This content explains the fundamental distinction between two types of music copyrights: sound recordings (artist's "master") and compositions (songwriter's "song"), and how royalties are generated and collected for each in the US.
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let's get started here
frederick has the book thank you
frederick i'm glad you dig it um okay so
really really important
time to put your thingy caps on i hope
you have your notebooks handy so
whip out that pen and uh feel free to
screenshot whatever you want we are also
going to send you a link to the replay
after this so you will have access to a
replay i'm going to be moving quickly so
you're welcome to watch this as many
times through as you need and i'm also
going to be sending you some of these
assets these slides and
um a link to
kind of an article
that i wrote all about this stuff as a
refresher so you can just reference the article
article
but i'm gonna go through this now and i
see the few people that have are already
in the queue to be called up uh to go
through your reports later so we will be
getting to you in just a few minutes okay
okay
let's get going
copyrights on a recording this is really important
important
this slide might look very simplistic or
simple but this is the most important
visual aid that is going to be in your
music career
i'm serious that is not uh
um hyperbole
i want you to think about these colors
these blue and this pink i want you to
be thinking about these
whenever you think of royalties and be
like wait what was that that was that
slide that ari showed me what was this
visual thing
oh artist blue songwriter pink artist
blue song what does this mean
this is so important
okay so there are two copyrights on a
recording there is the sound recording
copyright some people call this the
master that's just a basic recording
artists record sound recordings
there's also another copyright on a
recording that's called sometimes you
call that the composition or the song
the legal term is the composition when
you're registering the copyright some
people call this the song songwriters
songwriters
write songs they own those composition
copyrights artists record recordings
recordings
and release sound recording so
why is this distinction important okay well
well
i'm and as most of you probably we're
both we're everything we write our own
music we're our songwriters and we're
artists we release the songs that we write
write
cool but um what happens
if you
uh record a cover song so i see uh
brianna falcone is here what if i record
a brianna song
and i release it i don't automatically
now own her
uh composition copyright i don't own her
song just because i decided to record it
and release it she still owns the
composition copyright she still wrote
the song just because i recorded it and
released a cover doesn't mean that i own
it when
jimi hendrix or dave matthews who i just
saw last weekend phenomenal show uh
records all along the watchtower and
releases that recording of all along the
watchtower that's still bob dylan's song
all along the watchtower bob dylan will
still own that songwriting copyright
just because so but bob dylan does not own
own
jimi hendrix recording or dave matthews
recording and brianna wouldn't own my
recording uh
of her song she owns the composition
copyright i own
the master if you record it so if you're
an artist and
and you
you
record a cover song let's say you cover
one of my songs i'm a songwriter too
uh so you're the artist and you record
one of my songs now when you release
that that recording you own that
recording that is your recording because
you recorded it and you release it
and as long as you
as long as you um created all the
components to that recording you didn't
use samples that's another topic we're
gonna do a little bit later um
um
as long as you made all the aspects of
that recording and you release it you own
own
that recording but if it's my song if i
wrote the song you just covered it i own
the song i still own the song okay i'm
hitting this really hard and i'm
explaining it in a bunch of different
ways because
this is super super super important
because you won't understand anything
else in this presentation if you don't
understand this concept okay
okay um
um okay
okay
will will's get it did dylan recently
sell all of his songwriting copyright
okay yeah yeah uh that's that's a
totally um that's a different topic yes
you can of course sell
sell
and that brings us to our next point
you can
ask organizations or companies or give
up or
allow them to own
own
or control
your composition i mean sorry your
copyrights so
remember that blue circle pink circle so
record labels typically
work with artists and they sign artists
and they own or represent
the recordings so when you release that that
that recording
recording
if you work with a record label
they're typically going to own that or
they're going to have the rights to it
they'll license it that kind of a thing
but traditionally traditional record
labels traditional major record deals
and indie deals they typically will own
that master recording so when you say oh
they you know they're owning my masters
that's what they're talking about
not your songs
masters remember the difference master
song master song so publishing so when
people say now so that's the master side
when when a record label owns or
represents you know they sign the artist
they release the recordings that's the
blue circle record labels
artist blue circle
master recordings now let's hop on over
the composition side totally different
this is what people refer to as
publishing publishing publishing
publishing
songwriting they can kind of be used
interchangeably so you know when
someone's like oh who's getting
publishing on this how much you know how
we splitting up the publishing
publishing publishing songwriting you
can literally interchange the word
songwriting and publishing people just
like to feel um i think more important
when they say publishing uh instead of
songwriting i don't know you can use
whatever term you want it's publishing
it's songwriting it's the same thing so
songwriters are represented by
publishing companies typically
so publishing companies saw sign songwriters
songwriters
um you know it's
if publishing companies aren't signing
artists who don't write their own songs
they sign songwriters now sometimes
those songwriters release records too of
course and they're artists as well just
like you and i
i'm assuming most people here just like me
me
are both songwriters and artists
but you're going to get signed
potentially if you get signed you'll get
signed as an artist to a record label
because sometimes you know people have i
have an artist project called brass
roots district it's a band so the band
brass roots district is going to get
signed to
a record deal a record label
maybe probably i mean actually not we're
not going to because we don't want to but
but
if we wanted to sign with a record label
the band would get signed to a record
label brasser's district brass district
would not get signed to a publishing
company bands don't get signed to
publishing companies songwriters get
signed to publishing companies
songwriters own
songs songwriters write songs
and they register those copyrights and
if they work with a publishing company
sometimes the publishing company will
also own part of that song or they're
going to represent it
that whole thing does that make sense um
um
so wayne just asked what if the label
didn't pay for the recording why do they
still own the master okay it
thank you mike exactly it absolutely
depends on the contract so
it's it's just because you signed with a
record label doesn't mean that they
automatically own your firstborn
sometimes they they do put that
firstborn child in there that we're
gonna own as well as all your masters
but um sometimes not so
in the
record deal it will say
we own all of your master recordings in
perpetuity which means forever sometimes
the record deal will say um we're only
going to license your recordings for 15
years so we don't own anything we're
just gonna represent them that's why i
wrote up here ownership and
representation sometimes they own
sometimes they just represent
um but sometimes you don't work with a
record label or publishing company you
might be like me i'm an independent
artist everything i release is
independent i don't have a record label so
so
um i still i'm self released and that's
different but i'm still the blue circle
whether i work with a record label or
not it really doesn't matter um this is
ownership and representation so i own my
masters i represent my masters
some people who work with record labels
the label owns their masters or
represents their masters some
songwriters who work with a publishing
company this the publishing company
might own or represent their
songs their compositions whatever you
want to call them okay make sense
cool let's go and and wayne uh it really
doesn't matter who paid for what
honestly it all comes down into the agreement
agreement so
so uh
uh
if you
release the recording um
um
so it's all in the agreements so you
know there are typical recordings out
there i know whalen just asked um during
