Question about BMI

[Tim-b]

I have recently switched from my previous p.r.o. to BMI and I was wondering if any of you could answer 2 questions I have.

1. At my previous p.r.o. I could upload soundfiles/mp3’s to accompany the titles I registered, they fingerprinted the audio and tracked usage of the songs that way in my country. Am I correct to assume that BMI doesn’t offer this feature/function and it only looks at cue sheets?

2. I assume that I will still receive royalties even if a title isn’t registered yet at BMI but a cue sheet of an aired program contains my name and CAE nr?

Thanks,
Tim

[Frequencee]

Hello Tim:

1) BMI does not offer an upload feature to fingerprint music.

2) Yes, if a production company submits a cue sheet and the title is either not registered yet or is slightly different from the registered title (spelling, etc.) it is registered as a new work title that looks something like ‘name of show-bg cues’ work title #0.

Welcome to BMI!

Cheers

[Tim-b]

Thanks for the answer!

A shame about question nr. 1… I found this news article: http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/1407133/bmi-buys-bluearrow-music-recognition-service

I wonder why they acquired that technology when they are not even using it!

[daveydad]

If the next BMI payout is March 18th… what’s the latest a cue sheet can be filed to make this deadline?

[MichaelL]

The March 18th payout is for the 3rd quarter of 2015. Anything submitted after then would be included in future payouts, unless you specifically requested an adjustment for something missing in January’s payout.

[daveydad]

So next payout is March 18. I have cues that were used in 3 episodes of a CBS show starting back in July 2015, and yet, so far, only one episode cue sheet has shown up in my BMI account. Is this normal? The library that placed the tracks said they have an account of all cue sheets in all 5 episodes.

[Frequencee]

My understanding is cue sheets won’t always post to your bmi account even when a song is used. Perhaps that one episode that did post a cue sheet when the production company sent the cue sheet to BMI 1) that title was not yet registered by the library or 2) the spelling of the work title on the cue sheet was slightly different from how it is registered on your BMI account. (the latter happened to me)

When this happens BMI registers it as a new work title that looks something like ‘name of show-bg cues’ work title #0. You could have several placements where you wont see these BG registrations because the titles are already registered or the cue sheets match exactly as your registered title.

If your library is telling you they have an account of all the cue sheets then that should suffice as I am sure they don’t want to miss out on any potential payments. If you don’t see payments for those episodes on the March 18th statement then definitely follow up with the library.

[daveydad]

Thanks!! Very helpful. I was afraid I might not get paid for them all. So far, cues have been used 52 times in this series on Discovery’s American Heroes Channel.

[Frequencee]

That’s great! @daveydad. Let us know how it shakes out.

[KevinHRoss]

Just had a follow question on this topic. Does the renaming of the work title impact on other PRO’s collecting in a case where the tv show is syndicated?

Thanks

[rbmusic]

Next BMI payout is for 3rd quarter 2016 not 2015.

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