PRO’s

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Otis12062002
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PRO’s

Post by Otis12062002 » Wed Nov 02, 2022 3:13 pm

This might be a dumb question but here it goes. So I’m from the UK which means the PRO I’m affiliated with is PRS, but more and more taxi listings with my preferred genre keep coming up with this recently “Only artists/writers affiliated with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SACEM, IMRO, APRA AMCOS, SOCAN, including all Scandinavian and Latin American PROs, are eligible to submit their music for this opportunity.”
Now in PRS you can have a choice to what US PRO you can affiliate your track with when you register it, it gives you the option between bmi and ascap. So can I submit to these listings? Because I will get the chance to choose within PRS what US pro I can affiliate the track with.

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Casey H
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Re: PRO’s

Post by Casey H » Wed Nov 02, 2022 3:36 pm

Otis12062002 wrote:
Wed Nov 02, 2022 3:13 pm
This might be a dumb question but here it goes. So I’m from the UK which means the PRO I’m affiliated with is PRS, but more and more taxi listings with my preferred genre keep coming up with this recently “Only artists/writers affiliated with ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, SACEM, IMRO, APRA AMCOS, SOCAN, including all Scandinavian and Latin American PROs, are eligible to submit their music for this opportunity.”
Now in PRS you can have a choice to what US PRO you can affiliate your track with when you register it, it gives you the option between bmi and ascap. So can I submit to these listings? Because I will get the chance to choose within PRS what US pro I can affiliate the track with.
Unfortunately, the answer is no. It's what PRO you belong to, not who you affiliate with for collecting your royalties. I don't remember the exact reason for the limitation, it has to do with some country's policies with regards to certain types of music royalties (I'm fuzzy on it). Maybe after the road rally, when things calm down, we can get ML to give a full explanation.

And the only dumb question is the one not asked.

:D Casey

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Re: PRO’s

Post by hummingbird » Wed Nov 02, 2022 3:51 pm

Sometimes it has to do with the requirement, for example, in terms of SOCAN-only, for only Canadian content in Canada on specific Canadian shows or in certain Canadian performances. And I think that requirement is about funding or sponsorship from the government or other agencies that are there to promote Canadian artists and composers.
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chrismh99
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Re: PRO’s

Post by chrismh99 » Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:59 am

I'm from the UK as well and had the same question. I asked member services and this is the reply they gave.

"Member Services team here, good hearing from you. There have been a handful of members who've reached out to me over the last few days with this same question and I spoke to the A&R Director about this. The reason why this client is specifying those PROS in the listing is because they have a direct deal in place with those companies and only want to deal with composers who are directly affiliated with those listed PROs, no sub affiliates unfortunately.
I'm sorry, it's best if you avoid submitting that track to this listing. There will be other opportunities for this style in the future that I'm sure won't be as restrictive."

Hope that's useful

Chris

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Re: PRO’s

Post by cosmicdolphin » Sat Nov 05, 2022 8:06 am

chrismh99 wrote:
Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:59 am
The reason why this client is specifying those PROS in the listing is because they have a direct deal in place with those companies and only want to deal with composers who are directly affiliated with those listed PROs, no sub affiliates unfortunately.
That's bizarre :shock:

What difference would it make on the client end ? It's just a CAE/IPI number on a cue sheet. :lol:

There's nothing to stop you from joining one of the PRO's stated for future listings BTW. You can be in more than one PRO.

It all sounds a bit odd though.

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Casey H
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Re: PRO’s

Post by Casey H » Sat Nov 05, 2022 1:47 pm

chrismh99 wrote:
Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:59 am
I'm from the UK as well and had the same question. I asked member services and this is the reply they gave.

"Member Services team here, good hearing from you. There have been a handful of members who've reached out to me over the last few days with this same question and I spoke to the A&R Director about this. The reason why this client is specifying those PROS in the listing is because they have a direct deal in place with those companies and only want to deal with composers who are directly affiliated with those listed PROs, no sub affiliates unfortunately.
I'm sorry, it's best if you avoid submitting that track to this listing. There will be other opportunities for this style in the future that I'm sure won't be as restrictive."

Hope that's useful

Chris
By "direct deal", it sounds to me like it's direct licensing, something that is done instead of PROs. Many PROs allow (by their country's law) for their members to direct license without them so as not to have a monopoly. However, not all PROs allow for members to do direct licensing. It's prohibited with some country's PROs. That's what's probably going on here. I have a direct license deal for in-store airplay overseas and some PRO's writers can't participate. The subject of direct licensing is complicated, may require some Google research.

Cosmic: AFIAK, in most cases you cannot ACTIVELY belong to more than one PRO. There may be some that support dual membership but a great many don't. You can resign one PRO and join another, leaving your old tracks in the first one and putting your newer tracks in the new one. But that's not 2 active ones. I know there are exceptions but I'm not sure how common they are.

Best,
:D Casey

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