Artist Name - what is the biz impact?

[GBall]

On the mysterious supervisor Taxi TV stream, Mr. M mentioned the value of using an artist name. I'm wondering how that affects the business side, or what if anything you need to do to set that up?

I think song/musical work ownership wouldn't change. But though I may be getting the cart before the horse to consider any back-end royalties, how would it affect the other performance/sync royalties that go to the artist?

[AlanHall]

You can always register a DBA, if you think people will be writing checks to your nom de plume. Other than that, make sure any interest in the 'artist name' gets directed to your website?

[TheElement]

I registered my artist name with my PRO so can get paid also from that name. I actually never wanted an artist name as I am a songwriter/producer only. But seems people like that. Originally I just used Element Studio but everyone started just calling me The Element so I guess having an artist name people connect more to it? Anyway I am back to The Element again after trying to be Element Studios lol

[jaywilliams]

On the mysterious supervisor Taxi TV stream, Mr. M mentioned the value of using an artist name. I'm wondering how that affects the business side, or what if anything you need to do to set that up?

I think song/musical work ownership wouldn't change. But though I may be getting the cart before the horse to consider any back-end royalties, how would it affect the other performance/sync royalties that go to the artist?

You can register it with your PRO quite easily, so it shouldn't make a difference to your royalties.

A couple of things to consider (that I wish I had considered more carefully before choosing mine) -

Check and make sure there aren't one or more artists using a similar name.

Also, don't try to use "productions" or "studio" in your name as the streaming services will disallow that.

In my own case, I'm old enough to remember the group The Alan Parsons Project from back in the 70s, so before I started registering and releasing tracks I began using "Jay Williams Productions" as my artist name.

Well, Spotify pushed back against the "Productions" part of the name, so now I've been releasing music with "Jay Williams" as the artist name.

I have to stay on top of each release to make sure its attributed correctly to me and not another "Jay Williams" on the streaming service.

Best of luck!

Jay

[GBall]

A warm thanks to each of you. The PRO registration I didn't know, but it makes sense that it would have to work that way.

I actually have a DBA but with unfortunately the word "records" attached, much like "productions" I would assume. I didn't ever expect that to serve as an artist name; It was just a way to create a separate bank account to make records and accounting at tax time simpler.

I'm now thinking of adjusting the name on that DBA - that would at least invoke a new name search and some uniqueness protection at the state level here. I hope with my internet domain it would be a good faith attempt at going beyond a Google search.