Copyright registration service
- Thread starter ATW10C
- Start date
Cheez
Moderator
COMPASS: http://www.compass.org.sg/
ATW10C
New member
Compass presents a chicken and egg situation, it geared for someone established. You must already have published commercially before you can join.
ATW10C
New member
Does nothing for you.
In an event of a dispute, you still need to have a legally acceptable proof/documentation of dating your work.
There are a few music registration services, but as you can see with Compass, the devil is in the details. And some of these services may not be legally acceptable.
Here in SG, for certain things, can be very caveman...
Well, that is both true and untrue. Once again it appalls me how presumptions are thrown about so carelessly here without notable background checks into the facts. Please do not give musicians a false impression of COMPASS without actually knowing what you are talking about.
I'm a registered member of COMPASS, and the registration process was a breeze, not to mention the rewards reaped will be plenty for those who are willing to be a part of it. No, I do not work for COMPASS - I'm just a musician and a member of it.
COMPASS is a blessing for musicians - both established or otherwise - and a curse for individuals who seek to use music without first getting consent from the artists (i.e. NOT you, if you're a musician). COMPASS handles the legal collection of fees rightfully owed to artists from other establishments, be it public radio, public performances of your songs, companies or individuals who seek to use your material after attaining consent DIRECTLY from you first. COMPASS does NOT have the right to allow the use of your songs without your knowledge. You do. But they have the right to collect royalties on your behalf and pay them to you, taking a small cut of that for administrative purposes. And seriously, is ANY musician going to be complaining when a cheque reaches them in the mail? Without the pressence of COMPASS, most musicians will spend more time seeking out their royalties than actually collecting them. Plus, without the authorized legal representation of COMPASS, supported by the government, musicians will find it infinitely more difficult to do just that.
First, let's set things straight.
1. You do not have to publish your music 'commercially' to be part of COMPASS. Membership is FREE for everyone, and ANYONE who has written a song and recorded it is free to register the song with COMPASS. The term 'commercial' is ambiguous here, so let me try to explain it with more depth.
Say you're a local band. You write a song, you recorded it, and let your friends and family here that recording. Though it is still not 'publically released' per se, you can STILL register that song with COMPASS, FREE OF CHARGE. Why? Because any song you perform and let people hear is, technically, 'released', to a varying degree.
What this does for you as a musician is significant. Firstly, whenever you perform this song you have written in public, you can inform COMPASS of your performance of the song. COMPASS will then help to collect the performance royalties owed to you, on your behalf, and pass you the money entitled rightfully to you. Simply put; you are getting paid to perform your own song. This is a very good thing of course.
2. You do not have to be an 'established' artist to join COMPASS
When I first joined compass, I had a bunch of songs I had written, and nothing else. I registered it with COMPASS. Whenever I performed those songs in public, I got paid my fair share of royalties for it - money that I would otherwise NOT have had if not for COMPASS. As I progressed through the ranks of local music, the amount of royalty I collected amounted to a cheque of about $4000 for every 6 months, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on how actively I was performing during that period of time. This amount included royalty collected from radio, live performances, and the leasing of music for independent projects. All I needed to do was give an honest report of the number of times a song was played on radio, performed live, etc, and they did the work. I didn't have to do anything else besides that. It was convenient and it was profitable.
Now you might ask, for musicians who are just starting out, how does COMPASS benefit them in any way? Well, when you write a song, you might want to inevitably try to make money from it in some form or another - at least the money rightfully owed to you. You wouldn't want some organizer using your song, not giving you artistic credit, and not paying you a dime for your hard creative work while he reaps the benefits of it, do you? I'm assuming not, since there have been a lot of complaints here about organizers doing just that to bands. If you want that, then my suggestion is try another profession, because an attitude like that will NOT help the local scene in any way. It's just spoiling the market.
