Post by Johnkenn on Jan 29, 2015 12:31:13 GMT -6
Holy shit. No wonder no one gets paid for this stuff. It's a nightmare. I just produced a record on a small artist for a tiny independent label in NY. Basically, it's someone that wants to do it right and make sure they have all the i's dotted and t's crossed. She started asking me about getting mechanical licenses for the 11 songs on the record. I had never really dealt with that on my end - always been with larger publishers that handled all the admin. And really - like most of us - writing the damn songs and getting them cut once by a major artist is hard enough...
On this record, the artist cut several songs of mine that were written when I was at bigger publishers - so, no biggie, they log onto Harry Fox or Songfile, look up the song - boom - there it is...and they buy a mechanical license right there. But now we've run into some issues. A few of the songs were written when I was at small publishers. Apparently, those songs haven't been registered with Harry Fox or songfile - or for that matter - my PRO (BMI). So - here's one of the down-sides of signing with a small company - sometimes, they don't know what they're doing. I think it has been the practice of some small companies to not worry about registering works with the PRO's until it gets cut. (The bigger companies would register them once a month or so). So my question is this: if they're not registered, then how does anyone establish date of creation - and the myriad of other problems that I'm too lazy to list?
The artist also cut two songs that included two writers that don't have publishing deals. They have set up a pub company with the PRO, but they don't have deals. Well, how in the hell do they issue a mechanical license? Is there a boiler-plate form out there? They can't register with Harry Fox because Harry Fox requires you to have had a major US cut in the last 12 months to be an affiliate. I'm telling you, this is a nightmare...and one of the reasons songwriters continue to get the shaft. I guess if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.
On this record, the artist cut several songs of mine that were written when I was at bigger publishers - so, no biggie, they log onto Harry Fox or Songfile, look up the song - boom - there it is...and they buy a mechanical license right there. But now we've run into some issues. A few of the songs were written when I was at small publishers. Apparently, those songs haven't been registered with Harry Fox or songfile - or for that matter - my PRO (BMI). So - here's one of the down-sides of signing with a small company - sometimes, they don't know what they're doing. I think it has been the practice of some small companies to not worry about registering works with the PRO's until it gets cut. (The bigger companies would register them once a month or so). So my question is this: if they're not registered, then how does anyone establish date of creation - and the myriad of other problems that I'm too lazy to list?
The artist also cut two songs that included two writers that don't have publishing deals. They have set up a pub company with the PRO, but they don't have deals. Well, how in the hell do they issue a mechanical license? Is there a boiler-plate form out there? They can't register with Harry Fox because Harry Fox requires you to have had a major US cut in the last 12 months to be an affiliate. I'm telling you, this is a nightmare...and one of the reasons songwriters continue to get the shaft. I guess if you want something done, you have to do it yourself.
