Resources
Here are some useful sites and articles. If you would like to contribute more of the same, please use the comments section to do so. Many of these I picked up from IndigiMusic.
TIN – Taxpayer Identification Number: Obtaining a U.S. Taxpayer Identification Number or TIN if you live outside of the U.S. but working with a U.S. based company. More here…
Keeping Track Of Your Music: How do you keep track of your submissions to the various music libraries and projects? Who accepted and who rejected? More here…
Performing Rights Organizations – U.S.
Educational
“The Independent Artists Guide To Pricing Music”The price is $9.99 but I found it very informative. I have no financial interest in this. Just good info.
Film Music Magazine Knowledgebase
Video: Taxi interview with Matt Hirt – Earning Your Living with Film & TV Placements
Part 1, Part 2, Part3, Part4, Part5, Part6, Part7
Taxi article: “Music Libraries – So What’s The Big Deal?”
Article from Nervous Records Cyf: Mechanical Income
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Here’s an article I came across , which some of you may already be familiar with. It’s written by Gael, who i still believe is part of the musicsupervisor.com team.
http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=3574
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For the brits amongst us, OUR PRO is PRS FOR MUSIC :-
http://www.prsformusic.com/Pages/default.aspx
nOW DONT QUOTE ME ON THIS, BUT I believe that these days you can become a member for free; when i joined you had to not only produce the proof that youd already had your work broadcast on tv/ radio etc, but you had to make a one-off payment too. Now, it all comes out of your first PRO backend money.
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How strange, in that in the FAQ’s section, the foreign performance royalties section info doesnt lead to info, but a holding page which says redirecting to homepage as page as moved..great.
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ahh..
“Do I need to join overseas societies?
We have reciprocal agreements with the vast majority of our sister societies throughout the World who collect, distribute and account to us for broadcasts and performances of our members repertoire in their territory. You are therefore effectively already covered by your membership for the world.
For collection of mechanical royalties in a specific overseas territory, the most efficient way for you to do this is by looking at joining an overseas collection society. If this is not an appropriate option you may wish to find a sub-publisher that is willing to represent you. If neither of these options are right for you, MCPS can collect your overseas royalities on your behalf.
Please note, MCPS only licenses in the UK.
”
In case anyone was breaking a sweat due to the above post, the general FAQ page is still helpful.
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Here’s some info on the value of publishing agreements:-
http://www.majormusiccontacts.com/publishers.php
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Some here may be familiar with this one. Im not sure if it’s still being updated, as it looks as if the last entry was in june this year.
http://www.themusicsnob.com/
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Directories of A&R folks (labels, film/TV supervisors) are, for the most part, pretty worthless. Most label folks don’t take unsolicited submissions from unknown sources so having their contact info has little value. Film/TV music supervisors tend to only care about their current project’s specific needs which can be very narrow. A general CD for them to keep on file is a dust gatherer or trash item.
Lists of publishers, if you are pitching songs for artists may have more value- except the really big ones also don’t take unsolicited. But, you really don’t have to pay for a directory to get lots of names. There are plenty of lists of publishers on the internet.
That is not to say that if you had these lists and had the time, energy and sales/personal skills to spend every day marketing to them– phone calls, letters, emails, etc. you could not make any inroads. It takes a very skilled sales person with cold calling chops (most musicians are not like that) with nothing but time on their hands and no need to actually make money to put food on the table.
HTH
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Ive already put this up in the SCORBE section, but this is a useful thread from another site. You may recognise some of the names from here too, but on the whole , this is a rundown of some of the libraries mentioned here, by Gael Macgregor.
http://musicpal.groupsite.com/discussion/topic/show/182014?page=2
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I actually run a free site which interviews film and game composers – ranging from amateur to professional:
http://www.filmandgamecomposers.com
I just do it in my free time, to help other composers out and so that people get information on composing, equipment etc. and get to meet other composers aswell.
Hopefully you might find it handy…
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Just curious how people keep track of all of their songs/cues/tracks. I’ve just lately started up a google docs spreadsheet of all of my tracks, and all the websites they are on. On a seperate page on the spreadsheet, I’ve also done up a track description for each track, and a large amount of tags possible for each track. I’ve found this really helpful to keep track of where and what I need to upload, aswell as make sure I’m keeping all of my tracks with the same description and tags – not having to make up new ones because I forgot what I wrote the last time.