I repeat: YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE ESTABLISHED TO DO THIS It is a common and proper practice for musicians the world over to go through an organization when it comes to collecting royalties, and in fact, it is a step you NEED to take if you WANT to become established. For the casual guitar strummer who isn't interested in this, and simply wants to make his music free for the world to use, and expose himself to the risk of copyright infringment and allow any individual to use his music freely for all intents and purposes, by all means he doesn't need to register with COMPASS at all. But I'm assuming most musicians here do not wish to be taken advantage of in that sour way.
COMPASS is not the only means of representation to collect your owed royalties, but it is a convenient one for Singaporean musicians. I'm just setting the record straight that you do not need to be established in order to do so. For example, if you wrote a book, and another author wants to quote from your book, wouldn't you want a fair share of the profits, knowing that he is using your quote to a part of the sale of his book? It doesn't matter if you have sold only one book in your life, or a million. The same applies for music. It doesn't matter if you've never sold an album, or if you've sold 50,000 - the principle still applies. You are owed money if somebody else uses your creative work in any form, shape or way, and COMPASS can help you collect that money. They are NOT some evil, archetypical organization out to scam you. They are legit, and their work will benefit yours. There is no big hairy beast waiting to pound you for your pocket money here.
If you need more information regarding the legality of music and if COMPASS is good for your musical ambitions, feel free to private mesasge me here. I am very happy to help. I just find it a shame that a lot of young musicians here are not seeking out or misreading the information they need to know in order to protect their own musical interests.
_________
With regards to copyright, our laws are less stringent. In most cases, however, all you need to do to legally copyright your music is to
1) Burn a copy of your final recording on a CD.
2) Print the full lyrics and song credits on a piece of paper.
3) Place both the CD and the lyrics / song credits in an envelope, and mail it to yourself.
4) Do not open the mail. Keep the envelope sealed. The delivery date stamp marks the date that you have 'officially' copyrighted your material.
This is not the practice in the United States where artistic copyright laws are more established, but it will almost certainly work for you within Singapore. I have done this and have never had a problem so far. Royalties are still collected in my name, performance fees are still paid, and any disputes are usually cleared up with my evidence of owning the copyright and producing the sealed envelope.
Free free to ask any questions that haven't been answered. I do not profess to knowing all the answers (Anybody who does that is lying), but I will try my best to help, as best as I can, any young musicians who are unclear about any of this.
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ATW10C
New member
My bad, thanks for clarifying the term commercial though come to think of it, I will go get an official interpretation.
My interpretation of "commercial" has been shaped earlier postings given below.
As to the Poor Man's copyright method, I remain skeptical.
***
http://www.compass.org.sg/cIndex23.aspx
QUALIFYING CRITERIA
The applicant for Writer Member must have at least ONE work and the Publisher Member must have FIVE works that has/have been either:
(a) commercially recorded; or (b) commercially published; or (c) broadcast; or (d) performed in public such number of times as the council shall in its absolute discretion consider appropriate, having regard to the nature of the work and the performance(s) in question
Commercially Published means made available to the public by sale or hire in graphic form.
Commercially Recorded means (i) the work has been released to the public on a record label listed in Music Master or Gramophone catalogues; or (ii) the work has been recorded and made available by inclusion in a catalogue of a recorded music (e.g. background or mood music) library; or (iii) the work has been recorded and transmitted by a television or radio broadcasting station or cable diffusion service; or (d) the work has been recorded on the soundtrack of a film or other audio-visual production that has been released for public exploitation.
Publicly Performed means the work has been performed in premises that are licensed or are eligible to be licensed by the Society.
***
http://soft.com.sg/forum/music-kopi-tiam/114583-how-do-you-get-signed-songwriter-singapore.html
08-04-09, 08:36 AM
Danelectrico
Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 310
Rep Power: 4 Rep Point: 87
If it were me, I'd check out COMPASS' criteria for joining as publisher member (http://www.compass.org.sg/UserFiles/...on_Rev%201.pdf).
