# Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here...

- Site: Analog Industries
- Author: Chris Randall
- Date: 2010-08-04
- URL: https://analogindustries.com/2010/08/abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter-here/

[![Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here...](https://analogindustries.com/images/ext/farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4861016502_86a4d8e582.jpg)](http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisrandall/4861016502/)

A brief public service announcement: in going over the "opportunities" on the YouLicense.com site, I just came across this little tidbit from [Pureplay Music](http://www.pureplaymusic.com/):

_  
WE ARE CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ARTISTS THAT ARE NOT REGISTERED WITH ANY COLLECTION AGENCIES, I.E. ASCAP, PRS, PPL ETC. ALL GENRES CONSIDERED. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR A RANGE OF NEW INSTORE MUSIC CHANNELS.  
_

Now, if you don't have long experience licensing music to various sources, that "not registered" phrase is something to _really_ watch out for. For those that might not know, I'll try to explain this as simply as I can:

When a licensing house wants unregistered music, it's **not** because they're going to get some "better deal" where the licensee doesn't have to pay performance royalties. EVERYBODY PAYS. All stores in America pay. All radio stations. All nightclubs. All TV networks. Virtually anywhere that commerce and music intermingle, that business pays royalties to BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC. That money is already there. Your job is to get your share of it.

What this licensing house wants to do is register your music as if _they_ wrote it. It's a common scam at the low end of this business, and the sync fee isn't where the money is; it's in this fact. There are two halves to performance royalties: the publisher half and the writer half. If you're your own publisher (like me) you get both halves, and thus receive at least one check from ASCAP/BMI/SESAC a month.

There is _no_ earthly reason to give up this money, as it's just sitting there waiting for people to claim it. If you wrote music that is worth getting licensed, and you take some $50 one-time payout for it, rest assured that the entity that licensed it registered it with whichever service their publishing company is a member of, and are busily collecting both sides on your behalf.

So please, please, please take the time to learn about how licensing and its attendant royalties and buyouts work. This is a fairly consistent and easy way to make money as a musician and what Pureplay Music is doing is the equivalent of 3 Card Monty. You can't win with their method. Pureplay can take their "empowering artists" catchphrase and ram it right the fuck up their own anus.

## Comments (10)

**Wade Alin** (2010-08-05):

Holy shit.

**Chris Randall** (2010-08-05):

Yeah, you're pretty much fucked, Wade. ;-)

-CR

**inteliko** (2010-08-05):

Pimpin aint eaz-e !

**aKido** (2010-08-05):

Wow, didn't know ASCAP paid monthly. SOCAN in Canada is a 4 times a year deal... And the money from ASCAP to SOCAN takes twice as long to get here...

_aKido

**Chris Randall** (2010-08-05):

It only pays monthly if you're both writer and publisher, and if you have non-US shit to collect. Four months are foreign (both writer and publisher come on the same day) and the other 8 alternate writer and publisher.

-CR

**Bounte** (2010-08-05):

I noticed iStock (Getty) is doing audio now, and even bringing some of their Pump Audio tracks in, but they won't let any ASCAP members (including Pump Audio members) post any royalty-free audio clips. Is this good or bad? I have a boat-load of audio clips that could be adapted for iStock, that I would never be able to find a royalty outlet for.

**Chris Randall** (2010-08-05):

That's a little more above-board; the way iStock works, the shit can't be encumbered in any way, as it essentially becomes the intellectual property of the buyer, to do with as he sees fit.

If your track/clip/whatever is registered with ASCAP, it is de facto encumbered, and thus can't be part of that. The normal method here would be to make shit specifically for that site that you're willing to give up any and all claims to, in my opinion.

-CR

**Mad Al** (2010-08-05):

But just what is involved in becoming your own publisher and thus getting both halves of the fee?

**D' MacKinnon** (2010-08-05):

Mad Al,
Just paperwork and forming a company. If you are making enough money via royalties to cover the cost of tax prep and running a company then go for it.

D'

**Chris Randall** (2010-08-05):

Many states (mostly "red" ones; blue states trend nanny, of course) don't even require paperwork. Arizona is one such. You can just basically say "I'm DBA CompanyX" and as long as you pay your taxes, that's that.

In any event, all you need is a DBA. You then join ASCAP/BMI/WHATEVER as a publisher under that DBA. You'll also need a checking account in that DBA's name that can receive the royalties, although you can probably get away without this. My ASCAP publishing checks come to "Sister Machine Gun, Ltd. c/o Chris Randall" which I could probably cash in my normal checking account. Well, I have direct deposit, but you get the idea.

The one nice aspect of this is that you only have to register the songs once, at least in ASCAP. I don't have any experience with the BMI or SESAC methods, but I assume they're similar. I register all my songs via my publisher account. The publisher membership is a little more expensive, dues-wise, than the normal membership, fwiw.

-CR