"Fee will be your sole compensation"

[Art Munson]

Hello,

I was recently accepted into a non-exclusive library and had a question regarding this part of the agreement.

“You agree that the fee (earlier defined as 50% of net income related to the tracks placed) will be your sole compensation for the rights we sublicense under this agreement. The fee will be deemed to include all royalties due to you for use of your tracks, including but not limited to mechanicals and the like.”

Does this imply that the company is just absolving itself from the responsibility of collecting/paying any possible royalties due to me (which instead would be collected/paid by BMI) or is it their way of saying that they’re most likely going to issue direct licenses with no possibility of royalties? I’ve emailed them but haven’t heard back yet.

Any help or insight is greatly appreciated and apologies if this has already been covered before, I’ve been searching the forums but couldn’t find a clear answer.

Cheers,
Nick

[Paolo]

Hi @sunsetrepublic

(earlier defined as 50% of net income related to the tracks placed)

Somewhere in the contract, the library defines revenue sources andthe splits (ie: “writer’s share 100%” publishing share 0%; sync 50/50, etc)

What do they say about the backend royalties? Or are you saying there is no reference to backend anywhere in the contract?

[Art Munson]

Hi Paolo,

Thanks for responding. The agreement states, “We shall forward you fifty percent (50%) of our net income related to the Tracks which shall be paid to you within thirty (30) days of March 31st, June 30th, September 30th or December 31st.”

There is no mention of writer/publisher splits or backend royalties. They do mention the right to retitle works and register them with their PRO and ask for each writer’s PRO info so I’m guessing it would be similar to a company like Audiosocket that simply retitles the track to get their publishing portion for a specific use.

They seem to be a reputable company with a good track record but the agreement strikes me as rather vague compared to other contracts I’ve seen. Does the lack of that info seem odd to you?

[Paolo]

Hey @sunsetrepublic

Does the lack of that info seem odd to you?

In my experience with both excl and non-excl libraries, each has outlined their front-end and back-end splits(sync, writer and publishing) and left no doubt what money is in the pot and how the pot gets split.

Since there is nothing in your contract addressing this, I would contact them and ask for clarification in this area. Then If their clarification satisfies you, you can follow-up and ask to have it added to your contract.

Let us know how this progresses

[Art Munson]

Hi Paolo,

I heard back from them and they said that the split is 50/50 so they retain 100% publishing.

However, they stated that they would be unable to modify the agreement at this time as they work with many artists and cannot amend things for individual cases.

Having a blanket agreement/rules makes sense but it’s still unnerving that it’s not clearly stated in the actual agreement. I guess it’s up for me to decide if the risk is worth it, thanks again for your help!

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