[LAwriter]

Scams? Maybe. Waste of $$$. Quite possibly. What I suggest is that you do a little research. Two of the BIGGEST “sellers” of information on how to get sync licenses have virtually no IMDb presence – which if you’re not familiar with you should be. What does virtually no professional presence say to you? I know what it says to me. If someone has no IMDb presence and is trying to sell me a package to get into the industry……they had better have the goods. If they have the goods, it will show up on IMDb.

Someone mentioned Jesse Joseffson. So since mentioned by others, he seems to be fair game. Here’s his IMDb page. Took all of 30 seconds to look up… :
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8345353/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

Two credits and you’re charging me HOW much? Haaaaa! Sync Academy? Didn’t it used to be “Music Makes Cash” until he got skewered by tons of legit writers? 🙂

I’m sorry, but my IMDB page has hundreds of shows, and thousands of episodic placements on it. And I give info out for free to anyone who bothers to ask.

There is another high charger who has minimal IMDb credits as well. Some might call this a scam (actually, many have), but I’d just call it someone trying to earn a living off of uninformed people who want into the industry without bothering to do their due diligence. And honestly, that annoys me. There are always these types of “let me show you how to do it” scams (OOPS!) out on the marketplace. To be successful, they have to have SOMEthing to offer. Unfortunately, from what I’ve seen, they are more about making money for themselves as they don’t have the placements needed to make a living at it.

Harsh? Yeah, probably. What was that Jerry McGuire said? SHOW ME THE MONEY (placements).

So take it or leave it. It’s your money. And my $0.02. Now devalued to $0.000437 due to streaming. 🙂

[LAwriter]

in Non-Ex placements, AdRev totally messes with licenses from any other library than the library that placed it into AdRev first. So if you have the same piece in several libraries (total legal and do-able) then the licensee of most of the libraries will hit a brick wall when uploading a video with your music attached to youtube. This is well documented around here and searchable. Maybe someone with more info can provide a link.

[LAwriter]

As mentioned, it can take quite awhile. Don’t worry about it – keep writing.

Also as mentioned, your tracks do not NEED to be registered as long as the cue sheet has “writer / publisher” data attached to it.

Relax, move on, check back in a few months. Remember, the publisher wants their money too, and ultimately, they’ll get around to it.

[LAwriter]

Regarding “concerns”. I let the chips fall where they may….

I’ll sign solid contracts, work with reputable (as much as possible, and as much as is searchable and discernible) publishers and then write.

Write, write, WRITE!!! And I don’t look back.

I can’t be concerned or weighed down with the possibility that someone will steal from me. That’s a given. It’s going to happen. Again, if you can’t deal with that, you will be consumed. (Been there, done that, not going back) If you focus on it, it will eat you up, and quite honestly, if you can’t deal with it, look to make money elsewhere, and keep music as your fun avocation.

Make the stems as you choose (sounds like you’re already hip to adding things to protect yourself), let the publisher know “why” and if their requests are too isolating for your music or demanding of your time, move on to another library / publisher.

Best of luck!

[LAwriter]

Theo – your thread title says “film music” but the music itself says “artist”. It’s really not film music at all. The two are quite different, and have different uses, ways of composition, and outlets of license.

For instance, “film music” rarely has vocals attached, and is almost always not in a “song” format.

I’m guessing that you want to be an artist and license your songs as such – not compose music for “film”. You might try Crucial. They are focused more towards licensing ‘songs” from what I’ve seen.

[LAwriter]

Congrats on your first placement!

Now…on to duplicating that X1000!!! <thumbsup>

PS – my first “placement” was on CBS (over 30 years ago), and they quite literally stole the music and used it without permission. Were discovered by a random friend who knew the music, saw it in a quite visible show / up front use, who called and congratulated / alerted me. When contacted by y publisher, CBS said they didn’t know how they got it, or where it came from, or who the writer or publisher was. LOL. To this day I don’t think I’ve been paid for it. 🙂 🙂

Welome to the entertainment biz!!

[LAwriter]

Which syncs don’t give back-end royalties

In the US, that would be movie trailers. The front end sync’s are where the money is made on those.

Also of note, others that don’t pay out are (depending on your PRO and your publisher and how much either or both are “on the job” hunting things down) Commercials and smaller placements on small cable networks.

PS – your “top 5” list doesn’t exist. It’s quite literally different for every composer. One of my best paying publishers is considered a pariah LOL. Go figure. Some of the tippy top PMA libraries I’m in? They have done very little for me. Go figure again.

