TAXI.com

Hi everyone:
I'm new to this. Can anyone explain this to me. I have my material copyrighted and I belong to ascap, both as a writer and publisher. Do I need to do anything else if I read something like this?
"You must control the publishing and master rights to your songs - no samples that require clearance, please."

This means that a) you must have either produced the song yourself, or have signed releases from anyone who worked on the master recording, b) the song belongs to you and you have the legal right to sign deals that concern it. If you have a co-writer they would also have to sign the deal.

I should say I'm thinking of registering with ascap. I Didn't do it yet

It's good to belong to ASCAP so if you get an offer you will have your IPI number to give the library.

If you wrote the song, the publishing belongs to you until you assign it to someone else. If you produced the master, the master belongs to you. If someone else produced the master, then you need a master release from them to affirm that you own it.

BUT you should not register the tracks you are submitting with ASCAP. Leave that for the library or publisher you sign with. They will register the tracks with the proper shares for publishing (because they take all or part of it, according to your deal). If you have already registered your tracks, they will have to unregister them & reregister them properly, making more work for them.

I'm really new at this and confused.

If I register as writer and publisher with ascap, why would I sign with another pubisher? By the way, my stuff is already copyrighted. Is that the same as registered and can I submit these copyrighted pieces to ascap?

If I register as writer and publisher with ascap, why would I sign with another pubisher?
--- why are you submitting to libraries? Don't you want to sign deals with them? Those deals would say that they take part or all of the publishing royalties in payment for their pitching and getting placements for your track. That's their motivation for doing the work, using their network and connections to place your music. Besides royalties, if there is any synch licencing fees payable by the end user (tv network, etc), they will take a share of that too. The specific shares will be either listed in the TAXI listing, or be in the agreement sent to you after a forward.

By the way, my stuff is already copyrighted. Is that the same as registered and can I submit these copyrighted pieces to ascap?
-- don't mix copyright and royalties. You register your work for copyright to affirm that you are the author. That has nothing to do with ASCAP or BMI or any other PRO. Your work is registered with ASCAP so that when royalties are collected after broadcast, they are paid to the writer(s) and publisher(s) of that work. As I said, it is best not to register your tracks with ASCAP if you are submitting to music publishers and libraries. They will want to register the tracks with the correct shares so that you and they get paid appropriately after cue sheets are filed.

I know you are new and confused (we all have been there), but knowledge about this is crucial. We songwriters/composers need to understand the lingo of the business, and understand how (and when) we get paid. A good primer to start with might be John Braheny's "The Craft and the Business of Songwriting" or maybe Jason Blume's "This Business of Music." There are also many articles on TAXI's website.

HTH!

Don't mean to pop anyones bubble here but the truth is that until you have a viable-FINANCIALY VIABLE musical work (interested label,producer,publisher,artist etc. willing to cut your song and then willing to market and focus it for media release-radio,internet etc.and it hits, album cuts excluded ) joining ascap won't mean very much.Don't get me wrong I'm a member and believe they provide a significant service in the industry such as helping members in discerning if they have a competetive piece of music, general tips and insight.BMI and SESAC as well. But they are here to collect and distribute royalties of various types,songs, commercials, film,mechanical, video sync, etc for work that is financialy successfull. They do not make decent money off of album cuts.There looking for the next hit. Joining ascap in and of itself means nothing. A hit is a hit. The law of the jungle has not and will not change. The song is either there or it is not. Period.

One more thing as I step down off of this soapbox. Concentrate on the message not the medium. Translated - if you create the next big thing in music the folks that collect and distribute your profits will seek you out! Make music the focus not the buisness side. If the music is not there the money will not be either and all of the copyright registrations, ascap member cards, bmi, sesac, songwriter workshops etc. are a middle ground to the successfull end hopefully.
Don't get tied up in the recording and production either. I had a freind many years ago who was a successfull engineer and as I was learnig I remember he looked at me one day and said,Scott there is no magic button. If there was I would sell one. Concentrate on the music . Thats the beauty.

charlie2 wrote:Hi everyone:
I'm new to this. Can anyone explain this to me. I have my material copyrighted and I belong to ascap, both as a writer and publisher. Do I need to do anything else if I read something like this?
"You must control the publishing and master rights to your songs - no samples that require clearance, please."

