First, make sure you are a member of one of the performing rights organizations, or PRO’s (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC) and register all your original songs with them. These organizations take care of collecting performance royalties on your behalf, then they pay you quarterly.

Performance royalties are for the underlying work, the song itself and are collected from TV and radio stations and any places that have live entertainment, jukeboxes, and/or TV’s (like sports bars...etc.).  They pay a blanket fee to the PRO’s and then the PRO’s use a complicated formula to distribute those royalties to their members.

If you and your songs are not registered with one of these PRO’s, then you won’t get any royalties if and when your stuff is played on radio or aired on TV...played on a jukebox...etc...etc, you get the idea. 

And, remember, you may only be a member of ONE  PRO.

Second, you need to make sure you and your songs are registered with the Harry Fox Agency (HFA).

HFA takes care of mechanical licensing.  This license is paid per unit and the rates are set by the government.

Mechanical licensing, also called Compulsory licensing, is for the underlying work, the song itself.  This type of license is needed when an artist wants to record a cover of a song they didn’t write themselves to distribute or sell  and/or when a recording you’ve licensed for film or TV is made available on a soundtrack for distribution or sale. 

Now, you CAN do this yourself, but if someone really popular wants to record a cover of your song, it can be a real pain to keep track of, so you’re better off just using HFA...I mean, it’s free, so why not? Less crappy paperwork for you to deal with and be confused by.

Third, make sure your recordings are up to par.  The recordings you send to us are the recordings that will actually be used for licensing.  So, they must be finished, fully mastered, ready for CD, sale and radio play...NO DEMOS.

 

If you'd like us to include some or all of your music in our catalog, you must complete a music submission form and send it to us along with a CD or CDs. If you have any trouble opening the form on your computer, email me and I'll try sending it to you in a different format.

Please read and follow all the directions for filling out the form and if you have any questions, just email me and I'll do my best to answer them.