[Music1234]

In regards to Content ID, My philosophy was and still is this: Upload your music into the system as you are original creator. We as original creators are entitled to see and hear how our music is getting used on youtube, instagram, and now meta platforms/ facebook and hopefully soon tik tok. WE are entitled to those royalties before anyone else. I just upload and collect the payments as they come in. I have no regrets and will not ever “deregister” my tracks to satisfy any stock music site nor music publisher. My works, will be controlled by me period, and I am entitled to those CID royalties, and I am entitled to collect them first. I do not pay attention to stream counts and do not care about how much we get paid. I get paid, I have no regrets, and that is all that matters to me. CID is not transparent. Google/ Alphabet? YOUTUBE/ FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, TIK TOK, etc…are not transparent with their royalty system. It is what it is so just sign up and upload, then answer questions later.

[Music1234]

Hello Chris,

Why do you think composers have to tap into NR collection services to get these royalties? I find it to be frustrating that I actually have to sacrifice 20% of what is mine by using a service. PRO’s exist for composers, songwriters, and publishers to collect performance royalties on our behalf, then they pay us direct deposit 100% of what is ours.

What bothers me about NR royalties is that I am using a collection “middle man” service to collect these royalties on my behalf, they pocket 20% of what they receive first in my name. The flow of the money is from NR org in Brazil, Germany, Scandinavia, Australia, etc…to the middle man’s bank account. They skim their cut (This kind of annoys me) then they send me my cut. I really do not know how much, nor how often the middle man collects from these countries in all honesty.

So when do you think NR will develop a more transparent system so that writers and composers and publishers can just collect this revenue stream without “middle man expertise”?

Are you willing to list all NR orgs we’d have to set up accounts with (or affiliate with) to bypass the middleman expert? It’s astonishing that the middle men can present contracts that state “I can collect this pubisher/ writer/ composer’s royalties first, on their behalf, then pay them after the money comes to me first.”

This is not exactly “artist friendly” because we have no choice but to lose 20% of the pie.. I look forward to your response.

I long for the day when middle men are out of the picture.

[Music1234]

If you have:
1. a lot of Talent
2. are alligned with the right music libraries that really get your music on air
3. know how to create multiple revenue streams with your music catalog
4. produce 50 to 100 very useful tracks a year for about 7 years straight
5. Stumble upon lucky career breaks, where you land a few placements that really produce high royalty payouts….

I think you may be able evolve into a full time music producer after probably 7 years.
I do not think you can pull it off if you just write cues for exclusive music libraries and then give them total control of the intellectual property in perpetuity, allow them to collect Content ID, and disallow yourself from selling on direct licensing markets.

Multiple revenue streams has been the key for me. Had I just sent cues only to my best performing publisher/library, my music composition income would probably be only 25% of what it is today.

Also annual salary needs vary greatly from person to person. I have two tuitions to pay next year so my royalties are going into my bank account and the directly to university bank accounts. Love it! LOL!

A single person in their early 30’s may be fine with $50,000 in music royalties.

My advice: don’t ever quit your day job. I still seek revenue and income from other non music related activities.

[Music1234]

Just curious, what genre did you produce for these shows?

[Music1234]

CNN tends to be direct licensing ie zero royalties.

I have seen royalties for background cues from Fareed ZaKaria’s special CNN shows.
The bottom line is that this is a flagship ad/ promo campaign for the entire network of CNN and it was broadcast globally most likely, with audience sizes of at least 50 to 100 million viewers. This is not a small potatoes media presentation.

I will be making noise about this one with the library as well as directly with BMI.

I have tunesat logs too. This piece aired relentlessly for about 2 months straight as 60’s, 30’s and 15’s. Why should it be treate any different than a major ad campaign?

[Music1234]

I was pleased and earned about what I expected.

Happy to see these networks HGTV, YES, VICE, NBA TV, MOTOR TREND, Bally Sports pay royalties.

The Streaming services HULU, NETFLIX, PEACOCK, AMAZON still love to pay us pennies, but I did notice a few line items where the pay was in the $10 to $50 range. THE VOICE show being one that pays a lot more.

