Gema / BMI / ASCAP / Songtrust / HELP!!!!!! I need your help please (-:

[jave276]

Hello everyone,

My name is Elad and I am a singer songwriter , recently moved to Germany from Israel.

I am collecting information how to release an album and I am SERIOUSLY confused with the PROs options.

I have read (with my little deutsch) horrible things about Gema, that you don't see money off of them, that you cannot add your sons to Bandcamp and offer free downloads and more.
I really don't know to which service you should join, in order to collect money from streaming worldwide, yet keep your options open for free streaming and so on.
I also read that most big PROs like BMI or Gema don't really pay the small artists even if their songs are being played...the net is fludded with this...
The Israeli PRO said you should be better off with an European/USA one because they find it hard to collect money for their clients from airplay outside of Israel.

So what you should you do as a Musician, fist album coming out, not signed with any publisher nor any PRO yet.

I am sure you guys spoke about this subject over here at least 10 times, but the google translator is crap and it's very hard for me to understand anything from these translations, not to even speak about reading it in German.. (-:



So please, if you can share your wisdom in english with me on the matter it'll be fantastic.

Thanks,
Elad
www.reverbnation.com/eladyaacov

 

[ambee]

collecting societies do not make much sense for newcomer/amateur/hobby musicians. unless a musician ist not generating a lot of royalties others have to pay (airplay, performance, copying, ...) for the use of his creative work, the restrictions he is agreeing to by joining a collecting society have a huge negative effect on the PR and promotion options, especially in the social media world.

i would not recommened any musician to join any collecting society, unless they are expecting a huge release with a promotion an PR campaign accompanying it. collecting societies are designed for a mass market, they are made for managing the exploitation of rights in very huge numbers, thousands, millions, every day. musicians with just a small number of copies or little or no airplay are swallowed up by this system.

that is what a lot of musician do not understand and are ranting about after joining one.