the licensing period with this so-called
record label still receive a huge chunk
of revenue or only percentage outline of
the contract um
um with
with
the master recordings and we're going to
get into this in just a second
with the master sound recordings
there are no laws that say
the label gets this amount of money
or something like that now there are laws
laws um
um
and and that's from the stream revenue
now we're going to get into where the
laws do come into place the laws for the
master side
are um in the
master performance royalties which we're
going to get into in a second
and we'll talk about that but when it
comes to your deal with the record label
they could take 50 of all the revenue
that comes in they could take 85
they could take 10
it's really whatever's in your contract
now let's keep going and then we'll
answer we'll take more questions at the
end because it's i don't want to go down
too many rabbit holes because i think
you're gonna get it
if we just keep going
okay here's an artist royalty flow chart
now remember we're only talking
blue circle right now blue artists
sound recording master i'm going to have
a separate slide for the songwriter
royalty flow chart so this is just that
blue circle
artist royalty flow chart
and don't worry i'm going to send this
to everybody so check your email after
this webinar you'll get this in your email
email okay
okay
so an artist
you make a recording whether it's your
song somebody else's song it doesn't
matter you make the recording we're not
talking about who wrote the song right
now all we're talking about is the
recording that you released
you make that recording so you
distribute that recording to the
streaming services to the dsps if you
will um dsp i know that term gets thrown
around a lot you're like what does dsp mean
mean
digital service provider if you had
anyone here
you say like oh yeah it's going to the
dsps dsp dsp just stands for it's mean
streaming service so it's another term
for spotify apple music
all that stuff so they're all called
dsps anyway moving on um you distribute
your song doesn't matter which
distributor you use whether you work
with district kid tune core seed baby
symphonic song traitor or record label
um doesn't matter
somebody you work with gets your music
onto spotify and apple music and the
rest deezer title all that stuff um
um
so now once
once
uh you start to get streams
what happens well let's follow the
dollars can you guys see the dollar
signs there so
it comes from
the streaming services and that money
gets paid to
your distribution company so if you used
distrokid and you distributed your
recording through distrokid
to all the dsps
the dsps based on how much money they
generated from the streams or the
downloads they will send that money
back to distrokid and say all right
distrokid here's all the money that
you're recording your artist recording
generated or tunecore or cdr or whoever
it is you're using um or the record
label same thing if you um if you're
represented by capital records capital
is going to get the check it's still
going to go to the distributor and then
it's going to go the label but then
that distributor because i'm assuming
everybody here is um independent um
but if you do um
let's see here
so then
they pay the distribution company and
the distribution company pays you that's
where you go log into the back and you
get the stream royalties now let's look
at some of these other things so you
know how i said there's no law for that
okay there's no law for that center
section but there is a law
and that is for this section over here
digital radio that's in we're talking
just the us remember
um for this side for this section here
and that's when it comes to sound
exchange so
sound exchange i don't know if you guys
can see this i want you right here
digital radio
see this okay
this is where we are right now
when
siriusxm plays uh your your recording on
the radio or pandora plays it on the
pandora radio or i heart radio plays it
on anything that's digital radio we're
not talking on the dial this doesn't
count for the dial if you tune into 89.9
you know kcrw or whatever
we're not talking about that we're
talking about digital only radio you
know satellite radio all that stuff
they do have to pay master performance royalties
royalties
um and these are these the sound
recording we're talking sound recording
royalties and that is they're also
called performance royalties but not to
be confused with songwriter side
remember we're talking artist
i don't want you to forget what are we
talking about artist royalties so
so
sound exchange that also um and we're
gonna get into sound exchange in just a
second more but just so you understand
now in the rest of the world uh
the royalties are those royalties are
called neighboring rights um and there's
navy rights organizations so if you live
in europe like uk that's ppl if you're
in canada that's resound um and that's
for performance
uh master performance royalties when
your recordings are played on the radio
in bars tv that kind of stuff now
notice how i'm using the term recordings
and not songs and i'm saying artists and
not songwriters i'm being very intentional
intentional
with my word choice right now why
why
because artists are over here
songwriters over here
recordings are over here
songs are over here they're very
different so whereas sometimes you might
use them interchangeably you might say
like oh you know artists or you know
this artist just wrote that song it's
like okay
as we're talking in conversation yeah
you might say yeah this artist wrote
that song or whatever but today i'm not
gonna say that and when you're really
talking the legal stuff you don't say
this artist wrote that song you say this
artist recorded that recording and the
songwriter wrote that song because
in contract terms in in uh how we speak
about these things we differentiate
between the artist and the songwriter
the completely separate entities and
that's just like to understand so again
we're in the artist royalties flow chart
that blue circle here we are
um so if you're um
some of you are familiar with sync
licensing if your song gets placed on a
tv show or a movie or something like
that i'm sorry
my mistake if your recording
gets placed on we're going to get the
songs in just a second if your recording
gets placed on a tv show or a commercial
something like that they need to get a
sync license and this is called the
master use license and so they need to
get this master use license and either
if you're working with a sync licensing
company a sync agent or a record label
or just you i mean when on my my recording
recording uh
uh
first got on uh one tree hill i did not
have a record label or a sink licensing
agent or anything like that uh the music
supervisor for one tree hill
lindsey wolfington came to me directly i
was like hey can we put your recording
can we put this song recording because i
own both i wrote the song and i recorded
it so i was able to clear both the sides
and when you say both sides it means the
sound recording side and the composition
side because i wrote both
um and i said yeah so that's sync that's
the master use they need to get a
license for that and they'll pay you for
that um
and then um
um
you know you might get some residuals if
you're uh
if you're singing on the recording and
it gets used in a union commercial but
that's a whole other topic and it's very
confusing so we're going to move forward
because the mo um um
um
oh jessica maybe i missed this but what
is the neighboring rights organization
called in the u.s right so it's
technically we don't call them a
neighboring rights organization but it's
essentially sound exchange um
um
these neighboring rights are
internationally what they're called but
the the term here it's kind of like
they're essentially doing the same thing
they're collecting your master
master
those sound recording performance
royalties sound recording performance
royalties um okay
okay
um uh yes jeff the digital radio i'm
radio's catch-all for the rest of the
world so it's radio digital terrestrial
any kind of radio rest of world
but i differentiated it because in the
u.s there's a weird law on the books
that says it's only going to collect
from digital radio that's what sound
exchange does only collect from digital
radio in the us um
um so
so
that's just a weird dumb frankly
dumb thing that the us does
does
is we they sound exchange only collects
radio why why not regular radio i don't
know it's stupid but that's just how it
is so that's why i have to alex do you
think they'll ever change i
hope so uh
uh
yeah i mean that we keep trying to
change this it's like a literally the
copyright office every few years makes a
recommendation they're like um
maybe radio like terrestrial radio like
on the dial should pay
these master royalties like the rest of
the world and then the music industry's
like yes please why aren't you paying us
and then big radio comes in clear
channels like oh no you don't
if you want our money you're not gonna
politicians hey politicians don't vote
for this because uh big radio we don't
want to have to pay these royalties so
that's the political fight