TV Promos were underwhelming in terms of what they paid. I had a track on a flagship network promo campaign in the Fall of 2021 for CNN and was paid “NADA” ….nothing. Will have to follow up on that as it aired on every commerical break on CNN for about 2 months straight. I guess someone was not in the mood to file promo logs at CNN? Ridiculous! I have an orchestral track behind their ad with all their stars: Anderon Cooper, Chris Cuomo, Don Lemon, Erin Burnett…etc. promoting how great of a network they are yet I do not get a fecking royalty??? My track aired on Prime time TV 7 PM to 11 PM every night, I saw it on TV every day with my very own eyes.

Have a listen friends:

Foeign:
Canada and Brazil were strong, UK/ PRS is still underwheming. All in all, I still feel as though ASCAP does a better job with Foreign royalties.

[Music1234]

I first uploaded tracks to one music publisher in late 2009 early 2010, then proceeded to upload all of my tracks for about 4 years straight. My PRO royalty checks hit at least $1000 a per distribution by 2012. So two years for me too. Foreign Royalty Checks took until 2013 to hit $1000, But by 2013 most checks were at least $3000 or more.

I’d have to say that it probably does take 2000 titles being published and distributed and ready for editors to access to make a semi livable wage. So come up with your 10 year plan to try and make a livable wage.

Look even if you are making $10,000 a quarter in PRO performance royalties, this is a minimum wage job and your hourly wage (to create the music) is probably something along the lines of $7 per hour. LOL!

This is a make money very slowly kind of business and should really only be treated as a side hustle.

[Music1234]

4 figure PRO royalties (from a single placement) only come from:

-featured placements ( a 2 minute song with vocal playing on a show in front of a large listening audience)
-TV themes, large viewing audience
-Tv spot campaign – your track lands on a commercial with a reputable BIG brand (not cheap, local furniture store ads broadcast in local markets) and broadcasts thousands of times in a given quarter.

It’s not so much about time invested in the game of music licensing, it’s more so about landing that one sweet placement into a big TV project with a massive viewing audience.
The vast majority of your royalties (on a PRO statement) will pay between fractions of cents $25.

And while streaming has grown, at the end of the day the big reward has not changed, we all want music on big, popular TV shows or movies, on TV Networks that actually pay broadcast performance royalties, and with millions of people watching the show or TV spots. And we want these TV shows or TV spots broadcasting constantly. It’s all based on Quantity of broadcast air dates Or “plays” or “Performances of your music composition” and viewing audience size.

All of those variables are always 100% out of your control.

[Music1234]

“Correct. It’s a MUCH better organization than “Our Major Three” over here.”

Not so sure about that, can you please elaborate?

How could the PRS pay UK composers more if ASCAP, BMI, are sending the performance royalties based on their “credits” pay scale and the “reciprocal” agreements?

It makes no sense Beatslinger. A UK writer will earn exactly what a USA writer would earn from ASCAP by way of the reciprocal agreement.If a background cue pays a royalty of $10 to a USA ASCAP writer, a PRS UK writer would also get $10 sent over. In fact, PRS would probably skim a portion of the UK writers’ royalties as an “admin fee”.

On the flip side, my experience with PRS is that they pay (send ASCAP my royalties from UK broadcasts) very low rates for TV performances on shows as well as adverts/ jingles. I have music airing on many many reality shows over in England. I also have had some tracks air on UK ads/ commercials. I have never been impressed with what I see from PRS on foreign ASCAP statements.

They all are not transparent at all. PRS writers can log in and see all kinds of data about their titles and other PRS members’ titles. ASCAP and BMI writers do not get access to that data which is bull sh_t!

I know I have performance royalties sitting with the PRS being held hostage. I have heard my cue on BBC America used as a Promo on every commercial break on a show, I never was paid. The PRS SUCKS from my perspective Beatslinger.

