[Alan]

Wow, thanks for sharing that, Art.

[Alan]

So true yzzman1! This track does very well for me and will likely be a 5 figure earner in the coming year or two, and was rejected by AJ. One person’s trash is another person’s treasure

[Alan]

I signed in with Identifyy in July after a decade of avoiding CID “because of all the headaches it creates for micro-pennies.”
I just saw my first month’s report. A YouTube channel used a track of mine in 768 videos with 189K views. Plus a few hundred other videos with smaller view counts.
I had no clue. I wonder how much money I’ve left on the table?

[Alan]

It was a 30-second spot. I have no clue what the back end will be. I’ll try to remember to report back here what it paid.

[Alan]

Years later, I’ve still never seen any back end from Yes. I haven’t picked up a lot of placements, maybe 5 or so, but no money.

[Alan]

For me it’s a couple of days behind, which I’d common. My most recent was early Sunday am (over 48 hours ago), but I occasionally have empty spells too.

[Alan]

could you explain what a “survey payout” is?

I tried to provide links but they were blocked
https://ascap.com/help/royalties-and-payment/payment/surveys
the winning lottery tickets are here:
https://ascap.com/help/royalties-and-payment/payment/cablesurveys

Google is your friend

[Alan]

My payout was $1K more than I would have expected. As predicted above, I had two ASCAP Survey payouts totaling over $1,700. Three 0:28 weekend morning performances on WGN netted $1,300, the other one was about $400. Those probably would have paid about a dollar without the survey hit.
The Survey is great when you get it, but it’s also infuriating when you go years without hitting that very random lottery.
I hope all you ASCAP’rs did well.
Cheers!

[Alan]

Mine hit the bank yesterday. It was my second best payout ever so I expect I’ll see I got lucky on the survey this time. It’s been a while since the survey gods have smiled upon me. The statements should be out by mid day today.

[Alan]

Same here. It looks like they cleaned up a lot of duplicate cue sheets due to typos, etc. At a glance there are many missing episodes for me. I’ll give it a few days before I compare it to my records.

[Alan]

Here is a direct quote regarding stems from a film industry professional:

Beware of the distinction between stems in this context—premixes made at the dub by the dubbing mixer—and music stems. You can think of music stems as premixes made by the score mixer rather than on the dubbing stage. Sometimes the word “stems” overlaps and there is momentary confusion about the meaning.

All the more reason to ask the library what they want.

[Alan]

So in that case when submitting say an acoustic pop track to a library requesting cutdowns and stems, good practice might be to submit:

I interpret “cutdowns and stems” as cutdowns (:30, :15, Sting) and alternate mixes (No Lead, Bed, Drums and Bass). If it were me, I would simply ask the library to tell me exactly what they want.
“Dear A&R,
The definition of a stem in open to interpretation across this industry. Would you like a pre-master mix plus stems that combine to equal it, or would you prefer mastered stems treated as alternate mixes?”

PAMMusic, I think there is a very good chance the A&R will not know the answer to that question without asking around the office or they may even need to call a few clients to find the answer.

[Alan]

I would expect $0.00 from MLBTV.

[Alan]

I’m currently taking the Berklee Online course “Audio/Music Production for Visual Media” and stems was a recent topic. Here is the take from a top industry film score mixer (not final dubbing mixer). All stems MUST combine at fader unity to be equal to the final mix. The point being the dubbing mixer has the option to quickly and easily edit parts of the mix that may be competing with dialog, rather than heavy handedly turning down the entire mix. Every stem must also be autonomous, with no effects bleed etc.
This of course means there can be no two bus processing on the final mix, it is pre master.
Based on this “new information,” I consider stems and alt mixes as separate beasts. Moving forward I will continue to master my alternate mixes the same as the main track. If stems are requested, Stem01 will be the full, unmastered mix and the rest of the stems will sum at unity to exactly match Stem01.

[Alan]

Much harder now. I think there is a contact link.
They track commercials. They are only useful if you know you have a commercial running and want to find the ad code to submit to your PRO.

Agreed. Joining Competitrack was simple in 2016. My experience is in line with Art. Tunesat picked up a commercial, I put a claim in with my PRO, they said I needed to give them an Ad Code, I created a then Competitrack account in order to get the ad code. I’ve had a few more since then. They are a necessary service IMO. I suspect (with no evidence) that we composers looking for Ad Codes are an unwanted nuisance to their Marketing based service. If they no longer give out memberships, maybe you could open an “advertising firm.”

[Author]

Posts