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I think the 15-20% range is fine. The issue for you is many tracks get placed in libraries but never earn anything. That means a great deal of your effort will be unpaid. You may want an arrangement that includes a minimum fee per year for each track you pitch. If you are going to take Writer’s share only for where the pitch was YOURS, you will have to re-title and register the new title with you as a certain percentage writer. That might prohibit working with exclusive libraries.
Also, instead of taking Writer’s share directly from PRO, a lot depends on how much you trust your band friends. You could have an agreement that you get $X/year for each track you are pitching and they must pay you Y% of every dollar revenue they earn as a result of your efforts. Harder to track yes but keeps the messy portion of Writer’s share out of it and doesn’t interfere with exclusive library deals.
Good luck! 😀
Diversifying is always good. Just want to reiterate what Michael said that you CAN NOT put a track that is signed exclusively in an RF library (or any other). I think (and hope!) that’s well understood.
My observation has been there are challenges entering the RF market at this time. One is it’s VERY crowded right now and it’s harder than ever to get your tracks to stand out, especially if they are in common genres. The second is tracks that work well for typical NE cable background placements don’t always sell as well in RF. No hard and fast rules, however! I think to enter the RF market and do well you need to really study what is selling best in that market, who the typical clients are, etc. And you might need to put a lot of tracks in.
Disclaimer: Not an expert at RF at all.
Adding the field is a good idea. Thanks.
One thing to keep in mind is that even if a library pays some share of their blanket license fee to the composers, it will most likely be very little– some coffee and snack money. Of course, it’s better than nothing but earnings will still come down to the back end.
If it’s a blanket to a Scripps network and you get no share of the blanket fee (even a few pennies), there will be no back end for US broadcasts and therefore you may likely get nada.
I had one placement on Travel (Scripps), over a minute of music. The library did pay be around $17 as share of the blanket fee. But it has rerun many times (I see it on my Tunesat) and I get no additional money.
Just some aside commentary. 🙂
I don’t think the overwhelming majority of LIBRARIES are out to steal your music. If they remove your tracks and you can verify they’ve been removed, it’s extremely unlikely they will re-title them to sell them illegally.
Thefts are more likely to occur from individuals, not businesses that want to stay in business. (Nothing’s impossible, of course).
The bigger concern is being sure that they actually remove the tracks and they are not floating around on media out there, still being considered for opportunities, while you sign an exclusive with another library.
Basically, I wouldn’t worry about it. If you ask for removal and they appear to have been removed, all is probably fine. You might want to wait a while before signing an exclusive, making sure all the dust has settled.
My only frustration is reading your posts, DI, which are often dangerously inaccurate.
If contact cannot be established and a resolution cannot be found, the deal still stands.
Not necessarily true at all!! It depends on many factors and Michael L tried to explain some of them.
Some people put a lot of effort into cues and may have signed a large number of them to an exclusive library that went out of business. It’s THEIR call as to whether or not getting those tracks back is important to them. Maybe they feel that all those hours of work could result in good earnings if the cues could be placed elsewhere.
Contact the company and ask for the rights to the music to revert back to you. Get a formal document signed by both you and the library stating that the original contract is voided and that you retain the rights to your music. It is that simple.
Pretty ridiculous (“It is that simple”?) since in many or most situations like this you have no means to contact them anymore when they are out of business. Most composers find out a library is out of business or suspect they are out of business when all efforts to contact them no longer work, the website is gone, etc.
One of the best music conventions around (and it is in LA) is the Taxi Road Rally, each year in November. You have to either be a Taxi member or get a guest pass from a member (usually pretty easy to do) to attend.
***** Please, no Taxi (as a company/service) good or bad discussions!!! ***** I’m just mentioning that convention because someone asked.
There is no question that if an end user types in some keywords and a bunch of tracks turn up, the titles and descriptions will have a big influence on which ones he/she listens to. That’s especially true for tracks beyond the first 1-2 listed. There’s a better chance the person will listen to the first ones but then become more selective and filter by what they read.
I don’t think you need to ask any customers (if you even could). Just think about human behavior and your own behavior when you go searching for something on the web.
It’s fine to register your works with your PRO under original title and publisher if you are pitching them through NE/RT libraries and/or direct to sup. NE/RT libraries almost always will create another registration with the re-title and themselves as the publisher.
If you are submitting to exclusive libraries, I would not do these registrations since it can be a pain for them to change the registration, especially if they maintain the original title.
All this being said, there is no real advantage to registering your tracks until you have a good reason such as being asked to by that one library mentioned earlier, having a REAL potential placement, etc. PRO’s look back 6 months or more on placements.
HTH 😀
So true, Composer Of Notes… I stand corrected. Thanks! 🙂
Of course, the downside (even if minor) would be you would not know which of the tracks in the merged .wav file was the one actually placed. You would not be able to use the information other than for your own knowledge that something was aired.
First, were these placements through libraries? If so, your first approach should be to ask the library to look into it.
Most likely these were purely typographical errors, nothing sinister.
If these were not through libraries and you placed the tracks directly, then you may want to talk with your PRO and/or the production company.
Do you have proof such as a Tunesat detection or video recording? You might want to contact your PRO about sending them the proof and seeing if they will intervene and get it fixed with the production company. If it was through a library, as I said, deal with them first, sending them the proof.
Good luck!
mscottweber is correct… Major films usually only go to production music libraries for tracks when they need “source music” such as music coming from a radio, a jukebox, a band (supposedly) playing at a bar, etc.
The more “featured” music generally comes from score composers or well known bands/acts.
I’m sure there are exceptions as with anything but this is how things go the overwhelming majority of the time.
Crucial Music makes placements in feature films.
That being said, sometimes as composers we THINK we know what a particular track would be best suited for but we aren’t always right. Often you want to be in a library that has the widest set of opportunities. Crucial does pitch such a wide variety. That being said, they are highly selective as to what tracks they accept so your track may or may not get in.
Look for high quality libraries with a good, demonstrated track record. (I know… That’s a bit simplistic)
Just don’t bet the farm on it getting used a week after you sign it and making a $100,000 sync fee.
+1
E I E I O!