How To Register Your Songs with a PRO
What is a PRO?
A Performing Rights Organization is a group that gathers royalties for songwriters and publishers, establishing a connection between those who hold the copyright to compositions and the users of music (which can be different!), including radio stations, streaming services, and local businesses playing music in their stores. In technical terms, PROs are a specific category within the larger domain of collective management organizations (CMOs), focusing on the compensation owed for the public airing of musical works. Some US PROs you may have heard of are ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, and globally are SOCAN, APRA AMCOS, and SACEM.
Broadly, these organizations gather royalties for songwriters related to the public presentation of their music in commercial settings. Whether a specific entity handles mechanical royalty collection, such as the HFA in the US, determines if your local PRO manages the mechanical royalties produced when the copyrighted composition is reproduced and distributed. Take a deep dive into PROs here.
What does this mean for me?
As a songwriter or publisher, you must be registered with a PRO to receive royalties for your songs played in public places. These royalties go uncollected without proper registration with these entities.
How do I join a PRO?
Choose a PRO. Choosing a PRO is primarily based on your location. If you are Canadian, you will join SOCAN. If you are American, you can enter either ASCAP or BMI. Unofficially, ASCAP has better customer service, but you didn’t hear it from me! SESAC is included in Section 101 of US Copyright Law as a recognized PRO but requires an invitation to join.
Please note: a) once you join a PRO, you cannot leave it, and b) you cannot belong to more than one PRO.Sign up! The signup is usually as standard as signing up for anything - you can watch videos here on registering for ASCAP, and BMI. SOCAN and other PROs have a similar process. As an independent artist without an active affiliation with a publishing company, you should join as both a writer and a publisher. Sometimes, these are separate processes.
You need to register as a publisher to receive publishing royalties (or “publisher’s share”), as they are different than songwriting royalties (or “writer’s share”).
Please note:The name of your publishing company is permanent and cannot be changed post-submission.
While songwriter memberships are free, BMI requires a fee for publishers to register.
You’ve joined a PRO - Congratulations! Now What?
Login
Go to the Login Dashboard of your PRO - There should be an option titled “Works Registration” or something similar.
Add a New Work
Once you arrive at the Works Registration page, click “Add New Work.”
You must “add a new work.” If you are the writer, you will add yourself as the writer in this section. You can add additional writers later on. You also will choose “All Other Genres” instead of “Classical.”
Works Information
In this section, you will add your song’s Title, the run time (if applicable), the work content, language, and alternative titles.
If you wrote both music and lyrics for your song, you will choose “Music and Lyrics.” If you wrote just lyrics, you will select “Lyrics.” If you only wrote music, you will choose “Music.”
Adding alternative titles may be helpful if your song has other common titles.
Example: Cardi B's smash hit "Bodak Yellow" is also referred to as "Money Moves" and is registered with her PRO to reflect this.
Other Works
If your song does not pull from other works (no samples, medleys, translations from another language, or drawing from a Public Domain work), you will select "no" for both answers in this section.
Publishers
In this section, you will indicate if there are any publishers of your work. If you have registered a publishing company within your PRO, you would select “yes.” You can add multiple publishers/writers further down in the registration process.
Please note: If you have not registered a publishing company within your PRO, you would select "no." I strongly suggest registering your own publishing company within the PRO if you do not have a current affiliation with a publishing company.
Adding Writers
This is the section in which you will add your writers. If you are the only writer, you can just select yourself and move to the next section. You must manually insert each writer's information if there is more than one writer. There is an "add new writer" selection if the writer you need is not in your dropdown menu. Please note: These options can be continually edited/deleted throughout registration.
Then, you will add your “role” in the song’s creation / the roles of other writers (if registering more than one writer per song). If you only wrote music, select “music.” If you only wrote lyrics, select “lyrics.” If you wrote both music and lyrics, select “music and lyrics.”
You will now enter the Writer’s Share per each songwriter.
If you are a writer and you have a publishing company, and you are the sole writer:
For BMI, you will put 100%.
For ASCAP/any other PRO, you will put 50%.
If you are a writer and you do not have a publishing company, and you are the sole writer:
For BMI, you will put 200%.
For ASCAP/any other PRO, you will put 100%.
If there are multiple writers, each with their own publishing company.
PRO TIP: Make sure you agree formally with all writers on distributing writers' and publishers' shares. The registration should reflect the terms of the agreement.
Please note: For BMI, the song shares must add up to 200% (100% to split between writers, 100% split between publishers). For ASCAP/any other PRO, the song shares must add up to 100% (50% to split between writers, 50% split between publishers).
Artists/Recordings
In this section, you will indicate if there are any artists or recordings of this work.
If there are artists (whether it is you or someone else), select "yes." You will add it in the following section. If not, select "no."
If finished recordings of this song exist, select "yes." If not, select "no."
Unless an organization specifically contacted you to create this work, you will select "no" for "Was this work created for Film, TV, Theater, or Music Library?"
Add yourself to the "artists" section if you are the recording artist! You can add any additional artists as you go.
The “Recordings” section is only for published works or works with set release dates from a digital distributor. You select from the dropdown menu whether this song was released on an Album, EP, or as a Single.
Then add the Title (if from an Album or EP, add the title of that. If from a single, just the title of the song) and the Release Date.
Select NO if this song was released independently (without a record label). Do not add your LLC or Sole Proprietor name here.
Final Steps
Once all of these steps to the registration are complete, you will select the last box indicating that you have registered this song with the most accurate knowledge you have.
Then, you’re done! Woo hoo! It may take 6-8 weeks for your registration to be confirmed.
Are you releasing new music and registering with a PRO for the first time? Hit the Contact button above for some extra help!
