Registering your songs w/ BMI- BMI's take on it..

[JohnnyP]

I just had an interesting back and forth with with the works registration dept at BMI.

What prompted my query to BMI was that I have 26 vocal songs signed exclusively with a publisher via a TAXI forward from November of 2020. As of 1/6/2022 those songs have not been registered by the publisher with BMI. I've reached out to said publisher and the response was "BMI is slow with registering large catalogs"...

So my question to BMI was "can you tell me if these 26 songs are in the process of being registered"? To which BMI responded that "they have no way of knowing if works have been submitted for registration". Then BMI offered this detail. "Well, you will always want your works to be registered at BMI so we can track performances. It would be best to submit them yourself, like you have been doing. That way you know for certain they are registered. "


I almost always register my vocal songs as soon as I get them back from the mastering engineer. My main reason for doing that is I typically pitch them first to a non-excl library that requires your songs to be registered when pitched. If that non-excl library passes then I pitch the song to other libraries both excl and non-excl. When the song gets signed the library will either edit my BMI registration to show they are now the publisher, or they will create a new registration and add their own identifier number/letter before my song title (re-title).

I just thought it was interesting to hear BMI say that I should always register my songs myself.

John

[funsongs]

Thanks for the post, JP.
"Once upon a time..." when I called and asked, "When should I contact you (BMI) to register a song?" The voice on the other end said,
"When you release it to the public."
Reading what you wrote, the emphasis seems to be on "you"... i.e. when YOU release it.
Cheers.

PS: this is no hero's affirmation; to the contrary - I've been woefully procrastinating on registering my songs.
Maybe this should have been my New Year's resolution - to get busy, and register all those songs.
Thanks for the kick in the butt.

[funsongs]

PS: here's another little 'hint' (copied & pasted from email reply from BMI)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Do not submit new registrations to revise/correct previously registered works.
Sincerely,
BMI RESEARCH AND WORKS MAINTENANCE
-------------------------------------
Hope that helps.

[RobertElse]

Thanks JohnnyP for this post.

I used to register every track upon completion (I'm ASCAP), regardless of whether I pitched it (I do instrumentals only). Now I don't, based on what I've heard at the Rally and on Taxi TV, and instead wait until it is picked up (hopefully) and registered by a publisher. But perhaps I will revert to my former process based on the voice from BMI.

I've always wondered about the word "released" which seems to be the key event here. But how is that defined? Putting it on my website? Pitching it? What if I do the Distrokid thing, and am careful not to give anyone admin publishing rights (i.e. don't check "the box"), and the track then goes to Spotify, Apple Music, etc., is that a "release?"

In the past year I've started seeing Taxi listings that have this paragraph: "ALSO IMPORTANT: Your Submissions can NOT be commercially released on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. OR be encumbered by ANY other publishing, licensing, administration, and/or exploitation deals (whether non-exclusive or exclusive) including publishing/licensing agreements with CD Baby, TuneCore, etc.

So there's that word again: "released". So if I put it on Spotify, but it is NOT encumbered by any other publishing, is it "released?" When does it become "commercially released" as quoted in the paragraph above?

Robert

[JohnnyP]

PS: here's another little 'hint' (copied & pasted from email reply from BMI)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Do not submit new registrations to revise/correct previously registered works.
Sincerely,
BMI RESEARCH AND WORKS MAINTENANCE
-------------------------------------
Hope that helps.

Thanks Peter. What that means ^^above (from what I've been told by BMI) is if you mess up a registration -(put in wrong info, add a new writer, change a title, etc) just amend the old registration. I've done that many times when I've wanted to add "artists" or my own new alternate titles to the registration. What I was referring to in my original post is I have hundreds of songs signed by publishers where the pub has just gone in and amended my original registration, or created a new registration of the same song with a new prefix. I.E. CM1234Song Title, FG1234Song Title etc. It has never been an issue with either the pubs or BMI or more importantly getting paid!

[JohnnyP]

Thanks JohnnyP for this post.

