Is Jingle Punks dead?

[Emmett Cooke]

Hi all, a couple of points I’d like to make:

– I won’t be signing the exclusive contract either way. There are plenty of good exclusives out there if you look around – JP as an exclusive is not a good use of your music IMO.

– The entire music licensing model won’t suddenly just collapse because some of the big networks have said they won’t use non-exclusive music anymore. I mean, TV usage for me probably makes us less than 10% of my sales (more likely less than 2% of my sales). Even at that, I won’t personally notice a huge drop in sales over the year due to this – will everyone else?

– I believe you SHOULD have your music in both non-exclusive and exclusive libraries. Mix and match. If you have your music only in 2 exclusive libraries and one of them goes under…you’re fairly screwed. Have multiple income streams so you are more secure should anything happen.

– Yes this move of some of the major networks to exclusive music will mean less TV royalties. It might however also mean some better exclusive libraries start popping up – in a way it can be seen as a good move. Exclusive libraries beforehand weren’t as happy to hand over upfront money for cues as the marketplace didn’t really mind if music was exclusive/non-exclusive. Now with major networks looking for exclusive music, it MIGHT start turning the industry onto a better route – exclusive libraries working with good composers who write good music and possibly even providing budgets for recording as they know they now have clients waiting for the music.

So my main point is – don’t panic. Non-exclusives will still keep running (obviously depending on which ones you’re with). The non-exclusive industry won’t be going anywhere – both side of exclusive/non-exclusive will just be evolving a little bit in my opinion 🙂

[John (the other John)]

“I’d say its fairly common knowledge how Jingle Punks works.  The majority of placements and money cues go to the in-house composers.  For example, Jared does most of the themes and major commercial spots.  Their “artist library” gets used as filler and takes a back seat basically”

I reckon the best way to deal with that is to create a product they don’t do, or can’t do.

johnnyboy

[Advice]

I emailed artists@JP asking for details, contract, etc for the exclusive option and just got a reply with the contract. Didn’t read it yet but my email WAS answered.

[Steve]

“I reckon the best way to deal with that is to create a product they don’t do, or can’t do.”

With at least 15 composers and counting, I’d say they’ve probably got most of the bases covered.

[Emmett Cooke]

I emailed artists@JP asking for details, contract, etc for the exclusive option and just got a reply with the contract. Didn’t read it yet but my email WAS answered.

 

Same here. No response regarding questions – just a contract

[Sean]

I received the contract only as well.  My question was about being able to select which existing tracks we want exclusive. I saw nothing that mentioned this…

[Steve]

One thing to keep remember to help put things in perspective….

Every show on the major networks is NOT self-produced, so not every show would be sticking to Exclusive libraries…..

……at least, I GUESSING that would be the case….

[John (the other John)]

Just finished reading the new JP contract. I noticed under “compensation” that the 50/50 license use fee split only applies to a motion picture or commercial advertisement on TV. Please correct me if I’m wrong.

It’s on the original contract as well. Probably missed it because of this submitting deal stated on their website : “The deal is non-exclusive and we split the profits right down the middle”, 50/50.

Anyone else notice this?

johnnyboy

[axiomdreams]

I was wondering the same thing when I read that part “50/50 license use fee split only applies to a motion picture or commercial advertisement on TV.”..

Was that in the original contract too?

I have received payments for non TV usages b4.. Hopefully that still applies..

AXD

[Advice]

The email I got was the standard one with the exclusive contract. No answer to questions either. My feeling is just give them time to settle down. Given that it’s unlikely (as of today- it could change) I’ll sign any exclusives with JP, no biggie to me.

Maybe, with so many artists emailing them, they’ll send out a broadcast email with FAQ about the new exclusive option.

🙂

[axiomdreams]

Yeah.. I agree with Advice.. They must be swarmed with questions right now..

I’m gonna sign this exclusive contract too.. Been very happy with their results so far..

-AXD

[smiley J]

Jingle Punks works for me, so I signed the contract.

It’s really business as usual for me with these guys. I am looking forward to a lot of great new placements from JP. I am excited about the new opportunities. Network placements pay more than cable, so my royalties will increase.

[Steve]

It’s really business as usual for me with these guys. I am looking forward to a lot of great new placements from JP. I am excited about the new opportunities. Network placements pay more than cable, so my royalties will increase.

If you think that you’re royalties are going to increase from this deal you are probably in for a not so good surprise.  If they increase it will just be purely from adding more tracks into the library and having tracks in the market for a longer period of time.  It won’t be because you signed JP’s exclusive deal, thats just how royalties work.  More tracks + more time = more money.

First, network doesn’t always pay better than cable.  If you get a a track on a really popular show on MTV or Discovery a lot of times that will pay more than a single network placement.  The royalty rate is higher on network, but cable will re-run shows a lot.  A lot of network placements are a one time thing IME.  A 12 second placement on “Jersey Shore” will pay infinitely more than a 12 second placement on any show on any major network.

Second, I hope you don’t think you’re going to be getting more sync fees by going exclusive with them.  They are going exclusive so that they can keep getting blanket licenses from networks (which you do not get a cut of).  I’m not saying you won’t see any sync fees, but its not like you will be opening the flood gates here and sync fees are going to just start piling up in your mailbox.

Third, as discussed earlier in this thread, your track will go to the bottom of the pile.  The tracks that are composed by the in house composers get priority in the searches and are probably what actually gets pitched to shows.  The “artist library” is just a catalog for them to search through for extra music they might need.  Signing an exclusive deal with JP isn’t like signing an exclusive deal with a “real” exclusive library thats actually going to put together collections/CDs and pitch your music aggressively as a valuable member of their company.  Its just going in the bin basically.  Like those CD’s in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart.

All I’m saying is, be very cautious with how many tracks you sign to them exclusively.  Don’t haul off and sign your entire catalog to them exclusively.  I’ve got well over 100 tracks with them, and I have exclusive libraries with a fraction of that number of tracks that make me a lot more money.  One of them pays an advance and with one sync fee will make more money than an entire quarters worth of royalties from Jingle Punks.  Actually, there are quarters when JP doesn’t really do any better than the other non-exclusie libraries that I’m in.

And, btw, I get a LOT of network placements from Jingle Punks.  So its not like I’ve just been getting placements on Style network and now by signing this exclusive deal I’m going to start landing network placements and see a huge bump in royalties.  The “bump” from network placements is already there.

[Blind]

Steve speaks the truth. Nothing in my experience has shown that network placements automatically pay higher back-end than cable for all of the reasons he mentions and more. You’re kidding yourself if you think it’s as simple as network=bigger payouts. It has way more to do with the other numerous factors mentioned above and weighting systems of the PROs.

[MichaelL]

This is beginning to sound like a lot of people wandering around a casino wondering which slot machines are the “luckiest” and payout  the best.

 

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