As an artist, you are the product. A brand.
Your music is important, yes. But so is your name.
When you’re dealing with industry professionals, your name must be associated with quality, reliability and professionalism.
Artist names and pseudonyms can come in handy when you’re first starting out and/or need a lot of room to experiment (and potentially fail!) in several different genres and musical projects.
When should you consider selling art under a pseudonym?
You are just starting out and not exactly sure in which direction you want to take your career.
Using a pseudonym gives you freedom to make mistakes without damaging your personal brand.
You’re worried that industry professionals won’t take you seriously if you write in lots of different genres.
Using pseudonyms can help create the illusion that you are a specialist. It may reassure people who would normally not give an opportunity to a non-specialist.
You are established as an artist in a certain niche and want the freedom to explore new musical projects.
Using a pseudonym for a side-project gives you freedom to experiment. You can feel free to explore other creative projects without damaging your established brand.
How do pseudonyms work?
Your Performance Rights Organization (PRO) can create pseudonyms for you. Each pseudonym will be associated with your main songwriter account with them.
Note that ASCAP refers to pseudonyms as “alternate names”.
Each artist name will have its own IPI/CAE number.
Whenever a pseudonym IPI/CAE number pops up in a cue sheet or on radio play listings, your PRO will know to pay YOU.
What pseudonyms should NOT be used for?
Pseudonyms are NOT meant to trick people into signing an exclusive deal with you.
If you sign an exclusive deal for one of your songs under Artist Name X, you absolutely SHOULD NOT sell that same song to someone else under Artist Name Y.
That would be a breach of your contract.
This may seem like a weird warning but I did get this question once so figured I should make it crystal clear that that is NOT an appropriate use of pseudonyms and artist names.
Selling art under a pseudonym only makes sense as a marketing strategy or as a way to explore different creative avenues without compromising another name and reputation.
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I’m currently on the BMI site and I don’t see anything there with an option to create a psuedonym. Would I have to sign up for a new account?
Hey there, no need to create a new account as far as I know. It should be as simple as emailing BMI and telling them you’d like to add an artist name to your existing account.
Hi Joyce,thanks for the info.Much appreciated.
Q = when using pseudonyms one for each style/genre of music i write , is it a good idea to also have different gmail (emails) for each of these pseudonyms when contacting music supervisors so they don’t know that the different pseudonyms is me/you?
Thank you for your time.
Hi Ric,
Whatever works best for you!
I try to simplify as much as I can so having different email addresses wouldn’t be my preferred option. I used to have one “label” type of email address that I used to promote different artists.
Hi Joyce, first of all thanks for all the info on this site and your videos! Great stuff! I’m finally taking the step to get into licensing, something I should have done a long time ago.. Trying Songtradr first now. I want to use pseudonyms as well, but is it an alternate artist name, or an alternate writers name that you are talking about? And do I need more then one account for this with Songtradr? As it looks to me now, I can use an alternate artist name to place the song but it lists the same writers name if I have one account. I don’t want it traced back to me haha (in this experimental phase) btw I’m in the process of requesting pseudonyms with my PRO in The Netherlands, but it takes some time of course..
Hey Gertjan,
You can do either, or both.
If my memory serves me well, Songtradr let’s you upload songs from different songwriters so you shouldn’t have to open multiple accounts. Just make sure you include the right name and PRO number when you fill out the songwriter information.
If you’re not sure you’re doing it right, you might want to get in touch with them directly: support@songtradr.com
Thanks for the feedback, I was thinking the same and have asked them if they have these options all in one account, or how to make this possible. Guess we will find out soon!
Hi Joyce, Great helpful article, thank you for all your tips. If you are submitting to multiple stock music sites, (only 1 style of music) do you use the same pseudonym for all sites, or different pseudonyms? (to make it easier / harder for someone to find your materials across different sites? Thanks!
Hi Andy, I use one pseudonym for each different style of music I write in but it’s just one way of doing things and it can be cumbersome. I’d encourage you to experiment with different approaches and find the one that suits you best 🙂
Great advice to consider, thanks for the helpful information!
My pleasure 🙂
Hello!
I think privacy can be important to many people.
Why you are supposed to display your legal name on Spotify and other platforms to the public?
I know some famous musicians work hard to protect their identity.
So pseudonym is a way to go.
Currently I’m working with CD Baby as a distributor for my music release.
I asked their support about the use of pseudonym.
They said it would work, and they will be able to collect the royalties partially through the PRO, however not all the royalties. They didn’t provide more details on what royalties I am missing in this case. Do you have any idea what percentage of the royalties I am potentially losing with pseudonym instead of the full legal name?
I’m with ASCAP if that matters.
Thanks!
Hi Tony, that seems strange. If you create a pseudonym with your PRO and have a dedicated PRO# that you communicate to CD Baby, I’m not sure what the obstacle would be to collect all royalties.
Did you ask CD Baby to explain why they can only partially collect royalties for you in that case?