When Should I Submit Alternate Spellings to Collection Societies?

Just ask 50 Cent and Prince.

Alternate spellings should be added to any song that uses numbers, letters, or slang to represent certain words. This helps collection societies better identify your work if it contains ambiguous words or phrases.

Some examples would be 50 Cent’s breakthrough single “In Da Club” (alternate title: “In the Club”) and the Sinéad O’Connor smash “Nothing Compares 2 U” (alternate title: “Nothing Compares to You”), which was written by Prince and was originally performed by his side project The Family.

A similar alternate title situation would be songs that feature A-list artists. For instance, 50 Cent’s “My Life” track could be written out as either “My Life ft. Eminem, Adam Levine” or “My Life ft. Eminem”.

Interested in learning more? Check out our Blog Post: Seven Mistakes to Avoid When Registering Songs.

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