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@pgbanker – I see data from all 3 pros because my co-writers and I share the data with each other each time a quarterly statement is issued. I do get statements as publisher too. One very obvious difference between SESAC and ASCAP is that SESAC pays substantially more for tv commercials. I do not see much of a difference with background tv cues for all 3 of them. I have not processed a TV spot through BMI yet and probably never will because I am very pleased with what I see from SESAC for those kinds of placements. My only advice for anyone new is that if you have a knack for landing music in TV commercials, I’d look at joining SESAC first. They are for profit. ASCAP and BMI should be in the business of making profits too.
What frustrates me about the Big 10 Network and ASCAP is that the cue sheets are on file at ASCAP. I see dozens of them but ASCAP writers are not getting paid performance royalties. Another lame example where the publisher earns money off our music but we don’t. They sell the blanket fee for access to the catalog. They are paid by BTN. Writers just face humiliation and get paid $0 and the music airs away every day on BTN.
I see statements from all 3 for about 4 years now and the main conclusion that is quite obvious to me is SESAC pays much more for TV commercials.
As far as cable, network, and streaming goes (for TV shows) I do not see much of a difference.The BTN/ ASCAP situation is very frustrating.
ASCAP seems to be the winner for me when those foreign statements come along. I do like getting 8 statements a year as opposed to 4. I also like the separation of domestic and foreign data. BMI has not been all that impressive when I study foreign royalties earned on my statements
ASCAP does seem to honor data from soundmouse:
http://manageadmusic.com/ascap-digital-fingerprinting-soundmouse/
but soundmouse will not send the data they’d send to ascap to a composer or a publisher.
Does SESAC honor Tunesat data/ detection reports?
What about BMI, do they look at Tunesat data when writers protest issues regarding payments?
I am Merely saying that a TV que can be created on an iPad and we know darn well that there are some questionable cues all over TV.
I have too created music on I-pad as an experiment. Ha Ha!…. Incredibly, they were used, but they have not become real, consistent money makers. I still had to have intelligent knowledge of how to craft a chord progression, orchestrate, and arrange (even using garage band). I also have learned to never say never. It would not shock me one bit if an I-pad garage band tune made it on a super bowl spot.
I have to agree with Mark. If you are offering $1000 a track and then the writer sends “writers share of the performance royalties” to the buyer too, Not a chance! You absolutely never know when a track in your personal catalog will get picked up into a big job and not only generate big license fees in the the 5K to 10K to 20K range, but then go on and generate tens of thousands in performance royalties. If you have $2,000,000, I’ll give you my entire catalog, my copyrights, my writers share, and my publishers share.
Mark, a big spot or trailer can EASILY pay you 50K (over time say 3 or 4 years) in performance royalties if it is a big brand, and runs in heavy rotation for a long period of time. It’s not all about that one juicy sync fee. I am not blowing smoke, I am involved in a couple situations like this right now. The numbers are not lying to me. P.S. I feel very fortunate and lucky.
@Daniel – Millions of teens doing edm in the bedroom is not at all a threat to mature and experienced composers writing at a high level for film, TV, and advertising.
@LA Writer, BMI is offering information. See the bold below.
The company’s total domestic revenue, encompassing digital, media, and general licensing, came in at a record $836 million, a $52 million or 7% increase over last year. Digital revenue saw its highest performance to date, up 7% to $163 million, helped in part by new long term agreements with Netflix and Hulu, among others. Media Licensing came in at $524 million, a $32 million increase over last year driven by growth in the terrestrial radio, cable and satellite radio categories.
General Licensing, which includes fees from businesses like restaurants, bars, hotels, shopping centers and fitness facilities, along with other income, grew a solid 7% to $149 million. The category added 13,000 new businesses to its growing portfolio.
International revenues grew to $294 million, an increase of $18 million or 7% over the prior year. These results are particularly impressive given the continued strengthening of the dollar against foreign currencies. BMI would have seen an additional $10 million in international revenue if not for the unfavorable exchange rates.
And here is the link to the report on BMI’s site. This is a September 7, 2017 post so this is breaking news and data:
https://www.bmi.com/news/entry/bmi-tops-revenue-records-for-third-straight-year-with-1.130-billion
Great Post LA Writer and bravo for rattling the chains. In all fairness, I did just decide to roll back and study the number of pages my statements are for the last several years at BMI. I am discovering that the statements are increasing incrementally: 9 pages to 12 to 17 to 22 to 26 etc…going back several years. I have to say that my income from them is increasing still. As the pages increase, the royalties increase.
Are you saying that your statements (page counts) are longer than ever, but royalty income is down?
If that is the case I’d be upset too.
From Variety regarding BMI revenue: “Digital revenue saw its highest performance to date, up 7% to $163 million, helped in part by new long term agreements with Netflix and Hulu, among others.”
