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Should I Sign With A ReTitle Library?

Chris Jones recently wrote an article about re-titling over at SonicScoop. I thought it would be of interest to many and Chris kindly gave us permission to re-post it here.

By Chris Jones

With master recording licensing and synchronization now being the current revenue-generating and promotional system in the music industry, we see all the traditional recording exploitation boundaries disappearing.

Music libraries take on scoring gigs, produce artists/songwriters, and ad work while maintaining their catalogs of TV-ready production music. Record labels seem to be fully hitched to omni-lateral licensing pie, artist-endorsed ad campaigns, single tie-ins, whatever. Add the quick-and-easy factor of digital delivery AND soon-to-be ubiquitous audio recognition tech AND deeper metadata AND the slippery slope of what passes as acceptable quality both audio- and video-wise AND this is America, the land of excess. Production = bigger and faster, but not always better.

Point: The “production music” pool is one big pattern-recognizing server of every kind of gang. It’s all our turf. Can you dig it?

One of these “gangs” or business models in production music specific publishers is the re-title library or (to illustrate points using metaphor and acronym) “inert” libraries. It’s a (typically) Independent Non-Exclusive ReTitle music library that will rep your catalog after they give your (only) master a unique title. The library then registers that unique title to their PRO (be it ASCAP, BMI, et al.) as that titles’ “publisher” and can then go forward and collect future performance royalties on said title and also collect any other fees (direct license, sync) associated with licensing. From the research I’ve done, this model has the composer world polarized yet unified in one aspect: we seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

On the surface, one would think: What’s to lose? I have tons of crap sitting on my drive doing nothing for nobody no-how. If someone can make me money and wants to take 50% please be my guest. And it’s non-exclusive? Even better. I’ll look up every re-title library and get cracking. Man, I am sitting on a f*****g gold mine.

So, should I sign with an inert library? That question creates more questions and that is the universal choking sign of a deal to me. I agree that the inert model could be a positive way to crowd-source useful, high-quality, and (most importantly) available masters. But I speak from the viewpoint of a composer that has a specific agenda of producing a high volume of library music for the big exclusive Production Music Association (PMA) libs in addition to what I’ll call “custom” music like songwriting, sound design for composers, remixing, whatever.

There are many ways to poke holes in the inert model, but let’s start with imminent ubiquity of audio pattern recognition technology. BMI acquired BlueArrow almost 5 years ago, and ASCAP has been working on Mediaguide since 2002. These are technologies and services that give your audio/masters a fingerprint via audio analysis, not traditional watermarking (which is hit-or-miss and distorts the file). The tech then monitors broadcasts looking for matches. Soon (the sooner the better) all broadcasts are going to be monitored with this robotic vigilance. Unfailing accuracy. Amid endless dirty AM radio ads, it will be searching for your singularly unique combination of digital DNA. Wait, what-the? This track has 5 titles and 5 publishers…the robot computes.

I’m curious how that’s going to work.

Plus, I thought the whole idea in business was to be exclusive. Where’d that go?

So I send this stupid breakbeat track called “A” to inert lib A. Inert lib A registers “A” to ASCAP as publisher. Already I’m uncomfortable. I send the same exact file to inert lib B. All the way to f*****g Z. I have 26 people claiming to publish my tracks? Are they all undercutting each other or is there a standardized fee? The fee is nothing because you gave sync away in lieu of the slow buck? You just gave away my 50% of shared sync but I guess the contract says you are publisher so you have that right. Oh and the gig was non-broadcast so there is no slow buck. No buck at all.

Oh well I’ll see money on the back end.

Holy s**t, there are 50,000 tracks on this drive! The editor, overhearing my subconscious italics, says 50,000 is way too much b*****t to wade through and goes back to cutting a backend-less corporate video. Then he looks closer. He’s p****d because it’s the same 50,000 tracks the guy from inert lib G left last week. He went through a random 100 or so and they all sucked so he figured they all must suck. Therefore, all inert libs must suck, he thinks. No wonder he waived sync. To charge would have been criminal and there’s no way he paid for this music.

I only have 25 tracks on that drive. I hope the users find them. Back-end may not enter the picture because there’s tons of s**t you never see called non-broadcast. It’s all front-end. So if they waive sync I’m screwed. If they direct license I’ll do better at .0002%, unless it’s .0002% of zero.

