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I for one will miss DI’s contribution. I have found it sometimes helpful and always entertaining. This is a Public forum and of course we should take everyone’s advice with a grain of salt, including mine. Just my 2 cents.
Although most of my placements are through Libraries and they are the publisher in that case, I have had tunes just show up on shows were I was credited with being the publisher. Those tunes were registered by my publishing company so I got paid twice (Pub. and writer). I don’t know how the shows even found the music, I do have some CDs floating around. One tune was on the Jay Leno Tonight show who used 10 seconds off of one of my CDs. I got enough to put a down payment on some new socks for that. I have also been credited with being the publisher by error in a movie. The tune was registered by me and another publisher. I informed the Publisher and they said they would try and fix it and to just enjoy the royalties until then.
I do think there are Libraries that license classical tunes and you sure play the heck out of that stuff. But I really like your Improvisation that’s on your Gigmasters page. Judging from that, you can write as well as play great piano. Just keep poking around here and out there and you will eventually find a place for the music I would hope. Once again, real nice piano playing !
I had a cool one with one song being used 3 times on one Saturday Night Live episode. It was a parody of a Lincoln Financial spot. They did 3 versions with a different lead actor each time ( Jason Sudeikis, Bill Hader, Ben Stiller). I would never have envisioned this usage for this tune, but as we hear here on MLR you just never know where your tunes might end up. Here is one of them
The timing on this stuff is glacial. It takes years not months to get the ball rolling. You got a Network placement on CBS. Your music must be in the Ball Park. You’re on the right track. That placement should show up in 3 to 6 months ( or longer) on your BMI statement with some money. And than it will show up again and again over time in repeats and internationally hopefully, with a little more money. Meanwhile you may get more and they will start stacking up. I wish it was a lot faster myself. I think of my catalog as a long term investment, it accumulates value over time. Like investing $100 a month in mutual funds. At first not much. With compounding over time it adds up to something.
That’s hilarious but I think there is some validity to it. Somehow your playing has to hook up with your body and emotional body. We play with our fingers, mind, emotions,ears,and muscles. I’m a piano player and I can think of one piano player in particular who goes thru quite a few contortions plus vocal noises (Keith Jarrett) in order to play incredible music. And of course everybody has seen BB Kings great Guitar face. I say whatever it takes. I’m sure there are some that are stone faced and still, that can really wail, and maybe some who just fake the facial contortions, everybody is different and people play with different ratios of Fingers, mind, and heart.
I don’t know why one does that and not the other but the general thinking around here is BMI is better than ASCAP at picking up placements. I don’t really know if that is so. Some think SESAC is the best. I don’t know about that either. I do know the more material and more useful material you have in more and better places the more chances you have.
Mike, There is a whole lot of waiting in this business! As Art has said It’s a Long Game. So I guess we have to have Patience (I hate that part) I don’t have Tunesat but at ASCAP my PRO, they do post Cue Sheets. I admit I check in there almost everyday, It’s maybe a unhealthy compulsion. But I bet others here also do that. I hope I’m not the only one.
I have been paid for Canadian shows without ever seeing a cue sheet. I like the ASCAP international distribution cause it has surprises like that. A certain Library that is mentioned here a lot seems to be getting a lot of Canadian placements.
I also wondered about this 50% number also . Could this be right? These guys are big but I can think of some others that are big too and some that are really old and big.
That’s good news Michael. I was afraid of some sort of conflict there with Sound Exchange. My stuff is already registered with Sound Exchange and Pandora. I would hate to not be on CD Baby and all their Digital vendors. It’s fun to sell a few things there. It’s different from TV placements. Less money but just cool when someone anywhere in the world finds and buys your song or CD.
Aaron, I believe most any genre can find itself placed in Reality Shows. I’ve placed Jazz, Funk, Orchestral, Novelty/Quirky, Blues, Ethnic and others. They use a ton of music in each show. Mostly just a few seconds of the tune. That’s One reason you might not want your latest masterpiece symphony which you spent weeks tweaking in the libraries that serve these shows. I would say NE and Ex Libraries . RF libraries mostly do Non Broadcast usage.
I had a bad quarter overall but my Netflix was $78.45 with mostly really old shows, many of them canceled long ago. This makes me think Netflix could add up after a while, it would just take lots of shows just like the other royalties. It’s just one more way to get paid. More and more placements, that’s the strategy!
My guess is if you did not change the melody it would still be considered the same song as far as copyright is concerned. It might not be a good idea to submit it as an exclusive. You could change the melody though and than it would be no problem. I could be wrong, and it would depend on if the exclusive was taking your copyright or just the exclusive right to license that version. I redo old tracks a lot, so I wonder about this issue too, like if I changed it enough. I think it’s tricky.
Yep, one of those showed up for me too. Ten seconds of one of my tunes. I think I can buy one drop of gas with that.