The comment dates help, but not ideal. To make your decision easier, readers who sign up with the discount code PASSIVE-ST get 20% off the $100 setup fee. That combined with the fact that they have my credit card on file (I used it for the initial $100 registration fee), I fear if I cancel know, they'll charge my card. With Sentric, you keep £8. https://help.songtrust.com/knowledge, Question here? If that is the case, does HFA take their 11.5% for licensing fees and Songtrust takes their 15% as well? CHECK OUT MY MUSIC - https://SoundCloud.com/LoFiChill I made a video about making money with music streaming a while back. I don’t wanna go through the hassle and $$$ of setting up a LLC vanity company just to collect my publishing. Thanks again! Because your quality, creativity, and digital presence certainly exceeds most independents. Thank you so much for this article Brian!!! The way I read your description is that your payments are indeed behind thanks to HFA, and your cancellation prompted Songtrust to turn the screws on them a bit. If you’re already receiving both writer and publisher royalties from your PRO, and have less than 150K streams, the decision is more difficult. The amount of time it would take to do that would be a full time job which is why publishing administrators exist. I used the discount code … I was already planning to sign up so this worked great for me. Thanks for your time and look forward to your response. One thing I am still unsure about is how to collect the mechanical royalties from YouTube. This can be done by Selecting “Payment Information” from the “Profile” section on the left hand side of your ASCAP account. Great article. When I called they brushed me off by saying I should “First pay the publishing fees” When I explained I was the publisher & owner of BMI affiliated Original Sound Music. Just to clarify, it doesn’t look like they collect any more than other distribution services like DistroKid. I suppose it would depend on what kind of publishing deal you got, but assuming they didn’t want to take over admin, and solely based on my own experience, yes, Songtrust would then be listed as admin publisher. Thinking I probably won’t register with Songtrust since I’m already on ASCAP as both a writer and publisher. CD Baby has always been my recommendation, and the bulk of my discography is with them. Thankyou Brian for shedding some light on the “publisher” thing on ASCAP. Wow, that doesn’t sound like them at all! Distrokid is a distributor and Songtrust is a publishing admin, but both offer YouTube monetization. Remember TAXI, I think they helped a lot of people but I could never afford them. ; Businesses Get complete song performance insights and new ways to collect revenue. If you have any kind of substantial streams, it quickly becomes more cost-effective to use tunecore. Hi Brian, The TAXI and Songhunters submission fees are more of a disincentive than anything, to stop people from sending in anything and everything. If you’re not with a PRO already, Songtrust will help you get set up. Artist definitely come out on top. I am now signed up with Songtrust. Also, just to confirm, only HFA or Songtrust can serve as a PA or can someone have both, one serving for North America and the other(s) for the rest of the world? Hi Ken, I think the biggest problem with soundtrust here is this venue we are speaking in. I hope this is accurate, and that Brian or someone will confirm or clarify if not. My guess is you don’t have your own publishing company, so it just shows Songtrust. I tried out DistroKid recently, thinking $20 per year was a great value. I've contacted CS, so far nothing.I feel completely screwed! Hello Brian good Article. Why Songtrust; Who Uses Songtrust. We will only 102 albums are’international standard and she’ll. I think unless you go out of your way to contact them they don’t care, they never sent me anything or have followed even one time. Is that mechanical royalty money you also retrieve? Just wanted to say thanks for the Songtrust code (remember to use the capitals). Songtrust and Adrev are in my mind as there’s no law in my country that protects you against copyrights infringement. I’m not sure what you’re expecting of them. I mean across all platforms, all-time. They take 5% AND have partnered with Loudr so that you’re able to release covers. It WAS! This doesn’t quite make sense. I’ll hit up CJ at Songtrust and see if he has anything to add. Fortunately, Songtrust more than made up for it by collecting an additional $322 for me that I wouldn’t have otherwise received: What about those missing radio royalties from 2000? Thanks! I’ve written about Audiam and AdRev before, and decided it wasn’t worth bothering. Should you also join Songtrust? Elligibility. Thank you for the info, and I signed up here as well. About Songtrust Songtrust is the world’s largest technology solution for global music royalty collection and publishing administration, enabling 170,000+ songwriters and more than 20,000 publishers to collect their publishing royalties worldwide for over 1,500,000 copyrights. I saw the discount, and that made taking this decision much easier Thanks for that! None of these numbers are very big for me, and cover the peace of mind and simplicity I’ve had with DistroKid. that’s a little misleading. I am not a musican – just a writer. If your split is already registered at your PRO then you should be fine to register your share with Songtrust so we can begin collecting your global performance and mechanical royalties. All writers have to be affiliated in order to receive their writer's share. It has been SO easy to use and I really like the ‘pay once’ model – even though it’s a bit more up-front. Is there something i have to do first? Hi Brian, I’ve been with SongTrust for around 2 years, they’ve never once reached out to me about my music, I have thousands of plays through spotify and pandora and have once song with over 170k on youtube. You need a publishing administrator like Songtrust to collect it. Launched in 1914, ASCAP is … Appreciate the thoughtful analysis. Brian Hazard is a recording artist with over twenty years of experience promoting eleven Color Theory albums, and head mastering engineer and owner of Resonance Mastering in Huntington Beach, California. I think I want to join Songtrust for publishing admin. they would be kind of like my internet police preventing other youtube/soundcloud etc. I wouldn’t expect much either way, at least based on the $24K streams, which probably netted you less than $100 from your distributor. As a publishing administrator, we're authorized to register your works and collect money on your behalf - you still own and control 100% of your copyright. All we had at the time was a six track demo EP though, which they transferred over from CD Baby fairly easily. My understanding is that you need publishing administration to collect mechanical royalties on international Spotify streams. Can I Join if I Already Have a Publishing Deal? If you’ve already got songs registered with your PRO, they’ll pull them into their system for free. I am confused by some of the items addressed in the comments though. When is the right time to join SongTrust to collect on my publishing royalties? My pleasure! After I joined Songtrust I started getting performance royalties and mechanical royalties from Spotify and Youtube. Fantastic! ; Creator Reps Managers and lawyers connect with the most extensive, accessible publishing network in the industry. I joined Songtrust.. After reading on how much I paid the 100$’s and thought the 15% for there take was o.k. What's the Difference Between Songtrust and Audiam? When you register your titles with ASCAP the money is split with 50% to the writer and 50% to the publisher so you have to register with ASCAP as a writer and a publisher. This is because it typically takes up to 12 months for Songtrust to register your songs globally...". But before I fill in all my information and attach my catalog …. I’m based in the UK and use PRS for collecting performance royalties and distribute my music with Distrokid. They are actually one of three mechanical licensing agencies in the US, alongside Music Reports (MRI) and MediaNet. Now it’s been 3 years and I have not received one payment that represents a “sale”. That’s the lion’s share of the royalties due. Best, A client of mine had a terrible experience, and when I read stuff like “in stores 10-20x faster than any other distributor, at a fraction of the price” it’s hard to take them seriously. Thanks! It’s important to note that if you entered into a ‘Work For Hire’ agreement where you’re paid an upfront fee for your contribution to a song, you may have given up any ownership stake on the song and would not be entitled to royalties. Thanks for all the info. Thanks for sharing your experience with DistroKid. Good to know Kayda! TR. Brilliant but as I am in Australia I have no idea whether this is a good idea for me or not. CD Baby Pro looks promising but…given that a copyright lasts the life of the composer, plus 70 years, it seems antiquated for an Account Holder to have to provide co-writers with writer splits and sales updates for a lifetime. I’ve used Tunecore and CD Baby in the past and moved over to Distrokid a year ago as I’m realising singles every month and an album once a year – I am starting to get a litte frustrated as the more collaborations you add, the more it costs. Finally I decided to cancel my membership and it was only when they queried my reasons for quitting that they owned up to the following; “HFA (Harry Fox Agency) is currently about 6 months behind on song registrations (an issue that has affected many songwriters) I found your song registered at HFA already, which is great, however, they do not automatically license the works as well once they are registered there. So it’s not quite as simple for Brit songwriters to compare. I think how far they can go back depends on the PRO, but 6 months is almost certainly safe. If you’re sure you’re going to keep releasing music, you might as well go ahead and join! If so, it’s much better to sign directly with Songtrust…, I’m just wondering as I want to distribute my music via CD Baby and sign with their publishing service, but I’m not sure if they take an additional cut after Songtrust take theirs. Can you explain the difference between Songtrust, Audiam, AdRev, and Rumblefish? . How do you know they’re lyrics and not poems? Though lately I’ve been testing out LANDR for distribution and am happy with them as well! I’ve been with them since the very beginning (Derek actually handled CD sales on my site pre-CD Baby) and they’ve generally been great. Tunecore spotify playlist : tunecore vs songtrust. This would also give you a little more autonomy in the industry. And, who has the time to register with every PRO in every country and keep track of anything that's going on there? And the song they are singing isn’t remotely like mine. So, in early 2012, I contacted Songtrust and said I’d like to write an article about their service. If you would like to create a Songtrust account please use an alternate email address.”. I actually work at AVL Digital (CD Baby’s parent company) and after hearing horror stories from Tunecore customers and what I’ve learned about Distrokid from this thread, I can say I’m happy with how we handle our VIPs. I am a BMI affiliate and I've entered my IPI correctly but its still not working. I say complex because there seem to be many hands now dipping into the music of the independent artist. that is not what I understand to be the case and that is why they promote their CD Baby Pro service. CD Baby Pro partners with Songtrust. Are your songs showing up as registered in the dashboard? Nothing to dispute there! Hi Brian, Etch-A-Sketch ; Businesses Get complete song performance insights and new ways to collect revenue. Most of the people in this forum write music specifically for TV and Film where there is no mechanical royalties. It doesn’t feel secure in mine either. 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