I can subscribe to what @ronpatton9424 has written! Been with them for 3 years. Very slow client support system. Haven't seen a penny and some things might have been done more professionally. Went out recently. Going with my PRO and MLC primarily.
Eric, fabulous video! One thing that wasn’t even mentioned is that SongTrust offers occasional promotional discounts to sign up with them? At least they used to?
@@MakeMusicIncome some new developments since I wrote you the other day. I emailed ST last week and no one has gotten back to me? I also thought it was strange that on their RU-vid page, most of the videos are old and nothing new has come out in a while. After doing further research, I came across an article in Billboard that the company has been encountering some major issues/leadership changes since 2023 and haven’t been paying out royalties to songwriters. It’s sad because they really seemed like the latest and greatest a few years back.
Great interview, Great questions...Renee was great explaining and making this all plain and simple...Having SongTrust as your Publishing Admin., is the only way to go. Totally a No-Brainer, 85% / 15% is more than a fair cut for a real admin., to save you time that translate into money...win, win. 👍
When she says that Songtrust takes 15% of the publishing side and not the writers side, then they are only taking 15% of HALF of the composition side? So if the composition side takes in 100$ they wouldn't be taking 15$, they would be taking 7.50$?
Wow this was very informative! I'm finally gearing up my songwriting and recording and wanted to make sure I have things covered before I get too far along. I appreciate this!
Great interview but still the same question unanswered: I’m with BMI as songwriter and as music publishing entity. I’m with Songtrust since the beginning of my journey and I asked them why in my BMI account they’re listed as music publisher 100% in most of my songs and they said “no worries we only take 15% “ and I understand that but why you’re listed at 100% on BMI when the agreement should be only between me and Songtrust not with BMI? They never got back to my question and most of my catalogue is pending in BMI. Submitting music to music library I’m confused to list me (my entity)as music publisher or Songtrust… if someone can clarify I’d appreciate it. Sorry for the long comment!😊
The simple answer is that they are paid the publishing side of each song and then pay you 85% of that. That is their fee for trying to get as many pennies and dollars for you across the world as they can. Now if you are talking about submitting these to an exclusive library , you cannot. Because an exclusive library will want Full publishing most likely. In that case, though, you can take those songs down from Songtrust. And once they are down, you can submit them to exclusive libraries. If it's a non-exclusive library, you don't have to worry about it. Just put in the information of who the, writer is at BMI and who the publisher is. It's not the libraries business, if they are not exclusive, who the publisher is.
@@MakeMusicIncome Thank you: at the moment I submit only to non-exclusive music libraries so I guess I can list MY LLC as music publisher and not Songtrust. The only thing I don't understand yet is why on my BMI account catalogue they are listed as 100% music publisher ( but I think BMI ask to list music publisher AND/OR music publisher admin, like Songtrust, so maybe it's a BMI issue to not be specific). I just believe when is on paper is difficult to explain " well they are listed as 100% but they only take 15% "... Only thing is that it take forever at the moment for the to register the songs and on BMI result still pending ( like on Songtrust). Thank you Eric, always interesting videos
@@serolemusic I would like a follow up of your question if you ever get it figured out, why your songs are pending with both entities and why???? Interesting....makes one wonder for sure?
Thanks to you both for this amazing video. So much valuable information to utilise you were speaking of synchronisation platforms. Can you recommend a few that you use please? Thank you.
I have a question. If I take control of registering everything for myself as a songwriter fo Mechanical/Performance royalties in the us. Can I make a better deal with "Songtrust" to collect overseas for me at a lower percentage? maybe 8 percent?
That would a question for Songtrust, but I don't think you can opt out of just anything. You can opt out of Content ID though but only as a songwriter (not by song.)
This was a great interview! Thank you for doing this. One question I didn’t hear asked (you sort of skirted around this one): I’m just starting out with all of this, and I’m not currently registered with any PRO or anything at all. Do I still need to register with ASCAP or BMI or can I just register with Songtrust? Maybe this answer was somewhere in that long interview but I didn’t hear it.
To work with Songtrust you are eventually going to have to pick one of the PROs. Suntrust is not a PRO. They do not collect royalties themselves, but they have to do so with BMI or Ec. They take 15% of the publishing side of whatever your music makes. But you will have to be with one of the organizations before you can work with Songtrust , or I believe they can register you with one.
But I would recommend joining your self so that you are in control of it before you give them control of it. ASCAP now as of this writing is free to join as a writer and publisher.
