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when releasing a new cd of instrumental jazz music, is it necessary to register your compositions with ascap or bmi? thanks for any info, rickjr

Only if you expect to receive any royalties.

If you are releasing your CD to major market radio (i.e., profitable and tracked by ascap or bmi), or you get airplay on Music Choice, Weather Channel, etc., then you should definitely register the songs. Otherwise, it doesn't really buy you anything.

Yeah, I agree. I'm pretty much still lurking around in the Indie market where you generally won't expect to pick up any royalties from stations and web sites that agree to host you or play your stuff. The places that don't pay royalties are pretty clear about it upfront and sometimes you need to sign a waiver. Also, some places require you be not registered with places like BMI or ASCAP before they'll host your music or give you any plays and will even sue you if you lie to them and they wind up being sued by one of these guys on your behalf.So, just be careful where your stuff goes out to or who you sell it through.

Related to what weslong said, some of the new music libraries out there that sell royalty-free music downloads to tv/film/production also prohibit ASCAP/BMI and other Pro members from submitting music. It seems to be part of the changing landscape of intellectual property rights in the digital age.