I hope A-Z keep tabs on the reporting process. I hope the drives aren’t circulating. I hope an exclusive deal on a track doesn’t come along because that would mean having to turn down a lot of money. I wonder if I could call every editor in the world that FTP-posted or p2ped my slutty one-offs and say, “I own the copyright on these masters and I want to sell them.” Seems like inert libs and their supporters wave the flag on “copyright control.” But how do you retain total control if your choice to sell exclusive is removed? Note: I worked with one inert model that had an “OK to buy” option but again…how could you repo that master if it’s in A-Z and beyond? I fear being the real publisher of these types of masters for these exact scenarios of potential ass-biting to be honest.

So, no, I don’t like it. I want people selling my stuff like they own it because they do. If you own music and want to re-purpose it please do. But why not re-cut it into expected TV format and sell it to a proper exclusive library with sales, search, and broadcast (back-end) clients? Refuse to re-cut because you “channelled” something or claim “it would just feel like murder”? You are a precious lazy b*****d. It’s a reject of some kind. That’s why it’s sitting on your drive. Slap some make-up on and make a :30. If you get frustrated because you cannot re-cut a through-composed orchestral film score, just think what a TV editor will say.

Regardless of what type of library model you love or hate, consider this: you still have to go away and make amazing tracks appear out of thin air every day. None of these arguments apply to composers that are unaware of their music’s failure to meet the creative and technical requirements to be broadcast in the 21st century.

310 thoughts on “Should I Sign With A ReTitle Library?”

      • Hey Yadgyu,

        I noticed pigFACTORY wasn’t on your list. They’re based in LA and are a good starting point, you should call them.

        Also, you should check out the 2010 ASCAP expo taking place in April.

      • Yadgyu,

        The music biz can be brutal and humbling. That being said, if music is really your passion you will never give up. If it’s only about making money, as you once pointed out, then it will beat you. Remember my mentioning that it’s all about the journey? It really is. I’ve had a fair amount of success in some areas of the music business but not much as a writer/producer. Still, many decades later I’m still chasing it because I love writing and producing.

        So, hang in there. Sometimes it can be a journey and sometimes you can catch a wave early. You never know. I have learned it’s only a phone call or e-mail away!

      • Yadgyu,

        One more thing about it only being a phone call or e-mail away. Last Friday I got an e-mail from a company I hadn’t worked for in about 3 years. They wanted a theme for a new series they were producing. Of course they needed it in a couple of days but we got it done and the network loved it. Of course anything can go wrong and they could change their mind. But the point is that the call came out of the blue from the most unlikely place. You just never know.

        • Yes. One of my mantras: Things happen in one day.

          Sometimes one hour. Your big lib contract will only take a second to receive, an hour to proof/lawyer, and a minute to sign. Good thing you have all that time to get your shizz together. Passion = inate, constantly renewing, drive to do something no matter what. It’s not discipline. Discipline (can be IMO) is forcing yourself to have passion. Just be careful to know the difference.

  2. You guys actually have that much success? My music must be horrible then. I have been rejected by a boatload of companies. I don’t know what I am doing wrong. As a matter of fact, here is a list of the companies that have rejected me so far:

