Money upfront (exclusive contract): when "little" is "too little"?

[Wall_E]

Hi everyone,

straight to the point: how much is, per track, a reasonable amount of upfront money in case of
– exclusivisity
– perpetuity
– no reversion clause at all

Some more details: the library in question is part of PMA, the quality requested is VERY high, no deadlines involved, full album (at least 10 tracks, about 2 minutes).

Thanks 🙂

[Tbone]

It also depends mostly on:

What is your split of the sync fees?

What is your split of backend royalties?

Is the up front money an advance to be recouped, or a non-recoupable fee?

[BEATSLINGER]

The question that I would ask is..
Have you done research to see what they have done, and their most current placements?

Have you checked here on MLR to see their rating, and the comments made about them?

How do you feel about working with this Library/Catalog?

I have libraries that I am with that give large upfront fees (not advances) and “for some of them” I am not seeing nearly the results that I am getting from Libraries “that give me $100 per track, and the upfront is recoupable”..

Do your research, and go with your gut!!

[Paolo]

how much is, per track, a reasonable amount of upfront money…

Reasonable depends on what average past earnings are for one of your tracks.

So if you can earn – lets say- $700 – $1,000 over the first five years for on eof your tracks then this exclusive / perpetuity deal has got to beat that amount with upfront , sync and back-end. The question is, do you think they can? Go with your gut and your research.

Personally, I’ve made much more $$$$$ doing non-exclusive versus tracks I’ve placed in exclusive / perpetuity / no reversion / low upfront deals. But maybe I haven’t connected with the library that’s the right match for me.

[Art Munson]

Personally, I’ve made much more $$$$$ doing non-exclusive versus tracks I’ve placed in exclusive / perpetuity / no reversion / low upfront deals.

Same experience here.

[Wall_E]

Thanks everybody!

So, the split is 50/50 for both backend and sync.

I already have 2 albums with them but it’s too early to speak about statistics…I gave them only 1 year ago. This makes difficult to evaluate their ability to place my music or if I am a good match for them.

[Paolo]

I already have 2 albums with them but it’s too early to speak about statistics…I gave them only 1 year ago.

Hey Wall-E — You’ve already given this library 20+ tracks but don’t have enough statistics (understandable) since it’s been only a year. What is encouraging you to continue with a third album?

[BEATSLINGER]

I already have 2 albums with them but it’s too early to speak about statistics…I gave them only 1 year ago. This makes difficult to evaluate their ability to place my music or if I am a good match for them.

Sounds WAY after the fact.. If it is already been a “full year” you should have seen some sync fees come in,.

[LAwriter]

If it is already been a “full year” you should have seen some sync fees come in,.

Agreed. It’s too early for back end, but you should have seen some sync splits unless they are doing blankets only – in which case the sync split is essentially useless unless they get a random sync.

I’d be looking elsewhere, or at least holding back a bit until I saw some results, or had some form of communication from the library that gives you significant hope….

And BTW, the biggest of the PMA libraries have done the least for my back end. Just a perspective.

[BEATSLINGER]

And BTW, the biggest of the PMA libraries have done the least for my back end. Just a perspective.</blockquote

Too early for a couple/ few of them for me. But so far this has been a very true statement.

Sometimes, the ambitious, and motivated smaller libraries do a LOT better for getting the placements!

[LAwriter]

Where I think the bigger PMA libs come into play is with their foreign sub pubs. More penetration in foreign markets, but even that has been proven wrong in a few circumstances of my experiences.

[Wall_E]

What is encouraging you to continue with a third album?

This is a good question…never thought of it that way. 😉
I thought that 1 full year with 20 songs was not enough time to understand how things are going with them. But, as I can see by the answers here, I think I might be wrong.

Anyway, to date, not a single sell (unlikely other non-excl libraries).

[MichaelL]

I thought that 1 full year with 20 songs was not enough time to understand how things are going with them.

One year may not be long enough to make that judgment. I put 20 tracks into a PMA, money-up-front exclusive library between 4 and 6 years ago. I just started seeing backend money from a variety of interesting placements for those tracks, including network TV (SNL), Major League Baseball, FOX Business, and some theme park attractions. I also received Spotify royalties for tracks in the same library. Additionally, I’m seeing placements for the first time for some 20-year old tracks in a PMA library because they are marketing those tracks differently now.

[Author]

Posts