PRO outside of USA?

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Kolstad
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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by Kolstad » Wed May 26, 2021 12:51 am

AudiniAudio wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 7:09 pm
I joined BMI though I'm in Indonesia. I got mudic placed in a documentary on NHK. I heard my music on TV right in my living room and my wife and I were so happy. Unfortunately BMI has never paid me. I've tried to work it out several times on their site and it just says denied, denied, denied for those tracks. Don't know why. I don't understand wht not. Maybe because America doesn't honor performing rights in Indonesia, perhaps because of the blatant stealing of American movies illegally copied to DVD. Don't care. Just want my money.
I’m not in the US, but when I google it, NHK is from Japan, is that right? You should also have gotten a cut of the sync fee and master use from your publisher (unless you've signed a very bad deal). Why don't you ask your publisher about the placement? Also, it can take up to 2 years for you to receive payment, so just get your deal clarified and you should be good.

Indonesia joined the Berne Convention in 1958, so there should be no issues about recognizing your copyright in the US nor EU.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention
Last edited by Kolstad on Wed May 26, 2021 10:15 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Telefunkin
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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by Telefunkin » Wed May 26, 2021 4:27 am

Kolstad wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 12:51 am
You don't get performance royalties in the US from TV
?? :?
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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by Kolstad » Wed May 26, 2021 10:09 am

Telefunkin wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 4:27 am
Kolstad wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 12:51 am
You don't get performance royalties in the US from TV
?? :?
My mistake, corrected. But NHK.. is japanese, no?
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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by AudiniAudio » Wed May 26, 2021 4:57 pm

Hi Kolstad,
yes NHK is in Japan. I have tried to contact the library. It's been a while now so I don't remember well what he said. I think he put it back on me to work it out with BMI. I can contact him again though. It's been more than 2 years. It's been 7 years now.

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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by AudiniAudio » Wed May 26, 2021 6:19 pm

I went back to BMI just now and the tracks say reconciled. It seems to mean they're not denied anymore but the address they had on file for me is in Indonesia and those checks have never been delivered to that address. It might be because of the postal system here sometimes has difficulty finding houses in the middle of the jungle. They were delivering other mail so I assumed those would come too. Maybe they got a new guy and since none of the dirt roads have names, he didn't know how to deliver them. We can't call them because this is the wild west out here. We have to go in person when we're in the vicinity and see what happened to my mail if any ever arrived. It might be the case they were never sent to an Indonesian address? Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the sound library or it's owner/manager. I don't see it on BMI but maybe I don't know how to search it. I had an old hotmail account where that mail was sent but I lost access to it and had to switch to Gmail. I spoke to the guy on the sound library on the taxi forum. Maybe I could find those old posts?

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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by Telefunkin » Wed May 26, 2021 11:48 pm

AudiniAudio wrote:
Wed May 26, 2021 6:19 pm
I went back to BMI just now and the tracks say reconciled. It seems to mean they're not denied anymore but the address they had on file for me is in Indonesia and those checks have never been delivered to that address.
If BMI had sent you a royalty cheque (check) there would also be an accompanying royalty statement in your account. If there's no statement there will have been no payment. If the track in question has not yet appeared on any royalty statements then the information has not got back to BMI yet, and sadly after 7 years it seems unlikely that it ever will. It can happen if the cue sheet was never filed or filed incorrectly. Another possibility (if I am correct in my understanding) is that your total royalty amount remains below the threshold for BMI to generate a statement, so until more royalties accrue to take you above that threshold you will not see those that are already there. I can't remember what that threshold is but you could find that out at BMI. If the placement was a single airing of short duration at off-peak time on a minor channel it may well have earned a small amount only.
Graham (UK). Still composing a little faster than decomposing, and 100% HI.

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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by AudiniAudio » Thu May 27, 2021 7:32 pm

Thanks everyone for your replies especially Telefunkin's last post.

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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by AudiniAudio » Thu May 27, 2021 7:36 pm

It was gamelan/piphat type music in a documentary on Cambodia. It continued to sit on their website for long after it originally aired and available in their archives subsequently. No royalty statements on BMI.

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Re: PRO outside of USA?

Post by OwenGrech » Fri May 28, 2021 10:01 am

AudiniAudio wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 7:09 pm
I joined BMI though I'm in Indonesia. I got mudic placed in a documentary on NHK. I heard my music on TV right in my living room and my wife and I were so happy. Unfortunately BMI has never paid me. I've tried to work it out several times on their site and it just says denied, denied, denied for those tracks. Don't know why. I don't understand wht not. Maybe because America doesn't honor performing rights in Indonesia, perhaps because of the blatant stealing of American movies illegally copied to DVD. Don't care. Just want my money.
I cant blame you for wanting your money! Unfortunately I am not in a position to give you my 2 cents on what might have happened as i am pretty new to this but I sincerely hope it will be sorted out sooner rather than later. I ended up joining BMI too in the end - let's hope for the best :)

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