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You no longer have to own 100% of the rights to your songs in order to register them with Soundreef \u2013 and we\u2019ll even help you agree the rights to the song with the other right holders! It\u2019s great to be able to hear more of your songs, but we needed to make some changes to the registration process in order to make this possible. This blog post takes you through the new registration process.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s our guide to all things Soundreef \u2013 from a complete beginner\u2019s guide to joining Soundreef to a more advanced guide to negotiating the rights split for your songs.<\/i><\/p>\n What would you like to do?<\/b><\/p>\n Register your details<\/b><\/p>\n Start by telling us your details<\/a>. We\u2019ve marked the essential stuff using *.<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve entered your details, click Submit and we\u2019ll send you an email.<\/p>\n Check your inbox \u2013 you should have an email from soundreef.com with the subject \u2018Complete your Soundreef registration\u2019. Click on the link in it to continue. (No email? Check your spam folder!)<\/p>\n The membership agreement<\/b><\/p>\n The link takes you to a screen with a copy of our membership agreement. Make sure you read this, as it sets out the terms of the agreement between us, and affects your money and your music!<\/p>\n When you\u2019ve read it, click on the link that says \u2018Email me the document to sign\u2019. You\u2019ll get another email from soundreef.com, this time with the subject \u2018Please e-sign Soundreef membership agreement\u2019. (No email? Check your spam folder!)<\/p>\n Clicking on the link will take you to Echosign, where you can sign the membership agreement.<\/p>\n Click on the link that says \u2018sign in 1 location(s)\u2019 to see where you need to sign the document. It will take you to the end of the document where your signature should go, and show you how to sign.<\/p>\n Echosign will process the agreement, then tell you you\u2019re done:<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n You can close the browser tab and go back to Soundreef. You\u2019ll get an email from Echosign confirming the agreement has been completed.<\/p>\n You\u2019re now ready to head back to www.soundreef.com<\/a> and start uploading your music!<\/p>\n This walkthrough is aimed at independent bands and singer songwriters uploading catalogues of under fifty songs at once, to which they own or control all the rights.<\/i>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n To get started, go to www.soundreef.com<\/a>. Log in and click on \u2018My account\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n This takes you to the My Dashboard page, which gives you a quick summary of your account.<\/span><\/p>\n Scroll down and click on the Register music button. (Not sure what kind of music we accept? Find out more<\/a>.)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n Next you\u2019ll be asked to choose an option for registering your song:<\/span><\/p>\n If you are the only right holder for the song(s) you are registering, or you control the rights so you can distribute the royalties to other right owners, choose the first option (selected in the screenshot above).<\/span><\/p>\n This would be the option to choose if, for example, you write and record your songs with no-one else involved, or the band have agreed that you should do all the admin for them and distribute the royalties (lucky you!)<\/span><\/p>\n If more than one person owns the rights to the song \u2013 for example, you\u2019re in band and you all helped write the song \u2013 and you only want to collect your royalties, choose the second option.<\/span><\/p>\n Now it\u2019s time to tell us about your songs. To get started, click the \u2018Add music\u2019 button.<\/span><\/p>\n This brings up a form. The cursor will be flashing over text that says \u2018Enter artist name\u2019. Type your band or artist name, then click on \u2018Enter genre\u2019. <\/span>\n<\/p>\n This opens up more sections of the form:<\/span><\/p>\n Type in a genre, such as rock, pop or lounge. You don\u2019t have to be too precise, as our music supervisors will listen to the tracks and decide whether they need to add more description \u2013 you just need to give us a rough idea of what to expect. <\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019ve typed in a genre, click \u2018Add new song\u2019 and then type in the song name. <\/span><\/p>\n Now you\u2019ll need to confirm the Territory and tell us which Soundreef services you\u2019d like to use.<\/span><\/p>\n Start by clicking on \u2018Territory\u2019. You\u2019ll get a new window.<\/span><\/p>\n The only<\/span> option<\/span> is to ask us to licence the track throughout the whole world, except in the US and Canada. If you\u2019re cool with that, you don\u2019t need to do anything else – just click \u2018Save changes\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n Next you\u2019ll need to choose which Soundreef services to use. Mouseover the same area again, and click on \u2018Services\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n You\u2019ll get another window:<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re in Italy, you can choose for you music to be licensed for both background music and the live gigs you play (find out more about background music and live gigs). Check the relevant boxes.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re not in Italy, you can only choose to license your music as background music, so check this box.<\/span><\/p>\n Click the orange button to save changes.<\/span><\/p>\n To add more songs, click the \u2018Add music\u2019 button.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019ve finished adding songs for now (you can come back add more whenever you like), click the orange \u2018Next step\u2019 button.<\/span><\/p>\n We need to know about who owns the rights to the songs, and whether you\u2019ve already asked a <\/span>collecting society<\/a> to collect your royalties.<\/span><\/p>\n First you need to list each person who owns publishing\/composition rights to your song. These are the rights to the actual idea for the song. Composition rights usually belong to the person who wrote the music for the song, and the person who wrote the lyrics for it. The composition rights are often partly assigned to a publisher by the composers. This is so that the publisher can help the composers publish their song via a record label, or administer the royalties the composer receives when the song is used commercially.<\/span><\/p>\n Start by specifying whether the person is an individual (for example, someone in your band) or a company (for example, your publisher) by choosing an option from the drop-down menu.<\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019ve chosen an option, fill in the boxes that appear, which ask you for the right owner\u2019s email address, collecting society and share of the rights. To add another right owner, select \u2018Company\u2019 or \u2018Individual\u2019 from the drop-down menu in the same way.<\/span><\/p>\n Make sure the rights share adds up to 100%!