I'd also thoroughly read the COMPASS site and other music intellectual property sites to distinguish between the 3 different sets of rights (sound recordings, publishing (ie reproduction) and public performance). I'd also read Danelectrico's first post on Soft to get a good summary of that. http://soft.com.sg/forum/music-kopi-...tml#post259396
I'd then write a bunch of songs (at least 5 - to meet COMPASS' criteria) and register my own sole proprietorship publishing business. I'd proceed to have them commercially recorded (either on my own or through friends or through working with other local bands) and distributed by a record label, major or indie, in a way that meets the "commercial distribution" criteria of COMPASS. Hey, if other people don't wanna use your songs, chances are they're not really good to begin with. Once these are commercially released, I'd join COMPASS as a publisher with regard to my publishing business, and songwriter in my individual capacity - for the collection of public performance royalties. Hopefully I'd get at least a couple radio or commercial "hits" out of these songs and start building up a name and reputation within the industry. In the meantime, i'd be collecting some nice royalties from the modest commercial success of my first endeavours.
Once that happens, I'd at least have a portfolio with some proof of my songwriting / hitmaking ability. I'd leverage on my COMPASS contacts or other burgeoning industry contacts to fix up meetings with the other bigger publishers who will be registered with COMPASS (this means the big 4 companies) and try to pitch a sub-publishing deal with one of them (ie leverage on their network of contacts) and try to negotiate for an advance in the deal. If it works out right, I'd have ended with a 75 25 deal, a 10k advance (which means they're gonna do their darndest to make it back - incentive for them to push my music!), and a foot in the door of the big time industry players.
Why does this sound so complicated? Because there's no free lunch and without these, few if any major publishers would give you time of day if you're shopping an untested and untried demo to them. They have thousands of writers much higher in priority that they're trying to earn from. Why would they care about an upstart with no track record. And if they do give you a deal, it'll be one on crap terms as their bargaining power would be much stronger - forget an advance, you'd get the bog standard 50 50 split and you'd be of such low priority in their stable that it'd be a miracle if they manage to shop your song to any artiste who'd actually want to use it.
Really, good luck - it's a tough road and you're gonna need it.
*********************************
Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleDecker
I think publisher and organisations like COMPASS does play a very important role and they are indeed necessary in the industry. But the only thing that bother me most is their "qualifying criterias".
i don't think it's unfair for an organisation to have qualifying criteria. COMPASS' is rather easy to meet - it will allow for almost anyone genuine who works as a songwriter within the music industry to join. all you need is one published work, one work that has been broadcast on radio or performed in public enough times at their discretion. it's not hard to meet this criteria. back in the day, when all i had as a teenager was a demo tape of our band sold at Roxy, some coverage in BigO magazine and a song played occastionally on select radio shows - it was still considered enough for us to join as members.
****************************************
That's the main problem I am facing now because they are unpublished previously. Just some tracks I did as a hobbyst until my friend showed my music to the fashion house and now they want me to go fulltime into refining these tracks for their video.
COMPASS works, but not all the time. I need to find out some other alternatives before I hand over my works.
DD
My interpretation of "commercial" has been shaped earlier postings given below.
As to the Poor Man's copyright method, I remain skeptical.
***
http://www.compass.org.sg/cIndex23.aspx
QUALIFYING CRITERIA
The applicant for Writer Member must have at least ONE work and the Publisher Member must have FIVE works that has/have been either:
(a) commercially recorded; or (b) commercially published; or (c) broadcast; or (d) performed in public such number of times as the council shall in its absolute discretion consider appropriate, having regard to the nature of the work and the performance(s) in question
Commercially Published means made available to the public by sale or hire in graphic form.
Commercially Recorded means (i) the work has been released to the public on a record label listed in Music Master or Gramophone catalogues; or (ii) the work has been recorded and made available by inclusion in a catalogue of a recorded music (e.g. background or mood music) library; or (iii) the work has been recorded and transmitted by a television or radio broadcasting station or cable diffusion service; or (d) the work has been recorded on the soundtrack of a film or other audio-visual production that has been released for public exploitation.
