Newbie here and pseudonyms

[angopop]

Hello, I just joined up last week, and I’ve been poking around.

I’ve had some experience with music libraries, having had some cable placements for old songs of mine thru Pump, but I feel I’ve improved and want to start placing new music, and submitting to other libraries.

From looking around at some threads, I have some preliminary questions for those of you with experience and knowledge.

1. A couple threads talked about the advantages of using pseudonyms for one’s different styles of music as well as in different libraries — would you recommend doing this from the outset, or wait a while?  Right now I’ve got about 25 pieces of music I will try to get placed in libraries, most are guitar rock/pop instrumentals, some offbeat latin/jazzy/other instrumentals, and a handful of songs with vocals.

2. When you use pseudonyms, what do you do as far as BMI and copyright?  For instance if I wanted to name myself Joe M for pop songs and Bob Z for metal, would I need to register copyright and BMI under each different pseudonym (I know both organizations allow me to register using my name and use the other name) or are the pseudonyms only used when I get to dealing with the music libraries?

Here is one of the threads I’m referring to:

changing identity…

Thanks,
Arthur

[angopop]

Anybody?

[axiomdreams]

When you register your works, under composer name you can use your actual name. Under performer name however, you can use your pseudonyms & they will all be linked to your actual name which is your composer name so when PRO royalties are collected, they go to the composer (you) regardless of which pseudonym was used.

-AxD

[axiomdreams]

With 25 pieces, I would recommend sticking with just one pseudonym & one library first before branching out as you would probably need more numbers before seeing any action in placements or sales unless you happen to be extremely lucky whereby with just a couple of tracks you get a massive placement, can happen but very rare imho.

[angopop]

Thanks for the reply, much appreciated.

[axiomdreams]

Any time Angopop. These are just MHO & some folks here with more experience than myself may be able to give better insight. Also, one strategy that might work for one composer may not work as well for another. Sometimes we come up with our own through trial & error.

-AxD

[AaronM]

What about Royalty Free sites? I was on one the other day and it seemed like very few people used their real name. I would be interested to hear some other takes on this.

[angopop]

Another note on pseudonyms: Someone who I work with recommended that I use an alias as my last name is tricky for most folks to spell and that is the last think you want when someone is filling out a cue sheet.

As long as they get the CAE number correctly, I’m not sure it matters, but I supposed that you don’t want to make things any more difficult for someone filling out a cue sheet.

Any thoughts?

[co]

when i register my songs on bmi on the tab ” artist ” lastname/band .
do i put my actual real first and last name or do i put my stage name

[Art Munson]

Personally, I would register with my real name. Keeps it cleaner.

[Author]

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