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Hi all,
I’m new to the music library industry so I’m looking for some answers. My PRO is BMI. One of the libraries I submit work to recently told me that they received a cue sheet from CBS, and listed was a track of mine (a couple minutes worth of music).
From the research I’ve done on MLR, is my assumption correct that BMI doesn’t issue any of this information for its members to see (outside of quarterly royalty statements)?
If the above is correct, does that mean that I’ll never really know how any of my music’s doing until I receive (or don’t receive) quarterly royalty statements? I’d just be sort of siting in the dark hoping that something happens because there’s no way to check in the meantime?
This would be my first TV placement and I know I wouldn’t see any royalties on this particular placement until the end of this year/beginning of next. As for the rest of the process, I’m pretty unsure how it all would work. I’m just looking for a means to be able to check whether my music’s getting placed or not….because not all libraries seem to deal much with alerting their composers about placements (unless it’s something sizeable).
I hope I’m making sense of this. Thanks for any information you can provide.
BMI doesn’t issue any of this information for its members to see (outside of quarterly royalty statements)?
Correct.
I’m just looking for a means to be able to check whether my music’s getting placed or not….
https://tunesat.com/tunesatportal/home/pricing. You can get a free account for 50 songs.
Mike, There is a whole lot of waiting in this business! As Art has said It’s a Long Game. So I guess we have to have Patience (I hate that part) I don’t have Tunesat but at ASCAP my PRO, they do post Cue Sheets. I admit I check in there almost everyday, It’s maybe a unhealthy compulsion. But I bet others here also do that. I hope I’m not the only one.
I don’t know why one does that and not the other but the general thinking around here is BMI is better than ASCAP at picking up placements. I don’t really know if that is so. Some think SESAC is the best. I don’t know about that either. I do know the more material and more useful material you have in more and better places the more chances you have.
I check BMI every day,sometimes twice.Maybe there’s some kind of 12 step program to help cut that out.
The timing on this stuff is glacial. It takes years not months to get the ball rolling. You got a Network placement on CBS. Your music must be in the Ball Park. You’re on the right track. That placement should show up in 3 to 6 months ( or longer) on your BMI statement with some money. And than it will show up again and again over time in repeats and internationally hopefully, with a little more money. Meanwhile you may get more and they will start stacking up. I wish it was a lot faster myself. I think of my catalog as a long term investment, it accumulates value over time. Like investing $100 a month in mutual funds. At first not much. With compounding over time it adds up to something.
Mike in this business it is going to take a ton of patience, persistence and perseverance. There are times you will find out that you had a placement in a couple of months and at times in a year. I sometimes find out while watching TV and heard my music in something.
Get used to no one telling you when or how your music was used. All you can do is what it sounds like you’ve done already. You can’t sit around pondering and wondering what your music is doing. It gets you no where. Concentrate on producing and submitting your music. Once in the library, forget about it. If it fits something someone wants to use it for they will and then at some point in your royalties statement it will show up or you’ll hear about it through your tunesat report.
You were lucky that the library mentioned the use at all. A lot of libraries don’t do that. If you want to know what show it was in simply email the library and ask what the cue sheet said. They most likely will tell you. Now you can tell your wife you had music used on CBS 🙂
mike, i feel your pain! my wife asks similar questions all the time and thinks it’s crazy getting paid on the quarter system. i’ve had music placed in various cable shows and still waiting to see how it pays off. just wait until the payout is decent before telling your wife! i recently had 9 secs of music used 5 times on a cheesy reality show on ReelZ channel. grand payout?? 98 cents!!! compose, submit, forget, rinse, repeat…
What cue sheets and music usages won’t tell you is how much money you might make.
That involves at least 4 things:
1) How much music was used,
2) Whether it was a network, cable, local affiliate or internet use,
3) What time of day (day part) the performance occurred, and now
4) How the show did in the ratingsAll of the above will determine how much you get paid. I had 2 minutes of music on a CBS sports special in “prime time” (before they started to count ratings). I think it paid about $250-$350.
On the other hand, I’ve had 2 minutes of music on a Saturday morning kid’s show on 135 FOX affiliates,that paid about $25.
Good luck. Keep at it.
_Michael
i’m on BMI and from my placements so far,there’s only one show that posts on my BMI account the cue sheets before the quarter ends.Still,they only post the # of the episode and which track(s) was used.No info about the duration and how much $ the placement generated,that kind of info comes only with the quarterly statement.
Also,BMI states that if you’ve earned less than $250 in a quarter,the money will be transferred to your next statement (or whenever you exceed the $250 mark – this means you don’t get a statement until you reach $250).At least that’s for those who live overseas,maybe it’s not the same for a U.S. citizen (i’m not sure but i remember something about a very low limit for the U.S. citizens,something like $20?again i could be wrong,maybe someone else could share some info about it)If your track was placed this January/February,then it should appear on your September statement.
And,yes,you’re lucky your library told you this!Usually you only know about your placements when you get the quarterly statements 😉