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I’ve read some comments in various library reviews on this site that people were okay-even happy to give up potential sync fees to some libraries in exchange for a single upfront payment. (Some saying about $100 per track as the upfront fee)
To me this seems insane, or am I the crazy one?
I’ve only worked with one small music library. I’ve only landed one custom pitch with them, which had no upfront fees, but then it paid $4800 USD as my half of the sync fee (the deal with them is a 50/50 split on sync fees). And then it also paid that much money as a residual payment in the following two years, so a total of about $14,400 USD.
This is the only sync I’ve had with this library. I also have about 20-25 tracks in their library. If I’d waived away my sync fee split, and instead accepted upfront fees for my approximately 20-25 tracks with them I’d have $2500 in my pocket, a lot less than $14,400.
Thoughts?
Sync buy-outs with the biggest libraries are often as much as $1000 per track. Over the years I’ve even seen a few offers more than that.
One way of looking at it is that if the company is willing to invest in the track up front, then they’re probably invested in placing it. However, I think that logic works for a $1K+ buyout but not for $100. I’ve signed buyouts for some tracks (for $1K or so) and overall those tracks have done well. We want to be wary of companies that sign a zillion tracks but rarely place them, and the buyout deals may be an indication that the company expects to place your tracks; they’re literally financially invested in it. YMMV of course!
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