Round the World in 80 days with copyrights

I have been contacting for the copyright of a song "Undivided" to be included as the theme song for Frontline's next CD.

Early in April, I had contacted the original artist "First Call" about the song. They said they could not have the authority to grant us the right and suggested me to browse a website www.songfile.com to look for the right holders. I found that the song was 2/3 held by BMG music and 1/3 was held by Pamela Kay Music. Then I called BMG HK office and they could provide us a 2/3 license to use the song. They have tried to contact other sub-publishers in Hong Kong for me but still couldn't find the right person for the remaining 1/3.

Weeks had passed and numerous e-mails, cold calls had been made. The remaining 1/3 was still "Empty". Then I asked Peter Kam and he suggested me to browse another website www.ccli.com to look for whom is handling the rights for Pamela Kay Music. I looked for the "Asia-Pacific Region" of the site and foud that Crossroad publishing in Australia is handling the remaining 1/3!

Of course I sent them e-mail immediately for enquiries. They replied quickly and said they just had the right to grant license for use in Australia and New Zealand only and they suggested me to contacted EMI Christian Music Publishing in US. However, EMI music group in US replied and said they only handled US and Canada market and suggested me to contact EMI Music Japan for the Asia market. Making phone call to Japan and speak in English to a Japanese was a bad experience to me and finally they replied ... ... as expected ... ... that they only handled the Japanese market!

Actually, EMI Christian Music Publishing and EMI music in US are two different companies. With the help of a friend in San Francisco, EMI-CMG finally responded and they are now processing our application.

From the start I contacted for the song, it has been 80 days that I "travelled" from US -> HK ->US -> Australia -> US -> Japan -> US. I hope I can claim asiamiles from these "trips" and redeem an air ticket for our concerts worldwide!