5 Year Report

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  • #31602 Reply
    Alan
    Participant

    bump! figured it would be nice to hear how the previous posters did last year, and maybe some new “5 year” folks could chime in as well

    +1
    As a newcomer I find great wisdom and inspiration in this thread… I humbly request all you veterans to update us on your progress in 2018.

    Here you go, I guess this is a 9 year report for me, wow!
    2018 Total Income – $23.5K (down about 10% from previous year)
    PRO Income – $11.7K (up about 11%)
    RF Income – about $10K (about the same)
    Sync Fees – about $2K (down about 60%, as expected, I had a lucky 2017)

    I expect I’ll be leveling off now at $20K-$25K annually.
    I only wrote about 25 tracks in 2018, but I’m shooting for higher quality now. I’ve hired session musicians a few times, plus I’m opting to record real instruments over samples as much as possible. That really slows things down, but I’m hoping the better quality will pay off in the long run. I bought a tuba last year, haha!
    My catalog is a little over 300 tracks now.
    I feel like I still don’t know nearly enough about this business, but I have gotten better at spotting a rotten deal.
    My Tunesat Subscription has made me very cynical. Now that I know how often I don’t get paid for my placements, I’m very selective about what goes to exclusive broadcast libraries.
    Good luck in 2019 all!

    #31603 Reply
    boinkeee2000
    Participant

    thanks for the update Alan. I guess if you pretend those lucky one off syncs didnt happen you’d actually be up a bit…

    btw how did that batch of excl tracks work out for you?

    #31604 Reply
    MM_Musicworks
    Participant

    Thank you Alan! Much appreciated!

    By not getting paid for placements, do you mean the exclusive libraries didnt register them correctly with the PRO?

    If so, thats scary!

    #31607 Reply
    Alan
    Participant

    By not getting paid for placements, do you mean the exclusive libraries didnt register them correctly with the PRO?

    No, I mean they license them to Scripps, PBS, BTN, etc that pay very little to no back end.

    #31608 Reply
    MM_Musicworks
    Participant

    Right… Got it… Thanks again! 🙂

    #34264 Reply
    UpFromTheSkies
    Participant

    Going into year 5, and my first quarter ASCAP statement surpassed my entire backend earnings from 2018. Very encouraging, and I owe much of the progress to information gleaned from this site. Thank you all for the wealth of info!

    #34267 Reply
    Art Munson
    Keymaster

    Congrats UpFromTheSkies!

    #34268 Reply
    Pat
    Participant

    I feel like I’m writing more and more tracks but getting basically the same back end money or slightly more. Congrats to UpFromTheSkies tho.

    #34269 Reply
    Kubed
    Participant

    Wow, congrats UpFromTheSkies!

    #34270 Reply
    Art Munson
    Keymaster

    I feel like I’m writing more and more tracks but getting basically the same back end money or slightly more.

    Same here Pat.

    #34271 Reply
    boinkeee2000
    Participant

    Congratz skies! thanks for keeping this thread alive…if i may ask you fivers hows your intl royalties looking compared to domestic?

    #34272 Reply
    UpFromTheSkies
    Participant

    My most recent Int distribution was around 35% of my domestic statement.

    #34273 Reply
    LAwriter
    Participant

    Same here Pat.

    Same here as well. I’ve hit the BMI glass ceiling. Tripled my content “on air” and virtually no BMI growth in the last 3+ years. The problem is twofold IMO – BMI’s draconian “terms and practices” and the fact that streaming pays 4-8% of what Cable pays, and everything is moving over to streaming…. 🙁

    #34274 Reply
    boinkeee2000
    Participant

    LAWriter, trying to make sense of your numbers…if you tripled your placements, and assuming your getting same placement stats as 3 years go, if my math is correct, then its BMI that has decreased payouts by 1/3?

    #34275 Reply
    MichaelL
    Participant

    I’ve hit the BMI glass ceiling. Tripled my content “on air” and virtually no BMI growth in the last 3+ years. The problem is twofold IMO – BMI’s draconian “terms and practices”

    In 2014, BMI altered it “terms and practices” by including a show’s ratings in its royalty calculation. I saw a huge drop from that point forward until 2019. Things picked up as the result of non-TV placements including music used by the Tampa Bay Rays, Universal Theme Park, a Bud Light radio commercial, and “general use” of a 23-year old track in Hong Kong! The last distribution was the best in several years, up about 40% over the quarterly average for 2017- 2019.

Viewing 15 posts - 46 through 60 (of 93 total)
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