How Foreign Producers Can Work In The US Sync Licensing Industry

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[@Ahmad-Mounir44]

Jesse, you're a savior man. I find all your videos of sync licensing are very inspiring. Such a great help you make to the entire producers community. I am currently still building my album so I won't be submitting anything any time soon. Just focusing on making a high quality album, upload it to soundcloud once done, and then start the music library phase. I really thank you from the bottom of my heart bro !!!!!

[@SyncMyMusic]

Si glad you're getting so much value from my videos!

[@XDosShane]

Hey Jesse, I'm the producer who was struggling to make a decision a couple days ago in the email. I didn't mention this but I'm actually from Jamaica and this is extremely valuable info for me! I was about to email you on this exact topic until this video popped up in my notifications... if that's not a sign I should continue down this path then I don't know what is 🙌

[@SyncMyMusic]

Glad to give you that reassurance!

[@NCODEXMUSIC]

I'm from Algeria, and I'm so glad i found this video

[@RogerBadgerDSFlyer]

Gold, thank you 🙏

[@seizolozano7857]

very useful information,, thanks!

[@LesPaul2006]

You automatically get the 30% rate if you don't fill out the W8-BEN, mostly. If you fill it, you have a high chance of getting a better rate, around 13%. If you live in like Europe, or Chile or something, you might get an even better rate and the chance to claim a tax refund after a while, because you'll get US tax returns on the mail every now and then. It all depends on the tax treaty thing. Still is a huge market, and even with all the taxes involved, it is worth it.

[@NCODEXMUSIC]

I have the same problem right now, a library is asking me for the W8-BEN, if i can't fill it, i can still work with them, but the IRS will take 30% right ?

[@NCODEXMUSIC]

A response would be helpful

[@LesPaul2006]

@@NCODEXMUSIC Yes, they'll take 30% if you don't fill it, and you'll feel it like a dog's bite. It's pretty brutal It's best if you try to fill it, find out your tax number in your country (get one if you don't have it, the government issues them) and find out what kind of treaty is there between your country and the US.

[@NCODEXMUSIC]

@@LesPaul2006 thank you so much for taking the time to respond, it helps

[@thomasschatton3481]

Thank you for this great video, Jesse! You pass on so much valuable information for free, how great and valuable must the Sync Academy and Sync Edge be!?!? I guess I should join those two! Thumbs👍🏻👍🏻 up and greetings from Germany!

[@SyncMyMusic]

Thanks for your kind words Thomas!

[@andrewsamuel5816]

Thank you Jesse

[@BrofUJu]

For Canada, when you sign up with SOCAN they actually basically sign you up with BMI or ASCAP and you choose right at the beginning, just FYI.

[@SyncMyMusic]

Thanks for the tip!

[@thomass.4377]

This video made things way clearer now. Do you have any experiences to share with us from your students abroad, who are registered to a PRO in the US? Which one did they mainly choose? Are there any differences where it might be better as a foreign producer to prefer BMI instead ASCAP or vise versa?

[@SyncMyMusic]

I recommend my students join BMI since they tend to pay out more generous royalties for instrumental TV placements (the vast majority of the placements we get in this industry).

[@aggkg9550]

Thank you for great info there! You mention an international registration system …I’m with Swedish PRO, STIM and I have asked them several times about this and they have told me that unless there is a sub-publisher in Sweden I always have to register the track myself. The only time that they ”sync” to a universal PRO system would be to check for any actual placements where they would match IPI and title with what is already in STIMS database. If there are no sub-publisher and I have not registered the track with the right title, there will not be a match, (IPI alone is not enough). I’m still new to this but I have talked to different people at STIM explaining this. Is it your experience that it’s enough that the US company (even without foreign sub-publisher) registers the track? Thanks!

[@Marcelrocha884]

I don1t know how to thank you for clarifying all of this!!!

[@SyncMyMusic]

You're welcome.

[@wyda]

Thank you Jesse for the diamond information always. I have a quick question brother. How does a Publishing Admin like Songtrust collect the sync back-end royalties? Because if you register with their service, they include to collect your sync back-end royalties too. And if you're not registered with any PRO, they assign you to one. And most of the Foreigners are being assigned with IMRO as their PRO, but Songtrust handles all the work of collection world wide.

[@SyncMyMusic]

If Songtrust is requiring you to sign your music publishing over to them exclusively then it would prevent you from working with Libraries since they need to collect the publishing royalties to stay in business. Do you know if their services require an exclusive publishing agreement?

[@DJChamber]

Hey. Great video. If I set up an LLC in the US, would BMI or another PRO be able to transfer money directly to that LLC? That would be away to legally bypass this withholding tax potentially.

[@jathanblake]

I have a question, what If I'm working with a producer outside the country (I'm in the US). Does that mess up my opportunity with sync licensing /publishing. How does that work?

[@nicolascajamarca1620]

Thank you, Jesse!! Amazing info! When you tell us about taxes, it is only in the case of work with a PRO in the US? or it also applies if I want to work with a library in the US and a local PRO?

[@SyncMyMusic]

Any income you make in the US market will require the IRS taxes to be reported. You would also need to look into the requirements of your own countries tax requirements.

[@michaellawrencesound]

Thanks, Jesse. Does this work in reverse for US composers, with the exception of the tax info?

[@SyncMyMusic]

Absolutely!

[@mrbeats1347]

Hey bro on a local pro you can register audio, how do you register audio for copyright with bmi before sending to libraries

[@SyncMyMusic]

BMI doesn't collect audio files, nor do they issue copyright protection. They just collect royalties for you when you get placements. There's no need to register your tracks with BMI before you submit to a Library - let the Library handle that for you.

[@mrbeats1347]

okay let's say that they have accepted the tracks, is it okay to still register them on BMI as a writer to track royalties as well! To make sure they have sent the correct data.

[@SyncMyMusic]

@@mrbeats1347 No you would allow the Library to do that for you since they need to include their publishing information with your cues.

[@JureJerebic]

German PRO GEMA doesn't sync with BMI, and as I am with both, I have to manually register all new tracks whenever a publisher registers my track with BMI - big hassle.

[@JureJerebic]

And they charge 50 € yearly for being a member, ugh.

[@thomasschatton3481]

@@JureJerebic Thank you for this information, Jure! I'd sure be glad to get more details on that, if possible. Do you also speak German?

[@JureJerebic]

@@thomasschatton3481 Not well enough to talk about this specific topic, I'm afraid - but feel free to look me up online and contact me, hope I can offer some useful information