Vikki has been very helpful. I hope I can amplify some of the basics. Here goes.

There's two things going on here:

1. The publishing. As soon as you create a piece of music and make it available, you are basically publishing it. You control the publishing. If a library wants to take over the publishing so they can make it available to a wider clientele than you probably can, they will only want to deal with you. If you have co-publishers (co-owners), then the library will want you to have an agreement with the co-owners that you have power of attorney to make business decisions on this piece without having to consult them. This makes the piece "clean" and easy for the library to take over the publishing on. It behooves you to have all of this in place before you start pitching because there's so much music out there, you want to make it easy for the clients to license, or you'll probably lose the opportunity to someone else. If it's just you as the "publisher", then you're already good to go. That being said, I would not recommend registering your music with ASCAP as a publisher unless you only intend to shop the music yourself. In this day and age, in order to get into a library or publisher, you basically have to sign over your publishing to them either exclusively or non=-exclusively (a different topic) so they can make some money from your music too. You will still get 100% of the writer's share of the ASCAP royalties (which is 50% of the total royalties), you never sign that away. But the libraries or publishers will register the song with ASCAP for you. They will register themselves as the publisher and you as the writer.

2. The master. The master is the recording of your music. You can have one piece of music with several recorded versions and each one of those recordings is considered a master. So when you license a piece of music to a library, you are really licensing two things: the underlying composition and the recording of that composition. Controlling the master rights to your song means that there's no strings attached to the recording as viewed by the potential library or publisher. If you had session musicians playing on your recording, you need releases from them that state that they worked for a fee and that fee releases them from any further participation in royalties, etc. If you have co-writers, that means that you have an agreement signed with them that states that you have power of attorney to shop the song and the master on their behalf without having to check with them first. Just like the publishing issue, this is important so the library can freely shop the music knowing that no one will be coming after them later for royalties that they didn't know about up front. Again, if it's just you playing on the recordings, then you already control the master.

I always strongly suggest that folks take the time to learn this stuff as they are submitting their music to TAXI listings so that when that deal comes, at least you have a basic working knowledge of how the business works. Most library folks are very nice and will help walk you through it, but if you are going to be in this business seriously, then you need to understand how the business works. If you're going to open a restaurant, then you have to know how that business works beyond "serving great food" well before you open your doors. The music business is the same.

Good luck, hope this helps.

Mazz

PS: All of this info is from my studies and is not to be considered legal advice.

scottripple wrote:Don't mean to pop anyones bubble here but the truth is that until you have a viable-FINANCIALY VIABLE musical work (interested label,producer,publisher,artist etc. willing to cut your song and then willing to market and focus it for media release-radio,internet etc.and it hits, album cuts excluded ) joining ascap won't mean very much.Don't get me wrong I'm a member and believe they provide a significant service in the industry such as helping members in discerning if they have a competetive piece of music, general tips and insight.BMI and SESAC as well. But they are here to collect and distribute royalties of various types,songs, commercials, film,mechanical, video sync, etc for work that is financialy successfull. They do not make decent money off of album cuts.There looking for the next hit. Joining ascap in and of itself means nothing. A hit is a hit. The law of the jungle has not and will not change. The song is either there or it is not. Period.

One more thing as I step down off of this soapbox. Concentrate on the message not the medium. Translated - if you create the next big thing in music the folks that collect and distribute your profits will seek you out! Make music the focus not the buisness side. If the music is not there the money will not be either and all of the copyright registrations, ascap member cards, bmi, sesac, songwriter workshops etc. are a middle ground to the successfull end hopefully.
Don't get tied up in the recording and production either. I had a freind many years ago who was a successfull engineer and as I was learnig I remember he looked at me one day and said,Scott there is no magic button. If there was I would sell one. Concentrate on the music . Thats the beauty

Scott, altho I appreciate your comments & think you have some excellent advice regarding songwriting & demo production; not everyone here is pitching to artists, or looking for an album cut. This thread is about someone submitting music (mostly instrumental) to music libraries or music publishers for placement in film/tv.... who'd like to understand more about that part of the music business. Production and engineering is just as crucial as composition in film/tv (as is the ability to work with the most-up-to-date Virtual Instruments). Anything that is not well-recorded & mixed will not make the grade / get the forward / get signed.