8 Mistakes to Avoid When Registering a Song on BMI, ASCAP & Copyright

Are you affiliated with ASCAP or BMI as a songwriter yet? Leave a comment and let me know what you need to help YOU with your music career!

Great video and recommendations! Quick question... if I am registering some songs on BMI with a co-writer (we are dividing our songs equally for music & lyrics), should I put 100% for myself and 100% for my co-writer? Also we do not have a publisher, so this obviously still adds up to the 200%. I just want to make sure I am doing this correctly? Again, much appreciation for your insights and all the great videos!

Do european musicians register with BMI or should we use a local service?

Look regular stop making that face your stressing me out

Very helpful... Thank You!

Really great! Quick question based on "How to register an album". If I released 1 song from the album a couple weeks before releasing the album such that there is a "single" version of the song and an "album" version of the song, do I create two submissions for that or rather create one submission and in the "Recordings" part add one recording as type "Single" and a 2nd recording as type "album"

Excellent. But this does not cover ASCAP as implied in the title. I recogize that the IMA is obviously registered with BMI rather than ASCAP. But having it in the tiel, I would expect to at least mention rather ASCAP has the same work around to make sure you get both the writer and publisher share withouth creating a separate account.

VERY HELPFULLY I LOVE YOU

Sorry And, Last Question, So if I release music to Spotify without lyrics but I am the songwriter do I need to register as a writer?

@IndieMusicAcademy
Okay what about if you're working with an admin publisher, like tunecore do I you need to register as a songwriter with BMI or just as with CD baby 👶🏾 🤔 yeah please let me know personally if that is what you are basically Saying

Eye opening! Could you please kindly make a video with guidance for us sampling artists who use excerpts from other songs to create "originals" or remixes?

I've done songwriting before but have never released material or music before. I live in the UK. What website/software would you recommend for copyrighting? Also, how much time do i need to leave between copyrighting my song and releasing my song?

If you have a radio edit and a full version of the same song, should you register bother the radio edit and the full/longer version to bmi?

To someone that could help me : If I release a song and then also recorded an acoustic version, should I register that acoustic version as a new work?

On number 2. Samples. I use Splice. Do I have to choose that I have used samples? As a subscriber to splice I don't have to pay royalties.Thanking you in anticipation.

I worked for something like BMI, building their backend. They basically cross-match your data (title and artist name) with everyone else's. Radios and TVs do send these long Excel files with what they broadcasted and for how long. It's a messy process that takes weeks! Soon most of them will require an mp3 upload of your song because this system has been abused so many times. So they are all moving towards switching to comparing audio files instead of text with something like BMAT. It's a nasty world inside there, fueled by corruption from their top ranking members who also happen to be the most successful producers in that organization's country.

How can I copyright my music, I’m live in Africa

Great insights for beginners to the industry. Thanks.

ASS CAP

Thanks for the video. Just had a question, should your BMI account be your legal name or aritst name? I made it my legal name but when I search my artist name on songview theres no IPI# any thoughts?

Wow Straight to the point thank you very much sir you got my subscription and continuous following

Hello, great video! I just have a quick question regarding the collection of publishing royalties.

You mention that by writing 200% on BMI, this would eliminate the need for Songtrust? I'd be very happy if that's the case!

Hi! I'm registered with BMI but all I do is sending my music to Pond5 (royalty free licensing). I'm always confused what to do with BMI. Pond5 even lets me choose whether to add or not that the song is registered with BMI. I wonder if you have a video about these libraries.

Thanks for this. If the artist name I use is different than my legal name, which do I use when I sign up with BMI?

Interesting points. Thank you.

If i am a producer and made score for tv or commercial do i have to also register under the songwriter option on BMI for me to get my royalties ?

I love your content! Thank you for all your help :)

i did a project with a rapper im the producer. do we both register the song he has BMI and i use Ascap. or does only one person should register it?

So if we write all of our own lyrics without reference to other works.
Would we put those lyrics down.

