Question on Royalty Statement

[kurtkreimier]

I have a question for some you more experienced folks out here regarding some placements that did not appear on my BMI Royalty Statement. I know I had some placements on a weekly prime time show produced by the ABC Network Affiliate in Chicago. I know about these placements because the cue sheets showed up in my BMI Catalog before the library that placed the tracks had them registered. Once the songs were registered I was no longer able to see the cue sheets. But if my memory serves correct there were about 4 placements in late December and/or early January.

My question is, should I take this up with BMI myself or just tell the folks at the library about the situation? I'm assuming that if they did not show up for me they probably did not show up for them either. I wish BMI had that feature that many of you ASCAP folks seem to have that lets you view all your cue sheets online.

Thanks!

[mazz]

Kurt,

What quarter did the placements appear in? Both ASCAP and BMI just paid out their Q1 2010 royalties. If it was in Q2, you'll have to wait until January to get paid.

Otherwise, I'm not sure who you should contact first, but hopefully matto will cruise on in and give his expert advice.

The ASCAP cue sheet thing is cool, BTW. I would be willing to bet BMI will have that as well, they're always trying to one-up the other, right?

I'll be staying tuned in case matto stops by.

Cheers!

Mazz

[kurtkreimier]

Mazz, The actual placements were in late December 2009 and/or January 2010. The cue sheets did not show up in my catalog until May or June 2010. But I had some other cue sheets show up after these for plays in January and February that were included in this last distribution so I think these should have been included. And yes, I am indeed hoping BMI does try to one up ASCAP on the cue sheet feature.

[Tree]

I didn't even know there was any point where you could see the cue sheets in BMI. Would be nice though to have it like ASCAP though. I've had songs registered for a particular show by the publisher and it might be over a year before I actually see royalty for that show. Not the same as a cue sheet I know. If it were me I would wait until January before being too concerned. But you could definitely ask BMI about it now. Did you write down which episodes they were and was your music definitely in them? I would think with the cue sheet they would be, but I know sometimes shows change their minds last second.

If it were me I would start with BMI then the library. But I don't know much about this either.

Good luck!
Theresa

[matto]

Hey Kurt,

I would contact the library to see if they know anything. It's possible that the registration originally came in off the cue sheet, and then when the library registered the tracks properly the titles had to be reconciled with the information on the cuesheets and this may have delayed the payout.

Or, sometimes libraries will get cue sheets and notice a mistake on them and ask the production company to redo them which can also delay the payout. We had an issue with lots of episodes from a new talk show, some of which we got paid two quarters late because of issues with the cuesheets. It happens.

You could also just wait until January and see if they show up then. Remember you have nine months from the mailing date of any statement to ask for an adjustment relative to that statements, so it wouldn't hurt anything to wait until January...especially if I understand you correctly and this was a local show, and therefore the royalty amount would be rather low.

HTH,

matto

[kurtkreimier]

Thanks Matto! This is indeed helpful and I appreciate you taking the time to post. I'll go ahead and let the library know about the situation and then wait to see what happens.

Theresa, the only times I am aware of that the cue sheets are visible to BMI members is when the cue sheets come in before the song (work) is actually registered as part of your works catalog. I think BMI then treats the cue sheet as a registration of that song until such time as the song is registered by either the library/publisher or composer.

Thanks again to all of you. I apprecite the suggestions.

Peace.