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Any feedback on this I would really appreciate. I told a few bands that I would shop their music for a good exclusive library deal if I could keep 20% of what the songs earn. They totally agreed to this and think that its fair as they don’t want to deal with submitting to libraries. Since its a UK company, they base everything on 100% publishers share and 100% writers share even though its actually 50 to publishers and 50 to writers. So since I will have to take a cut of the writers share, would I actually need to take 40% of the writers share based on 100% since that actually would only be 20% of the total royalties? What are your thoughts on that percentage does that seem fair? Or I could just take 20% of writers share, leaving 80% to the artist, but that would only actually pay me 10% on any placements, and I have done quite a bit of work with nothing up front submitting them to places. Any thoughts?
I could keep 20% of what the songs earn.
That’s pretty vague. 20% of what? Is that just the writers share? Writer and publisher share? Sync fees?
If it’s just the writers share the split would be the same. Some PROS look at the total differently. If it’s a PRO that looks at 200% (100% writer, 100% publisher) your cut would be 20% of the writers share.
If the PRO looks at 100% (50% writer, 50% publisher) your cut would still be 20% of the writers share.
The monies come out the same either way.
The following is just for performing royalties…
In the UK there is no 100% publisher’s share and 100% writer’s share, there’s just a total 100% of performing royalties which usually gets split 50% to the writers and 50% to the publishers.
From what I’ve learnt, PRS will not accept a track being registered with them where the total performing royalty percentage to writers is under 50%. I.e. if there’s one writer only then he/she must have at least 50%. If there are multiple writers then they must collectively have at least 50%.
So to be honest, I’m not sure how you would do it in this case. There are some ways I’ve seen but I have no personal experience with them so am not sure how good they are – those being, you take a cut of the publisher’s share, or, you become a ‘writer’ on the track and take a cut that way. You need to hear from someone who’s got experience with this I think.
Also, it might be worth you calling PRS and asking them what they normally do in these situations.. Sometimes they are pretty helpful.
Hi Mojorising,
I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to achieve? You’re trying to earn 20% of everything? You’re trying to find them a publishing deal whilst acting as a publisher/manager yourself yourself? I run an exclusive production music library and a sync library for signed acts and work directly with artists or other publishers. If I signed up one of your bands I wouldn’t really consider a sub-publishing deal like this as it would be unfair on the band. It seem’s you just want to take a % of earnings from the band which makes the writers/publishers split irrelevant. If you sign a contract for 20% all earnings (gross or net) that would be the deal full stop. I don’t consider this a fair deal personally unless the band were rewarded handsomely or if you could absolutely guarantee earnings for the band in question.
What you you consider your role as in this case?
Matt
Whilst I don’t hate your being a middleman here, this is one of those that you need to chalk up to your lack of experience and be clear on in future.
I don’t know about your contract and I’m not in a position to advise, but from an ethical point of view, you should take the lesser amount if there’s any confusion and clarify that contractually, because:
a) The confusion is your fault.
b) Regardless of the contract, if you claim that 20% includes the publisher’s share, the band won’t hear that – they’ll hear that they signed up for 80% and now they’re getting 60%.I’m interested in this because I tried to do exactly the same deal. It seems to require being a publisher with PRO registration in order to make the admin work. I am, but even so it’s a tricky deal to get right for everyone.
My conclusion was that I didn’t know enough about the business to make the offer or bring enough to the table. Ashley’s point above is a good one imho.
Also, while it seems a good deal for the artist given the work involved in placing the tracks, I’m not sure 20% is a viable percentage when the biz is becoming more difficult.
If someone with suitable experience and good contacts offered me the deal as a composer I might take it, so it seems a fair one to me. The contract just needs to say 20% of total earnings to be taken from wherever it can be taken. But to get any back-end would (I think) mean publishing the tracks and registering the publisher interest.
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