[Fmpro] advice needed regarding record interest

[Job M. van Zuijlen]

Others have already shed some light on this... There's writer's and 
publisher's performance rights at 50% each and you want to get both, hence 
the publisher part.  A fictitious business name (if that's what they refer 
to) is sometimes known as a "Doing Business As" certificate, that is, if 
your publishing company is called "Stanton Publishing" and you have a DBA 
filed with the locality where you live, you will be able to receive moneys 
paid out to your publishing company without actually going through the 
hassle of establishing one.  In other words, you can go to your bank and 
open an account for "Stanton Publishing" and get to the money as well.  So 
nothing to be uncomfortable about.

Note that I'm not a lawyer and writing this from memory (which is aging), 
but I did go through the motions of filing a DBA.  I actually used a 
service, as I didn't have much time at the time.

I actually found one website that explains it 
(http://musicwars.net/createyourpublishing.html).  Here are some quotes:

"Performance rights organizations require a name (as well as alternate names 
in case one is taken) to register a publishing company. The publishing 
company does not have to be named after you or your band. If you intend on 
publishing other people's music, it probably makes sense for it not to be 
named after your band, so your company will appear more professional. After 
all, which would you rather sign with: R Jones Music or Ol' Dirty Bastard 
Music?"

"As discussed in the Publishing basics article, publishing income is divided 
between the songwriter and the publishing company. If you are a solo 
songwriter looking to establish your own publishing company, the math is 
simple: you get it all."

"After registering with a performance rights organization, you should set up 
a Doing Business As (DBA) certificate with the clerk of the county in which 
you (or your band) resides, so you can cash checks or start a bank account. 
The DBA certificate requires the names and addresses of people who are doing 
business under a name other than their legal name. For example, if you set 
up a publishing company named Prime Cheddar Publishing, everyone who will 
have access to the account but is not named Prime Cheddar Publishing needs 
to be registered on your DBA."

So there...  you can start with your PRO and then set up the DBA, as they 
suggest; however it would need to be a name that's unlikely to be used by 
someone else, otherwise you may run into trouble getting the DBA approved. 
Unfortunately "Stanton Publishing" already exist, so you have to think of 
something else.  There's also a "Ken Stanton Music, Inc.".. Ah, well, you'll 
think of something!

Job van Zuijlen

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Robert Stanton" <zolessi at comcast.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 12, 2008 22:11
To: <fmpro at nxport.com>
Subject: [Fmpro] advice needed regarding record interest

>
>
> Total change of subject-
>
> A record label has expressed interest in my music and want sound clips :30
> seconds and 1:00 examples and also want to know which PRO I'm affiliated
> with (none yet - probably ASCAP come Monday) and lastly, they want to know
> who my publisher is?  Why do they want to know about my publisher?  I was
> advised to create a fictitious publisher and submit that name to them but 
> I
> am not comfortable with that.  What are the ramifications of claiming to 
> be
> or having a publisher, whether fictitious or not?  They don't expect me to
> foot the bill and produce 1500 copies of my CD do they?
>
> Thanks for any advice-
>
> Robert
>
> Robert Scott Stanton
>
> San Francisco Bay Area, CA
>
> zolessi at comcast.net
>
> http://www.soundclick.com/bands/default.cfm?bandID=822049
>
>
>
>



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