Own Your Music ASCAP Catalog Now Entrepreneur Adventure

How a Late Night Decision Could Help You

We added 18 new tracks to our catalog. This could spark your own music entrepreneur adventure. For years, we’ve run Letstalkbeats with a simple but powerful mission. To guide 1,000 rappers and producers become the hero in their own creative and entrepreneurial journey. That’s not just a slogan it’s a call to action rooted in our own lived experience as a business, a team, and an independent artist. But despite that mission we had a confession to make. Even after years of releasing music. Growing a personal collection and library. Heading a household, building a publishing company and running a website and YouTube channel. We never actually personally took the steps to register music on ASCAP. The performing rights organization we signed up with years ago.

That changed this week. In one focused evening session we logged into our ASCAP accounts, dusted off the login info, and got to work. By the end of the night we had successfully registered 9 songs and their 9 instrumental counterparts a total of 18 individual works, each one officially recognized and protected. That single act felt like crossing a line between talking about independence and actually living it. We want to share that moment with you. Not just to celebrate, but to show you how achievable this is. If you’re ready to take your music seriously keep reading.

This blog post isn’t just about us. It’s about you, the artist or producer who may still be releasing tracks on social media. Uploading songs to YouTube without knowing where it all leads. Whether you’re managing projects. Producing records for friends. Just sitting on a hard drive full of unreleased material this is your moment as well. We’re breaking down the why, the how, and the truth about how to own your music catalog. The power you’ve been looking for might already be in your hands.

The Real Meaning of Owning Your Music ASCAP

When we talk about how to own your music catalog. It can sound vague or abstract like something reserved for industry artists with managers and lawyers. But the facts of the matter are ownership starts the moment you create something original. If you wrote the lyrics. Made the beat then recorded the song. To designing the structure you own something. But owning something and registering music with ASCAP to claim it properly are two different things.

Registering your music with a performing rights organization (PRO) like ASCAP is how you officially add your piece of the pie. It’s how you get paid when your music is streamed, performed, played in a venue, used in a YouTube video, or broadcast. Without registration, you’re invisible to the royalty systems that are designed to pay you. They can’t pay you for what they can’t see and as we broke down in the post on how music earns money through licensing, publishing, and services, the royalty system is already built to pay you. You just have to show up in it. And the crazy part? Most independent artists never get around to registering their work. It sits in limbo loved by fans, ignored by the royalty system.

What makes this even more powerful is the fact that the process is completely accessible. You don’t need a team or a distributor to get started. If you’re already registered as a songwriter and publisher with ASCAP (which you can do online in under an hour), you’re 90% of the way there. The last 10% is simply entering your track data, assigning roles, confirming splits, and submitting the form. That’s it. It’s not sexy. It’s not flashy. But it’s the foundation of everything else. Once your songs are registered you’ve planted the flag in your creative territory. And no one can take that away.

Why Both a Songwriter and Publisher Music ASCAP Account Matter

Here’s where a lot of people get stuck on their music entrepreneur adventure. You may already have a songwriter account with ASCAP. That’s great but that’s only half the story. In the world of performance royalties every song has two sides. The writer side and the publisher side. The writer side earns 50% of performance royalties. The publisher side earns the other 50%. If you only have a songwriter account, you’re automatically giving up half your income to a publisher unless that publisher is you.

That’s why we also registered Letstalkbeats Inc. as a publishing entity. By having both accounts one as a songwriter (Our Government Name plus Stage Pseudonym Names) and one as a publisher we can collect 100% of the performance royalties that our music earns. It doesn’t cost a fortune. In fact, ASCAP charges a one-time fee for both types of accounts. They’re yours for life. There’s no recurring cost, no licensing exam, no gatekeeping. Just good business paperwork. And once it’s done, you’re no longer just an artist or producer you’re a business. You’re a rights holder. You’re a publisher.

Having your own publishing account also opens doors including sync licensing libraries, international royalty collection, and the ability to administer other artists’ works. If you want a fuller picture of the royalty types your publishing account unlocks, the breakdown of 13 types of music royalties for songwriters is worth reading alongside this one. It puts you in position to administer other artists’ works. Pitch to sync licensing libraries. Collect royalties internationally and keep your works organized. But most importantly, it means that no money slips through the cracks. Everything you earn on both the creative and business side is accounted for and collected in your name. This is what it means to own your music ASCAP catalog in full.

The Steps We Took (And You Can Too)

On the night we set out to register music ASCAP. We didn’t have a big plan. We just knew it had to get done. We logged into our ASCAP publisher dashboard and started with the first song. We entered the title then listed ourselves and Rareformdome as the authors and composers (writer’s). Assigned 25% writer shares to each of us. Next we added Letstalkbeats Inc. as the publisher for both of us with a total of 50% share. The ASCAP system guided us the entire way. It requires a perfect 50/50 split between writer and publisher shares before letting you submit.