Great interview. Thanks for this. So I’m a writer and publisher in BMI as well. If I sign up with songtrust should I change my publisher in BMI to songtrust?
For my my question is please I have referred a number of artists to join song trust but I not seeing my earning in my account am just seeing there emails for those that have joined but I don't know when will I be able to receive my earnings for those referrals
We both release (stream/download) and pitch for sync the same songs simultaneously. That is why we have resisted publishing administrative agreements. Any suggestions as to what to do if we want to collect all streaming royalties (foreign & international performance & mechanicals) for the same songs that are also registered with exclusive libraries? (We are with BMI, MLC, HFA, Soundexchange.) Thanks for what you do, Eric!
Well, from what I understand, you can take a song down if you get it accepted into a sync deal. But I've also heard on the sync side. You have to be very careful with people who are involved in the publishing because with exclusive sync deals they want the publishing, of course. Now if you're dealing, totally non-exclusive With sync deals then it probably doesn't matter. You can do anything you want with your publishing. if it's a non-exclusive deal, direct to a music supervisor, for instance, then you can do whatever you want with your music publishing.
@@MakeMusicIncome I may have already asked this if so forgive me. First of all this was a great interview and we learned a lot we didn't know and were missing out on. My OH was only with Rout note the distribution side (they take 15%) and BMI, & since watching this video he has gotten Identify, (you should see stock music licensing AKA Daniel video on this if you haven't already) he's also got the MLC, and Sound exchange, so my question is with these that he's got does he really need HFA or Songtrust? If you had the one's I mentioned would you use HFA or Songtrust? Second question if I may? What else are we missing?
@MakeMusicIncome. Also to add: HFA and Songtrust both ask for money up front. So I guess the better question is do you really need either of those two, if you have BMI,MLC, Sound Exchange, identify, & Music reports? Is there anything that we're missing? Oh my OH said to tell you he's (the weirdo 1% ) that wants to collect every penny there is to collect hahaha. He doesn't mind spreadsheets either. His frugal self won't allow him to spend the $100.00 to join Songtrust (at least not yet). We watched again tonight to see if there was anything else we may have missed in this interview the first time we watched it. I wish I knew who song trust's third party is, that they use @ end of video (where you said you think you know who it is they use????)
Hello! Can you forward my questions to Songtrust support, please (I'm their current client)? What should I do, if record company want to license my songs for album performed by artist on LP, CD, etc., or, as in my case, they have already done it without my permission. Or, for example, some artist wants permission to perform my song on a non-exclusive basis - can I direct him to Songtrust, and if so, where should he contact (email, phone). What rates will apply? Honestly, I just can’t ask these questions because the support is practically unresponsive or disappears after my additional question.. And another question - if the label wants to release some of my songs only digitally - again, what do I need to do? Should I refer them to Songtrust? Where exactly (email, phone)? Are there any rates for digital publishing of my songs, is there any upfront payment? Do I need to enter into some kind of agreement with the label personally or can I just send them to the songtrust and the songtrust will do everything on its own? Please forward my questions to them, because I'm can't get answers from them, but I need support on these issues asap.. Thanks for the interview!
I’m sorry I don’t have a way to contact their support. Any songs you register with SongTrust will be taken care of by them and no one needs to contact them to sue them if it is non-exclusive.
Hello! Thank you for reply! Maybe you misunderstood me.. If some record company wants to release an album of some artist, where there are my songs (digitally or in the physical form), then who should they deal with - me, as author, or with Songtrust? Who should give them the license to release my songs? Do I need to give them Songtrust contacts (which I don't know), or just tell them that I have a publisher and it's Songtrust? It’s just that right now an album with my song came out, and I had to contact the authors’ society of that country, tell them that this is my song, tell them about Songtrust, and so on.. At the same time, it’s been 10 days since I can’t get a response from Songtrust.@@MakeMusicIncome
Strange.. On the contrary, the manager of the Estonian Copyright Society told me that if my tracks are in Songtrust, then I cannot directly issue a license to them and, apparently, the license will be issued by the Estonian Copyright Society, and Songtrust will receive the money through its sub-publisher, whose interests are represented by the Estonian Copyright Society society.. I haven’t been able to get any explanations from Songtrust for 2 weeks now..@@MakeMusicIncome
It's strange.. On the contrary, the manager of the Estonian Copyright Society told me that if my song registered in Songtrust, then I cannot directly issue a license to them and, apparently, the license will be issued by the Estonian Copyright Society, and Songtrust will receive the money through its sub-publisher, whose interests are represented by the Estonian Copyright Society society.@@MakeMusicIncome
