Did you know… that the major online distributors are operating WITHOUT any direct license agreement with the Publishers?
Did you know… that if your song is being recorded/used for the first time it does not necessarily fall under the statutory rate? Statutory rate (currently, 9.1 cents) only applies after the first use and under the compulsory license provisions of the Copyright Law.
Did you know… that the Harry Fox Agency (HFA) is not the only company who can license and collect royalties from record labels? Bluewater is not a member of HFA and issues all domestic licenses directly.
Did you know… the United States Copyright Law allows termination rights and a “re-capture window” for most copyrighted works?
Did you know… that if you are a U.S. publisher collecting your French royalties through a sub-publisher located in France, then you will need to file a hefty amount of tax forms each year with the French government in order to avoid a 33% deduction of income taxes against your royalties? Bluewater files all of the necessary paperwork with the French government each year for its clients, and therefore, Bluewater receives 100% of its royalties and its clients' royalties from France.
Did you know… that without society member representation in the UK (MCPS/PRS), you cannot collect mechanical royalties in the UK?
Did you know… that the major TV stations in the UK pay blanket license fees to PRS in order to play any music they want to play for TV programming? In other words, there are no synch fees for songs placed on TV shows – you will only receive performance income for such placements.
Did you know… there are over 40 different types of royalty income streams available through the Canadian society SOCAN alone?
Did you know… that there is a Broadcast Mechanical royalty in Canada, and you must be member of CMRRA or SODRAC or affiliated with a company who is a member of one of these organizations, e.g. Bluewater, in order to collect it?
Did you know… that if your song is used in a commercial in Canada, and that commercial is not longer than 60 seconds, you will receive NO performance royalties from the airplay of that commercial in Canada?
Did you know… there is a special registration process with ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC for music performed in U.S. advertisements on television?
Did you know… that the performance of your songs at live shows/concerts in all of the major territories overseas generates a performance royalty?
Did you know… that in order to collect this royalty, the set list from the show must be submitted to the country’s performing rights society?
Did you know… that the performance of your songs at live shows/concerts in the United States DOES generate performance royalties? However, in order to collect these royalties, you must register the live performances through BMI, ASCAP and SESAC's live performance registration system. Bluewater can do this for you if you are a SESAC writer; however, ASCAP and BMI require the artist/writer rather than the publisher or publishing administrator to register live concerts.
Did you know… that the Copyright Office will not accept a burned CD copy as the ‘best edition’ CD when registering a work? The CD must be the first-published version (the release version) to be considered ‘best edition.’
Did you know… that the Copyright Office is several years behind in their processing of new copyrights and that there's a way to get your registration to the top of the stack?
Did you know… that new royalty rates for mechanicals, Digital Phonorecord Deliveries (DPDs), on-demand streams, limited downloads, and ringtones were established by the Copyright Royalty Board on October 2, 2008 and that these rates are the ones in effect today?
Did you know… that you can affiliate with all three domestic PROs by using a different name?
Did you know… that when you are registering a foreign lyric version of a song with STIM (Sweden) that you need to designate the translator of the song with SA instead of CA (for Composer/Author)?