Register Song and Instrumental Separately?

[billhewett]

If I write a song and then get an instrumental version of it forwarded to a library, do I need to register the song and the instrumental separately with my PRO, or does the "song" registration cover both?

I can't believe this hasn't been asked and answered before, but I did a quick search of the forum and didn't find any results?!?!

Thanks in advance!

-Bill

[shorttonpro]

You may want to wait on the registration until you know if the library is exclusive or non-exclusive. If it is non-exclusive, your registration won't conflict anyway, so you're free to register that.

Keep in mind, any library (exclusive or non-exclusive) is going to register the song either way, often times with their identifier or an alternate title that you come up with.

So if your original song is "All My Love" they may ask you to create an alternate title for their catalog "My Love is All You Need" or they will add some numbers in front or behind "All My Love BXMUS733."

The song registration can technically cover both, but many registrations utilize the Alternate Titles section of the registration process where any alternate version can be registered:
All My Love Vox
All My Love Instrumental
All My love 30
All My Love DnB
All My Love Bumper
All My Love Sting
etc...

They technically all point back to the registration, but as the editor might use a specific audio file with that specific name in the cue sheet, so it helps everything to be covered.

So either wait and see what the library's deal is, or you can register it yourself and maybe use the alternate title section to cover your instrumental as it won't do any harm.

[billhewett]

Thanks Scott, that makes sense to me.

Re: when to register, I make sure to register as soon as a song/instrumental is forwarded because I don't want to be in a position where someone contacts me looking for a quick turnaround and I'm not in a position to get it registered quickly. I think I got that advice from another post here.

-Bill

[Casey H]

Thanks Scott, that makes sense to me.

Re: when to register, I make sure to register as soon as a song/instrumental is forwarded because I don't want to be in a position where someone contacts me looking for a quick turnaround and I'm not in a position to get it registered quickly. I think I got that advice from another post here.

-Bill

You do not need to do a quick registration because of a FORWARD for a number of reasons...

(1) If it's a library and the sign the track, they will do the registration for you. In fact, you doing the registration first without them listed as the publisher creates MORE work for them. The exception is one library we know that asks you to register tracks under original title on your own as part of their "Checking Rights Holders" process.

(2) Many (most actually) forwards do not result in a contact. That's the nature of our business. Doing a registration based on only a forward is just extra work.

(3) PRO's typically look back 6 months when it comes to payments. So if you needed to register a track today due to a deal such as a direct to sup deal and it took a few weeks for the registration (it usually takes only 2-3 days), nothing would be lost.

A Taxi client looking for "quick turnaround" is looking for the track to be available for immediate licensing. PRO registration is generally not a requirement there and again, registration is quick and generally the processing takes very little time. Why wouldn't you be in a position to register it quickly? If you can get to a computer to execute a contract, why would you not be able to do an on-line PRO registration. Signing the contract quickly is the important thing. If you are out in the woods with no internet access, that would a problem too, no?

Now, if you already were in touch with a music supervisor who was considering licensing your track (e.g. "direct to sup"), then you would want to register. The key words here are "already in touch with a music supervisor"... That's far from a forward.

HTH
Casey

[billhewett]

Thanks Casey, that definitely helps!

I guess I always read the tag line at the end of 90% of listings re: owning and/or controlling your master and copyright as somehow implying that it must be registered, but now that I think about it that doesn't make sense at all.

Once again the knowledge on this forum helps me learn something new :)

-Bill