A ? about direct-to-supervisor pitches and self-publishing

[markhimley]

Hello all,

So I just read the article "5 Things You Should Know About Music Supervisors" in the TAXI Transmitter and have a question-

I see that when you are doing a direct-to-supervisor pitch, you have to give them a publishing company name for the cue sheet so you can collect the publisher's share as well. How do you go about creating a personal publishing company for these scenarios, or how do you properly handle it?

Thank you!

[guscave]

Not sure how it works with ASCAP, but with BMI you can simply use your name as the publisher. It will show up as " EXCESS WRITER CLEARANCE" on your registration. Of course you can also set up as a corporation and have that be your publishing company.

[andygabrys]

Not sure how it works with ASCAP, but with BMI you can simply use your name as the publisher. It will show up as " EXCESS WRITER CLEARANCE" on your registration. Of course you can also set up as a corporation and have that be your publishing company.

yes - I agree....with the following caveats:

using excess writers clearance through BMI (if that is your pro) works. You choose 200% of writers share.

where it is a little complicated is where you might have co-written the piece and co-published it with a writer from another pro (say ASCAP). Then it may show up was publishers share unaccounted for.

yes the next step is to set up a publishing company through BMI.

The cheapest of which is to do it as a sole proprietorship (if that is how you run your music business to begin with) and that is $150.

LLC et. al are more expensive.

YMMV but I set up my own publisher and easily recouped the money x 10 off of one ad placement where I owned both sides to the piece.

a personal decision which way to go.

[markhimley]

Thank you both for the feedback! I am indeed with BMI. Currently I'm not doing any co-writing or collaborating, so for the time being I think I'll just claim the 200% and use the excess writer clearance.

[Casey H]

Just a note that if you are with ASCAP, you can't collect publisher's share without creating a publishing company (unlike BMI).

Best of luck!
Casey

[dougstronach]

For Canadian writers: if there is no publisher specified, then the total monies automatically go to the writer. No need to setup a publishing company with SOCAN unless you want or need to for other reasons.

Doug s.