# Songtrust and Royalty Collection Agencies - Help!



## BenBotkin (Jan 2, 2017)

Hey guys,

I am currently not signed with a PRO or any royalty collection agency at all. I am planning to sign up with BMI and Soundexchange, but to be honest, trying to wrap my mind around all the different types of royalties and ways they are collected is a bit overwhelming. I discovered Songtrust the other day and have been doing a little reading on them, but am wondering if anyone here has an opinion on being registered with a service like Songtrust in ADDITION to being signed with BMI and soundexchange. 

I realize that may depend some on where I have music playing. Here are some of those ways/places:

- a feature I scored is on Netflix (actually it's gone now, but it used to be)
- a different feature I scored has been played on a couple cable stations (and probably will be more in the future)
- a documentary I scored had played many times on a cable station
- tracks I've written have been licensed in youtube videos with millions of views
- I have a few albums distributed on itunes, amazon, etc. with paltry sales 
- I am planning to pursue getting more of my music licensed for TV over the next couple years

BASICALLY, I just want to make sure that I am not missing out on any major royalty streams and am wisely stewarding my royalty potential. Is BMI and soundexchange sufficient?

Thanks!


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## chillbot (Jan 2, 2017)

What country are you located?


BenBotkin said:


> - a different feature I scored has been played on a couple cable stations (and probably will be more in the future)
> - a documentary I scored had played many times on a cable station


You've already potentially missed out on a bunch of royalties which is kind of inane to be honest (sorry). Though it might not be too late. If BMI is your choice you should sign with them immediately and start tracking down cue sheets and royalties. A documentary with maybe 30-40 minutes of music airing "many times" (let's call it 10x) on a cable station in the US could easily be $2,000 or more in royalties. Do you have the cue sheet?


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## Greg (Jan 2, 2017)

BMI lets you easily claim the publishing share when you register tracks. And you can easily collect youtube royalties with the company Adrev. I'm not quite sure what else Songtrust does? Paying upfront + 15% of royatlies seems like a bit much.


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## BenBotkin (Jan 2, 2017)

chillbot said:


> What country are you located?
> 
> You've already potentially missed out on a bunch of royalties which is kind of inane to be honest (sorry). Though it might not be too late. If BMI is your choice you should sign with them immediately and start tracking down cue sheets and royalties. A documentary with maybe 30-40 minutes of music airing "many times" (let's call it 10x) on a cable station in the US could easily be $2,000 or more in royalties. Do you have the cue sheet?



Located in the US. Yeah, I know I've missed out on some royalties. :/

The doc I scored about 10 years ago (it was my first project) and was before I knew how to do anything properly, so no cuesheets created or anything. I don't think that one has played for a while.


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