I used to register every track upon completion (I'm ASCAP), regardless of whether I pitched it (I do instrumentals only). Now I don't, based on what I've heard at the Rally and on Taxi TV, and instead wait until it is picked up (hopefully) and registered by a publisher. But perhaps I will revert to my former process based on the voice from BMI.

I've always wondered about the word "released" which seems to be the key event here. But how is that defined? Putting it on my website? Pitching it? What if I do the Distrokid thing, and am careful not to give anyone admin publishing rights (i.e. don't check "the box"), and the track then goes to Spotify, Apple Music, etc., is that a "release?"

In the past year I've started seeing Taxi listings that have this paragraph: "ALSO IMPORTANT: Your Submissions can NOT be commercially released on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. OR be encumbered by ANY other publishing, licensing, administration, and/or exploitation deals (whether non-exclusive or exclusive) including publishing/licensing agreements with CD Baby, TuneCore, etc.

So there's that word again: "released". So if I put it on Spotify, but it is NOT encumbered by any other publishing, is it "released?" When does it become "commercially released" as quoted in the paragraph above?

Robert

hey Robert, To the best of my knowledge when you put a track on Spotify, youtube and any of the other streaming services (regardless of using D kid or Tunecore) it is considered "released". Even if you hold all rights. That's what my sync agent told me and she's my music lawyer so I trust her. She's always been adamant about letting her know If I ever self-release one of my tracks. It changes things for a lot of music supes. Edit_ And Robert things may be different regarding registration for instrumentals but I believe "released" means the same thing regardless of being song or cue. Hope that doesn't make things even more confusing!

[RobertElse]

hey Robert, To the best of my knowledge when you put a track on Spotify, youtube and any of the other streaming services (regardless of using D kid or Tunecore) it is considered "released". Even if you hold all rights. That's what my sync agent told me and she's my music lawyer so I trust her. She's always been adamant about letting her know If I ever self-release one of my tracks. It changes things for a lot of music supes. Edit_ And Robert things may be different regarding registration for instrumentals but I believe "released" means the same thing regardless of being song or cue. Hope that doesn't make things even more confusing!

Hey JohnnyP - That is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, and really makes it clear, from reliable sources. I'll definitely keep that in mind as I consider my process in the future.
Thanks and best wishes,
Robert

[JohnnyP]

hey Robert, To the best of my knowledge when you put a track on Spotify, youtube and any of the other streaming services (regardless of using D kid or Tunecore) it is considered "released". Even if you hold all rights. That's what my sync agent told me and she's my music lawyer so I trust her. She's always been adamant about letting her know If I ever self-release one of my tracks. It changes things for a lot of music supes. Edit_ And Robert things may be different regarding registration for instrumentals but I believe "released" means the same thing regardless of being song or cue. Hope that doesn't make things even more confusing!

Hey JohnnyP - That is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, and really makes it clear, from reliable sources. I'll definitely keep that in mind as I consider my process in the future.
Thanks and best wishes,
Robert

Glad that helped! One last thing Robert.

My instrumental collections I do not self-register with BMI. All my cues are exclusive and my publishers will typically register each alt version (drums and bass, no melody, no drums) as an "additional title" under the same registration. They have software that takes care of that job thank goodness!
Best, John

[JohnnyP]

Thanks for the post, JP.
"Once upon a time..." when I called and asked, "When should I contact you (BMI) to register a song?" The voice on the other end said,
"When you release it to the public."
Reading what you wrote, the emphasis seems to be on "you"... i.e. when YOU release it.
Cheers.

PS: this is no hero's affirmation; to the contrary - I've been woefully procrastinating on registering my songs.
Maybe this should have been my New Year's resolution - to get busy, and register all those songs.
Thanks for the kick in the butt.

Cheers back to ya Peter!

[crs7string]

John,

When a publisher bulk registers with Music Mark, the tracks are registered with BMI, ASCAP and SOCAN.

The registration show up in both the writers and the publishers PRO account fairly quickly.

Also, some publishers do not register tracks and rely on a cue sheet showing up with your PRO. There are certainly some holes and potential downfalls with that strategy.

Having said that, it seems like someone along the way could be dropping the ball on completing the registrations.

Chuck