Thursday, June 17, 2010

Accidental Posting


This post from composer Jonathan Newman reminds me that I'm incredibly bad about registering my music. I don't think of myself as a composer so it's sort of surprising how much music I end up copyrighting in a year. But not only does it need to be copyrighted, it (typically) has to be listed on cue sheets, and then submitted to my performing rights agency (which is BMI).

But now I discover that there's yet one more thing to register. That's the performance rights to the artist(s) and the owner of the recording. Sound Exchange is apparently the only PRO in the US for that purpose. And only for digital transmission (sattelite radio and Internet.) But hey, I'm no lawyer. As far as you know. Anyway, I really should think about registering with Sound Exchange.

2 comments:

Kangas said...

It's cool. I'm glad you haven't registered it. I've put some of your music in my last two movies.

Surprise!

Andrew Bellware said...

Oh no, it's copyrighted, just not necessarily registered with BMI. And certainly not registered with Sound Exchange.

The difference is that when you put my music on your cue sheets, the automatic payments haven't come through.

Of course, the fact that the work is copyrighted means that I own Fear of Clowns 1 and 2 now. Which means I'm a GAZILLIONAIRE!!! Woo!