[Music1234]

As a side note…I STILL after 10 years of collecting back end PRO royalties from TV shows and commercials can not make any definitive conclusions about the confusing payments from PRO’s. I have a big presence with both BMI and ASCAP and have been funneling a lot of my registration energy into BMI since 2015. The fact of the matter is that I still earn more from ASCAP. I actually think getting 8 checks a year verses 4 makes a difference.

Additionally, I had a weird situation where I was paid $557 royalty for a “J” jingle on local “NBC news at 5” for just 1 play! , yet my BMI co writer was paid nothing. Was this a survey “get lucky” scenario? Why was my co writer not paid by BMI? He is going to protest this by the way.

My point is that it really is hard to draw definitive conclusions as both pros have ways of not being transparent.

Their bogus excuse about not honoring cue sheets is ridiculous. The money flow is real simple. Networks produce programs or “content” . Some of it is live sports and news, other programs are video recorded or filmed. All programs do the same thing, they sell ads during the shows. That ad revenue is paid to networks. Networks pay a portion of that revenue to PROS. So there should be money to pay writers for any and all cues used on EVERY show no matter what. The cue sheets should be honored period.

Alan, don’t worry about a lawyer. Please do send in your complaint letter to ascaps board of directors and point them to this thread.

I agree 100% that an archaic “survey” system is far from “modern”.

When all is said and done though, I can not say that BMI will lead writers to the promised land of more money. We’re dealing with a never ending, non-transparent system from all pro’s. To add one more point why did the publisher “M” earlier this year issue checks to their writers with the memo stating “ASCAP BTN Settlement”? Sure I went right ahead and cashed that check but this leaves more questions then answers…? Why is my publisher sending a check as ASCAP settlement? Did ASCAP just say let’s get these guys off our backs and send one lump sum to the publisher to quiet this issue down? Why wasn’t ASCAP sending the royalties on their next domestic check run directly to writers? How did the publisher know how much to send each writer?

The bottom line is that royalties seem to be distributed with a “winging it” type attitude and system of accounting. It should really just be black and white based on facts (as in which tracks actually aired)

[Music1234]

You guys motivated me to look at statements and I can confirm that I have cue sheets for “NBA Gametime” but have not been paid ASCAP royalties for Q 4 2017 plays nor Q1 2018 plays.

I did get royalties for “NBA Gametime” from BMI and some do pay well $32, $17 , $19 for background instrumentals.

So yes indeed, ASCAP is not paying for NBA TV even though cue sheets are on file. This is very annoying and really just amounts to overt mismanagement of royalties collected. If BMI is collecting and paying for this program, why wouldn’t ASCAP?

[Music1234]

Thanks Art, indeed this is another frustrating “work in progress” on the part of sound exchange. When these organizations constantly change the metadata format one has to wonder if they have their “sheet” together. Literally and figuratively speaking. HFA has not been smooth sailing either. Just getting a spreadsheet ingested in successfully has been a challenge for 2 years now. Too many e-mails back and forth with customer support.

[Music1234]

@Rhythmscott income is income. If a company sends you a 1099 misc for sync fees or royalties paid to you by their company, that 1099 will get filed with the IRS as income paid to you. Therefore you must report that as income earned on your tax return. Every company who pays you money including the PRO’s will (should) send you a 1099.

Idea to reduce the tax burnden for US folks:
Keep an annual log of business expenses such as instrument, software, and computer purchases/ upgrades/ or repairs, travel expenses for music biz purposes, payments to other musicians and singers (session fees), mobile phone, internet service, web hosting services, fees for memberships to music related sites and services, and educational and training expenses, legal fees, accounting fees, postage, and so on etc. I’d think the subscription to MLR (for example) is a business expense tax deduction for all…no?

Royalty, sync fee, and perhaps live performance income – expenses = profit for your business. You are taxed on the profit your business makes in a given year.

If your business loses money and you spend more (on software, computers, instruments, repairs, upgrades, legal fees etc…) than you made, then clearly you will not pay income tax. I’d suggest chatting with an accountant but this is basic info. For the record, I am not a CPA.

[Music1234]

This was registration work I did in August 2018. So yes, it is the latest sheet as I was told.

[Music1234]

Well I’d suggest to all serious, professional writers of production music who control their catalogs that it may be in your interests to release your music onto the DSP’s before NE libraries, Semi Exclusive libraries, and even exclusive for 1 or 2 years type libraries start doing that. I have been very keen to notice a lot of companies e-mailing relentlessly “GO PRO!” or “MONATIZE YOUR MUSIC THROUGH US”….It seems like these outfits know how to herd up hundreds of thousands of tracks and skim billions of pennies from Streaming, before they pass the composer cut on to the composer/ songwriter. Anyone have any thoughts on my “theory”? Is songtradr, for example, morphing into another CD Baby?

