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Art…if you have a spare moment, would you delete my posts from this thread? Thanks.
I understand some of you guys are frustrated, but picking on me will not help.
We all know there are serious problems for musicians here. Does anyone have any solutions?
The best solution I can think of is only work with companies that charge generous sync fees for every placement (no blanket licenses) and provide backend writers royalties. PMA libraries offer these deals.
Negotiating the terms upfront prevents all of the shenanigans that are going on. Negotiating great deals is just as important as making great music.
Please, let’s stop tearing each other down. It does not help. It is also not very professional behavior.
If we’re going to censor the thread partially, then it must be taken down entirely so nothing is read out of context.
Why censor this?
I’m self “censoring” because there is no point in my participating in this thread.
The core issue is really one of supply and demand economics, which always gets overlooked, as the primary cause of price deflation.
The Whitey article most likely involves someone who asked him to create custom music for free, something which happens all the time now, particularly with film music. It sucks and no one should do it.
Creating and producing custom music for free vs. blanket licensing with no sync fees are two different things…one is active income and the other is passive. The whole idea of passive income is that it requires no effort on your part, while you are off doing other things to make more money. That is completely different from something that occupies your time, and prevents you from other pursuits.
So, to a degree, linking Whitey’s argument to library music is like converting apples to oranges.What’s the point?
Michael, While I understand your “core issues being about supply and demand” here is another way to look at this. I (We) spend a lot of time crafting music for the market in the hopes that it will be licensed in the future (by companies like NBC and TARGET) for a fee!
The “passive income” argument does not work for me. When one of the largest players in the business decides to serve up freebies to these companies, an alarming precedent is being set that effects everyone in the business.
Michael, a friend of mine and I were talking last week and he indicated how, while attending an industry party/ networking event, he met someone working for Fox Sports who was chuckling about how “just 5 years ago we always had a music budget for promos, now we get the music for free”…
My question to publishers who may be reading this is WHY? Why are you giving music away? Especially when these companies can afford to pay, and used to pay…
You know why they are giving music away…for the same reason that Best Buy and Wal-Mart sell cheap CD’s. They’re called “loss leaders” ..something cheap that get’s you in the door to hopefully buy more expensive stuff.
Look, there’s a billion tracks out there. Everyone is looking for some competitive angle. What a person or company can afford to pay for something is irrelevant. It’s what they want to pay the matters. Suppose that a set of drums at store A costs $1000 and the exact same set at store B costs $800. Are you going to pay the $1,000 just because you can afford it?
Obviously the library involved is trying to make inroads at FOX at their composers’ expense. In the long run, the theoretical beneift is increased placements.
I still say it’s supply and demand. If music wasn’t abundant, and it required special tools and skilled workers to create, the library could, and would, charge sync fees. Climb up the food chain where the promos are composed by Hans Zimmer (ABC), John Williams (NBC) and recorded by real orchestras…they’re paying sync fees. We don’t breathe the same air.
Quantity is the key to getting paid. One Target commercial is only one part of the equation.
You know that your music is marketable. Get it in 100 Target commercials. The backend will pour in and you will be feeling great.
This is part of the reason for low or no sync fees now. Guys that get screwed out of upfront money by companies that have lots of it, then are happy that they can make a few cents every time it airs, I guess because they are willing to take ANYTHING for their music. Even if this is part-time for some folks, why not try to maximize your return? Isn’t that the point of business?
DI, your comments are frequently bizarre. You’re misinformed, but you SOUND confident. Reminds me of that Yadgyu guy that got booted a couple years ago…
Hmm, my last comment took a day to actually post. I figured it wouldn’t end up going through, so I posted something similar on another thread. I really gotta stay of the internet…
So what are the solutions?
My solution is to take pride in my work, and to avoid companies that make bad deals for composers. More Advice is disseminating information about these practices. Whitey is sending combative emails to Music Supes explaining why his music is not free. Certainly not the only solutions, perhaps not the most elegant ones. But when you have less leverage, and there is always somebody that will take less, it’s better than contributing to a decline in fees.
Don’t get me wrong, I think there are tons of opportunities where composers get a fair cut, and it’s probably easier to make a living this kind of music these days.
Great. Thank you for sharing. I am glad that you proposed some alternatives, The Dude. Your suggestions make a lot of sense.
There is more than enough information on the problems. Does anyone else have any solutions?
The solution is to audit the company. Folks, I really do not think any publisher is honest with composers. They license our music every day. They invoice their clients, we wait for them to be truthful about what they billed and then wait for our 50%. We have to trust 100% that they are truthful about what they invoice. Do we ever see the invoices to their clients? NEVER… Do you really think these publishers are being honest?
Not a chance, because it is just too easy to not be truthful, pocket the extra cash and not say anything to composers. Are you guys asking where your fees are on a regular basis? Are these questions regularly ignored, dodged? Are you told things like “we’d prefer that you wait until we mail out checks for the quarterly payouts, at that time you will find out about your sync fees.”I am not saying ask every week “Hey bro, where is my sync fee?
But every 2 to 3 months, I suggest you do some asking…
The solution is: Audit the publishers. These companies all need to be audited.
Also, just so you know…publishers are voyeurs around here…they do read what we write and it would be better if there was a forum where only composers were allowed to discuss issues and experiences with publishers.
Yes, More Advice, all the libraries are lying to us. I think the time has come that we give all the library owners polygraph tests every quarter. Don’t sign any deals with libraries whose owner won’t submit to polygraph testing.
[roll eyes]
Eventually they will find a way to make YOU, the composer, pay to have your music on a TV spot.
I bet they already have, and I just don’t know about it. Sadly, I know of many artists that pay to be on the opening slot of a gig headlined by a big name artist.
To “Desire Inspires” comment – I have been producing music since 1993. I stepped away from production for a number of years until finally in 2012 I decided to get serious about it again. So for the past two years, I have been working hard on getting artist music placements and I haven’t even gotten my first artist placement yet. I’m not complaining, I’m just saying that it takes a lot of time and dedication to get to where you want to be.
Technology has changed a profession that once required skill and specialized equipment into a trade that can be plied on some levels by unskilled labor and cheap tools.
This is unfortunately true. Skill is still required, but quality isn’t what a lot of clients are looking for. They want cheap music that’s good enough. The same thing happened to audio quality when mp3’s and terrible quality and terrible fitting iphone earbuds became popular. It’s good enough and cheap enough for most people.
I wonder if voice-over talent has the same payment problem that we composers do. I doubt it, because every VO cut is unique. You can’t get a blanket license for it from a library.
I wonder if voice-over talent has the same payment problem that we composers do. I doubt it, because every VO cut is unique. You can’t get a blanket license for it from a library.
There are VO sites, like voices.com, where people, including “amateurs” bid for VO jobs. I guess SAG talent has issues with that.