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I’ve been wanting to do something like this but have a more complicated problem:
One of my publishers in the US uses ASCAP
Another one uses BMI
And lastly – and here’s what makes it even more complicated, another uses SESACSo my catalog is split across those three US PROs.
I asked a SESAC rep: if I join BMI only, will you send my SESAC royalties to BMI for me? Answer: “No”
Ok, can I join both SESAC and BMI? Answer: “No”Ok, so what do I do?
Well apparently SESAC might let me join them just for my catalog there, but I would have to tell PRS that I am joining SESAC only for my catalog in the US at SESAC, and that PRS will still collect for me from ASCAP and BMI.
If I could actually do this it would be worth it, since SESAC is most of my royalties.
But PRS told me I couldn’t do that. It had to be by territory, not by catalog / PRO.
So I told the SESAC rep what PRS said. They said no, you can definitely do this.
As you can see.. pretty difficult to get anywhere.
I’ve read the thread LAwriter is referencing.
The strange thing is that one of the major libraries is offering a 2 month free trial of Splice right now for its writers. I’m not sure how that ties in..
Hi Orca,
That is very interesting to hear about joining BMI for the USA and Canada only. So in the US do publishers have accounts at both BMI and ASCAP and then just register the tracks at the one the corresponding composer is also at?
Do you all have roughly the same number of tracks at majors vs boutiques? Or at least enough at each to make a rough estimate per track? I feel like (just a wild guess) anything under 20 tracks at a single library isn’t enough to really know.
In my opinion, $650 for a complete buyout of all sync fees is nowhere near enough and is totally crazy. At least $10,000 would be fair.
I’ve never really trusted the PROs and I feel like I trust them even less now. But there’s no other choice for collecting back end as far as I can tell.
Yea, and just imagine what kind of people you’d be dealing with if they’re comfortable offering 0% sync fee, $0 up front buyout deals to “their” composers.
No, it’s not normal and it’s not fair. I was offered a no sync fee contract once and said no.
You could be missing out on many thousands in sync fees for placements which will never make a cent in back end royalties. Your intuition on that is right.
Also another thing – I thought PRS just collects whatever money it is sent by ASCAP or BMI. The important point will be which of those two your US publisher has your tracks registered at. Which one are they using? ASCAP or BMI?
I don’t remember very well but I think that option was there when I first registered tracks myself. I think I just left it as it was.
But if your tracks are published by a library, they should be registering them everywhere for you. Usually a library will have a subpublisher in each territory to do the registrations. Is that not the case with your US publisher?
It’s strange that they would let you do it yourself in my experience. Are they allowing you to take 100% of back end in the UK then? Since AFAIK writers cannot register the interest of a publisher when registering tracks with PRS.
Wow, that is a really great track, and fits the commercial perfectly! Did you play in the fiddle/violin live?
Yes, reworking tracks is something I’ve done quite a bit to make additional versions for the same library. Some have gone on to do better than the originals..Outstanding news Art! I’m glad they paid it in the end.
It depends on the rest of the deal. For example, what % cut of license / sync fees will you receive?
Some example terms, not necessarily real:
50/50 on all income, no up front
25% of sync fees, $300 up front per track
0% of sync fees, $1000 up frontI don’t think there is a standard rate that I know of. Each company is different.