$163 Million equates 16% of BMI’s overall revenue pool so our “Internet” earnings should make up 16% of our statements’ earnings…right? Is that logical reasoning? I will listen if anyone disagrees.
“Internet Audiovisual” royalties earned equaled 3% of my entire BMI statement. If my math and logic is correct it should be close to 16% because BMI’s internet/ streaming revenue pool is 16% of all revenue collected.
Everyone needs to start asking questions to all 3 PRO’s. Everyone needs to write to their PRO reps and board members. Talk about this at conferences, apply relentless pressure to get answers. I wrote to ASCAP Board members yesterday. Have any of you written to your PRO’s? Or are you worried about rocking the boat? Did you know that the writers who rattle the chains most often are the one’s who get paid and get paid the most? When you make noise to your PROs and publishers, checks start showing up. That has been my experience in my 25 year career.
Start asking questions about Netflix, Hulu, and streaming. Where is our raise? 1 cent is simply not enough. It’s border line insulting. I saw too many royalties (line items of cues on shows on NETFLIX) that paid 1 cent. What are they doing with that fresh 163 Million over at BMI?
“internet” royalties” were 3% of my entire statement. If my math is correct it should be 16% as it is for BMI. If anyone disagrees with my logic please chime in. I would like to hear others’ theories on this.
Some interesting links:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-do-artists-get-paid-from-music-netflix-steve-berman
https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/atr/legacy/2014/08/20/307908.pdf
https://www.ascap.com/help/royalties-and-payment/payment/whocollect
This is good breaking news on “record revenue” collected from BMI:
http://variety.com/2017/music/news/bmi-claims-record-revenue-of-1-13-billion-1202550079/
“Buoyed by new deals with Netflix and Hulu, BMI’s third consecutive year of revenue increase sees $1.023 billion distributed and administered to its affiliates – songwriters, composers and publishers – a 10% increase over the prior year’s payouts for the fiscal year ending June 30.”
@LA Wrtiter and Art, perhaps it is time that we write to Paul Williams and simply ask what the future holds with Netflix, Hulu, Streaming in general. (Including YOUTUBE/ GOOGLE)I will reach out to another board member at ASCAP and see what they say.
I am not that pessimistic. I just don’t see a case where suddenly our statements are going to decline 80% because all TV shows will migrate to Netflix/ streaming on demand services. It seem like your theorizing the end of network television which would mean no more live sports, no more live news, no “traditional television” just “streaming on demand” what we want to watch, when we want to watch it. I do not see that future racing here fast and killing our performance royalties. Let’s inquire.Curious minds need to know….
I guess it’s time to go buy and old tape machine and some gear and geek out with analog stuff again! We did away with this stuff at our studio a long time ago and I do miss it:
Anyway, back on topic. “Elite Libraries” are not something that one can define. If I had to define one, “elite Libraries” are the companies that make the cash register sing, and the sound is “cha ching” (with cash). That’s an elite library/ publisher/ stock music licensing site. (whatever you feel comfortable calling it)
As you grow older, you care less about “credits”, and where your music was placed, or who is licensing it. It is fun to have music on national television in front of a large audience, or a big ad campaign, but really when all is said and done what matters most is the bottom line: income from your work.
@Danny, I do not have a soundcloud account. Just do some research on where to find high bar music libraries and you’ll be in good shape. We can not post those links here as it is against MLR’s rules. We also don’t post links to our music on a public forum as it’s inappropriate. Ask some colleagues and I am sure someone will point you in the right direction of quality “high bar” production music.
I am not sure you are understanding what LA Writer is saying. While it may seem like stating “amazing” is being boastful about his own music, he’s not bragging at all. He’s communicating a message about what’s important (to succeed) based on his 3 or 4 decades of experience working in the music business. If you don’t get it, keep grinding and working until you do, as we had to.
Also, remember, we are offering our opinions, and our opinions are shaped by our experience(s).
Lets face it fellas, you have to put out some serious quantity to gain traction. Quantity breeds quality. So while some may advise “Shoot for 5 super high quality tracks that will earn you 50K over 5 years in sync fees…etc.” The bottom line Mark and all is that it did take you writing 2000 for 5 to take off! Everyone of us vets here is saying “I wrote 1000 or more tracks”.
I advise that one should always shoot for high quality. Why are we tossing words like “average” around? Who mentioned “average”.
Every time you sit down and write, record, mix, and master shoot for a quality piece. It’s that simple. But yes, as LA writer has stated, many professional and seasoned writers who have been around for 3 or 4 decades make their income from thousands of tracks, not dozens or hundreds. The majority will tell you that it takes a thousand. If anyone can send links to composers making 6 figures and up who have done it with 100 to 200 compositions in their career, please link me to their music, I’d love to hear it. I’m not saying it can not be done, it can. John Williams can write 200 tunes and make big bucks. But for the majority, you better start with 200, then 500, then 1000, then on and on. Then you will discover your “hit tracks” your “gems” …your money makers.