<\/p>\n Next, you need to list each person who owns master\/recording rights to your song. These are the rights to the sound recording, and are created when the song is recorded. The person or company that has recorded the song usually owns them. Traditionally, the right to the sound recording belongs to the record label who helped the musician to record the song \u2013 that is, the company that paid for it. The distinction between composition rights and sound recording rights is becoming weaker, since musicians tend to write and record their music on their own computers, and usually don\u2019t need someone else to record their music or pay for it to be recorded.<\/span><\/p>\n Specify whether the person is an individual (for example, someone in your band) or a company (for example, your record label) by choosing an option from the drop-down menu.<\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019ve chosen an option, fill in the boxes that appear, which ask you for the right owner\u2019s email address, collecting society and share of the rights. To add another right owner, select \u2018Company\u2019 or \u2018Individual\u2019 from the drop-down menu in the same way.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re registered several tracks, and the rights information is the same for all of them, you don\u2019t need to keep entering the same information \u2013 click on the blue button, which will copy this information to all the songs you are registering:<\/span><\/p>\n Noticed a mistake in the songs you\u2019re registered, missed a song out, or decided not to register one of them? Click on the \u2018Go back\u2026\u2019 button and edit your information:<\/span><\/p>\n All done and ready to continue? Click the orange \u2018Next step\u2019 button.<\/span><\/p>\n What happens next depends on which option you chose at the beginning. This walkthrough is based on I own or control 100% of the composition, publishing and master rights and I will collect royalties on behalf of all owners. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n If you chose the second option, I\u2019m a composer, author, publisher or record label and I only want to collect my own royalties<\/i>, click here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n The next page is the document we\u2019ve produced using the information you\u2019ve given us:<\/span><\/p>\n When this is signed, it forms part of your membership agreement. To get the document ready to sign, scroll down the page and click on \u2018Submit\u2019, then check your email. Keep the window at Soundreef.com open if you can.<\/span><\/p>\n Open the email and click on the link. You\u2019ll be taken to Echosign to sign the document. When you\u2019ve finished signing, go back to the browser tab showing the Soundreef site (closed the Soundreef window when you went to Echosign?)<\/span><\/p>\n Now you\u2019re ready to upload your music. Make sure you understand what sort of mp3 you need to upload (1), then click on \u2018Browse and select\u2019 (2) to find the mp3 you want to upload. <\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019ve selected your mp3, check the box next to it and click on \u2018Upload selected mp3s\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n When your mp3 has uploaded, the screen will refresh, and the status of the song will change to \u2018Pending approval\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Pending approval\u2019 means that it has been sent to our music supervisor for approval, and this could take up to 60 days. <\/span><\/p>\n Why does it take so long? Well, part of the reason Soundreef\u2019s background music catalogue is so popular is that we\u2019re a bit picky about which music we take. Our music supervisors listen to every song submitted to us to make sure it reaches our quality standards and is suitable for background use. It takes time, but it means we can always offer our clients the best music.<\/span><\/p>\n You\u2019re done! You don\u2019t need to do anything else now except put your feet up and make a nice cup of something, but if you\u2019d like to find our more about what happens to your song once it gets past our music supervisors, and how long it will take to start collecting royalties, take a look at our <\/span>blog article<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Still having trouble registering? Get in touch<\/a>!<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Not having trouble registering, but got some comments about the process or suggestions for improvements? <\/span>Get in touch<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n When you click \u2018Next step\u2019, we\u2019ll email the other right holders to tell them that you\u2019ve registered your song(s) with Soundreef. They\u2019ll be invited to register on the site, and they can then agree with the rights split you\u2019ve suggested or propose a new one. You\u2019ll get an email to tell you when they\u2019ve done this.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n We’ll send you an email as soon as someone suggests a different way of splitting the rights to your song. To look at what the other right owner has suggested, click on the link.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll be taken to the Soundreef home page \u2013 click on \u2018Login\u2019 to log in.<\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019ve logged in, you\u2019ll be taken to your dashboard. To look at the new rights split suggestion, click on \u2018Rights management\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n This takes you to the rights management page, where your songs are listed two different tabs: \u2018Rights being negotiated\u2019 (the songs with rights splits still to be agreed) and \u2018Songs ready to complete\u2019 (the songs that have been agreed and can be completed).<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n To agree the split that has been suggested, click on \u2018Accept split proposal\u2019:<\/span><\/p>\n When you accept the split proposal, we\u2019ll email the other users and ask them to accept it too. We\u2019ll email you as soon as they\u2019ve accepted \u2013 for now, you don\u2019t need to do anything else.<\/span><\/p>\n To disagree with what has been suggested, and want to suggest the rights are shared a different way, type what you think the shares should be into the boxes:<\/span><\/p>\n Make sure the rights add up to 100%!<\/span><\/p>\n When you\u2019ve added the new figures, click \u2018Suggest different percentages\u2019 to continue:<\/span><\/p>\n\n
I\u2019ve never used Soundreef before \u2013 take me through the joining process.<\/span><\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\nI own or control 100% of the composition\/publishing and master\/recording rights to my music and I\u2019d like to collect royalties on behalf of all owners<\/h1>\n
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<\/p>\nI’m a composer, author, publisher, label and I only want to manage and collect my own royalties<\/span><\/h1>\n
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What to do when someone has suggested a different rights split<\/span><\/h1>\n
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