We added the recording artist name. The ISRC which we have our own official ISRC codes that we generate. You do not have to trust or rely on digital distributors to create ISRC for you. In a future post we will go into greater detail of how to set this up yourself. Next we added the release date and confirmed that the track had been performed (since it was live on YouTube and our site). If we didn’t use samples or public domain material, we skipped those sections. For instrumentals, we duplicated the submission. We changed the title to add “(Instrumental),” and updated the roles and performer name.

Each submission took just a few minutes. We didn’t need a manager. We didn’t need a label. We didn’t even need motivation we just needed the clarity to take action. By the end of the night, our newest song in our catalog were officially in the system. We were no longer dreaming about being independent we were doing it.

If You’ve Already Released Music Without Registering It Properly

This section is for the Comeback Creator specifically the artist who has been making music for years, may have registered an album or two at some point, but never went back to register the individual works. Or who has 30, 50, even 100 tracks sitting in the world right now without a single one tied to a PRO account. First it’s not too late. ASCAP allows retroactive registration. You can register songs you released years ago. The royalties you missed before registration aren’t recoverable, but from the moment a track is registered it becomes eligible to earn going forward. That alone is worth the session.

The album vs. individual track confusion. This is one of the most common mistakes in independent music especially social media rap and production. Many artists register an album title with their PRO thinking that covers all the songs inside it. It doesn’t. ASCAP and BMI require each composition to be registered individually title, writers, publishers, shares, ISRC, and release date all entered separately. If you registered an album as a single entry, go back and register each track on its own. This is tedious but it’s the difference between partial protection and full coverage.

Collaborations and split sheets are necessary for every piece or project you collaborate on. If any of your released work was made with other producers or writers, each collaborator’s share needs to be reflected in the registration. Without a split sheet documenting the agreed percentages, disputes become complicated quickly. It’s worth reaching out to collaborators now before a placement or licensing opportunity makes the conversation urgent and high-stakes. A simple email with agreed percentages, dated and signed by all parties, is enough to protect everyone.

Keep in mind instrumentals are compositions too. Every beat deserves its own registration not just the version with vocals. If you produced an instrumental and someone else added lyrics, both the original composition and the derivative work may need separate entries depending on the agreement. When in doubt, register both. The goal is not perfection on the first pass. The goal is momentum. Register what you can this week. Build the habit. Your catalog is already working harder than you know give it the protection it deserves before the next opportunity arrives.

What You’re Really Doing When You Register a Song

To register music with ASCAP isn’t just about paperwork. You’re affirming that your music exists. That you stand behind it. You’re saying, this work has value and I claim it. You’re tying your name, your publisher, and your rights to something that could be played, streamed, sampled, or licensed for years to come. And you’re doing it in a way that makes sure you’re never excluded from the money or recognition you deserve.

This action also comes with responsibility. Once you own your music catalog you become the administrator of your creative output which connects directly to the case for self-published music and why controlling your rights from the beginning changes what’s possible later. That means tracking registrations, updating metadata, and staying informed. But don’t let that scare you this is the part where you become a real player in your own game. You stop chasing placements and start building a business that can stand the test of time.

And here’s what makes it even more powerful royalties last. Your songs can earn income years from now. Maybe even decades. Every registration is a seed planted in the ground, and as long as people are listening, those seeds can grow. So whether it’s YouTube views, sync placements, or live shows registered music on ASCAP gets you paid.

For the Ones Who Haven’t Started Yet

We want to speak to you the producer still making beats. The rapper releasing songs one link at a time. We see you. And we want you to know. You don’t have to wait to be a big name in art before you act like you matter. You already do. This post isn’t meant to pressure you. It’s here to share what’s possible. Even if you’re not ready to register music ASCAP today. You can begin preparing. Write down your track titles. Learn what an ISRC is. Read one article about PRO’s. That’s enough. That’s your first step toward real ownership. Ownership isn’t just for people with a team. It’s for people with intention. And if you’re here, still reading this? You’ve got that.

Final Thoughts You Don’t Need Permission Just Purpose

Our registration night wasn’t glamorous. It wasn’t public. No one livestreamed it. But to us, it was a milestone. We went from hoping to build something real… to actually doing it. And that’s what we want for you. If you need a sign, this is it. If you need a guide, we’re here. Let Letstalkbeats be a flare as you take these steps. Because whether you’re registering your first song or your one hundredth, you’re on the path to truly own your music. The dream isn’t out of reach. It’s right there waiting for you to pick it up.

Registration is one act. Building the system around it is the next. If this post gave you the push to finally get your catalog protected, the next move is making sure that momentum doesn’t stop at ASCAP. The Goal Setting Blueprint is the practical structure for building a music business that’s intentional from here forward registrations, income streams, and creative goals all moving in the same direction.

And if you’re performing live or plan to Show Money Secrets breaks down exactly how to make sure you’re being paid from every performance. PRO registration and performance income are two sides of the same coin.

→ From Chaos to Clarity: Goal Setting Blueprint → Show Money Secrets

Justin David

Creative man • Philosopher • Artist • Producer