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As if this business isn’t challenging enough, BMI has changed the way it goes about calculating our royalties.
Did anyone other than me see a drop in BMI royalties this quarter? Did you blame it on missing cue sheets?
Well, here’s a bit of bad news. I contacted BMI’s director of distribution in Nashville. They now include Neilson ratings for local programing when calculating our royalty payments. (A lot of syndicated shows are considered local programing).
So, depending upon how many people are actually watching the shows containing your music, your royalties will either go up or down. As shows fade so will your royalties.
Well, here’s a bit of bad news
Hi Michael,
Isn’t it supposed to go “I’ve got good news and bad news…” 🙂
Yes, I also saw a drop in my BMI royalties this past quarter. I just assumed that most of the airings were in the 11pm to 8am hours in non-prime time and that’s why the payments were lower.
My first BMI inflicted wound was a few years ago when they did away with partial feature (PF) payments (going forward and retroactive) for prominent background instrumental cues.
But this is good to know. Thanks for sharing the pain…I mean news 🙂
Paul
As if this business isn’t challenging enough, BMI has changed the way it goes about calculating our royalties.
The new “Spotify”! Really have to move to SESAC, if they will let me in!
ASCAP did the same thing last year.
One quarter they made a big deal about raising the royalty rate payout. The next quarter my royalties decreased by a third. I didn’t figure it out until I compared the royalty statements for the two quarters. Of course there was no mention as to why the royalty rate dropped.
We have to roll with the punches I guess.
So, is the same pool of money being distributed differently? Or is there a change in the overall amount of money distributed for TV placements?
Or, in other words, will our royalties increase for shows with more viewers and decrease for shows with fewer viewers?
Thanks for sharing this information.
there was a significant drop on the money i get from one daily show.I had about 10% less cues on this show in the Q2 of 2014 but the money was like 30-35% less.
I noticed that in Q1 they were paying something like $1-1.2/per sec but in the January statement it was like $0.8/per sec.
I think MichaelL is right.I do know my last 2 BMI statements have been pretty disappointing. Both were around half of what the previous 4 quarters were. Any SESAC writers out there? I’d like to see how their numbers have been? I know there are a ton of factors involved though.
This may just be a fanciful idea on my part but what about starting a petition using http://www.change.org? As it says on their site:
“A petition is a public message to one or more decision makers, asking them to do something. Name the person or group who should receive your petition. Later, you’ll be able to add their contact info so they are notified when people sign.”
If we could make enough noise via social media about this maybe we could make a change or at least get our voice heard in a very public way.
Unfortunately Kubed, it’s not speculation on my part. This is what I was told directly by BMI’s Director of Distribution in Nashville.
Linking royalties levels to a shows Nielson ratings is their new procedure, going forward.Ugh — this is terrible MichaelL. I had a similar drop with ASCAP last year with a syndicated show, which is what led me to start my SESAC transition. Sure, things may change at SESAC as well but at least with a smaller pool of writers, I am hoping they do more to take care of their own. Could be a total crapshoot but feels like the right move (for me) now.
With broadcast TV on it’s way out the door, this is a scary time for writers. The PROS really need to get of their asses and start figuring out what the future is going to look like for all of us. I know they were pushing Congress last year but this is really something that needs to be attacked on multiple fronts. A petition might be a good way to start, Art!
Thanks for the heads up MichealL. I saw a huge decrease on my last BMI statement as well, but haven’t had time to go over it in detail.
Art; I think the petition is a good idea. I also think that a lot of composers may not realize what’s going on and think this decrease in distribution is simply less placements.
If there’s a way we can educate composers (and some libraries) on this, I think we can get something positive happening for us all.
a lot of composers may not realize what’s going on and think this decrease in distribution is simply less placements.
Exactly! That’s what I thought until I read Michael’s post.
IMHO: if there’s less money in TV then it makes sense that everyone would make less money. It seems like the trend/petition might be best served with libraries: if a track is exclusive, then we get a share of snyc fees and not just PRO money (since that’s on the decline for TV).
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