composer

Forum Replies Created

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 87 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • in reply to: BMI Royalties September #38940
    composer
    Participant

    My statement was in line with what Art said. A little higher overall. US up, international down.

    in reply to: BMI Royalties 2020 Q4 – Paid 6/18/21 #38155
    composer
    Participant

    Better, but not quite back to prepandemic levels.
    The page count continues to increase dramatically! Dollars, not so much.

    in reply to: BMI Payout #37309
    composer
    Participant

    Mine was down somewhat. The big difference was the huge decline in new placements, which I assume is COVID-related.

    in reply to: What is a “Reel” ? #35078
    composer
    Participant

    By the way, I use ReelCrafter and I really like it. Easy to use.

    in reply to: Reversion Clause Advice #33013
    composer
    Participant

    Tough question. Sometimes tracks sit for years then get lots of placements. Sometimes tracks sit for years and get no placements. If you signed 100 tracks and none were placed you should probably move on. If you signed 5, it’s hard to say. Also, given royalty lag time, you could have year 2 placements that haven’t appeared on your royalty statement yet.

    I’d definitely pull them after 6 years though!

    Hope you get lots of placements right away and your decision gets easy.

    in reply to: Tunesat Free vs Paid acct #31929
    composer
    Participant

    I pay for it.

    in reply to: Nat Geo Royalties? #31729
    composer
    Participant

    Lots of their shows run for years. I’ve had many placements in the $20-$70 range after several years of reruns. And a few that paid just a couple bucks.

    in reply to: BMI Distribution 1/18/2019 for 2nd Quarter 2018 #31612
    composer
    Participant

    Well, the number of pages is certainly increasing!

    International was higher than ever. I’m not sure why. If there’s a pattern to international, I’m not sure what it is. Netflix was higher for me too.

    I might agree that royalties are softening overall, but I’m not sure. My royalties grow, but not dramatically, and the size of my catalog increases more than the size of my royalties.

    A few observations, and maybe these are obvious: International takes a long time to start, then continues for a long time. Movies keep generating for years. Placements on network shows are still great. More streaming royalties come online with each statement; payments are small but growing and not insignificant.

    I’m not sure how the royalty rate per viewer for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu et. al. compares to the rate for network and cable. Yes, the payments are small, but viewership is often very small as well. If anyone has numbers on that, I’d love to know.

    in reply to: How Much Time Do You Generally Spend on 1 Track? #31611
    composer
    Participant

    It’s all over the place. 1-20 hours. I don’t see any correlation between number of hours spent and likelihood of placement. Some just take longer than others. Of course it’s always worth my time to spend enough hours to do my best work. I work faster if I’m specific about how I want the track to sound before I start. I can always change my mind after I start if that seems like the thing to do.

    Yes, a template can save some time. And if you’ve already chosen a palette, you have fewer decisions to make, and that can help.

    If it’s a genre that’s new or newish to me, the first track may take 2-4x as long to produce but it’s worth taking the time to get the sound you want. It’s efficient and educational to make at least 2-3 tracks in that genre.

    in reply to: BMI Distribution 9/14/2018 #30931
    composer
    Participant

    My experience is similar to many of your experiences. “Feels like a stock that won’t break out” is a good description. My income does always increase year over year, but not by a lot. My catalog seems to be growing faster than my income.
    I’m not seeing a decline in royalty payment per placement on network and cable. It’s still great to get network placements.
    Royalty payments for shows produced by Amazon and Netflix are in the range of some medium paying cable placements, not in the range of network placements.
    Yes, a few pages of Hulu pay in the low hundreds, etc. Amazon VOD placements with 300 or 4000 or 18,000 streams pay pennies. Amazon VOD placements with 500K-1M streams pay $10-25. I’m not sure how these numbers compare to royalties for a cable rerun seen by the same number of viewers. (Lower or much, much lower…)
    My overall Blanket payments have been down for a couple quarters but, like many things on these statements, I can’t figure out if that’s fluke or trend.
    Best of luck to all of you in this crazy business.

    in reply to: ASCAP and their inadequate survey system #29498
    composer
    Participant

    With BMI I now get this garbage when I click on “works catalog”.

    “This catalog is too large to display. Please enter your search criteria.”

    Oddly enough, you can still see your entire catalog without logging in to your account by using the “search BMI repertoire” function and entering your name as songwriter/composer.

    in reply to: A Hypothetical Numbers Game Question #29331
    composer
    Participant

    My guess is not for while. Cause I believe there is a long arc on a lot of this. Like stacking up episodes that recur. That takes a while and if the hypothetical composer waits and slams the 1000 tunes up it will still take some time for the episodes to accumulate. I know sometimes tunes just sit there for years before being picked for something. … it seems better to me to go ahead an get the tunes working as soon as possible.

    This is consistent with my experience. Some tracks are unused for 3 or 4 years, then used often.
    Or, another way of looking at it: Tracks I produced/signed in 2013/2014 outearned tracks I produced/signed in 2015/2016 on my most recent PRO statement.

    in reply to: Tunesat Value/Effectiveness Changing? #27197
    composer
    Participant

    I’ve had a Tunesat account for years. Here’s my experience:

    If the wrong show title (or no show title) is displayed initially, it usually corrects in a day or two.

    If Tunesat detects a promo or commercial, it will display the title of the show in which the promo/commercial airs. That’s pretty easy to figure out though. If the same track and length is detected during several different shows in the same day, it’s probably a commercial or promo.

    I haven’t noticed any significant change over time in the percentage of placements that are detected. I would estimate that 15 to 25 percent of my placements are detected, and often only a portion of the placement is captured. I only track US TV placements.

    It IS perplexing to me that this service detects so few placements. I know I’ve seen posts on MLR reporting that some composers have a much higher detection percentage than me. I can’t figure that out.

    I still choose to pay for the service though. When deciding what music to produce, it’s very useful to know what is being placed ASAP, and I’m not aware of an alternative to Tunesat. Customer service is good and the interface is easy to use.

    in reply to: 1st PRO royalty and how many tracks written prior? #26656
    composer
    Participant

    Roughly 1-2 years and 100-200 tracks before PRO payments started. Then another 5-6 quarters before quarterly payments passed $1K. That was roughly 4 years ago and payments have grown steadily. Of course, I’m continuing to produce music.

    It’s a long term enterprise for sure.

    in reply to: Percentage confusion #26588
    composer
    Participant

    It can be corrected. The amount you were erroneously paid will be deducted from a future statement.

Viewing 15 posts - 16 through 30 (of 87 total)
X

Forgot Password?

Join Us