First Publisher notice!
Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 7:01 pm
My second forward of 13 submittals. I have a question: do I need to submit the song to BMI first?
1) A forward is a good thing, it means you've send broadcast quality music that is appropriate for the listing, but that's all it means for now. The library might not listen to it, the opportunity they had might have dried up or been already fulfilled. If they do listen the track it might not be to their liking or they might just have numerous other tracks from Taxi and elsewhere that they prefer. In such cases you'll hear nothing back, and sadly that happens a lot. If that happens then the track remains yours to do whatever you wish, eg use the screener feedback to make it even better and resubmit for the next listing that it fits.
2) More optimistically, they like your track and get back to you with the offer of a contract. Its entirely up to you whether you accept but if you do you should also check whether they register tracks on behalf of the writer with YOUR PRO. All libraries will register tracks with their own PRO, and some will also register with the writer's PRO. Either way, you should NOT register the track yourself because it only complicates matters - unless the library themselves recommend that you do so. Note that even if a track is not registered with YOUR PRO, as long at it is registered with the library's PRO then any performance royalties that are due to you should eventually (could be a couple of years
) find their way back to your PRO (look up 'reciprocal agreement') and you should get paid.3) The exception here is if you are dealing with a music supervisor directly rather than a library, and in that case you definitely should register the track with your PRO.
I hope that helps, and someone else will chime in if there's anything I've neglected. Congratulations on the forward, and keep on plugging!
