Joe writes:
> (BTW, none of this has anything whatsoever to do with publishing. Bug
> Music is a publisher. BMI and ASCAP are "performing rights societies"
> which serve as collection agencies for performance royalties only, send
> them to the publishers and writers, and deduct 1% of your royalties to
> pay their overhead. In order to collect "mechanical royalties", or money
> from record sales, you either have to have a publisher, be your own
> publisher, or at least register yourself with the Harry Fox Agency (they
> have a website) in order to collect your mechanicals.)
...which is why BUG is so cool, they do BOTH! And, it was started as a
result of Del Shannon was getting screwed "royalty" and Dan Burgoise stepped
up to the plate and "found" him millions owed from all over. Including cash
for Runaway! Read their story, it's a good 'un!
http://www.bugmusic.com/charmart.html
Here's some from an interview that originally appeared in HITS October 16,
1995:
>>In 1975, they hatched the idea for Bug Music, aiming to take advantage of a
vacuum in the publishing world, and haven't had one regret until they had to
sit for an hour with...
-WHAT VOID DID YOU SEE IN THE PUBLISHING BUSINESS IN 1975 THAT INSPIRED YOU
TO START BUG?
Dan- At that point a lot of singer/songwriters had stopped going to
publishers because attorneys had come up with the concept of 'keep your own
copyrights, but let us administer them here. Who needs publishers?' Meantime,
publishers still provided valuable and important services, but had grown
stodgy and old and were resting on their laurels, so all the new stuff was
being administered by law offices, who did the paperwork but none of the
creative functions. So what Bug music became was a blending of the two things
- taking the creativity and energy of the publisher and combining it with the
lower-based fees and allowing writers to keep their own copyrights. It became
attractive and writers started telling writers. It turned out to be a good
idea. <<
Kate