I often wonder if we’ll see a day where sync licensing can be done via Spotify? i.e. sourced from Spotify. It could actually be a good day when we simply just upload ourselves to Spotify and Apple via our own accounts and collect streaming royalties and sync licensing royalties with no extra middle men around skimming and acting as “first collectors”. It’s at a point where we have to ask…why do we as indepent music producers and publishers need anyone (other than Spotify, Apple Music, and Google) between our music and the person who wants to license it or stream it for personal listening pleasure?

[Music1234]

Thanks Art…last question…
I am studying SE’s spreadsheet right now (the way I filled in the data)
Who is paid as “rights holder” ? Column G “Marketing Label” ?
or Column x “Master Recording Owner” ?

I put the name of a company in Column G, but I put my own real name in Column X. I also put my own name in Column M “Track Artist”.
So I hope that did not disqualify me from collecting as rights holder and Artist….

SE also wanted to know who the composer was in Column V, but does that column (Person) ever collect from SE?

[Music1234]

Art so If I understand this correctly “company” collects as publisher/ rights holder…then you “the artist” collects as “featured performer” from Sound Exchange”?
I personally have not gotten a check from them yet, but I have taken the time to register my releases because some of the tunes seem to be streaming on Pandora.
Once logged in you see:
payable tracks
submitted tracks
upload history
isrc search

I have the majority of my titles sitting in “upload history”. When I search by ISRC, I can see a proper title match. I don’t think the tracks sitting in Upload History move to “Payable tracks” until they actually start streaming on Pandora, Sirius, Music Choice or other AM/ FM/ satelite radio services.

Is this your understanding too Art?

Or am I missing another way we can earn from SE?

[Music1234]

It’s my understanding that HFA will pay rights owners “streaming Mechanical” royalties (from Spotify, YOUTUBE, Google Play, Apple Music, etc.) and yes ISRC codes and UPC codes are required to match the streams and get paid. HFA provides spreadsheet templates. The ISRC codes and UPC codes should be provided from your distributor:CD Baby, Tunecore, Distro Kid, etc. Then it becomes a copy paste exercise.

Sound Exchange will pay “featured artists” 45% and “Rights Owners” 50% non featured artists 5% (sideman who may have played on the track) for Sirius, Pandora, Music Choice, and other digital radio and AM and FM radio.

So for folks like us, I believe we should be registering as rights owners and featured artist unless of course someone else is the featured performer. However, I think I learned that you can not be paid both as rights owner. In many cases we are everything We would be publisher, composer, master owner, and featured artist…the guy who played everything and composed the piece. If Sound exchange does not pay both when we are essentially “everything” – composer, publisher, rights holder, and featured artist….perhaps the workaround is to make one’s wife, husband or child the featured artist to maximize the collections? Anyone have any thoughts on that?

When all is said and done, I think the MMA is highly geared for commercial releases to the DSP’s. I still do not know how the MMA impacts our bread and butter revenue streams (TV, film,TV commercials royalties from the PRO’s) So if anyone knows what the MMA will do for composers/ songwriters/ publishers as it relates to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc…please chime in.

What I am observing is that if we’re not in the mood to spend at least 1 hour a day in front of spreadsheets, we may need to find another job. The spreadsheet scene is relentless and never ending.

[Music1234]

Some articles offer some insight:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/dannyross1/2018/08/02/a-hit-songwriter-explains-urgency-for-music-industry-overhaul-in-washington/
Wow. Blackstone Group is the “Parent” of SESAC and HFA – all the gangsters are in on this!
http://tasteofcountry.com/what-is-the-music-modernization-act/

This Bill is only the size of a 155 page novel!

https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr5447/BILLS-115hr5447rds.xml

This offers a nice summary chart.

What is the Music Modernization Act and Why Should it Pass

[Music1234]

One thing for sure though is if you work hard, write and record the music, release it, do the boring metadata, do the upload labor, You have yourself in a position to “get lucky”. It’s also a classic tale of “The early bird got the worm”. Ownership of assets to pick and chose where and how we want to distribute our music is more important than ever at this point in the game.

In line with the story about his European ad campaign; I have no idea where our music was licensed from for our latest Oxiclean commercial. A U.S. company and closing in on 4000 airings.

Art, this is fantastic for you, but kind of annoying on another level. You’d think that music licensing sites would just make a point to inform the writer that their track is headed into a big national advertising project. Church and Dwight is a 14 Billion company. The composer of the track should be informed. Congrats on a great sync. Hope it pays well on the back end.

