(405) THEN THERE'S THE BUSINESS OF SONG WRITING

ASCAP (THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF COMPOSERS, AUTHORS AND PUBLISHERS)
BROADCAST MUSIC (BMI)
NASHVILLE SONGWRITERS FOUNDATION
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MUSIC EDUCATION : MUSIC COPYRIGHT
PERFORMING ARTS SOCIETY for MUSIC (UK)
RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA
SOCAN CANADA SONGWRITERS REGISTRY

These are links to the left side of the blog on the links panel.

Let's say you've written a song tonight! Is it time to register it with ASCAP, BMI, or another organization, say in the United Kingdom or Canada?

That depends. Copyright law is that an Intellectual Property is copyrighted the moment it is written. Maybe you wrote the song alone, maybe there was a group of musicians and singers working together, maybe you have a verbal agreement with your friends, maybe you don't, about who gets credited.

Let's stick with the easy situation, you and only you have written the lyrics and the melody. No one else can take credit for the song. No one else has even heard the song!

Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself, for a YouTube video to promote it , expose the song potentially to the Entire World, or at least show your friends at the next party you go to? Do you plan to sing it and perform it yourself at the next Open Mic, or at a club in Hollywood where you like to go?

Let's stick with the easy situation.
If you're on YouTube or at a party or a club I'd announce to the world that I am the singer-songwriter of the song.

You still really don't have to belong to any society to tabulate any money you might make on the song, as the performer, as the singer-songwriter, or as a publisher of the song, though there is always the chance you might be blown away to hear your song or a part of it on the radio, some other singer or band cashing in. Blown away that someone you trusted is profiting off you. IT HAPPENS!

You can, though the Copyright Office of the United States will tell you this is no official way to prove copyright, send your Intellectual Properties to yourself in the mail. They call that the POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT because it costs a lot less than the Copyright Office.

If you do the POOR MAN's COPYRIGHT, you can send one or a hundred, printed, on a CD or stick full of songs to yourself, just make sure that there is a OFFICIAL POST MARK from the post office on the envelope and then YOU DO NOT OPEN IT! (When it gets to court to hand the envelope to the judge and let him be the one who opens it.)

The point I want to make here, is that if you're serious about making money as a song-writer, there is a lot of business after writing that song!

If you're just starting out (and that doesn't mean that the first song you wrote isn't a hit) you may wait a while to sign up with an ASCAP or a BMI, but if your friend's band starts playing your song at the Whisky, I'd get that going ASAP! If your friend's band gets signed and the song appears on their first album, there is no way you're not going to!

(172) RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA (RIAA)

Click on the title above to get to the official web site of RECORDING INDUSTRY OF AMERICA, a trade group that, like ASCAP andBMI, is involved in supporting and protecting the intellectual properties of music makers in the United States. One of the ways they do that is by certifying a record as certifies Gold®, Platinum®, or Multi-Platinum™. That means they watch sales. This site has lists of music that has recently gone Gold or Platinum as well as information for parents, educators, and young people, about Music and the Internet.

These days there is lots of controversy about the Fair Use of sound clips (usually a few bars attached to an educational site is fine, like RCS Discography does) and downloads of music and videos. YouTube, the site we've been leaning heavily on for the videos we attached to our commentary is one of the most successful and we are truly grateful to the contributors who have allowed us to do this so we can allow our readers to actually see and hear performances in historical context. Because of these videos we have also been able to show you the differences between black and white versus color telecasts.

Some artists object to downloads of music for free, some do not, seeing the interest in their music to be a positive thing, part of their celebrity, and sound sampling this way to only lead to more sales. At the same time many artists (including me) have had intellectual properties deliberately stolen and used without benefit of approval or seeing a dime on sales, and seen their work pirated through various methods. Let me tell you it doesn't just hurt in the wallet.

On this blog we attempt to follow the guidelines for Fair Use in the United States of America as understood legally at this time. (And as we post on our own Rights information, anyone who objects to us linking to their site, please get in touch with us, and we will respectfully take it down.)

At the same time, several of my friends mentioned on this blog have thanked me and feel excited to be remembered and linked to. This blog has been an opportunity for a number of my old friends and me to be reunited after taking separate paths years ago. I feel so lucky when that happens.