How to Join and Register Your Works with ASCAP

[@saadhaddadmusic]

ASCAP is one of two performing rights organizations that pay out royalties for performances of its members’ work. This video talks about how you can join ASCAP as both a writer and publisher, and how you can register your works in their system.

[@jeffspann5230]

Thanks for a very helpful video.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

🙏🏽

[@lionroots11]

Hey great video and helpful. I just realized after all this years I was as a writer on ascap. How can I go back in and add publisher to that as well?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

You’ll have to click on “Join” then add yourself as a publisher. I think you’ll need to pay the $50 fee for that too.

[@lionroots11]

@@saadhaddadmusic thank you! I will look into it

[@orenpine]

Thanks! This is extremely applicable to me as I am a composer with ASCAP. Do you copyright your works before registering them?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I personally don’t but I know that some do! It’s not completely necessary in my experience for most people, as it is an added cost and step.

[@chriskanemusic]

Thank you for the video. Appreciate the help. Im just a little lost on how by putting the title of my song, for example Energy" for my latest distrokid release, how would ascap find my song out of all the other songs with the same title. Is there a step I have to make before hand to ensure that im registering my song?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

From my limited knowledge of this area (I’m more familiar with concert and educational music), I believe it should be distrokid that would handle this for you as long as your ascap account is linked. I could be wrong I don’t use distrokid myself. Maybe there is someone in the community that can answer more succinctly?

[@ayushaj7614]

Hey Saad. Great video first of all. I have a couple of questions if you could answer, that would be really helpful! I'm a Non US Citizen, how do I go about filling ITIN number because I don't have one yet. Do i have to apply for it or can I use my national tax ID number. We do have a treaty signed with US. So im guessing this would be helpful? Please share your advice.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Thanks for watching but I don’t know! Maybe someone here knows. Good luck 🙏🏽

[@jesushernandezpitito]

Hi Saad. I´d like to set up appointment/consultation. I have some questions before consultation. Can I ask questions in this platform?

[@pennykaylyn5698]

Thank you! This video is very helpful 👍☺️

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Glad it was helpful!

[@jamesmendez8383]

very helpful thank you!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Absolutely 🙏🏽

[@tb6265]

awsome video, thanks. What should i do when i mainly creat orchestral mockups? Should i also Also register as a Publisher ? how should i register my work? Orchestra? Instrument = Computer? thank you Saad

[@saadhaddadmusic]

You should always register as a Publisher if you have no Publisher. Orchestral mock-ups I’m actually not sure what you would classify them as. Most likely those kinds of pieces would be used in a music production library. Does anyone reading this comment know? Interesting question.

[@D3NXIE]

​@@saadhaddadmusicIf he publishes his own music independently he would sign as a publisher as well. If he's part of a production library/trailer libraries. They do the publishing so only register as a writer.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@D3NXIE yep yep yep ^^^ exactly this

[@D3NXIE]

@@saadhaddadmusic Saad, I've been meaning to join BMI but every time I choose join as a composer it says page isn't available. Do you have any idea if BMI registration is closed or something?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@D3NXIE sorry I have no clue!

[@rickdclare]

Great video. For shared writing (i.e. a band), do the other composers need to register as an ASCAP Writer or can I just add their name? I assume the former but just want to verify.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Yes the former!

[@EnricoDePaoli]

Hello Saad and thank you for your video. If I wrote a song with someone else from a different country, and that person doesn't have an publishing account with ASCAP... when registering the song, what should I write under his publishing share? He only has an IPI as a writer. I tried searching his name and known IPI in the publisher field, but he wasn't found. Should I just write his full name? Or should I click on UNKNOWN PUBLISHER? Or should I choose "This writer does not have a publisher". Wouldn't he be leaving money on the table that way? I'm stuck at this step. Thanks so much!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

This isn't hard and fast advice, but one thing that might be possible is that you claim all the publishing rights, so no money is left on the table -- and then you can separately make a contract with this person agreeing that you will give half the publishing rights to him once the money comes in.

