placed within a given time period), so there won't be any modifications necessary later.

[brennanhester]

Thanks, Matt.You rule, as always.

[christopherscum]

Hi I am nw here, I'm Christopher. I registered all of my stuff, or most of it because it's being used in a movie Worldstorm did about our band. I thought, now I find out I'm way off base that BMI was a sort of copyright. I should have just registered the bands music that's getting used in the movie, not my personal stuff, am I right. Again Hello,Christopher

[hummingbird]

Quote: Hi I am nw here, I'm Christopher. I registered all of my stuff, or most of it because it's being used in a movie Worldstorm did about our band. I thought, now I find out I'm way off base that BMI was a sort of copyright. I should have just registered the bands music that's getting used in the movie, not my personal stuff, am I right. Again Hello,ChristopherA PRO = Performing Rights Organization. You register your works with them so you can get paid for the performance of your work. (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC... in Canada it's SOCAN). They do not register copyright.You need to register your works with the US Library of Congress for copyright purposes. In your case, if your master track is being used in a film, you should register using a SR form, nature of authorship is "Words, Music & Sound Recording". I highly recommend you pick up John Braheny's "The Craft & the Business of Songwriting" - he explains all this and more - and I think every songwriter needs to understand copyright, licencing, royalties, etc.Hummin'bird