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If i’m not wrong, the US publishers/libraries have accounts in all 3 US PROs (BMI, ASCAP, SESAC) so, they’ll register your tracks to your PRO. At least that’s what i can tell from the libraries i work with.
I think maxpower answered that already. Usually you keep 100% of writer’s share and 50% of sync fees. And some of the big libraries might offer you some upfront fees too. But not all libraries have the same contract terms. Ask the library to send you a copy of their agreement.
Actually, it’s just the real name for me (BMI). I created a pseudonym (with a new CAE/IPI) 1-2 years after joining BMI but it doesn’t appear on the royalty statements.
Art, you are correct. The library told me AMC doesn’t submit promo logs to BMI and therefore, BMI doesn’t pay royalties to the composer. I wonder how many loopholes a network can find in order to avoid paying royalties to the composers…
Glad to hear at least CMT pays royalties for these promos!
Last summer i had one track getting around 15 Tunesat hits daily on AMC network. I asked the library if this was a commercial. They told me it was an “on-air promo” and unfortunately BMI doesn’t pay royalties on on-air promos from AMC.
From BMI – “AMC is not a station we currently get promo logs from.”You could have a case if a) you had copyrighted your song last June and b) your track had a strong topline melody and Akon’s topline melody was identical to yours. I hear a somewhat similar chord progression that it’s pretty common in this music style but, as boininkeee2000 said, this isn’t enough to make your case.
Several well known and unknown artists have sued Coldplay for stealing their melody lines from them but non of these artists won their case (even if some of the toplines were pretty close to the Coldplay ones). So,it’s really hard to imagine you can claim copyright infringement in this case.
Not a legal advice though, just my $0.02@boinkeee2000 Good to hear you were up this quarter! I have to say that the first few years were pretty bumpy for me (and i guess most of us). I’m receiving statements for 6 years now (not a long time but you should be able to come to some conclusions after 6 years anyway) and for the past 1.5-2 years i’m seeing a somewhat steady progress (in contrast to the first 3+ years of a ‘roller coaster’ experience!).
It took me around 4-5 years to see which libraries work best for my music and which ones is a waste of time. The hardest part is to put your music in the right hands and you can’t do it without failing at first.
But even so, you always have to keep your ears open, be alerted and search for new opportunities. There are constant changes in this business and nothing is taken for granted.Everytime that i fail i keep reminding myself i’m doing what i love the most and that’s enough to keep me going 😉
@maxpower BMI has a similar 4-month gap. Payments are made on mid March, June, September and January. Yeap,that’s right: BMI doesn’t care if composers can provide for their families at Xmas, lol!
You’re correct about the 2nd thing: 90-95% of the payment was from placements made during Q3 2019. There are a few delayed payments from Q2 2019 (or even Q1) but it’s just a tiny % really.
International royalties is a different story but i have to say PRS usually pays faster than most of other territories.Usually it takes much more than 5-6 months before you see any results. Most of the libraries i work with got me placements after 15 months or so. But there’s no rule of thumb really, i’ve seen placements after only 2 months or after 3 years from some libraries. It depends on how well connected is a library,quality of music, current music needs,clientele, cataloging & registering the music etc.
Also, Tunesat is missing a good amount of placements (around 40% in my case) compared to the PRO’s quarterly statements.
Suggestion: don’t put all your eggs in one basket! Spread your music to several exclusive (or NE) libraries that have music in your style and, after a couple of years, you’ll know who’s working best for you.
30 tracks is already a very good number, specially for custom requests! I wouldn’t submit more music to them before i got some good placements from some of these 30 tracks. Patience is a virtue!Wow, congrats UpFromTheSkies!
Not my best quarter but a very good one anyway. Quite better than last year’s January statement so, 2020 looks promising 🙂
It’s the 3rd time i receive Facebook royalties and it was $41 for 27 tracks. The 2 previous payments were for $3 and $8 respectively so,it seems to get better,lol.
It said ‘Facebook 2017’ once again.It’s really funny: i got an email from a well known music library (SK), saying we have to stick together and fight Discovery’s plans for cutting composers’ income by 90%.
The same library supplies music gratis to Travel Channel,Food Network and several other networks that don’t pay royalties to composers. The library also doesn’t share money with artists from these blanket music deals.
I’ve asked them a couple years ago why do they sign deals with such networks and they told me “if you’re lucky and your Travel Channel placements go international, you might see some royalties!”.
Well, i guess i was unlucky so far but SK kept making money from my music placed in Travel Channel shows.So,why do SK care about Discovery’s plans if they already support this practice?
Congrats on the 1st tv placement Randy!
It’s weird there’s no show title.The UK placements on BMI statements seem to always mention the show + episode.
Maybe occasionally they don’t include that info?If it’s an exclusive track you could always ask the music library this track is tied to.
You could also email ASCAP about placements missing this piece of info.
Do you have a Tunesat account? This could be also helpful in case the UK show gets some reruns in the future (unless you already have a Tunesat account and it missed the placement..).How do Non US composers get paid by BMI? Do they mail you a cheque? Or is it via wire transfer? Or some other means?
When you register to BMI as a non US composer, you’re set to receive check payments (that’s by default). Send an email to your BMI contact and ask them to get paid via wire transfer from now on.They’ll send you a 1 page pdf document to fill out and send it back to them.
Personally,i was receiving the checks anywhere from 4-6 weeks after the date they were issued and then my bank needed another 4 weeks to clear them!
Plus,the bank charged me around $30-$40 to clear every single one check…
I changed to wire transfer and i’m receiving my payments on time and my bank charges me only $3 for each transaction 🙂
There might be different charges from bank to bank (or country to country) but i don’t believe they’ll charge you more than the check clearance anyway.
You can ask your bank for more info on that matter.