publisher requiring a minimum amount of songs

[erock]

I submitted to a listing on a site that matches music to opportunities. The music professional seemed to really like my song and considered it “very synchable”.

Problem one is that I can’t let them have it now, as it’s already in a non-exclusive place. There was no mention in the listing of it being exclusive and in my experience thus far, exclusive deals seem to be in the minority. (Of course, these sites don’t let you query people on details like this before submitting…)

The other thing that has me somewhat surprised is that they came back saying that they have a 5-song minimum to get into their catalog. There was no mention of this in the listing.

I think this place is legit and of course if someone can place *more* of my tracks, that’s great. I do however feel slightly vexed that these things were not stated at the outset, before I paid the submission fee.

Thoughts my fellow music professionals?

Sincerely,
Livin ‘n Learnin’

[Desire_Inspires]

What seems to be the issue?

[Scary_Bodega]

I do however feel slightly vexed that these things were not stated at the outset, before I paid the submission fee.

I don’t blame you.

I have tried the one-off pay for opportunities model a few times in the past. After a handful of submissions, I did get a few tracks into a small library (non-exclusive) but after two or three years there has been no action there whatsoever. I would be somewhat surprised if there ever were.

The particular service that I used is above board and fine I think, so I have no criticisms of them. However, I came to feel that submitting for posted opportunities could get quite expensive over time so I stopped doing it.

You make a great point about the relative dearth of information and control for the composer that can happen on the front-end of these things. It’s another downside of the whole model for me. I just don’t care to bother with it any more.

Someone here who’s had success with this type of thing might want to chime in.

There are so many composers out there, I’m kind of surprised that any music-surpervisor or producer would feel the need to turn to a service in order to anonymously post a call for music. Once they get submissions, they still have to sift through it all. But, heck, what do I know?

[erock]

@Desire_Inspires I think the part where there’s an additional requirement to be accepted which was not in the listing. What if I don’t have 5 songs ready to lock in an exlusive agreement?

Scary_Bodega I hear you. There’s been an explosion of these services. Some appear to succeed matching people up to legitimate deals. Fingers crossed.

I want to be optimistic and since I learned that it’s exclusive (which I think many, if not most publisher deals are) I don’t think I can move forward now …. however even if I had the material, I think there’s a sense I have that they’re trying to build a catalog. Nothing wrong with that, per se…. but they never asked to listen to the other 4 songs first.

[Desire_Inspires]

Ok. The deal sounds good but may not be right for you at this time. Good luck.

[erock]

Surprise, surprise. The publisher came back to me after I said “I guess I can’t do it because the track is in a non-exclusive place.” They said it was OK – just don’t place it with any other publishers.

I was surprised. I thought non-exclusive precluded getting into any exclusive deal.

[Author]

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