[Tbone]

Hi Orca,

I had a really good conversation with my SESAC representative today and will go ahead with joining SESAC for the USA only.

What he told me is that publishers will continue to register my tracks in the same way with my PRS CAE/IPI, and that it will automatically come up that I am with SESAC in the USA. He said I probably don’t even really need to tell my publishers about it. He said that I keep my same CAE/IPI that I currently use from PRS too. Basically it’s one of the few global systems /databases that actually works.

Looks promising so I’m hoping it works out well.

The only thing was that if I want to move my old, already released tracks which are at either ASCAP or BMI currently, over to SESAC, I would have to ask my publishers to do this for me. But if I choose not to, ASCAP or BMI will continue to send payments for these old tracks to PRS for me.

[Tbone]

Hey Orca,

I actually have an update to my situation and it sounds like I might be able to do something like you, except in my case with SESAC instead of BMI.

I can join SESAC for the USA only by asking for a release from PRS for the USA.

I have a question about where you said you notified your music libraries going forward that you are now a member of BMI for the USA: Do you mean that you have to tell them something like this:

– I am with BMI for the USA only, with CAE: XYZ
– I am with PRS for the rest of the world with CAE: ABC

How do they register the tracks then? Does the sub publisher in the USA register your tracks with BMI under your BMI CAE and details? And then for the rest of the world they register the tracks with PRS?

Please do let me know when you can!

Thank you.

[Tbone]

I’ve been wanting to do something like this but have a more complicated problem:

One of my publishers in the US uses ASCAP
Another one uses BMI
And lastly – and here’s what makes it even more complicated, another uses SESAC

So my catalog is split across those three US PROs.

I asked a SESAC rep: if I join BMI only, will you send my SESAC royalties to BMI for me? Answer: “No”
Ok, can I join both SESAC and BMI? Answer: “No”

Ok, so what do I do?

Well apparently SESAC might let me join them just for my catalog there, but I would have to tell PRS that I am joining SESAC only for my catalog in the US at SESAC, and that PRS will still collect for me from ASCAP and BMI.

If I could actually do this it would be worth it, since SESAC is most of my royalties.

But PRS told me I couldn’t do that. It had to be by territory, not by catalog / PRO.

So I told the SESAC rep what PRS said. They said no, you can definitely do this.

As you can see.. pretty difficult to get anywhere.

[Tbone]

I’ve read the thread LAwriter is referencing.

The strange thing is that one of the major libraries is offering a 2 month free trial of Splice right now for its writers. I’m not sure how that ties in..

[Tbone]

Hi Orca,

That is very interesting to hear about joining BMI for the USA and Canada only. So in the US do publishers have accounts at both BMI and ASCAP and then just register the tracks at the one the corresponding composer is also at?

[Tbone]

Do you all have roughly the same number of tracks at majors vs boutiques? Or at least enough at each to make a rough estimate per track? I feel like (just a wild guess) anything under 20 tracks at a single library isn’t enough to really know.

[Tbone]

In my opinion, $650 for a complete buyout of all sync fees is nowhere near enough and is totally crazy. At least $10,000 would be fair.

[Tbone]

I’ve never really trusted the PROs and I feel like I trust them even less now. But there’s no other choice for collecting back end as far as I can tell.

[Tbone]

Yea, and just imagine what kind of people you’d be dealing with if they’re comfortable offering 0% sync fee, $0 up front buyout deals to “their” composers.

[Tbone]

No, it’s not normal and it’s not fair. I was offered a no sync fee contract once and said no.

You could be missing out on many thousands in sync fees for placements which will never make a cent in back end royalties. Your intuition on that is right.

[Author]

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