Interviewing a prospective music library.

[Art Munson]

I was thinking about the multitude of music libraries that we are all confronted with and the concept of asking a prospective library a series of questions to help make a decision on submitting to that library. I would assume we would agree with the terms of the contract and that one understands that there is no guarantee of placement with any library. This would not apply to royalty free sites.

1.) How long in business?

2.) What’s your background in production music?

3.) How large is your catalog?

4.) Are you currently working with any Film/TV production companies directly?

5.) Any recent placements?

6.) How many placements, on average, per month?

7.) Do you receive the cues sheets from your placements?

8.) Do you share cue sheets with composers?

9.) Do you reconcile cue sheets and PRO statements?

What do you think of this concept? Any questions you would ask or not ask?

[Art Munson]

Bump, bump, bump!

[Chuck Mott]

I like the idea Art, thanks for posting.

[Desire_Inspires]

Those are all great questions. But I am not sure what a music library would want to say. My feeling is that many owners are scared of being open because of one composer potentially becoming obsessed with the library. Some composers may even twist what an owner says and file a lawsuit based one statements made in an interview. This business is strange and people have a tendency to hitch their wagons to the stars.

[Chuck Mott]

The questions seem fair. They audition us based on our music, we should also try to see if they are a good fit. Some libraries are well established, others fairly new, so I wouldn’t throw them out because they are a startup. They (we) all were at one time, so I don’t see a problem with adding some new ones to the mix.

[Author]

Posts