Artists' legal names in composers field

A long while back, I was told to instruct artists to put their legal names in the Composers field of their metadata.

If this is not a requirement and artists can use whatever names they choose, let me know so that I can update the Submitting Music guide. @richjensen @melis_tailored

This website gives a complicated answer:

Composer

The composer field is where things get a little more tricky…

Performance Rights Organisations

The composer name is usually the legal name of the credited writer(s), not the artist alias they perform under.

Some writers decide to exercise their moral rights to be credited for works under a pseudonym.

This depends what name you have registered under with your Performance Rights Organization (PRO).

You will typically credit every writer involved. Also, the percentage of credits they have for the composition and all of their PRO identification numbers, known as CAE/IPI numbers.

This should be relatively simple if you’re signed to a PRO. Your ID number will be available to you from their site or in their correspondence.

Getting an ID number from other artists can be trickier.

Collaborations

In the instance of any collaboration, you should always fill out a split sheet with your collaborators. With this, you agree to the splits of the ownership of the song and take note of your collaborators PRO CAE/IPI numbers.

If your collaborator isn’t registered to a PRO, you can leave that out in the song metadata. – But, always outline the credit split.

Your Composer metadata should look as follows:

“Elliott John Gleave (50%) (PRS #00045620792) / Jimmy Rick (50%) (PRS #00045620793)”.

If there is another writer:

“Elliott John Gleave (33.33%) (PRS #00045620792) / Jimmy Rick (33.33%) (PRS #00045620793) / Tim Burtford (33.33%) (PRS #00045620793)”.

The percentages should reflect whatever was agreed upon between you and your collaborators.

Maybe the most straight-forward guidance we could give to artists would be along the lines of:

Resonate relies on the artist entering the correct name in the Composer field to help us report their streams accurately to PROs. PROs collect income on behalf of songwriters and music publishers when a song is publicly broadcast (including streaming).

  • If the artist is registered with a PRO, they should enter the name they used when registering with the PRO.
  • If the artist is not currently registered with a PRO but may be in the future, they should enter the name that they would likely use when registering (typically their legal name).
  • If the artist has no interest in registering with a PRO, they can enter any name they like (legal name, artist name, pseudonym, etc.).
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This seems like a good phrasing to me. From my perspective, I’ve been paid by PROs either as Mowukis or LLK they have both names so I don’t see this as a hurdle, and if you’re not with any PRO you don’t really care it’s kinda your problem I think (you either value privacy more or being able to track down your legal name if there’s a copyright issue more basically).

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Yep, this was roughly what I was thinking when I encountered this a few weeks back (and had planned on writing something up).

My only additions would be around registered pseudonyms (e.g. Bono).

My suggestions in bold/italic below

  • If the artist is registered with a PRO, they should enter the name they used when registering with the PRO (e.g. legal name or registered pseudonym).
  • If the artist is not currently registered with a PRO but may be in the future, they should enter the name that they would likely use when registering (typically their legal name or a registered pseudonym).
  • If the artist has no interest in registering with a PRO, they can enter any name they like (legal name, artist name, pseudonym, etc.).
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