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Newbie Questions

One of our readers, Ev, came up with the suggestion to have a section devoted to newbie questions regarding music libraries, music licensing, copyright, music publishing etc. There a lot of experienced people on this site and many are happy to share their wisdom. So, if you are a newbie (or not), and have a question, try leaving it here.

Of course many questions have already been answered here. First try searching in the search bar in the upper right hand corner. Also Google is your friend! I have found one of the best ways to search a site is use site specific criteria at Google’s web site. In other words, to search for a specific keyword, say “contracts”, type it in at Google like this “contracts site:musiclibraryreport.com”. Do not use the quotes.

If you still can’t find your answer then leave a comment here and someone will most likely come to your rescue!

1,260 thoughts on “Newbie Questions”

  1. Hello,

    I am not a newbie in terms of writing for libraries but am new to trying to get my own material into existing libraries. For the last number of years I have done alot of work for hire for some of the larger libraries in the United States.
    I have a catalog of about 5 CDs that i would like to place with a library and am trying to find one that would be the right fit. I have spent time on this site which has been incredibly helpful but do have a question. Does anyone know how you can find out the size of a given library? It is hard to tell from some of the websites whether a certain library is a real, good sized company with a sales staff, etc or basically just a guy who put up a website. ( not that there is anything wrong with that)
    Just curious to know if anyone has had experience with finding out about these different libraries.

    Thanks,

  2. Hello everyone, I have a newbie question! Some of the retitle libraries will sell a blanket license to their catalog. The artists will get only 50% of royalties but in some instances no royalties are generated (cable network promos?). Do any of these libraries ever share their blanket license fee proportionally with the composers that are getting the placements? Thanks!

  3. Hi Everyone,

    I would love to hear from anyone with experience with Roba Production Music. Please send me a pm – I have a few questions.

    Looking foward to the best sales time of the year … when is that again?

    Cari

  4. Hi

    Im associated with STIM, swedish version of BMI. They have a collaboration. I see a lot of people getting reports/sheets etc from BMI. I get nothing of this. I havent registered any of my cues to Stim because the most librarys do it to Bmi. My Pro have no statements, no payouts etc. I feel as im in the dark. Im a doing it right? What do you other foreign people do?

    • I am with IMRO (Ireland) and can only comment on how it works here, I assume that STIM does the same, either way you should check with STIM. The US collection agencies BMI/ASCAP collect money for other PROs in different countries in reciprocal arrangements .It so happens that there are 2 major ones in the USA and most PROs in Europe, if not all, use one of them.

      They will pick one US rep (ASCAP by default in Ireland). They of course will do the same for other countries aswell. IMRO in Ireland will collect for STIM members in Ireland and forward that money to Sweden and vice versa

      I would always register my cues with my home PRO. An American Publishing interest will register them with their collection agency in the States. If you check you should see your CAE/IPI no and PRO STIM if you search the BMI/ASCAP websites for your name. You will not see the cue sheets that US based composers see as we are not primary members of those PROs, we are just using them to collect for us.

      Also it can take a while for US earnings to find their way across the Atlantic, do check with STIM if you have any questions.

      • Thank you. Just checked BMI & Ascap and i have 0 work titles although i am in some librarys. So i register my cues under the original names although the retitles librarys also do it under another name? Okay i guess i just have to wait. Too bad we dont get to see the cue sheets.

  5. Hey guys, I was wondering if anyone can shed some light for me. I’ve had a couple of placements from Music Dealers and noticed they register my work because it was placed. I also have been with Jingle Punks for 2 years and I’ve never seen this before. I was looking at my registered works, I see 5 songs with the “JP” at the end. I’ve checked the details and it was registered back in 2011. Why am I seeing them now? And why only the 5 songs? I have around 30 songs with JP. Thanks for anyone that can help me out. I’ve really learned a lot from you guys.

    • Jingle Punks, like most libraries, can take quite a while to register cues. The others will show up eventually. Also, there can be a delay on the PROs side of things too.

      -Steve

  6. Does anyone know how, or indeed if, I can find out in what shows my music was used overseas? Do I contact my PRO or do I contact the library. Specifically, it’s the JP suffix (for Jingle Punks) which is showing up in my IMRO (Irish PRO) statement and the shows were broadcast in the US. It would be nice to put the names of the networks and shows on my website but I don’t want to be annoying anyone unnecessarily when they’re busy earning me money 🙂 Thanks

    • Hi Arco. ASCAP collect for IMRO by default. Go to ASCAP site and use their search for your name. Jingle Punks blanket licenses come up as ********* cues. Doesn!t give exact titles for which music was used . Might give you general info. I assume they only register when they are used.

  7. Thanks for the help, guys. Another question – should I be registering each work I submit to music libraries with BMI? What’s the benefit to doing that / downside to not doing it?

    • And should I include the length with each work? If it was licensed it would probably just be shortened anyway, so…

    • Benefit would be if the library neglects to register it in a timely fashion, you’ll still be covered. I’ve had a library take as much as two years to register with my PRO. Lost some royalties in the process..

