DON'T Register Your Music with ASCAP or BMI Until You've DONE THIS! 

Total BS. Register your songs because then you fix your ownership percentages and if someone picks it up they have to send BMI the contract to prove they own the percentage they have signed to you. The extra work of registering done by the publisher is part of what they are supposed to do!

This is terrible information. Register every single song with a PRO immediately. Document every single publishing assignment. The guy on the phone is literally telling you, “Don’t establish a paper trail showing that you yourself owned the publishing BEFORE we did” 😂 For what? So when he screws you, he can say that you made that song while under an exclusive deal - and then he owns it in perpetuity.

Thx for this short post, came in handy when I was reviewing my “ancient” BMI account, checking out MLC,. I also love having Composer Catalog. ( & TAXI) as resources. 🤗

Thank you for the correction, this explains a lot. I was taught to register 1stafter copywriting the music in DC.I will never do that again. My PRO and had issues because the never sent my royalties owed to me.

This is the best. I love the simplicity of this.

Thank you!! I was just wondering about this and your video showed up on my feed. ☺️🙏🙌

A couple of things. You can register your songs as a composer and your own publisher in one swoop without any additional fees on BMI. You can also change out publishers anytime on you pro as long as the agreed term is finished. So I'm not really understanding why it is such a big deal for the artist to protect themselves and collect all the royalties they can. If a library decides to go with your song which is a huge "what if", It's not really worth it for the artist to hold their breath. And considering they are going to pay the artist a lot less than they would pay a major artist, they can work for it.

Great knowledge...thank u so much.

No! Always register with your PRO first (then SXE, MLC, Songtrust). If you get a pub deal they will send the info to the PRO for the new publishing split that you agreed to with them. The publisher will take care of that! Have licensed many things in this way. If you don't register it then you could be missing out on potential $, not showing that you are legit if they look at your registrations first, & risking theft of your material.

I learned this in the late 70s that everything is going to be on the Internet which is your way of putting your music in through your PR oh because sometimes it gets confused and they don’t have all the originals so that’s helping them keep your paper trail

great video thank you

There should have been more context to this video. If I understand you correctly this advice is only relevant if you’re trying to pitch your unreleased song for use on television or similar media... and even then the implications aren’t thoroughly called out. And who is this guest? What is their background? Why should we take their advice if we don’t even know their name?

After many incidents where my music and or lyrics were stolen - I disagree with this. Right now even, an artist did a cover of a song I collaborated on years ago and released the song under a different title and wrong names. I'm glad I registered it at SUISA, (its like the BMI of Switzerland) so we are protected.

Great video

That’s that question answered. Cheers

EXAMPLE: Let's say a song YOU write a song and then YOU make a BEAT to YOUR OWN SONG and you copyright both of those works together. This proves that you are the original creator of that WORK. Now you decide to place that work on FB, IG, RU-vid, etc. If that WORK is not PUBLISHED, by law anybody can basically steal your ideal/song and remake/remix that WORK. WHY? Because it's an unpublished work. You own it but who's to say 1 of your friends or family members didn't help you create the Work. You need more than a copyright article to protect YOU. Having your own PUB company is your life insurance plan for all your Materials.But now if you copyright and then Transfer your own Copyright Articles over to YOUR OWN PUB COMPANY.....NO 1 CAN TOUCH YOUR AND IT IS FULLY PROTECTED. THEN YOU CAN FLOOD ANY AND ALL SOCIAL MEDIA OUTLETS WITH YOUR WORKS. If it's not Published you really won't be able to capitalize or even have that worked placed with outlets like TIDAL, SPOTIFY, APPLE MUSIC and so forth. Having your own pub company gives you complete total control. IT took me about 15 years to learn this through blood sweat and tears, 6 months of dealing with an Ex Product Manager that used to work for Universal/SRC Records to help me to pull it together. It's a grimey ass puzzle. Having your own PUB. Company makes You a music publisher and add's MUSCLE to your Company. Don't believe me........Google it. Stop shopping for PUB deals and Become the Deal-er. GSAC MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT is here.

If a artist has a song that's going to be a single from his album, should he register it as not being made for a film even though it maybe used for a film later on? And will that artist have to go back and register it again for a film?

Thanks for the clarification. I had been thinking that we were supposed to register our works with the ASCAP/BMI first.

Wow, very good to know! Thank you! 😊

what if you're your own publishing company?

How do i bypass ditributors and put my music on amazon on my own?

I sing up 6 of my music an it showing me pending. an don't know It taking 30 day an Bmi so I n up Putin up a to more than one's what can I do ????

Great information. My question is: in another video, the "mystery music supervisor" said that when people send him music, he sometimes looks up the writer or song in the PRO system to see if the works are registered, to see if the people are legit/organized or not. Because of what the supervisor said, I've been registering all my works BEFORE sending them out to supervisors to pitch for exclusive sync placements. Is this the wrong approach? I thought it would be better to register with my PRO so that any potential buyers can look up the song or writers and see that all the splits and ducks are in a row. This makes licensing faster? Is what this fellow says specific to libraries only, and not to supervisors? Thanks!

HOW LONG DEY BEEN KNOWING TODAY WHILE IN NEW SYMRNA BEACH FLA

my music is rock...mostly... what should I do?

