Don't Register Your Beats With ASCAP/BMI

If you sell beats to artists, you have to register your beats with a PRO like ASCAP or BMI in order to protect your copyrights and get paid royalties, right? Wrong. Many producers believe this myth and waste a lot of their time as a result. Here is the truth about what PROs do, how producers get paid through them and how you can make sure you get your performance royalties even if rappers don't properly register songs with your beats in them.

#sellingbeatsonline #beatstars #beatselling #2023 #howtosellbeats

00:00 - Intro
00:48 - BMI/ASCAP Isn't Copyright or ContentID
03:23 - Don't Register Your Beats
06:36 - Wasting YOUR Time
07:20 - Register These Beats
08:14 - Producers Are Lying to You
09:54 - Producer Lies Exposed
14:09 - What if Artists Don't Register Your Splits?

Selling beats online 2023

[Tunez]

It’s amazing the amount of disinformation that’s out there in regards to music. Thanks for shedding light to some and potentially helping a young or old producer make these mistakes!

[zillzultraboy]

This makes absolute sense! I've only registered instrumentals I've released, on my own albums. I've never registered random beats. This is GREAT advice!

[WanTheLucid]

You're saving me from problems before I even knew they existed 🙏🏾

[Parmoss]

I tell my son to watch your videos all the time. He's 15 and a serious producer, who has been schooled on music production and music business since he was a baby. Thanks for the resource you provide. All of your content is useful because it covers so many scenarios that budding professionals will eventually run into. Your content - at minimum, guides budding pros (and in my case, their parents) on topics to research more thoroughly. I often give my son assignments based upon your videos. Congrats and continued success! THANK YOU!

[sicksocialmedia]

I've collected BMI mailbox money for over 20 years. Primarily from TV/Film placements. Works get registered and populated from cue sheet information, not manually.

Thanks again for clarifying. I'm amazed after 20+ years in the music industry people still haven't figured it out and are wrecklessly spewing misinformation.

[disabanger]

You just saved me more waisted time. I also feel ashamed because this info was already posted on BMI 😢 . I was so excited to complete these steps I honestly didn't read everything available as I should have. I appreciate you and this industry needs more people like you. 💯💯

[GeorgiaGurt]

This is my first time hearing that people registering beats which is crazy.

[gzooradio]

Thank you DJ Pain for helping independent producers and artists with good useful information. Much respect!

[justincanton]

💯bro, awesome video. I use a copyright company myself called (Copyright House) to register works that have not yet been published. It is a one time payment for life and a good service... But saying that.... I registered a demo song a few years ago with them and then put it online, and it was stolen, slightly changed and ended up hitting No.1 in UK & US. The musicologists and lawyers said that the music and lyrics had been changed enough so as I didn't have a case, even though they all agreed my song was stolen. I missed out on millions, so be careful out there fellow creatives, coz this industry is riddled with non talented, and very talented thieves. ✌

[KBlakK]

I have been telling artists and producers this for years, and they think I'm stupid. I'm like wow. This is music biz 101... PROs serve a function, but that ain't it. ONLY finished songs should be registered. GEEZ!!! Talk about duplication of effort!!!

[p.o.p.presents]

DJ Pain is 100 % accurate. Anytime I registered my music with BMI it's sole purpose was for sync licensing. I never registered a beat I was selling to an artist with a PRO. Beats I format for TV are in separate folder. This is good info brother.

P.o.p.

[IamVittorio]

Good vid. Towards the end of the video you showed about if they don’t register the song or don’t register you in the song you can do it yourself by putting title in adding your name and searching the song and adding the isrc number. My question is is there any protection against a random person trying to claim royalties on a project they didn’t make?

[kennethhwilliams]

What you're saying is correct. Just because a bunch of people shout out wrong information and insist they're correct...that will never make them right, just loud.

[Cruzerx]

Solid info and good clean up on the misinformation. It never dawned on me to register a beat of mine on a BeatStore through BMI. I only register my beats on BMI because I actually release instrumental music like lofi and Synthwave.

[rockinbeatz]

💎💎🚀🚀💯💯 Dj Pain, you are absolutely right! ASCAP & BMI are performance royalty collectors. You only should register your music if you put them out as instrumental. FACTS!! It's unfortunate that all of these fake YouTubers are just trying to build up their Youtube page.smh Thanks for the info. Dj Pain. 💪🏽💪🏽🙌🏾✨❤✨ Ps - You are the reason I set up my Distrokid account. 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾

[trv]

Thanks for this man!!! As a beat maker, I'll follow what you laid down in this video and will register the completed song where the beat is the foundation of it. Keep 'em coming!!!

[thedanyesful]

Great explanation. I'm not a musician in any sense of the word, but I have worked with copyrights, and I find this whole process fascinating because of the clear and engaging way you explained it.

[philxdev]

14:52 I think you are absolutely correct. Here I want to add that If you want your composition as a cowriter (beats, melodies, lyrics) to be registered when the final song is released it is IMO important to have that in the sales contract with the particular artist you are selling/giving your work to. This should include the process and systems used for registration including the timeframe and the percentages among other things like getting feedback. This will make it very clear for any hobby artist and/or professional what their duties are and what you agreed on to avoid any issues later down the road.
How in the world would it make any sense to register your beat/ melodie/ composition/ lyrics with a company that does not scan for that and does not protect your copyright anyhow. If you make a living from selling your compositions it would even be counterintuitive to "register" or publish ANY of the work you want to sell! Nobody wants to buy "USED" products in that field... professionals usually outright dismiss any material that has already been processed in such a way. Registering your beats for example seems really insane IMO.. Even if in theory, they would be able to identify your beat inside somebody else's song, how would they know the percentages of royalties of that song that have to be allocated for you? That is not something they will do. That is why it is important to have all the agreements in writing with the artists that use your compositions so that when the song is registered you will get the agreed-upon percentage within the registering process. But for everybody who wants to look "important", and show off thousands of registered nonsense, this is the way to go I guess... strange FLEX nonetheless.

As far as I know, if you really want your creation to be "officially" registered and protected there are lawyers for that, but of course, it will be a fee per creation, and with a couple of thousand beats this will definitely be a lot of money down the drain unless you really have some finished songs you want to protect.

[MixedByTyBandit]

Wow I didn’t know this was a thing 😳😩😂. Thank you for dropping gems

[ClassEBeats]

Thank God for DJ Pain 1! There are so many people spreading misinformation and speaking on things they don't understand just so they can upload another Youtube video. I'm so glad Pain is giving wisdom and speaking truth🙏🏾