Are you a songwriter or a starting music publisher looking for ways on how to organize your music efficiently? Bear in mind that organizing properly your music is highly important if you want to become a successful songwriter and a music publisher.
This is particularly helpful if you have a lot of original songs under your catalog. The truth is that you can organize your music using the available and free tools in your Windows computer. You do not need to buy some expensive music catalog software just to get your work organized. OK let’s get started… If you need to organize your music, it is highly important that it contains the following information:
First phase
1.) The official song title, this is also known as the work title.
2.) Last date updated- when was the last time you have updated any information pertaining to that song.
3.) Does the songwriting process completed?
4.) Does it have a complete broadcast quality recorded version?
5.) Does the mixing process completed?
6.) Does mastering process already done?
7.) What is the version of the recording? Is it a multi-track, live or an acoustic version?
Below is the sample screenshot how you will organize the above information using an Excel spreadsheet:
how to organize music catalog 1
The above table clearly tracks your progress; for example it says that you still have some work to do on the red items and the following songs have this following recorded versions, etc.
Second phase
This phase is just the continuation of columns in the Excel spreadsheet which is not shown in the previous screenshot. The following are the information you need to organize:
8.) Does the sound recording work have been registered to the copyright office? If yes, what is the copyright registration number? This is optional if you are the owner of the sound recording copyright, otherwise put N/A.
9.) Does the song (lyrics and music) been registered to the copyright office?
10.) Does the work been registered to a performance right society like ASCAP?
11.) Does the work been officially published for licensing? If yes, where?
12.) What is the estimated song rating? This is important in knowing the quality songs in your catalog. This may change from time to time as you have more information pertaining to the popularity of that song (from customer feedbacks, download data, etc). Below is the screenshot of the Excel spreadsheet for the second phase:
music catalog 2
So using the organizing tips above, you will know those songs in your music catalog which are not copyrighted yet or registered in the performance right societies. Also under “catalog”, you will notice a “link”. It is actually a link pointing to the published catalog URL.
For example for the song “Dream”, this is actual URL.
This page contains the official lyrics of the song as well other music production related information.
Third phase
Finally, the following are the last remaining information that you need to organize:
13.) Single copyright registration number released? This is particularly helpful if you manage to release the song as a “single” and you need to apply a copyright registration number to it. This is useful if the song manages to be released in large scale as a single.
14.) The artist performing the recorded version. At first, the original artist is listed, in the coming years; you might add cover artist which you have grant permission to record the song.
15.) Notable licensee – these are your clients for that song. These are your customers.
16.) Date licensed – when was the song licensed?
17.) Licensing plan – if you have any licensing plan, you can include it (for example “free music licensing plan” or “paid licensing plan”, you can even put the licensing fee if you like).
18.) Work to do– this summarizes the entire work to be done in that song. For example if it says “refer to red items”, it means that you have job to do for those red items.
Below is the sample screenshot of third phase:
music catalog 3
You might need to update your music catalog excel sheet once in a month or any time you made an important update. Do not forget to specify “last date update” for tracking purposes.
You can add few more columns you need to track in the future (like for example “songwriter name” if you are hiring songwriters in your music publishing company). Doing this saves a lot of time and makes your songwriting/publishing work efficient.
Content last updated on July 23, 2012