April 28, 2003
Music Licensing
It's 12:20 AM, 4/28/03, and I'm about to actually do something I've put off for about ten years. I'm signing up for a music licensing organization.There are two in the states, BMI and ASCAP. I always have been (the application is printing right now) drawn towards BMI just because it seemed a bit more internet-friendly, but I never felt quite right about it.
Sometime over the years I started asking for (the printer is out of paper, restocking... done) comparisons between BMI and ASCAP just because I feel like I have to do some comparison shopping, and I never got any at all. They all say they're about the same. I kept putting it off.
At one point I learned a lesson from a manager at work about how one lesson he learned about being a good manager was to make arbitrary choices when you felt frozen by equal alternatives. At some point you just have to take action.
I did find one comparison online finally, tonight. It sounds like it's from someone ASCAP-centric but dammit, it's enough for me. Sometimes you only need a little push, you know? I think the clincher is that the board of directors is writers and publishers elected by members, while BMI is broadcast industry executives. Good enough for me.
I don't know what these licensing organizations mean in terms of reconciling them with releasing works under Creative Commons licenses, but I'll research that AFTER I apply.
(It's finished printing, I'm going to the other room to study it, fill it out, and stuff it in an envelope.) ... (Shoot, I marked up one copy that I didn't realize I had to mail... reprinting a couple of pages.)
(I'm waiting for it to print.) One thing that's kind of hard is that it asked me for one piece that was commercially recorded or performed. I have a couple, but it asks for the publishing company of the cd, and the cd we made didn't actually have a publishing company. So I had to remember the date of performance and venue of an ASCAP-licensed venue, and it mentioned universities in parenthesis.... so I picked the date of a concert that my old group put on where one of my compositions was debuted. I hope that counts. (It's finished printing, so off I go...)
Okay, it's 1:06, materials are put away, application is in the mailbox. I applied as a writer. Later I will also apply as a publisher (after I think of a good name for a publication company), but this was the big one. I had to fill out an application, membership agreement, and tax form. All done.