Country Exemption by BMI?

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  • #46454
    mmuser
    Participant

    Hi there,

    I compose music for various NE-Libraries and plan to start the registration process with some of the US PROs. Does anyone know if there are any cases where BMI (or ASCAP) could allow the composer’s local PRO to collect royalties in that country? While researching, I came across an old post by the member Kubed (who also happens to be a compatriot from what I see:), which talks about a similar situation with a foreign PRO, which I quote below:

    “…A fellow Estonian artist told me this interesting thing: he was registered with the Estonian PRO but then he wanted to join BMI as well. BMI told him he can simply be in both PROs: BMI would take care of all the royalties EXCEPT Estonian ones, and the Estonian PRO would take care ONLY of the royalties coming from the Estonian market….”

    Is this kind of country-specific exemption common? The reason I’m asking is this: I am in Europe and wrote a song over 10 years ago for a well-known singer in my country, which still gets radio play. Although I am no longer with the local PRO, I receive small amounts (pertaining to the period when I was registered, they told me). By the way, this local PRO is one of those for which BMI has an (*) notation, stating: ” BMI only represents this society’s works in the United States. This society does not represent BMI affiliates in their territory.”

    Any insights?

    #46455
    mmuser
    Participant

    UPDATE:
    Well…That was quite a surprise! I just checked the BMI repertoire https://repertoire.bmi.com/ and saw that I am listed as the creator of the song I mentioned (and I even have an IPI number in BMI). I’m not sure if this changes anything regarding the “country exception” I asked about earlier, but it raises a new question. I went through the application form and saw that it asks, “Have you ever been a member of BMI?” I haven’t been a member, but since I have an IPI, I wonder should inform them about this?

    Sorry for all the questions, but I’m in the process of registering my repertoire with ContentID and a PRO at the same time, and I feel like I’ve been thrown into the deep end…

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