Originally Posted By: Guitarhacker
Originally Posted By: 90 dB
"Ego"? Just good business practice.

If you're pitching to publishers, producers or music directors, you had better have a CR on the material. If you're writing just to post on Soundcloud, don't bother.


Personally, I'll rely on the professionals to determine if the material is "commercially viable" or not. grin



Yeah... Ego. Seriously, if the songs are not professional at their basic core..... writing, lyrics, composition, structure.... it's ego. But hey... we all fell into that mindset once upon a time. We all thought those first songs where the next super smash #1 hit by the artist of the day..... ahhh to dream.... but the reality was far different. That's why I have LOC copyrights on ALL my early songs. Recent songs.... nope. Ain't happening, not LOC.... read on to see why.


I do pitch to publishers and libraries quite often when I write new material. I have quite a number of my tunes in those libraries and publishing houses. Dealing with reputable music industry professionals is the best way to go. I send material out all the time and it gets signed and it's NOT LOC copyrighted. It's not a problem. No one has ever sent my music back because it wasn't LOC copyrighted. I has been sent back for a myriad of other reasons.... too traditional, too country, too slow, too fast, too this, too that... but never for too un-protected. Never had that excuse used yet.

With the number of musical cues I write.... short things that are 5 seconds and 15 seconds long for TV.... copyrighting would be a full time job for me.

I've even had one major library president tell me to "please don't file a copyright form for your songs in the future".... the reason being is that THEY will do the copyright since the song is no longer my property when I sign it to them. If I have copyrighted it, they have to be sure the Form PA registration number of the original song matches exactly in the extra section on the form they need to fill out. A typo causes problems.

Other publishers and libraries that I currently work with have echoed his sentiments and ask me not to register the songs with BMI since THEY will also have their staff handle that. I looked at my BMI account several months back and sure enough.... that library had listed every single cue I sent them and it was all there in my BMI catalog.

If you're not dealing with reputable publishers and libraries I can understand your reluctance to send out uncopyrighted material. However, when you record the song to a tangible medium, it is automatically copyrighted by law.

Essentially, it's not something you need to worry about as a writer unless you are self publishing the material. If you are letting another company represent you..... they will handle all the paperwork and cover all the costs involved for LOC.





Whatever, Sparky. grin




Last edited by 90 dB; 09/09/14 12:10 PM. Reason: Mercy
Dyslectics Untie!


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