PRO - Performing Rights Orgs.

[stuarta]

One of my songs was recently forwarded, or, rather, chosen by a company which pitches music to TV/Film etc. They got in touch with me the other day and said they'd like to offer me a contract. They asked for some preliminary information from me, including PRO membership. I told them I'm not yet a member of any PRO but would obviously look into it. A U.K. citizen, I'm resident in Japan. I contacted JASRAC (a PRO) here in Japan. They told me that in order to become a member I would have to first be an established artist. I looked up PRS in the U.K. and discovered similar conditions. It seems like a catch 22 situation. In order for the company, which is interested in pitching my music, to offer me a contract I need to be a PRO member, but, in order to be a PRO member (with the organisations I have researched thus far) I need to be an established artist. How do I get round this? I'm an independent artist and I have a selling CD on CDBaby and in other stores. I submit material as an independent artist, performer, producer, publisher et.AL. of my own works to Taxi and I have had several forwards and this is the first offer. I'm keen to capitalise on this. Please, can anyone advise?

[gitarrero]

Hi,If I was you I simply would call your PRO and explain your situation.If that doesn't help, ask when they're willing to accept a membership. In my case (I live in Switzerland) I just needed to send in a flyer where my band had a gig. That was enough to proove that I'm an active musicain;)I really think explaining your situation should help. Tell 'em that your offered a deal.I think the PROs just don't want to get flooded by lots and lots of artist who never will have a royalty check.hope that helps.

[stuarta]

Thanks for your advice gitarrero, I appreciate it. Which PRO are you a member of, by the way?cheers,Stuart.

[edteja]

I suspect you'll find they accept the fact that you are offered a contract makes you "established" enough. If it is a US company you might want to see if you can join ASCAP or BMI or SESAC as well, since the US might be a big source of performance revenue.

[stuarta]

Quote:I suspect you'll find they accept the fact that you are offered a contract makes you "established" enough. If it is a US company you might want to see if you can join ASCAP or BMI or SESAC as well, since the US might be a big source of performance revenue.Thanks, Traveling Ed Teja, for your comments. I've checked out ASCAP's requirements and they seem to be a little less forbidding than others. I may end up going down that route. Are you a registered PRO member yourself?

[gitarrero]

Quote:Thanks for your advice gitarrero, I appreciate it. Which PRO are you a member of, by the way?cheers,Stuart.I'm with suisa (www.suisa.ch), the swiss PRO.btw normally a PRO takes care of your rights as a composer worldwide. They're connected and exchange funds (e.g. suisa gives ascap the money for american composers and vice versa). I don't think you can be a member of multiple PROs - except if you negotiate so.

[matto]

Hi Stuartajust tell the publisher that you can't join your particular PRO before you have a song published, and that you'll join as soon as you've got the fully executed contract. I don't think this will be a problem at all; I've had several situations where I've had co-writers who weren't affiliated at the time the contracts were signed...on the contract they were still listed as affiliated with the PRO the were going to join. As soon as the contract was finalized they used that contract to meet the eligibility requirements and joined.Martin is right that you can only belong to one PRO at a time, generally speaking. And joining ASCAP/BMI for a foreign citizen AND resident is fraught with problems as you'll need to get a US tax number (ITIN) from the US tax authorities in order to even be able to apply for ASCAP/BMI affiliation.I know cause I recently helped a co-writer who lives abroad join BMI...not fun! So...I would strongly recommend against this (for one thing the whole process can take several months easily)...my advice is to either join the PRS or JASRAC using the method I described above.matto

[stuarta]

Thank you all for your advice. I contacted PRS directly and between the three parties I think we can work something out.thanks again,Stuart.