Some newbie ASCAP/PRO questions

[Coffeeinthesink]

First off, I'm sure this question has been answered but I couldn't narrow in on the search results so forgive me.

I'm a soon-to-be new Taxi member and I'm looking at registering my existing recordings. I have primarily been a singer/songwriter/producer until now and plan to go down the path of producing music for licensing opportunities. I'm already an ASCAP member but have never registered my original works in ASCAP. My questions are...

1) Should I separately register the instrumental versions of my tracks and the original tracks that have vocals?
2) Would it be smart to create a publishing company under my name so I can list myself as the publisher? Or will that get in the way of things if a library or publisher wants to use/pitch my work? (I know this might be a bit of a complicated question.)
3) Should I bother registering cues, songs, or instrumental tracks as I create them for opportunities? From what I've read, some libraries or publishers will take care of this when they actually license your work.

Thanks for any help!

[annayarbrough]

First off, I'm sure this question has been answered but I couldn't narrow in on the search results so forgive me.

I'm a soon-to-be new Taxi member and I'm looking at registering my existing recordings. I have primarily been a singer/songwriter/producer until now and plan to go down the path of producing music for licensing opportunities. I'm already an ASCAP member but have never registered my original works in ASCAP. My questions are...

1) Should I separately register the instrumental versions of my tracks and the original tracks that have vocals?
2) Would it be smart to create a publishing company under my name so I can list myself as the publisher? Or will that get in the way of things if a library or publisher wants to use/pitch my work? (I know this might be a bit of a complicated question.)
3) Should I bother registering cues, songs, or instrumental tracks as I create them for opportunities? From what I've read, some libraries or publishers will take care of this when they actually license your work.

Thanks for any help!

1) and 3) if you are specifically pitching for film/TV, I wouldn't bother registering anything. The publishers/libraries will take care of that.
(In the case of exclusive deals, it can actually create more work for them/you)

2) some PROs let you claim "excess clearance"—you'll automatically get the publishing as the writer if no publisher is listed. Some don't. However, there are definite benefits to owning your own co. Self-releases, direct licensing, some libraries only take a portion of the publishing, co-writes with people in different countries whose PRO system works differently.... the list goes on.

There are a lot of compelling reasons to own your own publishing company, and I think that to sum it up you just want to make sure there's no money being left on the table that isn't reaching you. That's definitely why I created mine!

Hope this helps a little

[Coffeeinthesink]

Thanks for the thoughtful answer Anna! And congrats on your recent success!

[annayarbrough]

thank you!