When a producer has worked up his(or her) tune and can safely say that this tune will have tracks laid down within thirty days, then, and only then, should that tune be reserved on the clearing house list, after confirming it is not already reserved by another producer. This is the day your protection begins. (Note: The Clearing House was never intended to be a “wish list” of songs you would like to produce. It is a reservation of songs with production imminent. As with all other facets of the “Gentlemen’s Agreement,” we must rely on your word of honor. Labels who abuse this and reserve songs that never go into production will be warned, and if the abuse continues, will lose their protection privileges.) When your tune is added to the Clearing House listing, an email should automatically be sent to all members — including you — notifying them of such. (Not everyone is quick to look at the lists so a little advance information can't hurt!)
If you change your mind about a song you have reserved, or accidentally reserve the song more than once, please delete your reservation. Upon deletion, an email should automatically be sent to all CH member – including you – notifying of the removal of the song reservation. Should you mistakenly delete a song, or change your mind again, DO NOT add it again. Contact the Chairman of the Music Producers Committee to have the song re-instated with the original reservation date.
When reserving a current hit, please make every attempt to release that song as quickly as possible, within the confines of your normal business practice. As with every reservation, you have up to 6 months for release, but logic would dictate that sales will be stronger if the song is released during the height of its popularity. This should especially be considered for those running package programs. If it going to be a full year before your next package is ready, it may make more sense to release it as a single, or choose another song and let another label take advantage of the song’s current popularity.
A re-release of an existing title owned by a producer (possibly with new vocal and/or harmony tracks) will be reported to the Clearing House a minimum of 60 days before its release, with an accompanying release date. This re-release will have no protection after its actual release date and, must still abide by the 6-month protection afforded to any other new release of that title. This is to protect a producer who is spending money to make a new cut of an old song. The producer with the re-release has little to no investment in his project while the other could have several hundreds of dollars. We need to try to protect each other. We have all produced enough material that re-releases are going to occur. The last thing we need is to compete with ourselves.
Please take the time to check regularly check your reservations and update the release date information for those songs that have been released. This is YOUR responsibility.
Upon release of a song, be sure to send the release information to Lawrence so it can be added to the database and the “recent additions” area of the Music for Callers website. This is also YOUR responsibility. Keeping your information up to date in the database will increase visibility of your releases and, potentially, increase your sales.