anyway uh so i don't know um
um
amy which organization collects
dial radios for us um and then so okay
do you see let me let me show you right
here good question great questions people
people
if you're signed up with sound exchange
you'll get your international royalties
from these other organizations sound
exchange has relationships with all the
international neighboring arts
organizations so if you're in the us and
you sign up with sound exchange they
will collect from all these other ones um
tadia so who in the us what company
collects from regular radio plays no
company you don't earn any royalties
that's that dumb law that's on the books
exactly it's stupid
shouldn't we get our royalties yes we
so terrestrial radio just doesn't pay in
the u.s jessica terrestrial does not pay
royalties to
artists and record labels those master
record those master royalties if your recording
recording
gets played on the radio let's say it
gets a uh every radio station in the
united states is playing your recording
if you did not write that song you will
receive zero
royalties on that however if they stream
it or it gets played you know if they if
it's not obviously you'll get the money
from spotify or pandora or any of that
stuff but if you're
if you're recording is played on
terrestrial radio
um no you're not gonna get those
royalties in the united states that's a
dumb law
let's work on changing it okay diane
thank you for transitioning me into the
next slide
oh actually in just a couple seconds so
i'm gonna get to bmi in just a second
we're still just so you know diane and
everybody else we are still in this blue
circle blue circle
artist these are just master royalties
we're going to get to be a mind a second
that's on the pink circle but we're on
blue circle right now blue circle master recordings
recordings
the organizations you need to register
to collect your sound recording
royalties are your distributor so
district tune core cd baby song chair
symphonic muse whatever distributor you
use i actually compared um
16 or 17 of the independent distributors
out there i will pop the
um we'll pop the
the link um
um
in the chat alexis or to me you can pop
that that link in the chat um
um
and you can choose a distributor to
distribute your music okay
the other organization is sound exchange again
again
this is to collect your digital
radio royalties now
let's talk about sinus change for a
second this sounded change sounded
change.com um if you are your own if you
don't have a record label you go to
soundchange.com and you you
you select both
you say i'm both the performer
and the sound recording copyright owner
because you own your recording you don't
have a record label that owns your
recording and so you ask them to pay you
um all the money because how it works is
sound exchange splits up the money they
pay about half to the label and half to
the artist
um they actually pay a little bit to
backup musicians but that's another
topic for another another call
so yes session musicians also get paid
from sound exchange
um they're called non-featured artists
the non-performers
so if you're a session musician if you
like played
guitar or drums on somebody else's track
you're technically entitled to five
percent of every recording from sound uh
from um
digital radio and
and
you can get that money by going to the fund
fund
um so it is i actually wrote an article
on this um it was calling out the fund
because they were uh not actually
paying out all their money um that's a
whole other topic but if you're a backup
musician you don't you don't get this
money from sound exchange you get it
from the fund
and um
alexis if you want to pop that that link
in there too
um jenna do they pay retroactively um
yes all these organizations hold on to
your money for at least like three years or
or
so and uh and then so you you want to
get on this soon because uh they'll if
you don't collect if you don't grab your
money soon enough they will um
um
just pay it out by market share to
everybody else okay moving on we're on
the pink circle now the songwriter
now
no confusion here this chart is only u.s so
so um
um
this is just the
u.s how songwriter royalties work
composition royalties in the united
states because uh it works slightly
different everywhere else and i don't
have time today to cover every country
but we're just going to cover the united
states songwriter royalties how this
works if you're um in the states so
so
you write a composition you're a
songwriter again we're going back to oh
it's gonna take me a second to get back
here but just so you know we're talking
pink circle now
pink circle composition song songwriters
publishers pink circle okay
okay
so back to songwriter royalty flowchart
you write a song
and it gets on a streaming service so
whether somebody covers your song and
releases it they're recording or you
record your own song and release it it
gets to that streaming service now
there are if it's being streamed on
spotify there are two
count them two
streams of royalties for songwriters
publishing royalties whatever you want
to call them remember publishing
songwriter same term publishing
songwriter songwriter publishing
same kind of thing so songwriter
royalties publishing royalties whatever
you want to call it there are two kinds
of publishing royalties songwriter
royalties that come from
stream services can anybody tell me what
those are look at this flow chart
it's uh
all right i'll give you a hint they're
in the light gray here you can see light gray
gray
light gray yes
anyone
come on bueller you're in there
somewhere two kinds of publishing
royalties that come from streams who's
gonna get this i'm gonna give you a
you're going to get a yes haiti
mechanical is one
and performance hey do you win the cookie
cookie
somebody give haiti a digital cookie
thank you haiti mechanical and
performance fantastic these are the two
kinds of publishing royalties
um oh y'all get it okay cool thank you
now how do you get these performance and
mechanical royalties um
well look at this chart here so i'm
going to highlight this so performance
royalties are over here now these come from
from
when your song streams but also when
your songs get played uh you know these
are performance roughly so it's get
performed in public on
radio tv bar clubs even if you play your
song live or if somebody plays your song
live you can get performance royalties
from that and these are ascap bmi csac
global music rights in the united states now
now
most countries around the world have
their own performance rights
organization we have four
in the states um for songwriters uh four
of the big ones and then there's some
other carve out things but not gonna get
into that um so you know most people i'm
assuming and now i'm curious i'm gonna
run a quick poll
of the performing arts organizations
tell me which one
bmi here we go i'm just i'm gonna pop a
pole here you don't have to type it you
can just select the poll which pro are
you registered with ascap bmi
csac okay we have some people from
canada here so can um
um
or if you're not registered that's cool too
too
so you're either in if you're in if
you're in the states are you registered
with ascap you're registered with bmi aristotle
aristotle
or or none
or other if you're in a different
country and i didn't list your your pro
here okay so we have a couple from canada
canada uh
uh
yeah that's kind of what i would expect
uh it's split pretty
pretty
oh more people are selecting this poll
here all right who's gonna win oh man
all right i'm gonna end it oh look at that
that
exactly split 42 percent as cap 42 bmi
and then the rest are we have two
percent csac
uh we've got a couple few people from so
can from canada here of socan um and
then and then there's seven percent
there's some of you who are not
registered with a pro we're gonna get to
that you need to be
so um now another poll i have for you
because so that's performance royalties
those are those two kind now let's talk
the other kind mechanical royalties
now in the united states
here's where you got to pay attention
because this changed this year what year
did this change
this year
this year this changed
the only listen closely
the only organization
in the united states that is collecting
mechanical royalties
and mechanical royalties where they come
from hello
dollas royalties from streaming services
from the dsps the only organization
in america that collects mechanical royalties
royalties
is called drum roll please
the mlc
the mlc is
i'm going to hit this really hard
because someone's going to ask me well
what about harry fox and what about wait
a minute what about music reports nah
nah nah nah the mlc thank you jay jay
jay
um yes frederick mlc great
i'm glad that some of you know this
the only organization that collects
mechanical royalties in the states is
the mlc now this just changed the
beginning of this year january 2021 the
mlc formed so
so um
um
previously there were other
organizations there was harry fox
there's music reports it was uh you know
it was complicated um
um
but now there's only one organization
this is set up by uh congress this is
from a law that was passed the music
modernization act that was passed in 2018.
