Blog: Music Dealers Artist Tips

Music Dealers Artists,

From time to time, some of you may have received an email from our Publishing Department here at Music Dealers. These "ARTIST INFO INQUIRY" emails are not only important to us, but most importantly, to you, our artists. As opportunities and placements come in from our numerous clients, an accurate and up-to-date Schedule A info section for your songs is crucial. This bit of information not only gives credit when due, but also ensures that both parties, writers and publishers for each song, are accurately paid on behalf of your PRO. With inaccurate info, you may be missing out on hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in public performance royalties that are owed to you for placements in advertising, TV, international film performances etc. Missing info of any kind and/or discrepancies in the info you give us versus the registered version with the PROs are just a couple of situations that complicate and muddle the process of registering your songs when placements of your works are made.

For every song, there are 5 very important pieces of information we request:

- Songwriters -
ALL individuals with songwriting credit need to be accounted for. A producer is not necessarily a songwriter, unless an agreement with the artist has been made with the producer whom he/she is to receive a portion of the song writing credit. Just because you recorded or engineered the song DOES NOT entitle you to writer credit. Also, DO NOT put your band name, stage name, and/or alias. What we need is YOUR FULL NAME, as it's registered with your respective PRO (if any). If the entire band has writer credit for a song, please enter EACH BAND MEMBER'S FULL NAME. Keep in mind, if more than one writer exists, please create a new writer line instead of trying to cram 4 writers into a single line.

- Publishers -
This section can be tricky the first time through. If you have a publisher(s), enter the name into the appropriate field. Similar to the writer section, if multiple publishers exist, please create a new entry for each one. If you and the other writers of your song DO NOT have a publisher entity registered with a PRO, please put your own name or "Publishing C/O Your Name." This is important for us when registering uses. It ensures that you as the writer, also hold claims to the publishing of the song.

- PRO Affiliation -
To receive future royalties, PLEASE list the specific society that you are affiliated with. If you are a member of ASCAP, select ASCAP from the drop-down menu. If you're with ASCAP but are thinking of switching to BMI, select ASCAP, and then when the switch is made, make the update for your songs to BMI. However, if you do not have an affiliation, mark "No Affiliation", but we strongly encourage you to register yourself immediately. Keep in mind that these organizations PAY OUT ROYALTIES FOR THE PUBLIC PERFORMANCES OF YOUR SONGS ON TV, RADIO, COMMERCIALS, FILMS SHOWN OUTSIDE THE US, among others. If no affiliation exists between you and a society, YOU COULD MISS OUT ON PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES.

- CAE/IPI # -
This unique 9-digit number assigned to you as a writer or publisher by your affiliated PRO allows you and the society to pinpoint which "John Smith" you are in their catalog. As an example, try searching "James Brown" in the ASCAP public search tool. You'll be flooded with hundreds of results for "James Brown". If you were the James Brown who just recently received a placement for a multi-billion-dollar ad campaign and neither Music Dealers nor the PRO knows who to give the money to, there's a chance someone else is going to be paid rather than you (This really happens at PROs).

- Percentages -
If you're the only writer, let us know that you own 100% of the writer credit. But what if there are 3 writers on a song? Is it split equally? Does writer 1 have 80% of the song and the other 2 have 10% each? We won't know unless you tell us the exact splits. This also applies to multiple publishers as well.

There you have it! If these five sections are filled out accordingly, you can expect to not see the "ARTIST INFO INQUIRY" emails from your's truly. In the end, it makes everyone's lives a bit easier. If you have any questions about any of this info, or any other publishing related matters, please feel free to contact us here and we'll get you the right response as quickly as possible

Thanks.
The Pub Team

It is important that you sign up with a PRO when licensing your music. Although it is not required, it is strongly suggested by Music Dealers. If you have a song with multiple writers, producers, musicians - depending on your deal - you may need to include every single musician for each song.  If you are a rapper and have a different producer make the beat for you - you need to include them as well.  Please feel free to contact your C.A.R.E. Rep with any questions regarding PRO companies!