Publicly Performed means the work has been performed in premises that are licensed or are eligible to be licensed by the Society.
***
http://soft.com.sg/forum/music-kopi-tiam/114583-how-do-you-get-signed-songwriter-singapore.html
Danelectrico
Member
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 310
Rep Power: 4 Rep Point: 87
If it were me, I'd check out COMPASS' criteria for joining as publisher member (http://www.compass.org.sg/UserFiles/...on_Rev%201.pdf).
I'd also thoroughly read the COMPASS site and other music intellectual property sites to distinguish between the 3 different sets of rights (sound recordings, publishing (ie reproduction) and public performance). I'd also read Danelectrico's first post on Soft to get a good summary of that. http://soft.com.sg/forum/music-kopi-...tml#post259396
I'd then write a bunch of songs (at least 5 - to meet COMPASS' criteria) and register my own sole proprietorship publishing business. I'd proceed to have them commercially recorded (either on my own or through friends or through working with other local bands) and distributed by a record label, major or indie, in a way that meets the "commercial distribution" criteria of COMPASS. Hey, if other people don't wanna use your songs, chances are they're not really good to begin with. Once these are commercially released, I'd join COMPASS as a publisher with regard to my publishing business, and songwriter in my individual capacity - for the collection of public performance royalties. Hopefully I'd get at least a couple radio or commercial "hits" out of these songs and start building up a name and reputation within the industry. In the meantime, i'd be collecting some nice royalties from the modest commercial success of my first endeavours.
Once that happens, I'd at least have a portfolio with some proof of my songwriting / hitmaking ability. I'd leverage on my COMPASS contacts or other burgeoning industry contacts to fix up meetings with the other bigger publishers who will be registered with COMPASS (this means the big 4 companies) and try to pitch a sub-publishing deal with one of them (ie leverage on their network of contacts) and try to negotiate for an advance in the deal. If it works out right, I'd have ended with a 75 25 deal, a 10k advance (which means they're gonna do their darndest to make it back - incentive for them to push my music!), and a foot in the door of the big time industry players.
Why does this sound so complicated? Because there's no free lunch and without these, few if any major publishers would give you time of day if you're shopping an untested and untried demo to them. They have thousands of writers much higher in priority that they're trying to earn from. Why would they care about an upstart with no track record. And if they do give you a deal, it'll be one on crap terms as their bargaining power would be much stronger - forget an advance, you'd get the bog standard 50 50 split and you'd be of such low priority in their stable that it'd be a miracle if they manage to shop your song to any artiste who'd actually want to use it.
Really, good luck - it's a tough road and you're gonna need it.
*********************************
Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleDecker
I think publisher and organisations like COMPASS does play a very important role and they are indeed necessary in the industry. But the only thing that bother me most is their "qualifying criterias".
i don't think it's unfair for an organisation to have qualifying criteria. COMPASS' is rather easy to meet - it will allow for almost anyone genuine who works as a songwriter within the music industry to join. all you need is one published work, one work that has been broadcast on radio or performed in public enough times at their discretion. it's not hard to meet this criteria. back in the day, when all i had as a teenager was a demo tape of our band sold at Roxy, some coverage in BigO magazine and a song played occastionally on select radio shows - it was still considered enough for us to join as members.
****************************************
That's the main problem I am facing now because they are unpublished previously. Just some tracks I did as a hobbyst until my friend showed my music to the fashion house and now they want me to go fulltime into refining these tracks for their video.
COMPASS works, but not all the time. I need to find out some other alternatives before I hand over my works.
DD
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I remain skeptical of the 'poor man's method of copyright as well. It somehow seems too simple to be effective, but alas, I think (and I cannot say so with full certainty) it's feasible for now. There are alternatives to this, but it requires money for registration. For example, registering a logo or a symbol as your own. But I'm not sure how it applies to music works. I will read more into this over the next few days and share what I find out!
