So, I’ve been having an interesting day. I’ve been reconciling my BMI statements and Tunesat detections for Q2 2010 and Q3 2010. I’ve found about 40 usage detections for a show on ESPNU, a college sports network, that does not show up on my BMI statements. It seems that the music was purchased from a royalty free site. Hmmm… I called ESPN and they are looking into it. It may be that they just have not gotten around to filing the cue sheets but I’m very curious. I will keep you posted.
Situation Resolved!
Finally got in touch with the producer of the show and came to a settlement that will just about cover my last two years of Tunesat expenses. A couple of more of these and I’ll be ahead of the game. Of course the check has to clear but so far so good!
So the latest on this story is that the client who purchased the music from the royalty free library has a sync license but not a public performance license. Does having a sync license give them the right to “direct license” a public performance, thus bypassing the PROs? Murky territory for me.
Ah, just got this from ESPN: “Our contract with production requires them to get a performance license.”
So now how much do I hit them up for?
Interesting. If it weren’t for your Tunesat account, you probably never have known about the usage. Keep us posted.
Maybe I could get enough to pay for Tunesat for a year:-)
Art how much does tunesat cost?
You should check with them as the price changes but I think it’s about $50 per month for 100 tracks plus 50 cents per track to fingerprint and a yearly fee of $75. Just guessing here as it’s changed a few times since I’ve started with them. I currently have about 350 tracks, including alts and it’s somewhere between $150 to $200 per month for up to 500 tracks.
geez. You have to be making some money to warrant that with a whole lot of tracks. It’ll be a long time before I could even consider something like that.
Maybe it’s just me but it seems like I could get $1,000 for a tune and spend it all tracking it.
What one has to hope for is that you can make enough money on unauthorized uses to more than pay for Tunesat. As time goes on I can see that’s a potential flaw in their business model. My original reason for signing up with Tunesat was to track about 100 tracks I had running on the Scripps Network that I would eventually get paid for. Turns out they were direct licensed without my knowledge. The upside to that was I that I was able to get all of my copyrights back. Still, as time goes on, if I don’t collect more than it’s costing me I will most likely drop the service.
ESPN does not pay backend royalties so they will never show up on your BMI/ASCAP/SESAC license. However they would still need to have a synch/master license in place in order to use the music. Be careful if you have re-titled some of your tracks Tunesat cannot tell them difference between them since the original recording is the same.
Yes you’re right, they don’t pay performance royalties. How do they get away with that? I know in some cases they make the production company pay them. But that’s if the production was handled elsewhere and aired on one of their networks. It still just doesn’t make sense in my eyes.
Every time you watch one of their studio productions like sports center, there’s a ton of music being used that’s not being paid for.
Direct licensing. And they have staff composers.
Staff composers? Time for my “tin foil hat!”. LOL!
I guess that was years ago, like NFL Films.
Yes, I’m aware Tunesat only determines titles by what I give them. I’m intrigued by where ESPNU they got this music and once I find out, how (or if) they got a synch license.
Hi Art,
How or where they got your tracks, if you didn’t do a direct license, is a good question.
Track that one down. Somebody might have done a blanket deal — and not bothered to tell you!
Keep us posted.
Michael
I’ve been trying to find a number and name for the production company but Google doesn’t turn up anything. Must be a pretty obscure show. I did talk to someone at ESPN who promised to track it down. I will be hounding them:-)
Hey Art,
They probably consider the payment to the “royalty free” site as a direct license. The T&C of the royalty free site probably prohibits composers from going after any performance royalties.
For what it’s worth, if ESPNU did pay performance royalties, it probably wouldn’t be enough money to cover the phone minutes it took to track ’em down..
Yeah, I know there probably isn’t any money there but I’m more curious than anything. I finally tweezed it out of Google that ESPNU is located in Charlotte North Carolina. I’ll be giving them a call Monday.
“it probably wouldn’t be enough money to cover the phone minutes it took to track ’em down..”
Actually much more then the cost of the phone minutes. About two years worth of Tunesat expenses is what I will recover, if the check clears:-)
yes yes!
I was referring to the broadcast royalties if a performance license was in fact granted but mis-paid, it’s good to know you kept on their tails to discover no performance license was issued!!!
The producer is probably calling each writer that has a cue on the show to offer a settlement…i mean “royalty bonus”. All they have to do is sign the handy retro-active direct license form.
This also solidifies that Tunesat is a must have..