[Music1234]

I tend to agree with you Michael. I just get a kick out of this story because it’s a story of “ignorance turned out to be bliss”. It’s also a story where it contradicts everything we thought we were not supposed to do
-upload and support rf sites
-upload to adrev while music was being traded on multiple sites and therefore creating a lot of annoyed customers getting take down or copyright claim notices.
– make an ill advised deal where you grant way too many rights to a company which then dumps the music into a subscription plan. The one good thing that may come out of that deal is the fact that this site does publish PRO info and who knows…maybe the TV spot placement in Europe occurred from their and the paperwork was filed accurately generating a ton of back end.

The one battle that composers seem to have won with many sites though is the fact that almost all of them now allow PRO registered music and display writer/ publisher names and IPI #’s.

I am not convinced that high end corporate players in the U.S. buy on those markets for big ad campaigns, but the Europeans seem very willing to use those sites to source music for big advertising campaigns.

In regards to ADREV, you just kind of get the impression that in the 2012 to 2015 era no one fully understood content ID. People just heard “ADREV” and some mentioned how they were making money in there, so guys just dove in with their tracks.

One can make a case that everything about this business is “luck”.

[Music1234]

Yes 2018 is “in the books” for BMI – hard to believe.
Positives:
-Royalty income up nicely compared to last year
-Growth happening year after year
-Foreign royalties are starting to ramp up higher
-I expect next year to top this year too
Negatives:
– Still feels like a low amount of royalty income based on the amount of tracks I’ve pumped into BMI over the last 3 to 4 years. I was expecting more for all of 2018
– We’re getting .01 cent for Hulu and Amazon and Netflix – SAD!
– It definitely seems like it’s impossible to earn a full time income from back end only
– Statement pages get longer but it does seem like royalties get smaller.

It is what it is, and thankfully there are other ways to make money off of music cues beyond back end PRO royalties.

[Music1234]

Is it worth it to keep submitting every six months or a year if you feel you have better material and/or in a different style? Or better to just move on to other libraries?

We’re in a “Mature” phase of the business and anyone trying to get “in” these days is a late adopter of the music library model. If you want to get “in” anywhere you first and foremost have to have amazing content to offer. Most of the places mentioned above already have veteran writers with large catalogs “feeding the beast” more music every year. I have to think that taking on more artists/ writers ultimately becomes a liability.

You can submit and submit over and over, but in all honesty, you may eventually just have to personally get to know someone to “escort” you “in” as well.

The new library music model set sail back in the 2006 to 2010 era. Here in 2018, we are in a very different place because it’s a mature business model. More writers and more music is not really the answer to more revenue for libraries and writers. Obtaining information about who is well connected to quality clients, getting to know those people or often “that person” and then having your music presented by them is what you need.

Those of us who were able to jump on certain ships back in that 2007 to 2009 era have greater advantages. I do feel sorry for anyone new just getting started.

This business is always full of surprises, but the pessimist side of me feels like we’re going to experience another massive devaluation tsunami in the next few years that will change everything once again. Kind of the way Napster brought the entire consumer buying music model down.

https://money.cnn.com/2010/02/02/news/companies/napster_music_industry/

I do hope I am wrong, but I feel and sense the undercurrents out there.

Even when you think the impossible is really impossible – It’s not. Here is a 23 year old beat maker who topped 20K in monthly earnings making beats on a lap top most likely. Watch here:

[Music1234]

Nothing but calculated, false enthusiasm and desperation to attract clients. This video amounts to nothing more than a scripted plan to promote a stock music site with an exaggerated and “fake endorsement energy” disguised as a vlog.

Every video maker will behave they in a manner they chose to behave when it comes to buying music licenses. I have to believe most would rather build music budgets into their estimates and charge for those music licenses.

If writers/ music producers/ composers simply do not participate in these subscription models, then we will have nothing to worry about. If they do participate, they will ruin their careers.

More faux enthusiasm here too:

Try to block out the noise. The “1 license sold” for “each individual video project” business is still marching forward and seems to be alive and well. If you stay loyal to only that model you should have a future.

I am still waiting for some brave music producer to step into this forum and say “I am supplying music to a subscription model, and I am doing quite well each month.” I will remind everyone again. I remember working with a company that paid royalties of $15, $20, $25, $40 per license sold (Just depended on end use). They then switched to “subscriptions”. My last statement was a series of 0.96 cent royalties based on “unknown” accounting calculations.As mentioned before, I pulled my catalog from that site. I’d rather make $0 than watch my music be pillaged for a few extra bucks while the site owners increase their margins.

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