Or do we put the lyrics down if we have a line or two from other artist.

If you do edm or dance music u can register bmi if u don't expect to change it

Appreciate the video, however, seems misleading to use ASCAP in title when you only reference BMI's process. ASCAP has you register as a publisher separately and you can do that as an individual/sole proprietor - you don't have to be incorporated - but then you can get both writer and publisher royalties. Not sure of their registration process which is why I clicked. The whole CD baby pro publishing (replaced by CDB Boost in August 2023, with legacy releases still supported) is confusing with the PROs though. Especially as CD Baby is technically a 'distributor' that only 'administrates' your publisher pay-outs (for a fee of course). The language they use makes them sound like they are taking the role of your publisher. Add the issues of Songtrust and the MLC on top of it and it is even more confusing. I'd like more clarity on those. The new CDB Boost is supposed to finally include Songtrust and MLC registrations also, but if not using such a service (for an extra fee of course) my understanding is that the artist would need to register themselves and their songs with a PRO and Songtrust and The MLC to be fully covered. It's such a mess.

Hello, can I add a bonus track to an album "Off the Chain" I already registered on BMI months ago?

Cool! Thx, bro! :)

I created my own publishing company many years ago with BMI. I have registered many of my songs. I just recorded and produced an album of classic rock cover songs. I've paid for the rights to release so I have all my ducks in line. I expect these cover songs will be used in feature films and commercials. Can I register these cover songs with BMI even though I am not the author? The only option that seems a close fit is Public Domain...but they do not qualify for public domain. I'm thinking the only way I can collect air play money is to register them with BMI. Advise please? Joel Justin

Aaarrrrggghhh! I just went through a 7-day sync ready challenge with Michael Elsner. Michael said to sign up as a songwriter AND as a publisher on BMI in order to get 200% of your royalties. So, I established Songwriter Stephanie Phillips Music as my publishing entity. Is that wrong?? Will I regret that?

Thanks

Only thing I don’t agree with is not registering beats just because they are without lyrics. Instrumental music is a genre. I’ve gotten some pretty decent royalty payouts just from folks listening to my instrumentals.

Do you register edited versions too?

thanks this will help PREXENTS <3 joined BMI with "Water Us Universe 1999 to 2020" LP 33 Tracks Motion Picture Soundtrack with Spaceoceans Studios. Added the unreleased Prequel album "for·tune" to BMI in 2020, its awesome to learn that helps prepare licensing payments. Looking forward to adding Lyrics.

Im still a little confused on the step by step tutorial on how to distribute, and use BMI, and everything I need to put the song out and get my royalties. This is my first song I am trying to put out to if you have time for a step by step tutorial or if you could reply with one that´d be awesome, just trying to get a hang of this whole industry.

Hey thanks for the vid. You answered my question well!

Do you have one on one’s or take dms?

How do you register a song written by two people?

Great video. Myself and co-writer wrote a song, he recorded a demo that we can shop around to publishers and artists. . I can go ahead and register our song now with BMI, right? I leave the “publisher” section blank, and we can add a publisher and/or artist later on down the road if the song gets up by a publisher or recorded by an artist, right? Thanks very much. Great and super helpful video!

If I use a program like GarageBand that has presets will I have to register my work as having samples?

I have an old account with BMI under an email I cannot get into. What do I do? I've asked them to send a text but nothing yet. It's been 2 days.

Indie, do you have an opinion on change of BMI to become a for-profit PRO after decades of being non-profit? Is it still safe to use BMI after they're sold to a private equity firm? And finally, is it easy to switch songs over to ASCAP for royalties once BMI gets looted by investors and saddled with debt? Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate your videos. (Long time subscriber here.)

I AM SEING 2 NAMES WHEN REGISTERING MY SONG WRITERS ( MY ARTIST NAME AND MY COMPLETE NAME BOTH SHOW DIFFERENT NUMBERS ) WHY PLEASE HELP