With COMPASS, it is most definitely free to join, and the ownership of the song still belongs to its creator - so no worries on signing away one's soul to the Big Evil Machine. However, you will be allowing COMPASS to be your official representative when it comes to collecting royalties. This is of course a very good thing for most musicians working within Singapore and outside of it too - especially if a song happens to find its way across the borders. There are other associations across the world which operate in the same way, and they often work together in helping to collect royalties. If say, a song from Singapore gets played on an American radio station, you can still seek out COMPASS to help you collect the royalties owed to you; a task which would otherwise be very difficult for an artiste to do on his or her own.
Another benefit of signing to COMPASS is the obvious financial rewards that you can reap. Every single time you perform your original song live at a public performance, you will get paid for it. Every single time your song is used in a commercial, event, or whichever, you will be paid for it. And every time your song is played on the radio - even if it's just once or twice - you will get paid for it. This greatly prevents large organizations from manipulating young talents into 'giving' their creations away for free. If young bands knew that they could do this, many more would be doing so. Finances are always tight with young bands - what with the cost of recording, jamming, buying new equipment, etc. Royalties, however little or much, can go a long way in financing the necessities of an aspiring musician. I estimate that even a new band which has played a good number of shows filled with their original works can collect a cheque of at least a few hundred dollars per member every few months. This could be enough to finance the release of a brand new EP!
Of course, the artist still has the right to allow their song to be used freely if they so choose to do so. All they need to do is agree to a private non-payable agreement independently between the person(s) who are interested in using their song, and that's it.
As to 'the qualifying criterias of COMPASS', that remains ambiguous to me. It is basically an organization made up of lawyers who are experts in the field of media law. Not all of them work full-time for COMPASS; many of them keep their main bread and butter jobs. I think it is merely a case of being in the right place at the right time. The founders probably saw that there were no proper royalty collection representatives in Singapore and decided to be the first, I'm not sure. But I do know that this is not so very different from the first bubble tea shop here or Vietnamese buffet outlet. The roots may have been opportunistic, but the benefits they provide to the consumer are enormous.
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ATW10C
New member
Well, my impressions of Compass was coloured by a 2 year old thread.
http://soft.com.sg/forum/music-kopi-tiam/16141-copyright-issues.html
I guess I will go get info from Compass directly.
There 2 are 2 free non repudiation services.
1. MyFreeCopyright. This stores only the digital signature of the file, not the file itself. File storage you have to arrange yourself.
2. Safe Creatives. This stores your files.
The other alternatives mentioned in this thread are fee based.
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=45604
Being fee based may not be a bad thing if priced reasonably. They maybe more "viable". Like if for example, if Compass ceases operations, the records of your registrations may end. They can act as a backup or serve in cases where Compass cannot help.
If your work is not publicly published but still has to be circulated for seeking exploitation opportunities, according to the other thread, Compass can't help.
So having/using a third party service in conjunction with Compass is probably a good idea. Or one could join BMI (free) or other administration organisations in other other countries.
In the US there are 3 big rights administration organisations. Most countries have 1 or maybe 2.
http://soft.com.sg/forum/music-kopi-tiam/16141-copyright-issues.html
I guess I will go get info from Compass directly.
There 2 are 2 free non repudiation services.
1. MyFreeCopyright. This stores only the digital signature of the file, not the file itself. File storage you have to arrange yourself.
2. Safe Creatives. This stores your files.
The other alternatives mentioned in this thread are fee based.
http://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=45604
Being fee based may not be a bad thing if priced reasonably. They maybe more "viable". Like if for example, if Compass ceases operations, the records of your registrations may end. They can act as a backup or serve in cases where Compass cannot help.
If your work is not publicly published but still has to be circulated for seeking exploitation opportunities, according to the other thread, Compass can't help.
So having/using a third party service in conjunction with Compass is probably a good idea. Or one could join BMI (free) or other administration organisations in other other countries.
In the US there are 3 big rights administration organisations. Most countries have 1 or maybe 2.
