Writing to briefs and custom cues…..

[ChuckMott]

I’ve come to the opinion, and started doing tho s awhile back that I would write non-exclusive stuff and submit that music to the various libraries I’m involved in. However, when it comes to writing to briefs, even non-exclusive ones, I would treat those as exclusive. In my mind, I don’t think it fair to take a libraries research that leads them to send out such a brief, and then take the music I wrote specifically for them and share it all over the place willy nilly. Not the same thing as signing off on an exclusive in-perpetuity deal, just saying I’ve adopted that practice of not sharing that with anyone else for a time. On the other hand, if it doesn’t get used for a specific period of time ( 1 year ? 2? I haven’t thought that far ahead) then it would become available. This only applies to specific tracks, and obviously NE ones, not genres. In other words, because a library asked for , for example, blues rock, I may write a handful that I make specifically theirs, but reserve the right, if I njoy the genre, to write more in that vein and share with other libraries at a later point down the road. Guess I am posting this more as a question fr discussion, but wondering if others share this same practice? Oh and if I have stuff that I am submitting to a pitch that was previously submitted NE somewhere else, I generally let the library know and let them know also that the stuff I wrote for their pitch was written specifically for them and I am not going to treat it as exclusive for a period of time. Thoughts?

[ChuckMott]

One of the libraries I work for sent out a specific pitch, and I enjoyed their approach. You were writing exclusively for that pitch, and submitting that as an exclusive track. The music supervisor would hand pick tracks they were going to use as regular clips on the show. If yours wasn’t handpicked for that round, it went Ne and was kept in the kitty for that show for possible later use. The library let me know within a matter of weeks (unfortunately my tracks weren’t picked) but I appreciated the fact they let me know and my tracks could then be treated as nonexclusive.

[Steve Ballard]

Chuck, I don’t know if your aware of this or not, but sometimes the “briefs” coming from some of the NE’s are sent by a Music Sup to several libraries at once. I have seen the same brief from a Music Sup from 3 different NE libraries at the same time. Just like a lot of musicians/ composers put the same piece of music in different libraries in hopes of their music being used, some Music Sup’s are casting a wide net to garner the music they need.

[Steve]

@Steve Ballard alluded to what I also assumed was happening, that supes are sending briefs to many libraries. They can’t afford to put all their eggs in one basket in the same manner that we can’t. I don’t get many briefs, but when I do I treat them like @ChuckMott mentioned – basically a self-imposed exclusive for a period of time. I understand the logic behind that, but for almost everything else I have no problem submitting to multiple libraries, or even submitting different mixes to different libraries. For example, I’m currently working on a full instrumental modern RnB track. When it’s done, I’ll send just topline and piano/rhodes to one NE, then I’ll submit the full track to a NE licensing/placement service, and finally I’ll post a different mix on a royalty free site. I’ll also pitch it from a separate area of my artist music pile so that a potentially interested artist would know how it has already been used.

[Steve Ballard]

@Steve

I don’t get many briefs, but when I do

When I read that I was so tempted to make a meme with the “Most interesting man in the world” from the beer commercial. 🙂

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