As Art mentioned – you’ve got to figure it out the hard way. By seeing what works for you and your music.

[LAwriter]

But to your second comment re: the “recombining / recomposition”…. Yeah, I get cues on my PRO statements all the time showing me to have a small percentage of a track that’s obviously had something “added” to it – now being split with another composer that I’ve never heard of or met. Usually percentage wise in their favor.

I wouldn’t worry about it. It means your stuff is getting used. The business is rife with corruption, and if you dwell on it, your creativity will get pancaked.

Write, rinse, repeat, move on. Or choose another biz where this is not as prevalent. (Harder than it might seem at the onset..,,,,)

[LAwriter]

Only when the request isolates a sound – could be Omnisphere or ?? – that violates the EULA. Then it gets mixed in with something else. The library / end client use just have to “deal” with it.

What scares me (on occasion) is when the library wants to mix things, and I no longer have any control. In those situations, I’ll usually combine before sending.

Omnisphere ALWAYS gets mixed with another simimlar sound. Same with Stylus, or any other problematic synth / sample providers.

makes one long for the good ol days…. 🙂

[LAwriter]

My Pro statements show roughly $80 per 1 Mil streams.

[LAwriter]

the only publishers most composers that i know talk about that gets them weekly/daily placements are A-list PMA libs

Not for me. I’m in plenty of the AAA top tier libraries. They have not done that well for me. They have good international sub pubs, but honestly, I kinda regret signing a lot of my stuff with them.

It’s critical that your personal style, your production esthetic, your musical output, your type of music – underscore, trailer, commercial, etc, and your timing match up with the publisher you are considering.

It seems like young guys are SO excited that a library will take them on, but I say, that it’s more important that the composer JUDGE the library for worthiness. Not all are created equal, and blindly shooting for the “big guns” might be the worst strategy out there.

Quite possible.

[LAwriter]

PS – for me – in Los Angeles, having a mortgage and a family and writing my BUTT off – back in the golden years – after concentrating on writing for libraries 100% of my work schedule, it took about 7 years. A LOT of tunes in 7 years though. Over 1000, and I had a really great publisher that was getting my stuff placed weekly if not daily. (Mostly underscore not trailers or commercials)

[LAwriter]

I’ve signed probably hundreds of contracts over the years. Never ever, ever has anyone ever signed me as “a composer”. It’s always for the music. It’s not like an artist deal.

How long? Ha! 15 minutes to months. Maybe even a year.

re: $$$. It’s impossible to predict. As Beatslinger suggested, forget the money and concentrate on the music. If you can’t survive on it right out of the gate, you’re going to have to find another job or person to help tide you over until (or if) your licensing income comes up to speed. Of course it depends on where you live, whether or not you have a family, what your financial obligations are, etc., but it can easily take a decade. Or two…. How fast can you write top quality material?

[LAwriter]

^^^^

What art says is true.

I’ve got albums under my name all over Spotify and the like. Albums that I’ve never seen, never made, never “OK’d”. All put there by “music libraries” venturing into the “record company” paradigm.

[LAwriter]

So everything said is essentially a confirmation that no, BMI won’t accept Tunesat detections?

I understand it’s a tool. And a great one if you have a small library, but as mentioned, I’ve got thousands of cues, floating all over, getting sub published, and then split off with production companies, who sub-pub and split off and on and on and on… It’ a daunting task to just keep writing, much less trying to corral all the lose cannons.

Somewhere, there is a serious chasm – a black hole that music documentation is falling into because our PRO’s hold onto the distant past and try to make cue sheets continue to work decades after we’ve had significant computer software to accomplish more accurate detections. (And no, Tunesat is the best method for that IMO, even though a great tool.)

I know all about working the publishers. Most of the legit publishers I’m with are VERY good about getting the cue sheets filled out and registered. I could care less about P5 and the like. They are not getting any significant broadcast placements anyway from my experience.)

If there are indeed as many unpaid / undocumented / unfiled cue sheets as are indicated from the look of things from tunesat’s perspective, there isn’t enough time in the day to track down and “video capture” them all or even contact publishers.

Our PRO’s are falling down on the job from my perspective. And yeah, that’s a helluva negative thought. Admitted.

If anyone else has any actually protocol for getting BMI to accept Tunesat detections, I’m all ears…. I know one fellow who suggests just giving BMI the list without the Tunesat info.

[Author]

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