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I am here in beautiful Istanbul, escaped from the cold Winter in Kazakhstan, on the way to Dubai.

Before you all tell me it's a good problem to have, I agree. When I was working on the revenue from my music business I found some royalties had come in to my business account via direct deposit. I contacted the only entities I knew who had published or broadcast my music. They came back saying they had not sent the royalties. I also asked my bank if they could provide more than "Audio and Video Vpn (and a long number with my name after it).

Is this familiar to anyone out there? I don't think the IRS would appreciate it that I can't identify where the funds came from and of course I am very curious

Thank you.

Alicia

Publishers don't pay performance royalties so assuming that's what it was, is it possible you signed up for direct deposit with your pro (ASCAP or bmi)?

Well, I tried leaving a plain brown paper bag with cash by a tree, but you never picked it up!

My GUESS is you have direct deposit with your PRO and these are either Writer's or Publisher's (When YOU are the track's publisher) royalties through direct deposit. If you don't have direct deposit with your PRO or any other music related entity, then I'm scratching my head as well...

As far as the IRS goes, if we are talking relatively small amounts - e.g. not in the thousands, it's probably not going to put you on any "lists"... But you should report the income as music income which is would they would really care about. You earned money and reported it.

Congrats! You must have had some placements for this to happen!

Best,
Casey

Thank you Mazz and Casey. I am with BMI and some months ago I received an email from them saying that I had performance royalties. I questioned them and they said that the email was sent in error. Since I am signed up for direct deposit with them maybe they were wrong?

Do you ever get royalties first then the report of the money comes later? Next week is their next quarterly payment.

I owe you both a strong Turkish coffee

Alicia

Alicia,
This is probably not the case here, but I've heard of stories where the PRO paid money to the wrong person! If you think there's been a mistake, don't spend it yet! For tax purposes, if you know that it was paid in error and ~will~ be recouped, your accountant might be able to make the case for not paying taxes on it.

Arrived here in Dubai at 4 am, so please excuse any typos.

Jazzstan, I do have a few projects where I should receive performance royalties.
I sent a request to BMI to find out if it came from them. So I hope to hear
something. Thanks for watching out for me )

I'll post when I get some info from BMI.

Alicia

Hi Alicia
Could it be an error? Yes, it's possible (Hopefully not!)... Sometimes cue sheet or other typos have royalties paid to the wrong person. And I'm sure getting that sorted out and fixed has got to be much harder when it crosses country boundaries as far as PROs.

For months now, I've been trying to get a situation fixed whereby my cue as opposed to a similarly named one (different composer) from the same library are mixed up. MY cue was not the one used. The cue sheets keep showing up in my ASCAP account and soon I will be getting money I know I'll have to give back at some point. (The PRO can giveth and the PRO can taketh back)...

So don't spend the money on too many Turkish coffees yet!

Best,
Casey

Alicia,

I have direct deposit with BMI and when my royalties come in they are always clearly labeled as "Broadcast Music Royalties" (as I'm sure you know BMI stands from Broadcast Music Inc).
They are also always dispatched at the open of business (in Nashville, where the BMI royalties come from) on the "distribution date". You can find the distribution dates on BMI's website, the next one being this coming Friday, 3/23.
The only exception to this would be affiliate requested adjustments, those come in whenever they are processed.

So IMHO it is very unlikely this money came from BMI.

matto

Thanks Matto. You are correct. BMI did come back and say these royalties do not appear to be from them. I only have direct deposit with a few entities, so it looks like I will have to check with one last source.

There is a small correction to my original post, it should read Vpv, which I think stands for "visual performance video".

Enjoyed a boat ride on an old wooden abra here in Dubai near the gold souk today.
Life is good

Alicia

An update to the puzzle. All the entities I have direct deposit with came back & said the funds were not from them (or "probably were not" from them). In actual fact, one of them was wrong, because the funds actually came from Soundexchange.

So that goes to prove that even if you get some royalties trickling in, you may not be able to track them back to the source too easily.

If you have music that is being played on satellite radio (such as SIRIUS XM), internet radio, or cable TV music channels, please register with Soundexchange, you could be leaving "money on the table" for the streaming your music.

Here's the link: http://www.soundexchange.com

Packing up soon for a trip home to the U.S. via Europe