    300 Monks
    5 Alarm Music
    615 Music
    AirCraft Music Library
    Alan Ett Music Group
    Amphibious Zoo
    APEX Music Library
    APM
    Audio Architects
    Audio Socket Music
    Agoraphone
    Astralwerks Records
    Audiobrien
    B&H Gold Production Music
    Beatbox Music
    Beatpick
    Big Dog Music Design
    Big Pig Music
    Boom Music
    Boosey & Hawkes PM
    Boost Music
    Bug Music Publishing
    Camboso Urban Production.
    Canary Music
    Carlin Production Music
    Casablanca Media Publishing
    Chestnut Mills Musicraft
    Cringe Music
    Crucial Music
    CTM Licensing
    Daddy Jack Music
    Dangerous Kitchen Music
    Davenport Music Library
    Deadly Dreams Music
    DeWolfe Music
    Dittybase
    Downright Music
    Dubeytunes Studios
    Ear Goo
    Earshot Audio Post
    Editor’s Choice Music
    EMI Music Publishing
    Encore Merci Editions
    ESL Music
    Extreme Music
    Fable Music
    Feature Sounds
    Fierce Music Entertainment
    FirstCom
    Fluid Post
    Flying Hands
    Freeplay Music
    G & E Music
    Gratis Music
    Groove Addicts
    HumToo
    Immediate Music
    Indidginus
    Julia John Music
    Jumping Jamali Pty. Ltd.
    JW Media Music
    Kid Gloves Music
    Killer Tracks
    Kondor Music
    Konga
    Los Angeles Post Music
    Magnatune
    Mainstream Source
    Malleryscores
    Mama Dance
    Manchester Music
    Manhattan Production Music
    MassiveMusic
    Mastersource
    Matchless Music
    Media Music Now
    Melodious Thunk, Inc.
    Megatrax
    Metro Music
    Missing Sync
    Morning Music
    Mudshark Audio
    Music 2 Hues
    Music Bakery
    Music Candy
    Music For Productions
    Music For Sport
    Music & Musique
    Non Stop Music
    Omnimusic
    Opus 1 Music Library
    Opuzz
    Panama Music Library
    Partners in Rhyme
    Peer Music Publishing
    PP Music
    Premier Tracks
    Productiontrax
    Prolific Arts Music
    Proud Music Library
    Putumayo World Music
    Quest Production Music
    Radical Music Library
    Red Igloo
    RipTide Music
    Royalty-Free.tv
    Rumblefish
    ScoreKeepers Music
    Selectracks Music Library
    Slick Tracks
    Smart Ass Music
    Sobe Entertainment
    Song To Your Eyes
    Song Zu
    Songs With Vision
    Sonicfreq
    Sonoton
    Sony/ATV Publishing
    Soper Sound Music Library
    Soundrangers
    Spider Cues
    Synchro Music
    Tequila Mockingbird
    The Decibel Collective
    The Diner
    The Hollywood Edge
    Transition Music
    TRF Production Music
    Triple Scoop Music
    Tsunami Music
    TunEdge Music
    TwistedTracks
    UBM Records
    Ultra Records
    Uncommon Trax
    Universal Music Production Library
    Valentino Inc.]
    Vapor Music Group
    V02 Music
    Vimusica
    Wacbiz
    Warner/Chappelle Music Publishing
    Water Music Records
    West One Music
    Westar Music
    Wild Whirled Music
    Yessian Music
    YookaMusic

    You are probably thinking “there’s no way he has sent music to all of those guys”. But I have. Even worse is that all of these companies have turned me down. I didn’t even get a response from many of them. Now you are thinking “man, this guy put in that much work and got turned down by that many people? Wow! LOL!”.

    Yes, it is all true. At this point, I am going to throw up my hands and call it quits. I am so frustrated, angry, and depressed. I just didn’t really know how bad I was. I thought that my music was OK. I mean, I hear worse stuff on the radio at times. Even though I work hard, I just don’t have the raw talent to be successful.

    Oh well, at least I tried. I can never look back and say that I did not try.

    • You’ve applied to a wide range of companies, perhaps without enough research. Some of these companies are very easy going with what they accept, and the rejection might be a harsh dose of reality. On the other hand, a lot of these companies have very high standards – Immediate Music (the premier trailer music company!) Selectracks and West One, to name a few.

      Look man, a lot of us on this site poke fun at your troll-like posts, but if you really are for real, and have just discovered that you need to ‘up your game’, then things can only get better for you. Now that you know where you are at (instead of where you wanted to believe you were at) you can start making serious strides towards producing music that those libraries would be interested in.

      Here’s my advice, I know it’s not asked for, but if you’re for real, then here’s what I suggest:

      1) Focus on music that you are most comfortable writing, and further develop those skills. This genre will likely start paying off for you in the shortest amount of time

      2) Divide your time at least equally between improving your composing ability AND your production (choice of palette, mixing, mastering) abilities. Production these days is actually more important than compositional skills (although don’t count out the latter).

      3) Be patient – from your posts it seems like you’re busting at the seams to make millions from your music. This energy is good, but I’ve seen plenty of guys from music school with that kind of intense energy fizzle out when they find out there’s a few more years to go (after college) before their music is ready to sell. It’s the ones that have a grounded, sustaining drive to succeed that eventually make their living from music. Contributing EVERY day to your production and composing abilities through practice is what pays off big time.

      4) Don’t be afraid of the truth – your realization of how far you have to go is a great step. I find what’s really useful (and humbling) is to compare a piece of music I’ve just finished (and am proud of) to a similar track by an A list composer. Play your track, then theirs, back and forth. Each time you do this, you’ll gain more of an understanding of how the A list guys write and produce their music. It’ll also help keep your ego in check when you think you’ve just created the world’s greatest masterpiece : )

    • Yagyu, I’ve emailed about 100 companies, but only got responses from about 10. Just because you don’t get a response doesnt mean they don’t like it. I only got a response from 300 monks last night out of the blue, about a month later. These things take time.

      Focus more on your writing abilities, get better sounds, spend more time on production – make your music sound great, then apply again. Also, if it is all about the money for you, try writing other types of music rather than your current style. You will broaden your possible market, and might even find another type of music that you like creating.