2018.
they designated this organization the
mlc to be the only organization to
collect mechanical royalties so
so
i want to know
let me know
take this poll
you personally
like did you go to the mlc.com and did
you register say like yeah i'm
registered if you don't know what it is
or you didn't do it then then your
answer is probably no or or i don't know um
um so
so
how many of you have actually gone to
the mlc.com and and registered your
stuff not your songs are there but you
okay
that's kind of what i thought
73 of you are not registered
uh four percent of you i don't know four percent
percent
uh you're signed with a publishing
company and your publisher is and
of you are registered okay
do you have a publishing company
are you signed with the publishing
company yes or major
uh yes is an independent publisher independent
independent
does not mean
cd baby tunecore centric or songtrust
that's the one that down below an admin
publisher that's different
so uh and then
not um this is where it's gonna get a
little confusing
we're not talking vanity publishers
either so we're not talking the one that
you wrote into ascap or bmi and you said
oh this is what my publishing company is
called no no we're talking like there's
a full-on admin publishing entity that's
going around and collecting your
royalties from every organization around
the world if you don't do that then your
vanity publishing company doesn't count here
here
so um
yeah change that answer if that's so
it's an actual like we're talking
independent publishing companies like
you're signed a cobalt or something like
that or you're signed um you know
concord or whatever um
all right so that's what i thought
we got 58 of self-administered
songwriters 23
have an admin publishing company
um 16 are signed with indie publishers
and then we have one percent signed to
major publishers that's what i thought okay
okay so
so
um let's uh
you're you've got some work to do
because uh here we go
the organizations that you need to
register to collect your publishing royalties
royalties
you have to be registered with a
performing rights organization pro in
the states ask that be mine c-sec so for
all those people before
that were not registered with ascap bmi
or c-sec in and you're
a songwriter in the states you have to
register with them
now even if you have a publishing
company you still have to register with
them because
these pros
they pay out 50 of the money
to your publishing company and 50 of the
money to
you the songwriter directly that's just
how they work now
the mlc is different the mlc they don't
do the 50 50 split they don't pay off 50
to the songwriter 50 to the
to the publisher the mlc they're paying out
out
all of the mechanical royalties to
to
whoever they can find that represents that
that
uh those mechanical royalties so if
you're a self-administered songwriter so
those sixty percent of you you gotta go
to the mlc.com and you have to sign up
with the mlc um
um
and uh
otherwise you're not gonna get your
mechanical royalties so
the mlc.com sign up
for your mechanical royalties now i
interviewed the um the head of the ceo
of the mlc
um chris
on the podcast i encourage you to listen
to this episode um we'll also link that
episode an article that i wrote on it
um in the chat pt has a great question
so don't sign with the mlc if you have a
uh pro does not stand for publishing
company pro stands for performing rights
organization so
if you are with ascap and
and
you don't have a publishing company
you have to sign up with the mlc
because remember let's go back to the
slide here
ascap bmi csac they represent
performance royalties but what are the
two kinds of songwriter royalties ladies
and gentlemen what are the two kinds of
publishing royalties performance who
collects performance royalties
performing rights organizations p r o
performing rights organizations who are
they ascap bmi c-sec but what's the
other kind of royalty publishing royalty
songwriter royalty mechanic royalties
who collects mechanical royalties the mlc
mlc
totally different
mlc collects mechanical royalties now
why do why do i say here this is where
you're confused
why do you say but if you don't have a
publishing company okay
okay
because if you have a publishing company
your publishing company has a
relationship with the mlc and the mlc
will pay out the publishing company and
your publishing company will pay you but
the 60 of you here that are not signed
to a publisher and you don't have an
admin publisher you
you
yes you have to go to the mlc.com and sign
sign up
up so
so um
um
let's what i want to do now is
i want to actually show you how you can
check to see
if you are getting paid from the mlc and
then i'm going to bring in lindsay um
um
who she's going to she's from the mlc
and she's going to help everybody
explain this now if we have some
volunteers here
who want to come up and show their back
end so all my volunteers this is where i
want you to go so get this page pulled
up so we can start to do this together
but i'm going to show you what i'm doing
here so you're going to go to the
mlc.com and i'm going to do this with
you ready
the mlc.com
now i want you to go to the public
search right here
and now you can either type in a title
of your song or you can search by
writer name let's search now it's
important we're going to do this both ways
ways
so we'll search by my writer name
my full name there i have 87 titles
this is how you're going to do this
so you're gonna pull this up and
and
let's pull up a song
uh that i co-wrote off my latest album
the song is called drifting as you can
see there's two writers here
me and i wrote it with reuben now here's
where we're running to an issue so
proud honeybee music that's my vanity
publishing company that's what i
registered with ascap um
before i was working with an admin publisher
publisher
you know ascap
requires you to put an admin uh vanity
publisher in there just something so
they'll pay remember how azca pays 50
50. so this is me this is just me it's
just i kind of came up with this this
word uh this this
uh it's not a real company it's just
this is the name of one anyway
anyway
the administrator is songdress so i have
a relationship with sanchez songtras is
my administrator so
so
ruben though he doesn't have
uh publisher or administrator so reuben
is not getting his mechanical royalties so
so
i reuben if you're on you got to go
register with the mlc
uh otherwise you're not gonna get your
mechanical royalties uh if you're not
here i'll have to just text reuben and
be like yo mlc.com do this now here's
another issue
that i found
check this out work title so i have a
song called these whoops these feet
ain't got nobody this is my brassiere's
district song so here's the song he's
feeding god nobody
uh as you can see two writers brett and
me however
as you can see my name is not correct
here this is my artist this this is not
ari setherson which is my writer name
now brett is also administered by
songtrust but the only one i can tell
because it's his vanity publishing company
company
and song trust uh
uh
i'm not getting my mechanical royalties
here so
um you know i have to go take it up with
songdress now and be like yo songdress
uh why
aren't i getting so for literally
everybody here whether you have a
publisher whether you have an admin
publisher or yourself administered
go here right now go to the mlc.com and
search up search your songs because like
look at this i have an administrator
you'd expect them
to have this stuff done but they don't
and i'm telling you every publisher in
the world none of this is going to be
perfect so this is the way
this is how you're going to want to do
this um and this is god no body you can
see the artist is here um
um
yeah so anyway okay so i want to bring
in some volunteers and i'm going to
bring lindsay up and she's going to
step you through this um and help
everyone out so um lindsay do me a favor
uh raise your hand to speak too so i can
bring you up first um and if that
doesn't work um i'll invite you as a
presenter too like we did in the test
but here let me see if this works
lindsay um and if not you can check the
link from your email but here we go
okay just in case
right
and then i'm also going to bring up our
volunteers too but oh yes lindsay's here
it worked lindsay
lindsay
how's it going
good um how did i do so far
did great okay
so let's bring up some of the volunteers
and you can kind of help them go through
their stuff
so brianna
you've been waiting so patiently since
the very beginning
let's uh
oh and i do want people to know um i
should have mentioned that to brianne
before i accepted her so kevin amy wake jessica
jessica um
um
you're going to have to approve
something you're going to have to go
through some tests here and say yes i
want to you know test your audio
uh test your video
and that's the only way that you're
going to get in here so it's not it's
not zoom it's a little bit different and
more complicated so
kevin amy wake jessica um i
i
so i don't know if brianna got that
maybe she'll come back in
um we'll get to her later um but kevin
i'm gonna bring you up so get ready to
approve your your stuff
um and then we can go through kevin's stuff
stuff
and if anyone else here wants to come up
you can
check the uh raise your hand to speak
um
jesus rodriguez song trust is slowly
losing my trust for sure um yeah you
know what hold their feet to the fire i
do it all the time i as soon as i
noticed this i went to the song first
i'm like yo
why aren't you collecting
my why why
did did songs slip through the cracks
and they're like oh let's get on this
