COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Ok you wrote a great song. Now you have to protect it. You should register
all of your material with the Copyright Office in Washington D.C.
You'll need form SR and a $30 fee per song. Obviously, this can get very
expensive if you write a few songs every month, but there is a way to cut costs by
copyrighting a collection of songs. First use Form PA (performing arts)
to register the collection and keep a copy on one tape or CD. Then use Form CA
(supplemental registration for Correction/Amplification)
by filling in the "Amplified Information" area with each
separate song title. For more information write:
Library of Congress
Copyright Office
101 Independence Avenue, S.E.
Washington, D.C. 20559-6000
Now you have to sell your song.
There are magazines and tip sheets that will list contacts who are accepting new
material. We can recommend a few and do so on our links page.
A few of our clients have had good success with TAXI and you can link to them here.
ROYALTIES
A publisher has accepted your song and you've set up your publishing deal and now,
hopefully, royalties will start to come in.
The record company pays the publisher mechanicals based on a license fee
determined by the number of CDs and cassettes sold.
The
publisher then pays the songwriter.
Performance Rights Societies pay out performance royalties.
ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers),
BMI (Broadcast Music Inc), & SESAC are the 3 primary societies in use who
track your song plays on radio, TV, and public places. Performing rights societies
are businesses designed to represent songwriters and publishers and their right to be
compensated for having their music performed in public. You get paid a set performance
fee for the right to use your song. After data is accumulated, each performing rights
society uses their own "mysterious" formula to come up with your payout.
Generally,
this gets paid as a 50/50 split to publisher/writer.
PERFORMANCE SOCIETIES
American Society of Composers
and Publishers
1 Lincoln Plaza
New York
NY
10023
ASCAP is a membership association of more than 120,000 U.S. composers, songwriters and
publishers of every kind of music and hundreds of thousands worldwide. ASCAP is the only U.S.
performing rights organization created and controlled by composers, songwriters and music publishers,
with a Board of Directors elected by and from the membership.
Broadcast Music Inc.
320 W. 57th Street
New York
NY
10019-3790
BMI is an American performing rights organization that represents approximately 300,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers in all genres of music. The non-profit-making company, founded in 1940, collects license fees on behalf of those American creators it
represents, as well as thousands of creators from around the world who chose BMI for
representation in the United States. The license fees BMI collects for the "public performances"
of its repertoire of approximately 4.5 million compositions - including radio airplay,
broadcast and cable television carriage, Internet and live and recorded performances by all
other users of music - are then distributed as royalties to the writers, composers and
copyright holders it represents.
55 Music Square East
SESAC
Nashville
TN
37203
Unlike the other performing rights organizations, SESAC has a selective process by which to affiliate songwriters and publishers, resulting in affiliates who have personal relationships
with the SESAC staff. SESAC's creative staff works with songwriters to develop and perfect their talents. SESAC was the first p.r.o. to employ state-of-the-art Broadcast Data Systems (BDS) performance detection. SESAC utilizes BDS in conjunction with cutting edge ConfirMedia Watermarking technology, providing SESAC’s writer and publisher
affiliates with the fastest, most accurate royalty payment available anywhere.