    • My experience is that I’ve yet to see a benefit to registering a track myself when it’s been signed to a library but I deal mostly with exclusives, many of which don’t re-title. I ask when I sign what their policy is and I don’t think I’ve encountered anyone who expected me to register. The downside would be that if these tracks were already registered then I would have to change the registration or re-title my own track to allow the library to register it so that they can collect the publishing share and if it’s exclusive I’d better not re-title it or I’ll likely be in breach of the contract. I *have* registered tracks ahead of time that have ended up in non-exclusives when I’ve found placements on my own. This doesn’t cause a conflict because the non-exclusive will register them again under a re-title. Whenever I’ve written directly for a show through a production company I’ve ended up registering all of the tracks myself. This makes sense because the production company doesn’t have any stake in the publishing (that goes to the network) so the chore falls on me. As far as losing royalties, I’ve had the situation of a track making it to a cue sheet before the library registers it and it still ends up getting reported and I get paid if I’m listed as the writer. I’m sure there are exceptions to this and everything else that I’ve seen but my experience is that there’s been a lot less to worry about than I thought when I got into this game. My rule of thumb is: when in doubt, ask somebody… Hope this is helpful!

      • @ Kiwi

        Registering the re-titled name is a good policy?

        Is this what is being said?

        Or is the re-tile registered as a version of the original song?

        Any help appreciated.

        • Registering any title that gets broadcast is good policy, it’s a matter of who does the registration. I’m saying that in my experience the library has always registered the tracks, not me. I’ve only registered tracks when there’s no library involved. Rather than assuming anything though, when in doubt, I always ask the library what their policies are.

          And by the way, I’m just sharing MY experience here, not trying to give advice. If you need legal advice you should speak to an attorney…

  8. Here’s a question for you: I recently registered with BMI using my full name (Joshua J Freund), as that’s what they said to do. However, I generally just go by Josh Freund. Is it going to potentially be a problem royalty-wise if I submit songs to libraries as “Josh Freund” but am registered with BMI as “Joshua J Freund”? I’d like to just stick with “Josh Freund” if possible.

    • I’ve used both Art Munson and Arthur H Munson over many, many years and they always seem to find me. Not sure it’s a correct answer to your question, just my experience.

    • I assume you can register your other name as an alias, it’s the way most PRO,s do it. Your cae/ipi no is the important one. Bono,Dylan,Elton John,David Bowiie,Madonna are not their original names on their birth certs for example..

    • BMI has my name in the form: last name, first name, middle name (with no commas). It’s been a long time since I registered, so I don’t remember how it happened that way. However, when Echoes played tracks from my CD I did receive royalties, even though my name is not given that way anywhere else and I never registered an alias.

      As woodsdenis mentioned, what matters most is the the CAE/IPI number.

    • Years ago I somehow ended up with two BMI accounts and consecutive CAE/IPI numbers under both Greg and Gregory (there was a manager and a label involved so I’m not sure how it happened) and when I started doing production music I was concerned. I talked to my BMI rep and he assured me that there was likely to never be a problem but that he would merge the accounts just to be sure. I don’t believe that I’ve ever had a problem because of it and I have music that gets registered under both names on a regular basis despite my attempts to steer folks toward my full name. Whenever there’s a question I would suggest speaking with your rep. Don’t know about anyone else but my guy has always been very accessible and helpful. Good luck to you!

      • I asked my PRO the same question about couple week ago as well and got the same response as the guys above are saying. What matters is the CAE/IPI number. So use the number that matches to the name and register the songs through that as well.

  9. Hi Art, what I’ve been doing is “reconciling” so to speak my RF purchases with my ASCAP registrations, just in case. So after a few purchase emails come in I check my ASCAP account to see if I’ve registered the purchased tracks or not. This way I’m only registering RF tracks that have the possibility of showing up on a cue sheet.

    Michael
    http://www.guidetopricingmusic.com

  10. I’ve had some decent success with Crucial and JinglePunks and now I think I’m ready to dive into the world of Royalty Free music licensing. Thanks to MLR I think I have a pretty good understanding of what it is finally! I’m going to create Royalty Free names for each track so I can keep them separate.

    My question to you experienced folks is which Royalty Free libraries do you recommend (or which ones should I avoid)? Shock Wave Sound, AudioSparx, and MusicLoops seem to be a good place to start…. What do you think?

      • Thanks Art! I read something about MusicLoops not allowing cues that are on AudioSparx (because of YouTube or something) and I just wanted to be sure I wasn’t burning any bridges with any of these great companies!

        • Any tunes you have at Audiosparx must be exclusive to Audiosparx to qualify for their internet royalty program (YouTube). If not keep everything non-exclusive you are good.

          • Thanks for clearing that up Art. That makes a lot more sense. I think I’m going to try and make a spreadsheet with all my cues as the rows and a column for each RF site that will include the unique name for each cue in each separate RF library. Hopefully that will keep me organized enough to be successful with the libraries using the Royalty Free business model.

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