because here's the thing though
it's not just a song trust thing it's
honestly every publisher every admin
publisher out there um
they none of the these reports are so
complicated and so challenging um they're
they're uh
uh
nothing is going to be perfect out there
so let's let's see whatever so kevin
how's it going can you hear us i can
hear you very well can you hear me
fantastic yes um
um
so kevin um do you want to go through
your emma the songs register in the mlc
and see if you're getting your your money
money
yeah so i actually while you were
talking i went over to that and checked
it and the only song that's showing up
is one that got chosen from a
music library for some reason i have 30 songs
songs
to my pro and the only one showing up is
um one chosen so
so
lindsay what does he do
yeah kevin it sounds like um so you're
fully it sounds you said you registered
your works to your pro is that what i
heard you say correct okay so the pro
data won't transfer over to the mlc
automatically so it sounds like you need
to sign up to become a member and then
you can register your works that way and
we've got a few options for you
you can choose to do it individually if
that's your jam you'd rather go through
and do it one by one we can do that or
we have a bulk work
template you download the template you can
can
do all i think you said you had 30 you
do all 30 at the same time so it just
kind of depends on what you prefer to do
but step one is becoming a member step
one become a purpose i can do that thank
you and how do you become a member
lindsay let us know again yeah go to the
mlc.com click connect to collect um you
will have to sign up to become a user
first so put in all your personal
information and then once you have a
user account then you'll hit um you'll
sign up to become a member it's right in
the front so you can't miss it awesome
awesome cool
cool and
and
um and and kevin i'm actually so when
you're looking at that uh if you want
you can share your screen real quick uh
and so we can see what you're looking at
because i'm curious even though the song
is registered like mine was i wonder if
you're actually getting paid from it
because if you don't have an administrator
administrator
or a publisher and you're not signing up
for the mlc
i'm curious to see what it looks like
yeah i'd love to let me see i'm not the
most technologically you know what just
tell me uh tell me your songwriter name
and i'll pull it up for you
kevin siri s is in sam e-r-e-y
kevin s-e
all right let's pull this up here
and then uh probably kevin thomas series
what it said
gotcha okay s-e-r-e-y
s-e-r-e-y
oh here we go okay
okay
found it all right i see these here i'm
gonna share my screen so you guys can
see what we're looking at
here um [Music]
[Music]
is this what you're seeing there correct yeah
yeah
all right so
mechanical copyright protection society
so lindsay do you know anything about this
this
can you um so yeah it looks like you're
do you have a relationship with
mechanical copyright protection society kevin
kevin no
no
i'm not exactly sure do you recognize or
the other one pop-up music publishing
correct that that's the library that
chose my song for sync
okay so it sounds like um kevin you may
need to for this particular work um you
may need to
contact our support team and perhaps um
start a process to retain the control of
this work it's
it's
wherever this may have come over from
some other relationship but it sounds
like the ownership isn't quite right so
we'll get set up first as a member and
then reach out to us our support team
for this work and they can help
facilitate the process to get this situated
situated
we'll definitely do that thank you of course
course
awesome all right thanks kevin thank you
i want to pop you back in the chat okay
um amy so get ready amy uh make sure you uh
uh
accept all the prompts
while we're waiting for her to join i
just want to
a common thing if you're finding your
works in the public database
and you're saying hey wait a minute i
don't have a member and my the shares
are there
don't panic um when you become a member
we'll be able to then associate those
works to your member account so you
still sign up and then when you sign up
you'll see those works will be in your
your account at that time
so for anybody who was wondering how do
i get those works into my catalog we'll
do it for you
that's a really uh thank you for that
and kayla um also from the mlc wrote on
the chat the mlc membership is free yes
it's free i know some of the other
uh pros charge you for membership um the
mlc is totally free and actually
something really cool about the mlc and
this is part of the law
is that the mlc doesn't actually take a
commission so as cap bmi
all the others they take a commission
um it's like around
11 12 something like that um they take a
commission off the top so when spotify
pays ascap and they're like hey here's
all the performance royalties ascap
takes off about 12 and then pays out the money
money
when spotify pays the mlc hey mlc here's
your mechanical royalties the mlc
literally doesn't take a dime from that
they pass on 100 of the money to the
publisher whoever's registered so
whether it's you the songwriter um or
the publisher and that's because so now
you're you're probably wondering well
how do they make money who's paying for
all this
part of the law was that the streaming
services the dsps actually have to pay
all the administration all the costs so
that was part of the law that was this
deal that got worked out
is uh so that's spotify that's apple
that's amazon that's google that's all
of them are literally paying
for all these costs not out of your
royalties mind you either so they're not
skimming off the top either they're
they're literally just
having to pay them
it's a little crazy uh
uh okay
very staticky amy i'm gonna kick you out
sorry okay that didn't work um
wake you're up next so get ready um
and jessica michael james you're on deck here
here
um so get ready when i when i accept you
you're gonna have to approve the audio
you're gonna have to go through a few
steps to test out your audio and video um
um and
oh hannah's wondering or hannah uh if
you'll be signing up for song trust for
abner publishing should i wait to
finalize that before signing up to the mlc
mlc
yeah because if you um are well if
you're entering into a publishing
administration deal with songtrust
they're going to do everything on your
behalf so you won't actually need to
register for the mlc so i would get that
and let them do all the all the work
um so jared is wondering
uh he's in canada
how does this all work for
canadian songwriters
sure so um
um
if you are so we
we will pay out international
songwriters and publishers but they're
for usages in the us
so however um it's a lot of international
international
songwriters or publishers are
collecting from a foreign cmo
um so it just kind of depends who stands
for uh collective uh the collective
rights management organizations or
collective management organizations but
you call them emos but give me some
examples what is a cmo
yeah so
one cmo is so can i believe is a cmo prs
is a cmo
and a lot of publishers will
collect they'll let the cmos collect on
their behalf and then cmos will pay the
publishers so if you're affiliated with
that cmo and you're
then they're collecting on your behalf
you don't necessarily have to do that
you can collect your own u.s
digital audio mechanicals by signing up
for the mlc it's just really important
to know that the only market that we're
paying out for is the u.s market so if
it streams in the u.s then that's what
you're getting paid on if it streams in
the uk we're not paying you for that so
just want to make sure that right so so
so
this is a really good point um
that you know uh
and i've had these conversations with
with a few of my songwriter friends
they're like should i pay the 100 signup
fee for songtrust or should i just sign
up for the mlc for free and sign up for
ascap and do that or bmi um you know
if you
don't if you if you sign up for the mlc
and you sign up with a pro like ascap or bmi
bmi
um you're getting all your performance
royalties you're getting your u.s
mechanic royalties but let's say you're
let's say you're huge in brazil and
let's say you're getting gazillions of
streams in brazil
just because you're within the mlc
you're not getting those mechanical
royalties correct correct
correct
you'll have to collect them however
you have to collect them in that region
right which would be from an uh administ
admin publisher like a songchester
eccentric or a tunecore publishing
um or something like that uh tunecore
publishing operates essentially the same
way as songtrust tunecore is actually 75
bucks so you can price that out yourself
um okay let's bring up someone else um
oh brianna there she is she does have a
question but i'm registered with an
admin publishing company but i don't see
any of my songs on the mlc website would
i need to talk
to the mlc about that so brianna
are you is that your songwriter name
brianna falcone
let's look this up i'll i'll pull it up
here and we can do it um
um
let me make sure here
uh it's not tell me your songwriter name
so i can uh look that up brianna
um oh
so yeah it doesn't show that any of your
unless i'm doing this incorrectly but
let me
um and did you see your songs there this
is what i'm seeing i've
i've
typed that in there and i see under
writer name
i see nothing
so i don't know let's just do let's see
there might be a lot of those um
um [Music]
[Music] okay
okay
so if you do have a what while this
