Publishers, copyrights, PRO's.....

[peopleperson]

Is there a good spot somewhere that explains these basic concepts? I've been reading quite a bit and I'm still a little confused. Particularly the part about making yourself your own publisher.

I'm essentially looking to sign up with ascap, but I want to make sure all my stuff is in order and figured someone in here knows this stuff.

Thanks in advance.

[songwritten]

I would just go ahead and google everything. You will get MANY good results for each of those topics.

[mikeh]

There are sooo many books and sites that provide information - it is really hard to suggest one over another. Read everything you can get your hands on (vs. say one book/site).

It is very easy to publish your own material - but if you do not have distribution or a way to get the material into the hands of someone who can promote/record it - then self publishing means nothing.

I like to compare it to writing a book. If you write a book and self "publish" a copy, and then have that copy sit on your bookshelf in you bedroom - no one will buy it. You need to get the book into the bookstores - that is what an outside publisher does.

I would rather get 50% of something (the publisher getting the other 50%) then get 100% of nothing (having the book on my bedroom bookshelf).