[Music1234]

Hi all, while Art correctly answered the question in one short sentence, I will point out to all new youngsters and new folks Seeking input from Music Library Report that tv performance royalties are always based on the same data point everywhere and that is QUANTITY OF VIEWERS.

If your music is on a show where everyone in the country or world is watching, your royalties are going to pay very well.

If your music broadcasts on some obscure TV channel with just a very, small “tiny” segment of the population watching, your royalties will be
pennies per show. We do see a lot of .01 cent, .19 cent, .03 cent royalties on PRO statements…you get the idea,

We have even seen $O royalties on PRO statements! LOL! (Why bother drafting a line item for $0 ASCAP?)…. but for some reason they report an event and award it.

You have to cheer for your tracks to broadcast to millions of folks watching TV, and you cheer for your music to broadcast on tv every day, everywhere. You hope and pray that the usage of your music gets documented and reported to your PRO by professionals who care about music producers, composers, songwriters, and publishers.

[Music1234]

Neighboring Rights IS very complicated and I can tell you that no one composer will be able to pull it off without a service that specializes in this area. I suggest that anyone seeking to collect Neighboring Rights royalties sign a deal with an admin “collector guy” who knows what they are doing.

I happen to be working with a guy who once worked at sound exchange, but now has his own company where all he does is dig around in various databases around the world to find my Neighboring Rights royalties. He takes 20% of all he finds for me and he does share original source statements, but the reality is I never would have had a chance of finding these little extra gems of money without this guy so I will gladly sacrifice 20%.

I do not want to mention the name of the guy or company that is providing this service for me because I do not want him overwhelmed with inquiry’s. Do your research and find a Neighboring Rights collection service that can tap you into this revenue stream. (if you are an experienced Production Music composer distributed worldwide, properly registered at PROS, and have a large catalog getting a lot of usage on TV, films, ads, etc….)

The guy I have knows his shet and is dialed into the right people cutting the checks.
It was well worth my time to sign a deal to have this company hunt down my Neighboring Rights royalties in Europe, Brazil, Asia, Australia. I got going with this revenue stream in 2019, and here are my quarterly statement earnings:
614
1623
96
916
387
141
102
215
118
108
269
711
413
126
1404
1943

I have no idea why these earnings are so inconsistent and all over the map but again, I do NOT know how to chase these down, but someone does for me so I will gladly give them 20% to chase on my behalf. Neighboring Rights is not a USA operation.

Sound Exchange will not have much if any money for Production Music Library composers focusing on TV, film, and ad sync (and even youtube video sync). To my knowledge sound exchange is all about digital radio airplay. Can our instrumental music get streams on Pandora, SiriusXm, etc….probably, but my hunch would be that this rarely happens, but I really do not know. I do know that Sound Exchange has nothing to do with Spotify, Apple, YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, Network TV, Cable TV, nor Local TV broadcasts in the USA.

Digital royalties are fees that service providers such as Pandora, SiriusXM, and webcasters are required by law to pay for streaming musical content. These royalties are paid by the services to SoundExchange, and accompanied with playlists of all the recordings played by the service provider.

https://www.soundexchange.com/about/general-faqs/letter-direction-faqs/

So if you get a lot of streams on Sirius or Pandora…Join Sound Exchange, they may have a few pennies to toss on your lap.

[Music1234]

The problem I have with this chart is that it’s too limited in scope. The chart should include:

1. Writers Royalties earned from PRO
2. Publisher Royalties Earned PRO
3. Micro Sync Fees earned for internet syncs (youtube, etc.)
4. Major Syncs for broadcast Trailers, films, or TV spots
5. CID Royalties
6. Mechanical Streaming Royalties
7. Work For hire fees, Buyouts…(I do not ever sell my tracks but some do)
8. Neighboring Rights
9. advance fee (write a cue for a library for a fee, give up pub, but keep writers share)

[Music1234]

“Uploading your catalog is complementary and we always recommend it to our partners, as a way to increase their work’s recognition and compensation by being a part of our 90M + database which is used for monitoring worldwide.“

Question: 90 Million wave files are in their database? Wow!

