Create, play… protect! Protecting your creations with PROs
We live in a world where the copying of music is rife and, according to many industry experts, it is a situation that is bound to get worse in the upcoming years. As we see the development of algorithms that are capable of picking up copyright breaches it is crucial we learn to protect our musical creations now. When (not if!) you finally blow up and hit the big time everything will move so fast you will want to ensure that your house in order so that it cannot be robbed!
Whilst us indies are often well aware of setting up a distributor, such as Distrokid or CD Baby, to collect royalties on our behalf for our tracks played on online streaming services, it seems we are far less aware of the need to protect our creations against the use of our songs on radio, television, in live venues and other live, commercial settings. This is where a Performance Rights Organisation, or “PRO”, must be used and it is something you should absolute be aware of.
PROs exist to make sure you get your share of royalties when the music you have created is played commercially or publicly. They use things like set lists from venues, broadcast sheets or logs from radio stations, cue sheets from TV stations to understand where your music has been played and collect the royalties on your behalf. You will usually pay a one-off fee for membership of these PROs and they may take a small cut of the royalties they collect for you. BUT, it is generally the case that most PROs can only collect your royalties in the country where that PRO is located… which means…
You may need to sign-up to multiple PROs to ensure your royalties from around the world are collected. Whilst there are arrangements in place for the global cooperation of PROs, the reality is they often don’t really work. So, you will need to consider signing up to as many PROs around the world or where ever you think your music may be played. Michael Jackson, for example, was famously signed to every PRO there is. At the very least, for artists creating in English you may want to consider the US, Australia, the UK and an EU organisation. Here’s a small list of some of these:
in the US, ASCAP, BMI or SESAC;
in the UK, PRS for Music;
in the EU, try Germany’s GEMA or SACEM in France, which, with their affiliation with ICE, should cover you across Europe;
in Australia, APRA.
So if you are serious about your ambitions in music then you should be serious about protecting your rights when those ambitions materialise! As always if we can help just drop us a line!