tries to load
if you do have a publishing
administration deal whether that be by
way of a cd baby pro or perhaps you have
a publisher or an administrator
and you're seeing mistakes in the
database for example your works aren't
there or perhaps your songwriter ipi is
incorrect or something like that um
you need to reach out to
that company that entity and tell them
hey here's
here's the mistakes you need to fix um
you're paying them
so they have a job to do and um we won't
be able we have to when we edit works or
when work
edits are submitted um
um
it has to be by the in order to be
accepted it has to be submitted by the
entity that
has the rights to that so
so
and uh
yeah that's a great point and there's a
good question here from anna cdbaby is
my distributor should i sign with the
mlc so here's where it gets confusing
when we're talking cd baby and tune core
because there's uh remember our blue
circle on our pink circle well cd baby
and tunecore they
they
essentially have two completely separate businesses
businesses
but it's all under their umbrella so
cd baby distribution is the blue circle
and if you just use them for distribution
distribution
uh and you don't have anyone collecting
that pink circle collecting your
publishing royalties then that's on you
whether you want to
do an admin publisher whether you want
to go directly to the mlc and sign up
however cdbaby also has what's called
cdbaby pro publishing that you can opt
into that then they will collect your
pink circle and they will be your
publisher your admin publisher administrator
administrator
so like lindsay was just saying if there
are errors and you use cd baby pro
publishing that you actually have to opt
into that it's totally separate from distribution
distribution um
um
then you would go to cd baby and say hey
my stuff's incorrect and then cd baby
would have to come to the mlc and fix
that and yes for those of you who want
to get more into insider baseball um
will said song just also does this work
for cdb pro options yes
songtrust actually is the one powering
the back end of cd baby uh publishing
and centric is the one powering the back
end of tune core publishing because
tunecore does the same stuff too um okay
i'm gonna bring up um jessica
and then uh we'll get to michael
um and then i'm gonna let lindsay go
because we've gone over just a little
bit and i know people are probably
pinging her right now being like where
are you why aren't you on this meeting
sorry um okay um and so wake's question
was i'm signing up for the mlc
and i'm a songwriter but we also just
started a publishing company that we
registered with as cap as well when i
answered do you have a publisher
administrator cmo or digital
distribution service collecting u.s
digital audio mechanic royalties on your
behalf what do i answer great question
yeah that's a good question so um our it
sounds like
you okay if you started the publishing
company it sounds like you started that
to represent your own works
um so in that scenario it
it actually
doesn't matter
so what we're doing in this line of
questioning for
becoming a member is trying to um
prevent people from signing up who
actually don't need to so if if you were
to select that you
if i were you i would just select that
you're a self-administered songwriter if
you started that publishing company to
represent yourself and then sign up
using that publishing entity name
um because that's just the most
streamlined way to get to your
membership um but if you
so technically you're representing
yourself you're a self-administered
songwriter you're just operating under a
publishing entity or perhaps you did an llc
llc
um either way that question's more for
like are you signed with cobalt or
something like that or do you have an
admin publishing administration deal
with songtrust um hopefully that cleared
it up a little bit but if you do need
help um
getting through that member sign up
process support team can help you
they'll be able to walk you through it
and wake that's like when i was saying
that thing that was registered as my
publisher proud honeybee music that's
that's what we call a vanity publishing
vanity because it it's not a real
publishing company that's going around
collecting royalties it's just a name
that ascab asks you to put in there so
if you don't actually have a publishing
company then like lindsay said you're
self-administered and that's what you
select jessica hello what's up hi hi
good nothing i mean i don't know
what's your what's your question well i
i had the same question as um i think it
was brianna where i have a lot of songs
registered and my name is just nowhere
to be found on the mlc so
okay so you are the songwriter do you
also have
publishing rights to those works
yes but i
was living in like i'm canadian citizen
i just moved to the states this year but i
i
started in canada so i don't know if that's
that's
an uh problem
but you were talking about the um
cmo cmos is that correct yes
so i just checked and i found out that
cmra is one of those in canada which i
am a part of and i've collected
royalties from them so i just wonder if
perhaps without knowing the details of
the deal that you have with that
organization it's hard for me to
really provide guidance so um if you
where you physically live
doesn't really matter in this scenario
it's where your work's being used where
are they playing
okay um so if you were collecting
digital audio mechanicals through i
think you said what did you sorry which
the mrra
and socan
okay so if you were previously
collecting digital audio mechanicals
through one of those organizations
you're likely still collecting from them
but i would check with them and
understand the deal that you have with them
them
and if you haven't received money
definitely reach out to them and say
where's my money
now if it's a situation where they're
not collecting on your behalf anymore
maybe they're not registering your works
whatever the deal isn't there anymore
you'll then create a member in the mlc portal and if you have to claim your
portal and if you have to claim your share to the works that already exist
share to the works that already exist you can do that in the portal um so it
you can do that in the portal um so it just it kind of just depends on what the
just it kind of just depends on what the situation is i hope so
situation is i hope so yes it does thank you are you saying so
yes it does thank you are you saying so the deal depends on the deal that i have
the deal depends on the deal that i have with them so are you saying it's
with them so are you saying it's possible that the deal that i have with
possible that the deal that i have with them is for them to collect my mlc
them is for them to collect my mlc royalties
royalties it's possible um it's also possible that
it's possible um it's also possible that they're not um well if even if your deal
they're not um well if even if your deal is that they should collect your mlc
is that they should collect your mlc your mechanicals your u.s mechanicals
your mechanicals your u.s mechanicals which all
which all will be filtered through the mlc
will be filtered through the mlc um
um your name should your songwriter name
your name should your songwriter name should still be showing up in the mlc
should still be showing up in the mlc right lindsay
right lindsay yeah if the works are registered
yeah if the works are registered correctly the songwriter name should be
correctly the songwriter name should be there so if it's not
there so if it's not um
um then cmmra just is not communicating
then cmmra just is not communicating with the mlc they they maybe they didn't
with the mlc they they maybe they didn't send in their catalog to the mlc
send in their catalog to the mlc or maybe they didn't send in your songs
or maybe they didn't send in your songs right
right that there's a lot of scenarios at play
that there's a lot of scenarios at play here it could be um you know what we had
here it could be um you know what we had come into it it just hasn't been updated
come into it it just hasn't been updated it could be that yeah they haven't
it could be that yeah they haven't submitted a cwr file that's just a way
submitted a cwr file that's just a way that a large organizations can register
that a large organizations can register work a lot of works at the same time
work a lot of works at the same time um it could be that
um it could be that it's just not registered correctly so um
it's just not registered correctly so um there's a lot just because that i don't
there's a lot just because that i don't have just because that my name is not
have just because that my name is not anywhere to be found on mlc doesn't mean
anywhere to be found on mlc doesn't mean that i don't necessarily have royalties
that i don't necessarily have royalties correct does that make sense okay okay
correct does that make sense okay okay yeah it's just a matter of cleaning up
yeah it's just a matter of cleaning up the data one um so that we know who
the data one um so that we know who we're supposed to pay and also keep in
we're supposed to pay and also keep in mind like we
mind like we unlike the pros the pros there's the
unlike the pros the pros there's the writers share and the publishers share
writers share and the publishers share in our world there's the publisher share
in our world there's the publisher share so we pay the publisher or the
so we pay the publisher or the administrator the entity that owns the
administrator the entity that owns the rights to the work and then they pay