Does applies to producers?!

so do i reigster to ascap?

Is it me or does his house remind me of Michael's from GTA V?

can someone explain all of what I just heard? none of that made any sense lol is there any way to be your own independent P.R.O.? but more importantly is there any way to collect your mechanical royalties independently without going through something like Songtrust. If so how would I collect my money from popular streaming platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, etc.

I thought you was a Myth 😮 PRAISES 👑🐐

so what you're saying is that you should NOT register your music when the deal is exclusive, but DO register it if it's non-exclusive?

This is crazy. I was taught when I first started writing that I need to register all my music with a PRO so after I would finish writing and getting my songs demoed I would register the song. Now 400+ songs/instrumentals in I hear this saying not to. So confused right now. Not to mention most of the licensing opportunities I've submitted to required that the song be registered with a PRO (they would just add their initials or name in front of the original) so I am totally confused.

I write lyrics and record, my producer makes the beats. He registered our songs on ASCAP but only entered his name as the writer and publisher. I don't know if it is exclusive or non-exclusive. And now he isn't speaking with me about it.

1) How are we supposed to know whether our songs are even going to be placed once we finish writing them? Also what's the difference between registering PRO and registering Copyright? Surely, us composers MUST have insurance on our works. There are so many horror stories about musicians NOT registering their music. This goes against all standard industry advice. 2) He never mentioned anything about Reversion Clauses, and INCENTIVES for the library to sell our music. Otherwise, why go Exclusive forever at all? 3) what is this "admin work" he speaks of? As the composer, can't I simply send an email to the PRO that I want the song republished under the libraries name? Makes ZERO sense.

Truth of it is labels do not want any artist to register their music why? Because they dont want you to make more money than them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!FACTS BRA. Register it dont listen this crap

Hi, what about the splits? If I sign with a library will they ask directly for the split sheets? I thought that was gonna taken care of by the PRO once registered there.

My understanding from working with libraries is that they register it for you on your behalf and you get 100% of writers in most cases, the publisher gets 100% of publishing. I don't need to register my works, that is done for me. Correct?

Is anyone here who can help me with this process , and how much do I have to pay ?

The main thing NOT TO DO if your a songwriter, is to pay ANY $$$ money $$$ just for a "CHANCE" for your song or instrumental track "to be heard". Trust me, IT WON'T! Even if it is a low cost amount as a "submission fee" for a "CHANCE" to be heard. Having a percentage taken out of a direct payout is fine as that is a "finders fee" AFTER THE FACT for whoever found the client is that IS ACTUALLY licensing your musical work. There is a bunch of companies out in the music industry that LOVE to try and take even small amounts of money from new songwriters out there that don't know any better... It's sad to always see so-called companies and individuals doing this, and it's disgusting.

Stay away from Bmi if you don't want to waste time, energy and money. They are awful and unprofessional. My music, it's been played in theaters, commercials, movies, and I haven't gotten a dollar from royalties. The highlight is I've been asking them, for three years, to delete my account and they don't. They tell me I need to email a specific date and when I do they don't reply and after days they tell me that the date has passed. I could write a lot more and the truth is that I'm sorry to get into this process, but if I manage to save even one composer or songwriter, then it was worth it. Always with respect to artists!

i only have 176,000 plays on spotify but only a 3 songs that have over 20-30k streams.. is it even worth the time of registering my works right now? so far i have been collecting minor payments from my distributor. at what point do i need to make sure im signed up for BMI, song trust, and sound exchange?

Be your own publisher

What happens when you upload your song to RU-vid and then you start seeing your music on commercials and TV?

Quick question can I register with BMI and living in Canada

Does every artist on the track need to register the same song on BMI?

Shouldn't you copyright your songs first with the copyright office before registering with a PRO?

Preform work as you go fin. Membership nerfed there

There should have been some disclaimer in the beginning discussing specifically why not to register your work with Ascap and bmi once the song is finished. Because it looks like this is solely for tv and film. Which is of course what most artist’s hope to do at some point.

This video was uploaded on my birthday, so that's cool. I just wanted to say that :D. Today is totally not my birthday either lol.

But with Ascap you become your publisher so im lost...

I think dude is mistaken. There's no world in which you can't take something that was non-exclusive and then make it exclusive. Yeah, other people might have used it, and it might be a turn off to buy an exclusive license to something others used before, but it's not NOT ALLOWED. How many people sell non-exclusive licenses to beats and compositions, later for a label to buy out the exclusive for one of their artists.

Is this Jordan Peterson on the phone 🤣🤣

Who Interviewed This Guy🤦🏾‍♂️ #SupportIndependentArtists #SupportThe CREATORS #OwnYourIP

But what about plagiarism?

I’m not even in the industry yet and Ik this is bullshit😂

you know what i cant stand about the abundance of content creating , is this tug of war of dos and donts of something that in theory seems like a good idea but never can come to a conclusion to whether its OK because a indecisive array of warning videos and the other half says its good . Its best to take the information and stop following behind people who are not going down your path . What works for some wont work for all

This all music licensing and publishing shit is so freaking confusing

Total BS ! Register your music you're pitching because if you don''t whoever uses it will put it as a work for hire and then take your music and publish it themselves using it as much as they want to without having to pay you.!

If you own 100% of your publishing (masters) do not follow this advice