Hi ChugKendall, please read this carefully as I hope you will find it helpful. I put myself in the position of Pandora and I was able to find you on songview, which is a searchable database that gives a combined view of all BMI and ASCAP works, and I take it you are KENDALL CHRISTOPHER DOUGLAS with ASCAP IPI# 00339188532. I also saw the two of you set up a publishing company (in name, anyway) for your songs called TIPTOE THROUGH THE TWO LIPS MUSIC PUBLISHING with ASCAP IPI# 00339175447. So, next I know that the MLC requires a valid publisher email by law and also the MLC maintains a publicly available searchable database. https://portal.themlc.com/search#work So, going to the MLC portal, I entered your publishing company name and also the names of your songs and I can't find you! Now I know that if I could find you there, I would therefore be able to provide for your a "publicly available website that displays the email address" of your official publisher, anyway, and Pandora could use that email to verify you. But a bigger problem is that you seem to be worried about your album cover not showing, but you're clearly not registered to collect all your royalties, so I think getting registered to collect all your royalties is a bigger problem. And, as a bonus, if you do so, you'll have a workaround for this problem. Let's talk about royalties that your songs receive from a streaming site like Pandora. Pandora is an excellent example, because streams from Pandora Premium accounts pay royalties in one way, and streams from Pandora Free accounts pay royalties in another way, so between them, you'll be fully covered for royalties all online streaming sites and all radio. Interactive streams are what Pandora Premium streams are, where users have specific control over what they hear. These forms of streams get three revenue streams: a) song public performance rights (performance royalties - which ASCAP will collect for you) b) song reproduction and distribution rights (mechanical royalties - which the MLC will collect for you https://portal.themlc.com - the MLC was set up by the US government as a nonprofit NGO that is officially responsible for collecting and paying out these royalties) c) sound recording reproduction and distribution rights (note this is for the sound recording not the song - which your distributor should be collecting. Now, you've indicated above you don't have a distributor. You should have one because you're losing a lot of earnings. Personally I use RouteNote. They allow me to distribute my songs online and they have no never charged me a penny, just instead they take a 15% share of all the revenues I generate that come through them. They do also have a plan I can switch to at any time where I can choose to pay fixed amounts and that plan is one of the best I've seen, but for now I'm better off with the zero cost plan I'm on. So, you could go from getting 0% to 85% of these royalties overnight, and RouteNote could fix your album artwork, as a bonus. Non-interactive streams are what Pandora Free streams are, which are much more like Internet radio, where as a listener I can choose a station but not a specific song. These forms of streams get two revenue steams: a) song public performance rights (performance royalties - which ASCAP will collect for you) b) sound recording digital performance rights (note this is for the sound recording not the song - which SoundExchange collects (https://sxdirect.soundexchange.com/login/?next=/) SoundExchange, like the MLC, was set up by law and is similarly a non-profit NGO that is officially responsible for collecting and paying out these royalties. So, it seems like you probably should be prioritizing getting registered on the MLC, SoundExchange, and a distributor (like RouteNote or whatever one you choose). And, then, your life will be much easier and your wallet will be fatter. I will note that two potential revenue streams the above 4 organizations will not cover are a) sync revenues like from TV or movies, but if you ever place a song on a huge movie, you can research that, and b) if you want to try to monetize your lyrics (I wouldn't bother unless your songs become a lot more popular - if they do, you can research that) If this was helpful to you maybe add a NADRIP song to your playlist if you like it.
... View more
