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Make music that cannot be created by loops and one finger sequences, then race to the top and charge big / fairly for it. You’ll lose 99% of the potential buyers who want it for $2 or for free, but you’ll still have your dignity, and a few high end buyers/licensers who will lead to other good / creative opportunities.
You do not have permission to view this content.Yes, the number of placements / pages are growing, (143 for me) and the dollars are plateaued. Better than last quarter, but not where they traditionally would / should have been. Even though BMI is making record income. Unless things change, I see backend PRO royalties as receding into a thing of the past over the next decade – as Netflix and the streaming crowd take over broadcasting.
So, my question is: can I get away with this? If, say, 25% of my tracks sound great with fade-outs, would I be crazy to just throw caution to the wind and do it?
Don’t do it!! <<at least don’t do it for library use>>
Wouldn’t Netflix, etc. be considered interactive then?
Michael – what constitutes “interactive” in this context? Thx.
Essentially SE pays only for “digital radio station” type plays. Not youtube, other video based web performances, or netflix, amazon vod, etc..
Though, to be fair, Sourceaudio’s system is probably more accurate.
Magnatudes more accurate. IMO, the way of the future. I was doing a bit of consulting with them when they started to move into the audio watermark arena, and they shared some of their test criteria. It’s a very robust system.
TV placements ARE considered broadcast uses. But perhaps their business model extends to the up-front sync fees only. Because….. If the publisher you mentioned does not re-title, and they to not take your publishing, then they get 0, ZERO, back end royalties. You would get “double” or, in reality 50% (writers) + 50% (publishers).
Have you read the contract? That’s what will tell you what’s what. Everything else is just speculation.
Haha!! Touché!
ONE Micro Sync @ $25 per sync = approx. (depends on the subscription plan, but I’ll choose a popular one) 555 syncs via subscription. IF, and only if, the publisher can accurately attribute the 555 downloads to you. That’s a HUGE problem as Music1234 pointed out.
Subscriptions = the death of the industry as we have known it for creative music writers.
And I know that you (or someone) will say “but there are so many new opportunities now to exploit”. Yes, this is true. But exploiting thousandths of a cent is not a viable business model. Just for clarity, here’s the math I just did for another thread :
$25 on a front end micro sync = the same amount of back end for 300 mediocre cable placements, 250,000 youtube streams or 5,149,188 (yes, MILLION) streaming placements of :35 seconds on a POPULAR TV show streamed off Hulu.
Backend placements in a fully streaming world is not even viable for a lunch @ McD’s, much less a “career” path. Micro syncs are nice, but they are by definition “micro”. Worth a dinner @ Denny’s for 2. Not really enough to consider a “career path” either.
And so it begs the question….what the **** are we doing here? Actually, that’s too pessimistic cause we are not yet 100% streaming. Maybe I’ll ask again in 5 years.
Right Jesse, if they don’t re-title under a non-exclusive agreement, and they are not adding a unique identifier to your title, then they are not collecting publishing royalties. You would have to assume they make all their money off of sync fees.
This is exactly correct. ^^^ If they do not re-title, most likely their business is NOT in broadcast uses. Or any form of broadcast which makes anything significant on back end. IMO, this is a growth area. Back end royalties are a resource that is falling off and eventually – unless something changes – a resource that will be far outstripped by micro sync’s on the front end.
Face it, $25 on a front end micro sync = the same amount of back end for 300 mediocre cable placements, 250,000 youtube streams or 5,149,188 streaming placements of :35 seconds on a POPULAR TV show streamed off Hulu.
And yeah. I actually did the math. I didn’t pull these numbers out of my @**. Based on current BMI statements. Frightening isn’t it.
And you really want to write production music? 🙂
If anyone changes their business model and fails to offer a new contract or opt-in clause, they are obviously caught out and in the wrong and liable. At worst they would have to remove your sound recordings from their catalog and lose the rights to use them unless you have agreed to some contract that states otherwise.
I guess you were probably referring to me on this one as it was the exact situation I found myself in. Yes, I agree 100%. You can’t sign music under one contractual / set of circumstances and completely change that without an opt-out IMO. Ultimately, I opted out as I mentioned, but it wasn’t easy and it cut a deep swath in the process.
The shining light or rather the positive in this, is the sheer gargantuan amount of demand and the new and emerging opportunities that never used to exist.
This is true. And there may be some hope. Unfortunately all of the “new” style opportunities pay fractions of a cent. In the thousandths of a cent range, where old school opportunities paid (often) hundreds of dollars. Of course, these are in the decline, and the new style opportunities are in the incline, but it’s going to be a loooooooooooong time before the new style opportunities make up the difference. If ever. For an example, about a million youtube plays pays roughly $100. One single TV placement (network) used to pay much more than that. I’m not sure where the upside is in that as we see network TV losing ground to streaming venues who pay (at best) 2% of what TV paid.
I’m quite active in writing. I have music on literally thousands of TV shows and movies. And am adding (on average) a hundred + new show placements every quarter. And the royalties are still shrinking. I’m not sure where the silver lining is in those new placements. Of course, I think we have our PRO’s to blame for that one. It’s a complex and ever changing business.
20-50 years may settle all of these irregularities, but I think that will be way past my time in the biz.
Normally I never find out until years later when placements show up on my BMI statement. But if you’re in the US, that probably won’t happen for you as theatrical trailers do not pay out. If you’re sharing in the sync fee’s, you’ll get a check eventually. That’s how you know.
Thanks for the link. Very informative.
I would think this is a step in the right direction, although those in power always seem to be able to arm wrestle tech to suit their needs and pocketbooks before the general public can get on board.
One thing is for certain, the next 20 years is going to look nothing like the last 20.