[@EnricoDePaoli]

@@saadhaddadmusic Thanks so much for taking the time to reply. I'm really trying to avoid any "post-accounting" between parts. Now, BMI states that if a writer does not have a publisher, he will receiving his publishing royalties together with his writer's royalties. But that's not what ASCAP says, apparently... so, does it mean they work differently? We only have to register ourselves as publishers with ASCAP and not with BMI (if we choose that PRO) ? Does it mean only with ASCAP that we'd leave publisher's royalties on the table, but BMI would actually include them in?! Thanks again!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@EnricoDePaoli yep your analysis of the situation is completely correct! With ascap you need 2 accounts, with BMI it’s just the one if you don’t have a publisher already. Good question.

[@EnricoDePaoli]

@@saadhaddadmusic Man, I've been searching this for ages. Thanks so much. Does this mean I should have gone BMI instead of ASCAP? lol... Oh well... now I already spent 50 bucks for each account (100 total), whereas BMI is free for the writer's only account.... too late I guess!

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@EnricoDePaoli now that I don’t know! I just am used to ascap and their interface - and quite frankly I’m happy with their payouts so far. So no reason to switch for me at the time being!

[@berniewalters9337]

How do you register a work if writer has a 25% co-publisher but writer is not a publisher but gets the royalties

[@jesushernandezpitito]

When I log in my ASCAP account is says Writer account, does this mean that I registered/signed up as a Writer? Can I change to a Writer Publiser account/membership?

[@saphirecheetah8350]

If you signed up as a writer and publisher you can be in the writer side and go into the publisher side. If you only signed up as a writer you can also sign up as a publisher, but if you do it separately I think it costs 50$.

[@Tapepusher]

Question please, what if my track contains a few copyright samples and then you play those tracks live in concert, can I as the songwriter still register it with my PRO and get paid when I play them live? Or is that not allowed cuz of the copyright?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

I can’t answer questions based on copyright law - I’m not a lawyer and this all depends on your own country’s laws

[@trackzonville]

"BMI writer can not have an Ascap publisher" Has this been a thing with Ascap? I am affiliated with bmi as a writer and publisher with Ascap. I did the beat for an Ascap artist. What if my Ascap artist register my 25% as a bmi producer writer share but when my artist tries to register my 25% publishing share with my publishing company, he gets error and can't proceed. Does he check the box stating I don't have one so it goes 50% total and get publishing along with writer share? What is the best course of action? BMI is set up to collect publishing share and writer share if the writer does not have a publishing company at hand. I shouldn't have to cancel or change anything for this to get registered properly right?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Quite honestly I am not sure since I don’t have any affiliation with BMI. Perhaps someone in the comments knows?

[@kingjesai5556]

What’s good bro did you end up figuring this out ??? I’m running into same issue right now but vise versa.. I’m trying to credit producer with BMI for publishing percentage but ASCAP doesn’t allow bmi publishers but under writer I can credit him tho.

[@vsiblmarketing]

would a collaborator have to log in to their account and do/fill out the same?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Yep

[@cassandrahuskey8866]

Where do you put the words to your song ?????

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Below the staves of your pieces. Unless you mean something else

[@MrLanka-ud8wl]

what if I have created a new arrangement of a song that is in the public domain? I'm having trouble registering my version of William Billings' song "Chester" with ascap

[@saadhaddadmusic]

You should be able to - I’m not sure why there would be an issue?

[@bernoulli1]

So… if you as a publisher are named as “Dib Press”… when a royalty check is sent to you for that work, are there two different checks? One to your name as the writer and another to Dib Press as the publisher? And… if a check is sent to Dib Press, how do you cash such check? Do you have a business set up called Dib Press?

[@saadhaddadmusic]

Yes that is all correct - technically speaking though with Dib Press I’m set up as a DBA through direct deposit, so ASCAP actually allows me to have the publisher money sent directly to my personal checking

[@bernoulli1]

Thanks so much for the reply. Do you mind me asking how you set up a DBA and having that go into your direct deposit personal bank account when the two names are different? Any chance you could make a video on that topic in dealing with the ASCAP issue of having to list a publisher. This topic has really thrown a snag in my progress with registering my songs… not to mention how one then deals with taxes on royalties.

[@saadhaddadmusic]

@@bernoulli1 that’s really quite specific for a video topic that is intended to be broad - if you want specific help on this you can always sign up for a consult with me via link in video description.