14 years ago my band did a CD, and those of us who had original songs filled out BMI clearance forms. I had four songs on the CD, and I hate filling out forms, and I figured I'd never see dime one from any of them, but wotthehell...
In 1998 my new band recorded three of the tunes from the old band's album. They're copyrighted, and they're in BMI's catalog (I figured) so there was no formal publishing, and I didn't assign it to anyone, so I didn't pay it much mind.
Sometime between 1998 and 2006 three of the songs got played on XM Radio.
Last week I finally registered online with BMI so I didn't have to fill out the damn paper forms again, plus I wanted to change my way out of date address, plus I've got a cut on a friend's album coming out in March.
Once I got online I looked under the "Statements" section expecting to see nothing. Instead I see a statement for 4th quarter 2006 indicating BMI tried to send me 89 bucks and change!
Needless to say the other 15 songs that have appeared on handshake albums and other projects over the past are now registered.
Moral of story: Never overlook the power of a correctly filled out and mailed form.