rights to the work and then they pay whoever so whether if you're a
whoever so whether if you're a self-managed songwriter that's you
self-managed songwriter that's you if you're a writer that is administered
if you're a writer that is administered by a song trust or whatever then that
by a song trust or whatever then that song trusts and they pay you okay um so
song trusts and they pay you okay um so it it could there's there's just
it it could there's there's just as you can see it can get pretty
as you can see it can get pretty complicated so there could be a lot of
complicated so there could be a lot of reasons
reasons um
um and
and happy to like go through and see what's
happy to like go through and see what's there and see if you recognize anything
there and see if you recognize anything but it sounds like you don't see your
but it sounds like you don't see your information anywhere so yeah i don't and
information anywhere so yeah i don't and i'm not registered with songtrust or cdb
i'm not registered with songtrust or cdb before or an admin at all so so it might
before or an admin at all so so it might do
do yeah so first
yeah so first step one check with those organizations
step one check with those organizations and see what's going on if if they're
and see what's going on if if they're not collecting anything and they're not
not collecting anything and they're not registering your works and they're not
registering your works and they're not doing anything with it
doing anything with it then step two is become a member
then step two is become a member um and claim your your share to those
um and claim your your share to those works and then you can edit those works
works and then you can edit those works directly you can add your songwriter and
directly you can add your songwriter and your publisher on there and claim the
your publisher on there and claim the share that you have there should be
share that you have there should be it'll there will be like a percentage of
it'll there will be like a percentage of total known shares
total known shares so
so you'll probably have a percentage that's
you'll probably have a percentage that's available to claim essentially and you
available to claim essentially and you can claim those and then the works get
can claim those and then the works get registered any money
registered any money that has been
that has been collected for usage as of january 1
collected for usage as of january 1 will be paid
will be paid retroactively anything that landed in
retroactively anything that landed in the unclaimed or the unmapped the
the unclaimed or the unmapped the historic unmatched uh we're still
historic unmatched uh we're still working through that process
working through that process coming soon
coming soon okay so there is still backdated
okay so there is still backdated royalties before this came into place
royalties before this came into place this year january 1st yeah if it's in
this year january 1st yeah if it's in the unmatched there is um
the unmatched there is um yeah sorry go ahead cool
yeah sorry go ahead cool it was a lot of my it's 424 million that
it was a lot of my it's 424 million that we collected uh along with
we collected uh along with lots of data so we're still kind of
lots of data so we're still kind of combing through that data and figuring
combing through that data and figuring out what our game plan is to pay the
out what our game plan is to pay the proper people
proper people those monies and we only have what three
those monies and we only have what three four years for
four years for people to actually claim their money is
people to actually claim their money is that right
that right yes um it's three years but
yes um it's three years but it could go to five years like if we
it could go to five years like if we feel like we can take a little bit more
feel like we can take a little bit more time to properly match
time to properly match the money to the person we will take
the money to the person we will take more time before
more time before but we total after five years it goes to
but we total after five years it goes to market share
market share so go go make sure you register now
so go go make sure you register now because if you don't do this in three
because if you don't do this in three years you lose all your money yeah
years you lose all your money yeah okay thanks jessica thanks so much
okay thanks jessica thanks so much everything
everything yeah michael hello
yeah michael hello hey ari hey lindsay thanks so much for
hey ari hey lindsay thanks so much for talking to us today
talking to us today of course
of course my problem i think we'll be quick i'm
my problem i think we'll be quick i'm going to turn
going to turn my screen on
my screen on cool
cool oh
oh um can you see
um can you see yes
yes the mlc so i have a song on here and um
the mlc so i have a song on here and um i registered it when i first heard about
i registered it when i first heard about the mlc
the mlc everything looks good except the
everything looks good except the recordings
recordings there are two recordings they have the
there are two recordings they have the same isrc same artist same duration same
same isrc same artist same duration same release date
release date and that kind of thing just like melts
and that kind of thing just like melts my brain so when i saw that i got very
my brain so when i saw that i got very confused um
confused um sure is there something i actually need
sure is there something i actually need to do about this or no
to do about this or no um no we are working this is part of an
um no we are working this is part of an ongoing cleanup exercise we are working
ongoing cleanup exercise we are working on cleaning up the recording data
on cleaning up the recording data another thing to know coming soon which
another thing to know coming soon which will actually be far more valuable than
will actually be far more valuable than what you're looking at here is we are
what you're looking at here is we are going to be posting the dsp recording
going to be posting the dsp recording data in the portal
data in the portal with your work so you'll actually be
with your work so you'll actually be able to see
able to see what the dsps are reporting to us just
what the dsps are reporting to us just right in your work registration so
right in your work registration so i wouldn't worry about that i know it's
i wouldn't worry about that i know it's messy um we're i promise we're working
messy um we're i promise we're working on cleaning up cool awesome thanks for
on cleaning up cool awesome thanks for the reassurance appreciate it of course
the reassurance appreciate it of course awesome um
awesome um great question from uh marciano here our
great question from uh marciano here our contract with sony atv has ended but
contract with sony atv has ended but they are still listed as administrators
they are still listed as administrators at the mlc what do they do
at the mlc what do they do yeah so this is pretty common when
yeah so this is pretty common when you've had a relationship with a
you've had a relationship with a publisher in the past and you it ended
publisher in the past and you it ended for whatever reason um publishers are
for whatever reason um publishers are historically slow to relinquish
historically slow to relinquish relinquish means that they
relinquish means that they release the rights back to you
release the rights back to you um so what i would do is i would well
um so what i would do is i would well one you can reach out to sony and say
one you can reach out to sony and say hey looks like you haven't relinquished
hey looks like you haven't relinquished these works yet you need to do that if
these works yet you need to do that if they don't respond in a timely manner or
they don't respond in a timely manner or they say no you're wrong then you can
they say no you're wrong then you can file or you can start what we call the
file or you can start what we call the disputes process
disputes process so you would reach out to our support
so you would reach out to our support team they can they'll facilitate the
team they can they'll facilitate the process and basically what we do is we
process and basically what we do is we would then reach out to sony and ask for
would then reach out to sony and ask for that relinquishment and say
that relinquishment and say so and so it was reported that
so and so it was reported that there is a
there is a transfer of ownership it may require us
transfer of ownership it may require us to get some uh what they'll likely do is
to get some uh what they'll likely do is the technicality doesn't matter um so i
the technicality doesn't matter um so i don't want to get too in the weeds about
don't want to get too in the weeds about it but we'll start that process for you
it but we'll start that process for you and then sony will say yep we're good
and then sony will say yep we're good the ownership should go back to whoever
the ownership should go back to whoever or they'll but typically we're able to
or they'll but typically we're able to sometimes get a relinquishment faster so
sometimes get a relinquishment faster so if you if you first try sony see if you
if you if you first try sony see if you can get it yourself if not reach out to
can get it yourself if not reach out to us we'll reach out to them and we'll get
us we'll reach out to them and we'll get it situated
it situated awesome awesome
awesome awesome um
um yeah jared is asking how does everyone