Just wondering if anyone does anything similar?
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I built a relational database (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database)
using Alpha 5 Software: http://www.alphasoftware.com/.
I like going this route as it so easy to massage the data. When I need to I can export the data in whatever format someone needs, Excel, PDF, etc. I also use it to create addendums to contracts as I add music to their catalogs.
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Emmett Cooke, January 14th, 2010 at 4:56 pm Reply:
That looks interesting! Never even heard of a relational database before. Sounds really handy. Quick question – do you have like a list of all of your tracks you have available for licensing in that, and do update it straight away once you’ve made a new track?
Also, out of curiosity, if you don’t mind me asking, how many tracks have you got in your catalog? Feel free not to answer if you don’t want to honestly
I’m just curious, as I’m trying to slowly but surely build up a small catalog – I know its quality over quantity – I’ve learnt that so far definitively, but I’m just curious how much other people have out there
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I have most of it in there but there are quite a few tracks that are finished that need editing so I haven’t gotten around to those yet. I do update the database as soon as I finish something. I found you can get behind very quickly if you don’t.
I started doing this back in 2005. We (my wife and I) created a lot of stuff, fast, for a production company. In retrospect I think our newer stuff is better but that being said that old stuff is on the air constantly. There are so many sides to library music. Ours is mostly under lifestyle type shows. It doesn’t pay much but I think quantity is the key for this type of writing. One of the reasons I like it is that I have a short attention span:-) These types of shows only use a few seconds at a time so we never write anything longer than a minute, two at the very most. I also like that fact that I get to write in just about any genre I want. There always seems to be a home somewhere for it.
We probably have about 300 – 400 tracks at this time.
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Emmett Cooke, January 19th, 2010 at 12:44 pm Reply:
Thanks for the info Art. I’m now trying to catch up on all of my tracks as I never really uploaded them with great descriptions or keywords etc.
I now have a spreadsheet with a list of about 40-50 tracks, with a good description, a list of keywords, then another list of top 10, or top 20 keywords that can describe a track for those libraries that limit you to selecting only 10 or 20.
Wonder if anyone else does the same, or has any tips/hints?
Emmett
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I’ve just written an article on how to sell and license your own tracks via your own website – you guys might find it interesting hopefully
I tested a number of the widgets that are available out there – might be worth a read:
http://www.scorecastonline.com/2009/10/making-money-from-your-music-part-2.html
Emmett
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Art, January 19th, 2010 at 1:11 pm Reply:
Thanks Emmett, nice article. I’ve been wrestling with this for a couple of months but want to go the “open source” way. I’m pretty familiar with Zencart as I have an e-commerce site at http://tlracks.com that I built using it. Unfortunately it doesn’t handle music very elegantly. I’ve played with Joomla using Virtuemart and that comes close. Also tried a number of open source shopping carts and some Wordpress plugins. Still haven’t found what I’m looking for yet. My BIG thing is that I want to be able to export my music database, that includes all of my metadata, and import it directly into the license site I build. I’ve gotten very close. Once I find it I will write a post on my solution.
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Yea I was thinking on going that route aswell Art. My favourite store was the xml mp3 store (www.xmlmp3store.com), as its the best out there.
In terms of actual web store software, have you tried Opencart? http://www.opencart.com
Its got some beautiful themes, for instance:
http://themeforest.net/item/sancart-opencart-template/59996
Are you looking for software with a built in mp3/music player for it? Its something I’ve been really interested in for ages…
Emmett
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Art, January 19th, 2010 at 1:52 pm Reply:
Yep, tried that and yes it’s great looking and very straight ahead but (as with most of them) I don’t want or need images. Getting that out of the templates can sometimes be a hassle as well as presenting the music in a straight forward way. I like Mark’s site at http://www.musicloops.com and am going for that look. Also check out prestashop. It’s new and French so there’s not a big community yet. If I spoke French it would be easier. And, yes, finding the great mp3/music player is another thing. Hmmm, maybe I’ll start a thread on setting up ones own license store. I think a lot of folks would be interested in this.
