ASCAP Midwest Membership Director Shawn Murphy offers advice to songwriters on how and when to register a song with a performing rights organization, and warns of the consequences of waiting too long to do so.

for more info on the different types of performance rights organizations, click here.

Founder and CEO of Nettwerk Music Group, Terry McBride, shares his views on the business model he believes is the future of the music industry and the benefits that can come from artists controlling and owning every portion of their copyrights and likeness.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=–kjnWttS6U

Entertainment lawyer Barry Menes talks about various publishing deals and how money is made distributed from such arrangements. Know the biz!!

By: George Howard

ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC are United States Performing Rights Organizations (PROs). Effectively, they all do the same thing. PROs issue blanket licenses to music broadcasters, such as television and radio stations, auditoriums, larger restaurants and clubs, hotels, or theme parks. Basically, they are issued to anyone who plays music in a public manner. By paying the blanket license fees to the PROs, these broadcasters are able to use whatever music they want without having to account to each individual songwriter. The blanket license fee’s amount is based on broadcast reach; a large commercial radio station pays a higher blanket license fee than a small bookstore, but both pay.

The PROs keep track of the music that is being used through playlists at radio stations, cue sheets on television, and by sampling, for other types of users—such as polling restaurants and bars to determine what music they are playing. They pay royalties to writers based on the number of times an affiliated songwriter’s music is used.

You affiliate with one (and only one) of the PROs so that they will be able to find you and send you performance royalty checks. The affiliation process is easy. There may be an inexpensive, one-time affiliation fee, but once you’re affiliated, there is no cost to register as many songs as you write at no further cost. Check out each PRO, choose one, and affiliate. They all do the same thing, as far as getting you paid goes, and neither is better than the other two, though their additional benefits and services vary.

Please note that PROs are not publishers. Registering your songs with them does not mean you have a publishing deal. PROs simply monitor the public use of copyrights and facilitate royalty payment for these uses.

Here is the info for the PROs:

ASCAP

One Lincoln Plaza

New York, NY 10023

212-621-6000

www.ascap.com

BMI

320 West 57th Street

New York, NY 10019-3790

212-586-2000

www.bmi.com

SESAC

55 Music Square East

Nashville, TN 37203

615-320-0055

www.sesac.com

Original source: artistshousemusic.org

Producer and educator, George Howard, gives one of the best breakdowns about music publishing that I’ve seen.

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Eddie DeGarmo is the president of EMI CMG Publishing in Nashville, Tennessee. In this video clip, Eddie discusses who gets paid from radio plays and the different types of royalties that create a revenue stream for artists and songwriters.

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I always have a difficult time explaining to someone what music publishing is. But I came across this interview of producer and label owner, George Howard, and I thought he did a great job of doing just that. He also, very simply, explains the fundamentals of copyrighting your music. This is good stuff and knowledge you shouldn’t be with out if your in the music biz.

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