yeah jared is asking how does everyone stay accountable is there some kind of
stay accountable is there some kind of database that tracks all the times a
database that tracks all the times a work has been played that is independent
work has been played that is independent of the companies collecting and paying
of the companies collecting and paying out
out it's a really good question
it's a really good question accountability is is um
accountability is is um has been a challenge in this industry so
has been a challenge in this industry so one great thing about the mlc is that
one great thing about the mlc is that this is a public database
this is a public database so um as a self-administered songwriter
so um as a self-administered songwriter or just a songwriter in general
or just a songwriter in general we're giving you the visibility to check
we're giving you the visibility to check your data so what's there is what like
your data so what's there is what like the dsps like everybody's everybody can
the dsps like everybody's everybody can see it so before there wasn't that kind
see it so before there wasn't that kind of visibility so
of visibility so um this is probably the closest thing
um this is probably the closest thing what you're you're talking about um and
what you're you're talking about um and that's a great way to at least hold the
that's a great way to at least hold the parties that you're working with
parties that you're working with accountable and
accountable and being able to make sure that your
being able to make sure that your information is correct
information is correct awesome all right last question uh we've
awesome all right last question uh we've gone over quite a bit but uh we're gonna
gone over quite a bit but uh we're gonna cap it here james what's going on
cap it here james what's going on hey man uh can you hear me yes
hey man uh can you hear me yes dude super happy to be here thanks so
dude super happy to be here thanks so much for taking the time so i'm a
much for taking the time so i'm a songwriter i love writing music i found
songwriter i love writing music i found some of my works on the mlc
some of my works on the mlc and uh all of my works are listed it
and uh all of my works are listed it says i have four titles which is great
says i have four titles which is great um and i've been getting paid out every
um and i've been getting paid out every once in a while through tunecore
once in a while through tunecore and i just this last year registered
and i just this last year registered with
with songtrust
songtrust and i'm just noticing that nothing's
and i'm just noticing that nothing's really coming through
really coming through song trusts i have zero total earnings
song trusts i have zero total earnings um
um and i was just curious if um
and i was just curious if um what part of like the signal chain i
what part of like the signal chain i should check to like make sure that
should check to like make sure that something's being processed or should i
something's being processed or should i just bail entirely and go to the mlc
just bail entirely and go to the mlc um
um well i
well i so if you're wondering if you need like
so if you're wondering if you need like a
a i would ask song trust for like um
i would ask song trust for like um your par your statement or your activity
your par your statement or your activity and see there's a couple of reasons why
and see there's a couple of reasons why why you may not have been paid one might
why you may not have been paid one might be that it was below the threshold so we
be that it was below the threshold so we the streams haven't there haven't been
the streams haven't there haven't been enough streams that aren't enough
enough streams that aren't enough revenue to be paid out um but i would
revenue to be paid out um but i would ask song you said song trust i think um
ask song you said song trust i think um that um to ask them for a report of
that um to ask them for a report of your activity and to understand that
your activity and to understand that and another thing is is um
and another thing is is um the distributors so i'm assuming you're
the distributors so i'm assuming you're using tune core as your distributor not
using tune core as your distributor not june core publishing that's correct
june core publishing that's correct right
right um i believe so yes okay you can't
um i believe so yes okay you can't actually be with both tunecore
actually be with both tunecore publishing and songtrust because they
publishing and songtrust because they both would be doing the same thing for
both would be doing the same thing for the same songs
the same songs um so you have to if i'm assuming you
um so you have to if i'm assuming you use tunecore distribution and then you
use tunecore distribution and then you went to songtrust for the for publishing
went to songtrust for the for publishing admin that's okay
admin that's okay um but you also want to double check on
um but you also want to double check on that because if you register with
that because if you register with tunecore publishing
tunecore publishing and songtrust they're gonna come be
and songtrust they're gonna come be conflicting so then
conflicting so then tunecore will have registered all your
tunecore will have registered all your songs santra is going to go in there and
songs santra is going to go in there and they're going to be confused they're
they're going to be confused they're like wait a minute it says the
like wait a minute it says the tunecourse you can only have one
tunecourse you can only have one publisher
publisher for the song so that could also be it so
for the song so that could also be it so double check with tunecore that you've
double check with tunecore that you've only done distribution and not
only done distribution and not publishing if you've done publishing
publishing if you've done publishing then stick with tunecore and just go to
then stick with tunecore and just go to songchest and be like never mind please
songchest and be like never mind please delete my account um
delete my account um now
now the third option
the third option the reason that you're not getting any
the reason that you're not getting any money is that distributors pay a lot
money is that distributors pay a lot quicker typically because when
quicker typically because when the dsps pass money on to the
the dsps pass money on to the distributor the distributor will turn
distributor the distributor will turn that money around 30 60 days
that money around 30 60 days when the dsps pass money onto
when the dsps pass money onto uh the mlc
uh the mlc or to ascap
or to ascap it takes them a while to calculate in
it takes them a while to calculate in crunch and then they have to pay out
crunch and then they have to pay out song trust or
song trust or publishing or whomever your publisher is
publishing or whomever your publisher is and then they take a while to crunch and
and then they take a while to crunch and do that so it's way delayed so much
do that so it's way delayed so much longer delayed we're talking probably
longer delayed we're talking probably nine months to a year
nine months to a year from that stream versus with your
from that stream versus with your distributor it's gonna be like
distributor it's gonna be like two three months from the stream right
two three months from the stream right gotcha yeah because that that kind of
gotcha yeah because that that kind of makes sense because
makes sense because i'm getting stuff from tooncourt and it
i'm getting stuff from tooncourt and it comes in pretty quickly just sort of
comes in pretty quickly just sort of trickling in but
trickling in but yeah thanks man cool
yeah thanks man cool awesome um well lindsay thank you so
awesome um well lindsay thank you so much for for uh coming on and and um
much for for uh coming on and and um spending the the time with us and the
spending the the time with us and the extra time with us um thank you everyone
extra time with us um thank you everyone who tuned in live everyone who's
who tuned in live everyone who's watching the replay um
watching the replay um thank you for for coming and spending
thank you for for coming and spending this hour plus with us um it's very
this hour plus with us um it's very complicated topic um but uh i'm i'm
complicated topic um but uh i'm i'm happy that we could break this down for
happy that we could break this down for you um i'm gonna put a link in this
you um i'm gonna put a link in this follow-up email that you're gonna get
follow-up email that you're gonna get also in the description and also in the
also in the description and also in the chat right now um
chat right now um a link to an article i wrote on the mlc
a link to an article i wrote on the mlc breaking it all down explaining this a
breaking it all down explaining this a lot further and my conversation with
lot further and my conversation with chris the uh the head of the mlc right
chris the uh the head of the mlc right now um and i'm also going to put another
now um and i'm also going to put another article i wrote breaking down just all
article i wrote breaking down just all royalties kind of summing up our
royalties kind of summing up our conversation today everything we talked
conversation today everything we talked about um which discusses that all there
about um which discusses that all there so
so great all right thanks so much everyone
great all right thanks so much everyone have a wonderful day take care
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