      As Hunter S. Thompson said “The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There’s also a negative side”. Don’t let it put you down 🙂

    • Yadgyu,

      We don’t reject any content. If you had any issues setting up an account or uploading media, please let me know. My email is brandon(at)productiontrax.com. I’ll help you resolve any such issues.

      Also remember, the real key to success on any of these sites is to actively contribute. Don’t put a few songs up and then never add anything else. The more music you write and upload, the better chance you have of a customer seeing your tracks.

      • Yup agree completely – continuing to upload music is a really important factor in music sales. I’ve just started to upload again to productiontrax and I’ve had a few more sales of old tracks just from uploading new tracks 🙂

  3. Whether or not a library re-titles is not the so much the issue (Many non-exclusive libraries don’t re-title). The real problem is that hundreds of libraries are presenting the same songs to the same clients because writers are no longer limited by the exclusive deals to just have their music under one umbrella.

    It’s a damn if you do, damn if you don’t situation.

  4. Thanks for all the comments. Don’t forget it’s an editorial. I was Sr. Producer for a very well known PMA lib in NYC for 8 years and I would make mixes of the year’s worst demos. If anyone ever wants some honest feedback as to the license-readiness of their music feel free to send me a link to your demo. I’m very positive and diplomatic when figuring out why your recordings don’t stand a chance; if your tracks sound like it’s 1992 you’d better pitch to clients from 1992 or fix them.

  5. Im fortunate that ive not adhered to the paradigm he’s described – great reading, and humurous with it – otherwise as i said to art and a few others a long time ago, the retitling model will eventuallly collapse in a heap of litigation and recrimination.

    However, as i also said then, and i stick to now, the other shoe analogy is perfect. Why? well look at it this way; with so much music out there duplicated in so many libraries, WHO has really provided the OPPORTUNITY for this to happen? The libraries themselves. WHY? To add value to their portfolios and product. And yet the value of sync fees is dropping cause theres SO MUCH PRODUCT as a result.

    The proliferation of exclusive libraries will increase over time simply cause:-
    a) they will make more money from the uniqueness of their product(s).

    b) its a more cleaner – ethical?- business model . No potential legal nightmare in 5 or 10 years to come (maybe), when 8 other libraries are claiming to own “my song number 3”, which has become “my dad’s song 3” “grandma moses’ song 3” etc..

    c) the tv/film/et al people are more assured theyre the ONLY ONES getting that piece of music . This adds value to them, too, and avoids any potential litigious pitfalls when it comes to ancilliary rights (dvd distribution etc)

    d) tracking technologies will become de rigeur with ALL the P.R.O’s because it makes their job MUCH EASIER and improves their R.O.I. by a significant margin. This may just mean theyll cough up more to members as a result (hurrah!)

    Its not difficult to get into a library – most here agree- but it all depends on what YOU want from this in the mid to long term. Make no mistake, the minute the P.R.O’s really take this on, retitling will vanish faster than a jug of beer on a hot day.

    kind regards

    S R Dhain
    Juicy Audio Productions

    • Question (and I’m asking this purely objectively…not as a person who feels they have a strong opinion on this topic yet):

      If it is a sure thing that the re-title structure will collapse in the very near future, surely then the re-title libraries are aware of this pending doom…..

      So why is it, then, that they are going about business as usual, signing new artists and building their catalogs?

      Maybe they know something we don’t? Or are they being delusional?

      • This is where im still a bit stumped to be honest, Erik. It could be that they think theyve still got another 10 to 20 years of making good, so to speak, and beyond that..well, i dont know anyone who can think beyond 5 years in terms of their life, never mind a business.

        It could also be, that they are privvy to other information about all this malarky that we arent.

        On a more realistic note, with the proliferation of music already out there following the retitle model, it will take a serious force of will to eradicate it all in one swoop, due to the complexity of the equation(S) here. Remember, the PRO’s are still making good, so are the artists, as are the libraries and film-makers et al, so upsetting the applecart isnt a PRACTICAL solution just on that basis alone. On a personal note, i sincerely hope there’ll eventually be a smooth solution to this potential timebomb, otherwise it’ll affect ALL OF US in some way or another down the line.

        However, Its a case of reality over logic at this moment in time in my humble – or otherwise- opinion, and other than in relationships with the opposite sex, xeno’s paradox isnt something that actually happens in real life very often 😉

        If it works, dont break/fix, as an I.T. manager said to me many years ago, as i attempted to fix and fault find amongst a swathe of routers in a huge network; the same analogy is prevalent here too.

        regards

        S R Dhain

        • Yes, re-titling will only go away once libraries are legally forced to stop. There is way too much money to be made out here with the torrent of reality TV shows, commercials, and internet sites.

