Do I have to start my own "publishing house" to collect publishing royalties?

[Strangesound]

Hey guys,

some songs of mine were fowarded and for the first time a music library contacted me via eMail for the further use of a song.
They say I keep my publishing, which is great of course, but I'm not sure if I can collect these publishing royalties via my PRO, without opening up my own publishing house.

How do you guys handle this?

Thanks!

[hummingbird]

Check with your PRO. With mine (SOCAN), if no publisher is listed in the song registration, then publishing automatically goes to me. Other PROs might want you to register with them as a publisher in order to get the publishing (create a publishing company for yourself and register that as the publisher).

[Strangesound]

Good to know, thank you!

[VanderBoegh]

Depends on your PRO, I think. If you're with ASCAP, it only costs like $50 to create a publishing entity.

~~Matt

[markhimley]

I have heard with BMI that you can just claim "excess writer's clearance" which is essentially just getting the publishing if no publisher was listed - like what Vikki said.

I am with BMI, however I didn't want to risk it, so I forked out the $150 to create my own publishing company as I am in a similar situation as what you've listed. HTH

[Strangesound]

Thanks guys! I'm living in Germany, so I will call my german PRO and talk about it. The procedure should be similar

[Telefunkin]

I have heard with BMI that you can just claim "excess writer's clearance" which is essentially just getting the publishing if no publisher was listed - like what Vikki said.

That's my understanding too. I'm with BMI and don't have a publishing entity, so I'm trusting it to be true. Can't wait to be lucky enough to find out