Another Royalty Ripoff!

[Art Munson]

I recently hired a “Royalty Recovery” person/company to help me.

Not sure if this might fall under the same thing, but I thought I would throw that out there..

Thanks BEATSLINGER, can you e-mail me their name and contact info please?

[LAwriter]

I recently hired a “Royalty Recovery” person/company to help me.

It is VERY sad, and very telling unfortunately – that we must resort to this sort of nonsense. BMI / ASCAP should be ashamed.

[BEATSLINGER]

Hi there Art, I will get in touch with a few people, and send you an email.

[Art Munson]

I will get in touch with a few people, and send you an email.

Thanks BEATSLINGER!

[Music1234]

The good news is that time is on Art’s side. The TV spot basically just hit the airwaves and BMI will not pay Q1 2020 performances until 9/18/20. We need to raise our voices again and advocate that PRO’s honor data from both I-spot TV as well as Numerator. These two firms essentially perform the same services for major brands/ TV advertisers
1. Monitor what the competition is doing on TV
2. Measure the success, effectiveness of a TV ad campaign
3. Data analysis, data insights
4, These services also exist so that people can obtain information about credits – what agency produced the spot ? who the director was? The writer / art director/ creative director team? and gee…should I even mention those behind the scenes, mystery folks, who seem to always be tossed in the sewer…The Composer!

So PMA Peeps, and Your Music Your Future folks, and Board members at the PRO’s – if you are listening and reading and I know some of you are, schedule some meetings and get this straightened out. We’re really sick and tired of these bogus excuses and our confidence in your approach of tracking music on air is eroding. We are not stupid and uninformed either.

News Flash: There is no such thing as a “small time” TV network. I am sorry but ESPN, BTN, SCRIPPS are companies making tons of money. ESPN is backed by Disney. People all over the world are watching this content every day at home in bars, in airports, in hotels…everywhere!

Collect the fees (from ALL TV networks making big profits from advertsing revenue) to broadcast our PRO Registered music and pay us the royalties we are do.

Art, keep in touch with me on this…..I will be hunting royalties down for a Car Shield spot also not found in Numerator but I can find it on I Spot

[Art Munson]

Art, keep in touch with me on this…..I will be hunting royalties down for a Car Shield spot also not found in Numerator but I can find it on I Spot

Thanks Music1234, will do and good luck with the Car Shield spot!

[JD]

So PMA Peeps, and Your Music Your Future folks, and Board members at the PRO’s – if you are listening and reading and I know some of you are, schedule some meetings and get this straightened out. We’re really sick and tired of these bogus excuses and our confidence in your approach of tracking music on air is eroding. We are not stupid and uninformed either.

News Flash: There is no such thing as a “small time” TV network. I am sorry but ESPN, BTN, SCRIPPS are companies making tons of money. ESPN is backed by Disney. People all over the world are watching this content every day at home in bars, in airports, in hotels…everywhere!

This should be sent directly to Your Music Your Future and start a campaign just as they did about the Discovery Networks situation!

[Music1234]

Please send in JD. I speak up, complain, and protest to people all the time including YMYF as well as PRO board members. No one seems to disagree with me. I’ve had an ASCAP board member say to me “I hear Ya man.” But I am sorry sympathy only goes so far…we need real legal action and policy changes to Protect our future earnings. We need to close these ridiculous loop holes and excuses such as “well we don’t quite monitor those stations” or “We don’t have Pharma spots in our database”. Or ” We don’t recognize I Spot TV or Tunesat data”/

Anyone living in LA? there is a discussion panel tomorrow at UCLA to discuss the negative impacts of direct licensing. Go there and make some noise.

The irony is that music contributors who fill up libraries shelves with music content, never agreed to be by-passed from this loop hole (selling direct licenses to SCRIPPS, BTN, ESPN, NETFLIX, etc) Every composer stocks the shelves of a library with the promise that we will be paid for on air network and cable TV performances.

So the discussion should evolve to “How do we end the loop hole of some TV show productions and entire networks not paying BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC, license fees to broadcast our PRO registered music?” and “Which music libraries can we expose and criticize for engaging in what amounts to overt theft, and generally seedy business practices where greedy music libraries secretly sell direct blanket licenses to ESPN, BTN, SCRIPPS, knowing that composers will NEVER be paid for the background cues?”

Does everyone fully understand what is happening? We. the music content creators stock the shelves of companies like SK, JP, M and many other PMA libraries essentially for no up front money at all, they then say “Thanks!” now we will go and sell direct blankets to ESPN, BTN, SCRIPPS, and NETFLIX with YOUR MUSIC, we will get paid. You will not get paid.”
Then the issue of extortion and bribery needs to be discussed, the practice of publishers being forced to sacrifice their publishing share by some TV shows, so the producers of the show get publishing credit. The “client” is suddenly morphing into the “publisher” so they can enjoy the back end royalties. PRO’s know this crap is going on yet they just look the other way?

PMA EVENT: Direct Licensing and the Value of Music – What’s Your Future Worth?

[jdt9517]

A possible solution – do you register your tracks with the copyright office? The big plus in registering is if you enforce your copyright you are entitled to both penalties and attorney fees. If everyone is washing their hands to compensate the composer, it may be time to start registering and enforcing the copyright. After a couple six or seven figure judgments, those who owe the composer might be a little more interested in paying the royalties.

[Art Munson]

A possible solution – do you register your tracks with the copyright office? The big plus in registering is if you enforce your copyright you are entitled to both penalties and attorney fees. If everyone is washing their hands to compensate the composer, it may be time to start registering and enforcing the copyright.

Thanks jdt9517 but I believe (and MichaelL will correct me if I’m wrong), it takes $75k to bring a copyright claim to a federal court. I actually did think about taking it to small claims court though.

[Author]

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