          A friend and I are actually thinking about getting into the business. We both compose music, but we don’t want to just make money off of our own music. We want to build up a collection and license our own songs. We would probably wait until we got about 50,000 songs and either try to sell our company or offer an IPO. I think the market for music is only going to grow.

          The money could be tremendous!!!

            • No. Our assets would be the intellectual property (music). We would have exclusive rights over our work and would have them stored on hard drives and discs. We would be a publishing company that dabbles in licensing.

              • Sorry, I thought you were thinking of acquiring 50,000 tracks by re-titling, I couldn’t imagine you’d actually be able to do that many tracks within one lifetime.

                So if you were to split the workload, and did 25,000 tracks each, how long do you think that’s take?

                Let’s assume you plan to do tracks much like your ‘duck’ tracks – mostly consisting of a few loops and synths… which can probably be taken care of in 30 minutes.
                25,000 x 30 minutes a track = 12500 hours, or assuming you work 9 hours a day, 6 days a week, 50 weeks a year, it’d take 4.6 years to do that many duck style tracks. This is not even compensating for lunch breaks, trips to the bathroom etc
                Then you’d have another problem on your hand, how are you going to market 50000 tracks that were each done in less than 30 minutes (and probably sound like it) ?

                • The other thing that mystifies me is why libraries are fighting their way into a market and model that has depressed prices. And if they are re-titling, they don’t even have assets to sell at the end of the day, as dozens of libraries have the exact same music albeit with different titles. So you can forget the IPO. Strange.

  6. I’d still want original music for my films. At the very least, original sound recordings.

    Talking about original sound recordings. I have two versions of public domain “Deck the Halls”. One is signed to an exclusive library and one is signed to a non-exclusive library. Wondering… if this can be done legally with a public domain tune, why can’t it be done with an original tune?

    • Because of just that…the song is in the PD so you are allowed to make any recording you want. Recording A is exclusive and Recording B isn’t. Once we are talking PD it’s just the recording that is controlled.

  7. Yes Matt, I think this re-titling business will come to an end in the near future.

    If I needed music for a film I was producing, I certainly wouldn’t want to use sound recordings that’s been used in several other films. I’d want the music exclusively.

    • But why? Movies use songs that have been used in other movies all of the time. Have you ever heard of The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Elvis, etc.? If a song is great and fits a particular mood or scene, it will be used in movies over & over & over & over again.

      These arguments are for lesser-known musicians to worry about. I myself am working on marketing myself so my music can be used from now until the Earth stops spinning. If you are popular, your music will usually take precedence over music from unknown, faceless composers. It’s all about building those relationships!!!

  8. I think the author nailed it when he said we seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop.

    The widespread adoption of audio recognition technology will only highlight the trend of re-titling, by making everyone aware of the multiple publishers claiming the same tracks. At the least, re-titling libraries will be regarded as bargain bin set ups to be avoided… at worst – the re-titling business will be outlawed. Hopefully things don’t go to that extreme.

  9. Great article. Retitling cost me over $1,000 when a re-title library undercut me with MY OWN SONG.

    I’ve submitted less than 20 songs for retitling in my career and it has come back to haunt me 3 times.

  10. This is a pretty petty argument. Most music that gets sent in to companies will never be accepted. If you send the same song to ten libraries, you can be sure that 5 to 7 will reject the song. A nice try, but a little out of touch with reality here. I hope that musicians will stop worrying about silly things like this and produce great music.

    • Well, speak for yourself! I’ve submitted to about a dozen re-titling libraries and the acceptance rate is around 90%-100%.

      • Would you be so kind as to make a list of the libraries and songs so I can check? I am not calling you a liar, but I think proof would help your case. What do you really have to lose?

        • A lot… I post a lot about different libraries on this site, which is why I go by the name of ‘Matt’.
          reason 1) I don’t really want every one of the libraries I contribute to knowing exactly who else I write for
          reason 2) I have been very candid about my experiences with those libraries, and want to keep anonymous for this reason.

          Of course you don’t have to believe me, but why would I lie?
          The only two libraries that have rejected my stuff over the past year are Crucial Music and Magnatune.

        • My acceptance rate is around 90-100% too. Believe it or not Yadgyu, taking yourself seriously as an artist and working hard to hone your skills as a composer/producer pays off from a business prospective.

    • If you are getting an acceptance rate that low, you might want to reexamine your music to see why it is so unmarketable in the licensing world. I’m with Matt on this one – an acceptance rate of over 90% from 2 dozen libraries.

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