Everyone needs to realize that tech companies and wall street investors are behind the big whale’s mouth swimming around drinking up tracks. The fact of the matter is that controlling a monster sized database of music wave files can be leveraged and monetized some how, some way, some day.

Soundmouse is not a transparent detection company. They do not share their detection data with writers and publishers. Why? What do they have to hide? Anyone have any answers?

BMAT wants our music, but they too are not in the mood to share the detection data they gather unless we pay up big time. Why do they want our tracks? They have a hidden agenda. What is it?

I have my thinking cap on as to why BMAT wants every track in the world inside their database.

At the end of the day, Big Monsters are all vying for the prize: Those monster black box pools of royalty money.

Here. Come. The. Giants.

As a reminder to everyone, especially writers. please know and understand that everyone and their mother is relentlessly trying to steal control of the only asset you have – your original music creations, YOUR intellectual property. Once you load it up, Giant Monsters take those assets and turn them into money under the promise that they will share the revenue with you. Once they get you hooked in and addicted, they then change the rules where they can just strip away more and more $$$$ for the Giants, and leave you with pennies because at the end of the day, you are just an eternally dumb “starving artist” in their minds.

Out of the music modernization act:

https://www.copyright.gov/music-modernization/

The MLC was born. The MLC is owned by the wall street Giant : Blackstone.

The MLC was recently awarded a $424,000,000 slush fund to pay artists streaming mechanical royalties. Hence blackstone, a wall street firm, some how some way got control of that slush fund.

I have a registered account at the MLC, i just studied my statements again. i have lots of pennies and $0 royalty monthly statements! Super cool! Meanwhile as we all wait for streaming royalties, Blackstone has the $424 million to play with.

https://www.themlc.com/press/mechanical-licensing-collective-receives-424-million-historical-unmatched-royalties-digital

See what’s going on here peeps? Wall street boys are at the top of the food chain. They get their hands on all the money first with one goal in mind: Distribute back as little as possible to songwriters, composers, and publisher so they can make massive profits and buy more, bigger, yachts.

We have lots of feeble musicians stating things like “well I guess this is the way things are going to be headed, we’ll just have to get used to giving up all our writers share one day.”

Wake up fellas! Be smart about the deals you sign and where you put your trust. No one has your back but you.
The Giants are coming!

[Music1234]

Also BMAT if you are following this thread please lower your fees so Production Music composers can load 1000 tracks into your service for a reasonable monthly fee. We need to see and tally what really pays us: performance royalties from music on TV.

Your pricing structure for your detection service as it exists now essentially would take a massive chunk of our performance royalties. Your service is a lot better than Tunesat. We all would love to have access to it, but only if the price is right.

[Music1234]

Art this is very cool! Thanks for the share!

These estimates do seem about right based on my analysis of my own efforts with Spotify, Apple, YOUTUBE, etc… “albums’.

Michael, if you upload for distribution, I’d say use a service that does not charge you fees to do so, but rather they will take a cut of the collections.

I have about 70 albums out there and each one earns on average $2 a month! However, I have no promotional strategy whatsoever to drive up play counts. But you know what? Who cares?….$140 a month is $140 a month and I will gladly take that into my bank account each month to blow on a dinner out. If I earn that for the rest of my life, that is not a bad thing, and it may very well grow to $300 a month one day. We will see.

Here are some searches I just did out of curiosity. The figures are annual earnings for the record labels, publishers, songwriters, and artists…Of course the service skims their cut too. There are always a lot of people to share the pie with!

And guess what? Wall Street has their eyes on all of it. They want it all first. You watch.

Beatles – $1,000,000 in a single year from Spotify
Dua Lipa 2.4 Million
Michael Jackson 1 Million
Foo Fighters 500K
Drake 2.5 Million
Kanye West 2.6 Million
Maroon 5 – 1.9 Million
Sinatra 408K
Dave Brubeck $34000
Miles Davis 80K
Thomas Newman 63K
John Williams 171K
Nirvana 760K

[Author]

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