I have big money makers that took 3 hours to produce. Then I have (what I thought were) amazing high quality tunes that took a long time to produce, and do not produce meaningful revenue. Only the market decides which tunes will make money.
One final goal all should have. The KING of compensation is still, in my opinion, landing a track (with a vocal) on a national TV commercial from a big brand in an “image” advertising campaign. I am not talking about cookie cutter tv spots like monthly promos “run and buy the new car, hurry we have good financing this month.” I am talking about beautifully filmed commercials for the big boys: micrsoft, IBM, Chase, All State, Kelloggs, Proctor and Gamble, General Motors, Mercedes, budweiser, and so on.
If you get a tune on a huge campaign in heavy rotation for 6 to 12 months and are on the SAG contract as vocalist, look out, mountains of cash in vocal residuals and back end performance royalties will be raining down on your head quarter after quarter.
While 50K for 5 tunes over 5 to 10 years is nice, this scenario above is more like 100K in 1 year.
There are no solutions other than to grind it out for years and years until you have a massive catalog built up and repped by folks who know what they are doing.
When all is said and done success comes from very hard work and dedication. I decided to take the risk on this business 10 years ago and tossed all of my existing music into an NE library simply because there was “nothing to lose”. I really though I’d just earn hobby income or extra spending money. It was just that initially.
Somewhere along the line I doubled down and decided to roll up my sleeves and write more tracks and bring them to market. Then it became a weekly habit. The revenue was increasing quarter after quarter. Then you say “I am all in on this” and you must march to thousands of tracks produced. Along the way, you keep feeding the hands that feed you (with sync fees and royalties).
There are no short cuts to this business. It is a grind and a long term grind.
No one here is going to rattle off a free list of companies that have succeeded for themselves. Why should they? They went through the grind and had to figure it out. You don’t just then give away tips on how to succeed. One tip we can all probably agree on is that this business takes 2 things:
1. Volume
2. QualityAs far as which publishers, stock sites, and libraries to sell and license your music on goes, well…I have to think that we all have a different story. Some may work for one writer and another writer may say I have never earned from that site or publisher.
When all is said and done the winners will be:
1. The one’s who control and own their own catalog.
2. The one’s who have thousands of tracks on the market across several music licensing platforms (I do not think hundreds is enough you have to get to thousands and thousands takes 20 years),
3. The one’s that write good music that the public wants and needs.Writing for the private PMA club, or even trying to get into that club should not be your goal. Had I jumped on that train and gave all my music to 1 PMA exclusive library and stayed 100% loyal to that model, I have to think my annual income would only be 33% of what it actually is today. These are not just random estimates, I do have hard data (Years of statements from many sources) to back up my claims.
Even if offered a $15,000 work for hire advance to write 15 exclusive tracks for a well known PMA catalog, I really am not sure I’d accept that deal. Often times they don’t share sync fees (because they pay up front) and all you get is the back end. I like shared sync licensing revenue better.
If 2 or 3 of those tracks go on and generate a few 2K to 5K sync fees, and also pick up steam on micro stock sites…over time one can make that 15K anyway. The idea would be to make more. It can and does happen in the non PMA arena. Strange things happen all the time. Surprises come out of nowhere. I like owning and controlling my own intellectual property. Good luck to all, and again…if you are not committed to 1000 or more high quality tracks, you may want to consider a different biz. This is all my opinion based on my experience over 10 years of doing this.
I have a feeling that there still needs to be a “Royalty Free site that truly caters to the more seasoned composer/writers”. I am not saying this to be mean. But, a lot of these RF sites, including so-called “premium”; are now just throwing anything in just to have larger numbers.
Not True Beatslinger, curation is getting stiffer and stiffer from the stock sites that sell our music. Anyone who thinks that music sitting in rights managed catalogs is a better product should rethink what they are thinking. The quality in add to cart buy now is way up, and catching up to traditional, rights managed libraries.
It is really making this portion of the industry go to…
Can you explain what you are trying to communicate here?
Pennies, 1 cent, more pennies, just a penny, an entire penny was earned. Got a BMI statement too. Pretty pathetic stuff.
At least add to cart buy now = a sea of $25 royalties.
I had my best BMI statement ever so there are positives, but man those pennies earned are a joke as PRO’s trumpet “Record Revenue collected!”
Write for briefs, give us the cue to control, and earn pennies!
No Thanks! My music will also stay in “add to cart buy now” AND be in with the back end boys….to earn lots of pennies. Every penny matters!