# Distributors requiring full legal names



## amysteriouskeyboard (Aug 19, 2021)

This may seem like an odd thing to discuss, but it's something I'm mildly concerned about.
I'm planning on distributing some music soon and I've noticed that pretty much all distributors will only allow users to input one middle name in the 'songwriter' section, even though the distributors clearly state they want a songwriter's 'full legal name' to be registered with songs. Like many other British and European people, I have two middle names and so therefore unless I put a space between my names in the middle name section (which I suspect may cause some formatting problems), there's no way I can put my full legal name in this section. 
To the extent of my knowledge, putting a songwriter name in correctly is important so that all royalties can be collected properly. I think with PRS (the PRO I'm going to register with) they register all songwriters with their full legal name, but I can also create a pseudonym that only uses one of my middle names or just doesn't use a middle name at all and register my works against that in case this is ever an issue (I have a pretty uncommon first and last name so I seriously doubt my royalties would ever get mixed up with someone else's).

If the incentive to get people to put their full legal names in the songwriter information on distributors is solely to ensure royalties go to the correct people, creating a pseudonym in this way wouldn't be an issue for me. However I just wanted to check, just in case, is there any legitimate legal reason that I should absolutely put my full legal name with both of my middle names in songwriter information when distributing my music outside of royalty collection? Would it cause any copyright-related issues for example or do streaming services and stores actively have some sort of term that requires people to use their full legal name? I've tried emailing CDBaby (probably the best distributor for what I want that I've come across) about this but their customer service responded poorly and didn't answer my question at all unfortunately, so I was wondering whether anyone would have any idea about this.


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## Duncan Krummel (Aug 19, 2021)

Curious about this as well. I'm American, but I have two middle names. I've always opted to simply use the first when there's no room for a second, and I've not had any issues with any businesses or legal bodies as a result, but mine is certainly not indicative of all cases.

For what it's worth, I've not had an issue with Distrokid, but there I left the middle name slot empty. Still, I _have_ received royalties.


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## amysteriouskeyboard (Aug 20, 2021)

Duncan Krummel said:


> Curious about this as well. I'm American, but I have two middle names. I've always opted to simply use the first when there's no room for a second, and I've not had any issues with any businesses or legal bodies as a result, but mine is certainly not indicative of all cases.
> 
> For what it's worth, I've not had an issue with Distrokid, but there I left the middle name slot empty. Still, I _have_ received royalties.


Have you registered to you PRO with both of your middle names or just one? Curious to know whether that it would ever cause problems in royalty collection if I registered with both of mine (which PRS requires) and didn't use a pseudonym. From looking at BMI and ASCAP I think they only get their songwriters to put one middle name in.
Just out of curiosity - what is Distrokid like for you? I've heard mixed opinions about it.


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## Duncan Krummel (Aug 20, 2021)

amysteriouskeyboard said:


> Have you registered to you PRO with both of your middle names or just one? Curious to know whether that it would ever cause problems in royalty collection if I registered with both of mine (which PRS requires) and didn't use a pseudonym. From looking at BMI and ASCAP I think they only get their songwriters to put one middle name in.
> Just out of curiosity - what is Distrokid like for you? I've heard mixed opinions about it.


Just checked ASCAP, and I'm registered with both middle names. I remember now receiving their virtual membership card, and of course my name runs right off of it... 

As for Distrokid, I've had no issues so far. I like that it's an annual fee and not per album. I sometimes release a lot of music all at once, and it's nice to not have that be a huge upfront cost. In terms of revenue, it's zilch, but that's really the streaming services' issue. Still, I like the process and it's very transparent in my experience. Definitely recommend them.


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## amysteriouskeyboard (Aug 29, 2021)

Duncan Krummel said:


> Just checked ASCAP, and I'm registered with both middle names. I remember now receiving their virtual membership card, and of course my name runs right off of it...
> 
> As for Distrokid, I've had no issues so far. I like that it's an annual fee and not per album. I sometimes release a lot of music all at once, and it's nice to not have that be a huge upfront cost. In terms of revenue, it's zilch, but that's really the streaming services' issue. Still, I like the process and it's very transparent in my experience. Definitely recommend them.


Just thought I would post an update to say that I contacted CDBaby again (this time with a call back rather than an email). The support guy explained that if I were to put both middle names in the songwriter section it would probably cause formatting problems if I were releasing something with CDBaby Pro and that I should register with a PRO first. On the other hand, he said that for a standard release I didn't really have to put in my full legal name since CDBaby wouldn't be the ones collecting performance royalties and other mechanical royalties. 

I've come to the conclusion that since PRS ask for evidence that a composer's music is being streamed online before they join (I'm not sure I'd be able to use my soundcloud page for evidence for this since the standard version can't generate performance royalties I don't think), what I'm going to do is I'm going to distribute my music with just my first and last name in the songwriter info and then register my first and last name as a pseudonym with PRS when I sign up and register my music under that pseudonym. 

From the research I've done, I've realised that I was probably being a bit paranoid thinking that I absolutely had to put my full legal name in the box as mechanical royalty collection societies and performance royalty collection societies probably wouldn't even allow composers to make pseudonyms if it could cause any legal problems for the composer (or they would at least mention it). I've also discovered that Tunecore only ask for composer's first and last names, which probably means that composers can still collect money from songs distributed even if they've registered those songs with middle names in their PRO. Tunecore would probably warn composers about this if it weren't the case (I'll still register a pseudonym with PRS just in case though, not like I have any reason not to). As well as this, when I sort by composer in my Apple Music library (assuming this is reflective of the songwriter info when the music is distributed which I'm almost certain it is), the large majority of composers only use their first and last name, sometimes just stage names (e.g. Junkie XL) and sometimes just one initial for their middle name. 

Even then, if I ever do get into trouble for whatever reason, I think I have a pretty good explanation as to why I'm going to register my music in this way and it shouldn't be too difficult to contact support and try to get the release information to be changed if I absolutely had to for whatever reason.


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