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Just got my first contract and had a question about cae/ipi numbers. Are they only obtained after a musical work is registered? Is it okay to register my work at 200% ownership(bmi) before I sign the companies agreement, and edit later accordingly?

Congrats on the deal. I'm with BMI and the only way I could find the IPI was to register a song. I'm not sure about editing the publishing but I would think that is possible. You could always register a song that's not part of this deal and then check under "works catalogue" and the song will have your IPI. Or if you have already registered other songs it's already there.

Michael

Your CAE/IPI # should have been given to you when you registered with your PRO. Contact them if you never received one.

And I would suggest waiting to register the work until you and the company have reached an agreement (I'm assuming they'll take 100% of the publisher's share and you'll receive 100% of the writer's share). I would limit edits as much as possible because they can take months to go through (I've had to edit a few of my BMI works) and you don't want to mess up any potential income.

The CAE/IPI # is an identification number given to a songwriter or publisher. You are with BMI? Look yourself up on the BMI website.

LINK: http://repertoire.bmi.com/startpage.asp

What you want to do is type in your last name then your first name. Hit 'Search' and see if you ae shown.

Commisary and DI have it for sure.

I would add the following:

if the piece is being signed to a NON-EXCLUSIVE library, you are pretty much ensuring that piece will only ever be registered in non-exclusives, so in this case its fine to go in and register the song yourself under your original title, as the non-ex library will in most cases retitle the piece according to their wishes. Then you can also pitch your original piece to "direct to supervisor" type listings. Copyrighting the original piece is up to you if you want. Do your research on costs ad benefits before you bother with the copyrighting process. You might be surprised.

On the other hand - if the piece is being signed to an EXCLUSIVE library or publisher, in most cases you are ensuring that the piece will forever be held by an exclusive publisher (sure there are reversion clauses out there as well) and you will never be able to pitch the tune to anyone yourself (as that is what the publishers job is anyways). In this case, don't bother registering the piece on your own. You are merely wasting time. That is part of what the publisher does, register the piece (or at least make sure the proper info is included on cue sheets when the piece is used in broadcast). Same thing with copyright - in a lot of cases the publisher will assume the copyright, and its up to them to register it and pay the fee (if they bother - again, for production type music it might not be worth the time or energy to register the copyright - for a million selling pop song, that would be a different story).

Also - sometimes you will have 2 IPI # listed in the BMI system. I have one for Andrew Gabrys, and one for Andy Gabrys and the actual works registered under either fall under the same list as they are linked. So when I sign paperwork with a publisher, I just have to make sure the IPI # I give them corresponds to the right name. If i do that, everything is……awesome.

and on your BMI contract, there is a number listed as well - and your BMI contract # and your IPI# are not the same. Desire pointed out a great way to find your IPI#.