We all have questions, and this week, WordPlay T. Jay is answering a question on YouTube that could relate to many artists when it comes to collecting royalties.
The question, posed by John Silvers, is: “Should I be using both BMI and then Tunecore, as well? Can you really even do that? I’ve heard from some that BMI collect royalties for you in certain areas and that Tunecore picks up the royalties BMI may have missed?”
While that explanation of “missed” royalties isn’t entirely accurate, the short answer to Silvers’ question is, yes, you can (and probably should) use both!
Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) are performing rights organizations artists must register with to collect any royalties for their works.
Royalties are collected in two parts, first for the writing (lyrics and composition) and second for the publishing. Most artists are not set up to collect both parts of the royalties because it requires having two accounts with BMI or ASCAP — a writer’s account with your given name and a publisher’s account either with your given name or your publishing company’s name (T. Jay’s is On The Map Entertainment).
With ASCAP, both accounts are $50 each, and with BMI, the writer account is free and the publisher account is $150 to $250.
To make sure to collect all royalties in this manner, an artist has to input all works in the publisher account, which can be more costly or time-consuming. This is where a publishing administrator like Tunecore comes in.
Publishing administrators make sure the publishing royalties are collected by doing that entry work for artists, usually taking a 10% to 15% fee for the amount of work done. Publishing administrators also register songs with U.S., European and other worldwide societies to maximize royalties, and they register all songs for mechanical royalties. Artists can register with Harry Fox Agency to collect mechanical royalties, but again, they have to individually input each work.
Basically, publishing administrators are a great tool for helping artists do work they are not able to do because of time or money, or work they’d rather leave to others.
“Sometimes in music, it’s beneficial to have someone else do that work so you can focus on what’s important — creating content,” T. Jay said. “You can do it all on your own, but it’s a lot of work.”
For more about this topic or related information, check out the video below, and leave a question in the YouTube comments for possible future use in a video!