writer and or publisher

[Jeremy Michael K]

I have been doing a lot of reading/research on what to do starting out along this path but I have a few questions:

1. After a song gets forwarded, lets say it makes it to a library and then is chosen from that library by a cable TV show. How exactly do they know who to pay (how to find me)? Which brings me to my next question:

2. Do I need to be registered with ASCAP or the like as a publisher? And then do I need to register each song I submit to anyone?


Just wondering how they know where to send the proverbial check.

[mazz]

In my experience, when you sign a contract with a library, they ask for your PRO affiliation, you have to put it on the contract. Usually, but not always, the library will be the publisher and will register the piece(s) with the PRO for you. You don't have to have a publishing company registered with your PRO to get performance royalties as a writer.

As far as getting paid goes, the production company fills out what is called a "cue sheet". The cue sheet contains the writer, publisher and title of the piece along with the "splits". In the case of one writer and one publisher, the splits would be listed as 50% to writer and 50% to publisher, for example. If you had a co-writer and had a 50/50 deal with them, then the splits would be listed as 25% to you, 25% to your cowriter and 50% to the publisher. The production company files the cue sheet with the PRO and then 6 to 9 months later, you get a check.

There's several good books on the industry out there that explain this in more detail. John Brahaney has a good one and Donald Passman has one as well. Both are written in plain language and they make the legal mumbo jumbo understandable to the average knuckleheaded composer

Good luck!

Mazz

[matto]

I guess the most important thing to realize is that if your song is forwarded it's not just magically going to be put in a library without your knowledge.
If the library is interested, they will contact you and if both parties are amenable to striking a deal you will be sent a contract which has your address, PRO affiliation, often even your CAE/IPI number (number assigned to you by the PRO).
So the library will always know where to find you, and how to register the song in your name with the PRO (do make sure you let the library and your PRO know if/when you have a change of address).

Typically the library will act as your publisher for the songs signed to them and will collect the publisher's share of PRO money. There are some rare exceptions to this but that's the way it usually works. So in most cases you won't have to be registered with ASCAP as a publisher, nor register your songs with them, the library typically does this on your behalf as part of their publisher's duties.

[Jeremy Michael K]

Thank you mazz and matto, that was exactly the info I was looking for.