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Emmett Cooke, January 29th, 2010 at 4:41 pm Reply:
Have you ever seen this?
http://www.allmusiclibrary.com/
I spoke to the owner one – he made it himself, and its only his tracks on there. He said he makes a fair bit from the site, and would consider selling the template for the website that he made. Also, not sure if you saw this:
http://deliveryscript.com/ – I use this for my albums (http://sonicoctave.com/album.html)
Let me know if you need any help with ideas/feedback or anything – I’d like to help you out with this
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Art, January 29th, 2010 at 5:24 pm Reply:
Nice job on the allmusic site. I’ve finally found a way to build it with Wordpress. I understand it the best and I like the fact that I’ll be able to populate the MYSQL database with an Excel spreadsheet upload. Thanks for the links!
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Question – we all know a lot about libraries between us all, we know what musicians/composers need etc. Why don’t we all get together and make our own library? Between us all we know what features it needs, what prices, what payout (90/10 to the composer?) etc. Just a thought…
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Art, January 29th, 2010 at 5:13 pm Reply:
Yes, my wife and I were kicking around the idea of a co-op but not sure how that would work.
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Emmett Cooke, January 29th, 2010 at 5:16 pm Reply:
Yea was thinking the same – co-ops never *usually* work – the more people, the harder it is. I do think that composers generally know best whats for composers – as long as they are still working as composers and therefore have their best interests in mind.
Btw – have you looked at Drupal?
Emmett
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Art, January 29th, 2010 at 5:25 pm Reply:
Didn’t get to Drupal and you are right about co-ops. Tricky to make them work fairly.
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Nathan, May 1st, 2010 at 6:23 pm Reply:
Tho if a few composers from MLR ever did decide to create a library site, I would definitely be interested in joining:)
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Art, January 29th, 2010 at 5:14 pm Reply:
BTW I am getting much closer to developing a way for composers to start their own licensing site with opensource software. Stay tuned.
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For any Nashville area musicians or those that like to travel.
Nashville Film Festival April 15-22
http://www.nashvillefilmfestival.org/
Panels and Discussions
http://filmnashville.org/panel-and-workshops-at-nashville-film-festival-2010/
Music Supervisors: The ABC’s of Song Placement and Licensing
Green Hills Cinema – Theater 5
Wednesday, Apr 21, 2010 2:15 PM
Understanding exactly how to submit your songs for film or TV can make
the difference between getting that song placed or having it wind up
in the “circular file.” The 2010 panel of top music supervisors
includes Randall Poster (FANTASTIC MR. FOX), Maureen Crowe (THE YOUNG
VICTORIA), Susan Jacobs (LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE), and Greg Sill (IN
PLAIN SIGHT). They will discuss how to submit your songs to maximize
your chances; how to build lasting relationships; and how technology
is changing licensing. Jim Scherer (Whizbang, Inc) will moderate.
Please note: panelists subject to change.
Tickets are $15
There are a couple of other Music related workshops also.
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Article by Ron Mendelsohn, President and CEO of Megatrax and a founding member of the PMA.
Should You Sign With A Non-Exclusive Retitled Library?
http://www.shootonline.com/go/index.php?name=Release&op=view&id=rs-web2-5133165-1272980501-2
If there is a better spot for this, please move it Art. Thanks for all you do.
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Just a quick note/question. I’m looking at a contract at the moment and was advised by someone that if your “output” ie. music is produced in your country, then your laws are applicable to it, and not the US or wherever.
For example, I live in Ireland, and am thinking on signing a contract for the US. One part in it states that “This agreement has been entered into and is to be interpreted in accordance with the Laws of the State of CA. All actions …seeking the interpretation shall be brought to the State or Federal Courts” etc.
Apparently this would need to apply to your own country – for Ireland it should be interpreted in accordance with the Laws of Ireland and brought to the High Court – and therefore should be ammended on the contract. If a court case is brought up, then you’re going to be liable for the court fees in the US ($50k possible)
Does anyone have any comments on this at all? Any European composers to chime in here?
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