I think I solved the retitling problem. :-)

[DesireInspires]

One thing I recently learned about BMI and ASCAP is that titles really do not matter. Each time a song is registered, a new Work ID is formed.

I could register the same title with me as the songwriter and a different publisher for each version. The work ID would be unique to that particular registration.

Music libraries and publishers should use the work ID instead of the song title to add to a cue sheet. That Work ID is as unique as DNA. That alone would solve all retitle issues.

Thoughts?

[andygabrys]

One thing I recently learned about BMI and ASCAP is that titles really do not matter. Each time a song is registered, a new Work ID is formed.

I could register the same title with me as the songwriter and a different publisher for each version. The work ID would be unique to that particular registration.

Music libraries and publishers should use the work ID instead of the song title to add to a cue sheet. That Work ID is as unique as DNA. That alone would solve all retitle issues.

Thoughts?

its not really a problem for those like a library you well know that adds the suffix -jp to their versions of the tunes.

anways, good idea. who knows, maybe that could be a better way.

[ChipD]

Interesting thought process, DI.

How would it be handled when the publisher is ASCAP and the composer is BMI (or vice-versa)?

I am assuming that the Work ID is specific to the PRO's scheme, which may or may not be correct.

[markjsmith]

Chip most publishers figure a way of getting both an ASCAP and a BMI account, although I've had a publisher mistakenly register one of my ASCAP cues as BMI (another thread).
I don't really see the problem with retitling as much as I see the problem being exclusive vs. non-exclusive. The bigger networks are very unhappy when they pay a bunch of money to a library to use tunes, and then find those same exact songs in another library that they are paying (in other words they have paid for the rights to use those cues twice sometimes several times for the same cues). Think about it like this, would you be happy buying 6 albums by an artist if 5 or 6 of the tunes (same recorded versions mixes etc....) were on each of the albums with a different title? I doubt it!

The reality is non-exclusive libraries get me placements just like exclusives, but all my bigger network placements (pay more) have been with exclusive libraries. So I consider all libraries as exclusive.


Sorry if I'm going in a different direction than you intended DI!

[DesireInspires]

Sorry if I'm going in a different direction than you intended DI!

No problem. All discussion is good discussion.

[pboss]

I think the problem ends up being that two different unique work ID numbers, in the same market, "sound" exactly the same.