[yzzman1]

Wow

[yzzman1]

Daveydad- like many have mentioned, TuneSat misses some but gets a large majority of them.

[yzzman1]

That’s awesome Art! I’m really glad to see this popular internet show is amounting to at least something for composers now that the performance data finally is coming in.

[yzzman1]

Continuing this thread with news – hoping more people fight to get the cue sheets turned in or corrected that matter. I’ve spent about maybe an hour of time total over the past year making phone calls to ASCAP and Crackle about turning in Crackle’s performance data. They were missing tons of data and various parts of various quarters and therefore the PRO’s were not paying. I have a bunch of music in Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars.

Anyway, that work finally paid off. crackle finally turned in the missing data. I knew the royalty would amount to at least something because it’s a highly viewed internet show. Total of one hour work added $250 to the ASCAP statement. Each episode had over a million views and I had music in four episodes. Worth it? I say yes for an hour.

Still working on getting a few more cue sheets corrected with wrong info. It seems to be paying off as long as I pick and choose the ones that should amount to something.

[yzzman1]

Thanks Art.

[yzzman1]

Here’s a new cue sheet success. I had a track of mine used for one minute on a documentary style show that aired about ten times on NBC Sports and then went on to air on NBC. No cue sheet had shown up in my ASCAP account for a year after airing. The track is with two non exclusive libraries and three RF libraries – so it would be difficult to narrow down which library it came from. I just used google to figure out who produces the show and with some basic research I tracked down a phone number. After a few transfers I was told I’d receive a call from someone at the production company. Two weeks later I did receive that call and I asked for her email address so I could send her specific info about the airings. Within one week of talking to them the problem was corrected and I now appear on the cue sheet. Another interesting point we have discussed here in the past – this placement which was for airings on NBC Sports and NBC Network – was from a royalty free site. Though the exception rather than the rule – you never know. Though the majority of my tv placements come from more traditional music libaries, it’s not the first time that’s happened to me with a royalty free site.

Total time working on problem: 15-20 min. Lucky it was easy this time.

[yzzman1]

Yeah I hear you. I actually go about trying to get these cue sheets fixed frequently. Had two of them fixed this year. But now there is two more with errors. They are through a library but this particular library never seems to respond to inquiries about unfiled or mistakes on cue sheets. So I either go through ASCAP (they actually reached out to the production company for cue sheets for me for an episode of UFC Ultimate Insider on Fox Sports) – I think they only did this because it was uncovered they hadn’t turned in any cue sheets for an extremely long time. Or I contact the production company directly – I had success with that for an episode of 106 & Park on BET – and there were five cues used for a long period of time so it was worth it.

Now on the other hand my other tv library is good about reaching out for cue sheets so that’s usually an easier fix.

When it gets difficult with contacting libraries for help is when a cue sheet is not turned within a year or so and it’s a non-exclusive cue with multiple libraries. That’s where I’ve just taken it into my own hands – I’m always polite and have had some success with it about maybe a third of the time.

Art were at least at one point working to get cue sheet issues fixed that you were seeing – have you had any successes with that lately?

[yzzman1]

For me it was about a year. My writing partner and I got a reply from a submission through Film Music Network. This was back in 2004 so FMN was a very different setup then – I think it costs money and quite a bit of it now. We got a phone call from a music supervisor working on an Oxygen network show. It was their first original series and it was a placement of a song we wrote and produced with vocals. Those kind of placements paid much higher royalties than instrumental with ASCAP at that time. ASCAP has however, changed that practice since then. They say – instrumental composers should get paid just the same as vocal composers! Haha – yes they do now because ASCAP lowered the amount that vocal music gets to match instrumental.

We made around a total of $500 from that between domestic and international royalties.

[yzzman1]

An addition to the guide that could be helpful – not sure how many people are interested in this though…..is what channels are ASCAP census survey channels and which are sample survey channels. ASCAP says you can call to ask for a guide but they don’t give them out anymore. You have to ask for each specific channel if it is sample or census. I know the answers for a good amount of them I could post on here if people are interested in that.

[yzzman1]

As for my personal experience – I have had music in several episodes of Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.” It is one of the most watched shows that airs on Crackle. So you would think I’d see even a fee bucks for this. What I was told was although ASCAP does have a deal with them – Crackle has not turned in any performance data. And although they are “required” to do so – nobody is hunting them down to do it. So what that equals is the money is not getting to the composers. Keep in mind this is only what I was told by ASCAP – May not be the exact truth.

[yzzman1]

I’m also a huge fan of the Sound Toys plugins – some of the best money I’ve spent

[yzzman1]

It will be very interesting to see how Sling TV and Playstation VUE do. They offer a lot of what cable does for way less money.

[yzzman1]

MichaelL that’s am awesome question. I’ve only had one major network placement so far ……which I assume will pay more than cable but haven’t gotten paid yet. My cable placements are very consistent from Jingle Punks but per placement (airing) going over $50 is definitely the exception on my statement rather than the norm.

[yzzman1]

That is an interesting take Paolo. You’re making the point that it is possible that composers having too much of an open voice on success could cause a company to get “full of themselves” and change their policies, cuts etc. I’m not sure if I believe that’s a reason as to why so few responded to this – but it is nevertheless a point I did not consider. Thanks for your take Paolo.

[yzzman1]

This is great! Thanks for posting it.

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