A few threads have developed regarding the PROs (Performing Rights Organizations), royalty payments, monitoring, cue sheets, etc. I am going to group them here for further discussion.
176 thoughts on “Royalty Payments – Monitoring and Collection”
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So, I’ll throw a hand grenade into the oatmeal here… wanted to get some thoughts on the following:
1. In 2009, network TV ad revenues were down 21.5%, & local TV plummeted 28.1%
2. BMI is being sued by 1,200 local/regional TV & radio broadcasters for access to cue sheets and the right to direct license its’ members.
3. ASCAP has lost so much money in live licensing, they’ve replaced the Nashville president and are going after arts venues & non-profit organizations. Membership has also declined in Nashville…
With these issues, a glut of available royalty-free music, and the death of the music industry as we know it, are the PROs in trouble?
From what I’ve read, ASCAP continues to increase it’s payout every year, by about 10%. Money’s coming from somewhere… maybe cable TV. Also, more and more international PROs are coming on board.
I have a friend in the broadcasting business in China, who told me that even there, where bootleg and pirated DVDs are sold on practically every street corner, the broadcasters are going legit and starting to use more library music instead of unlicensed film music.
But your question is valid – what happens to PROs when more and more shows are available online, and we head towards a 100% pay per view future?
This is one of the more interesting threads on the site with well thought out statements and a mature conversation.
I look forward to more postings and thoughts about this subject as I also agree that the state of PROs is in a flux but I am looking at it from the other end… life after PROs.
-Mark
Partners In Rhyme Inc.
One more thing.
At the top you need to have:
Music Production Title/ Air Date
Music Prod. Company/ Type of commercial or show
Producer/ Length of show
Music Director/
how do i create my own cue sheets?
I am looking at one of my cue sheets here now.
Its in an excel spreadsheet form and once filled in I e-mail this directly to
a contact person at bmi.
from left to right
title/composer/publisher/agency[BMI/Ascap/sesac…}Usage-theme/BI=backround instrumental/song/length/TC=time code in
So there you have it.
Length is how long your cue is and tc in is when your cue starts according frames,minutes,seconds.
Hope that helps.
maybe try the one set-up by BMI and ASCAP: RapidCue
http://www.bmi.com/forms/rapidcue.pdf
here is web site:
http://www.rapidcue.com/
I contacted RapidCue a couple years ago, and they made it VERY clear to me that only producers (i.e. the producers of the TV show) can use RapidCue, not composers.
That sucks. They don’t trust composers, who might ‘cook the books’ to make more money. However, the production companies invariably screw up the cue sheets, as the person filling them out has no vested interest in accuracy.
I have a generic cue sheet template that’s an MS-Word.dot template and can be used with PC or MAC. Just load it into wherever your Word templates are stored and once you create a new .doc file within Word, it’s a simple F11 command to take you to the next variable field to fill in (although some folks, depending on their system, might just to have to manually go to each field, dunno why).
Download for free at: http://www.MacMusicMagic.com/CueSheet.Generic.dot
Hope that helps anyone who needs to follow up on unfiled or misfiled cue sheets. Assuming you have all the correct writer/publisher info for all cues used in the program, you can, under the “abundance of caution” moniker, file the cue sheets on your own (you’ll probably have to do it the old-fashioned way, via snail mail or fax).
Please keep us posted on your experience with Tunesat Art.
I’m thinking of signing up, after a series of shambollic experiences with the UK collection agencies. I think composers are going to have to start taking more control over usage monitoring.
Jules
I too have heard stories about the original ascap writers compositions and their estates getting there compositions weighted 3 times in pay compared to everyone else!More unfairness in a unfair world already.Gotta vote for protection of writers rights than voting for corporate interests.
Yeah, it’s a gamble wherever you go. A lot depends on the reporting from the clients of the music libraries. I wouldn’t lay all the blame on ASCAP.
I’ve been fortunate to develop a personal relationship with several people at SESAC’s Nashville office, and I think they appreciate my willingness to learn the business as much as I’ve appreciated their consistent, knowledgeable support, as well their ability to admit that they do miss things from time to time – and fix them. My payments are always on time, always paid in the following quarter, and any time I have a question, I can get it answered either via phone/email that day, or with a face to face meeting in a week or less.
None of the things I’ve ever heard about ASCAP lead me to believe that composers making under 6 figures in royalties will ever get a fair shake there. That and the knowledge that 10% of ASCAP’s folks make 90% of the income, coupled with the fact that they pay out all ‘unclaimed’ income at the end of the year to that top 10% as a ‘bonus’, makes me wonder what many are thinking when they sign up with them.
To enhance Art’s notes about ASCAP from the FMPro list (above), here are
some sobering facts for any composer thinking to sign with ASCAP:
1. ASCAP was founded by Victor Herbert, a composer, and Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern,
Otto Harbach, James Weldon Johnson (co-founder of the NAACP), Jerome Kern, &
John Phillip Sousa. The story follows that they organized ASCAP after finding out that
songwriter Stephen Foster had died penniless, while his publisher had made big $$$$$.
Herbert was responsible for helping get the Copyright Act of 1909 passed, via his testimony to US Congress.
ASCAP’s main constituents until the 1940’s were TIN PAN ALLEY songwriters.
Apart from Herbert & Sousa, all of its initial board members were songwriters. A vast
majority of ASCAP’s board has always been songwriters.
2. Most radio/film composers from the 40’s on were essentially employees of the studios (many also worked as songwriters – Victor Young comes to mind). With the PROs having no ability to collect royalties in US theaters, the decline of “composed” music (due to ‘serial’ music and other experimentation no one really wanted to listen to) and the advent of rock/blues, composers never had a chance of equal treatment… it’s purely economic.
3. ALL US broadcasters, and ALL foreign PROs, when paying royalties for American composers or songwriters via PROs, pay 1-1, regardless of the ‘usage’ in a film or TV show. ASCAP can be credited with inventing the idea of “scaled usage” where broadcast is concerned. To my knowledge, ASCAP pays less for score/BI/background instrumental than the other US PROs. (I’ve compared notes with ASCAP & BMI composers)
I live in ‘Songwriter Town’. But I’m trying to make myself a commodity – I encourage you all to do the same.
Thanks Scott, great comment.
I also talked to SESAC when I was thinking of moving. A number of folks have had good experiences with them. But I do have a friend who made the change and found that he was getting less than when he was with BMI. When he complained they “adjusted” his rate.
Art
Yeah, it’s like pulling teeth with ASCAP to get your royalties. I had a track of mine used on “Inside the Michael Jackson Mansion”. I gave ASCAP the date and time played as well as this link: http://blogs.bet.com/ontv/primetimeplayback/tag/michael-jackson/
Unless the actual reporting is done by the client, it’s a dead-end – sorry to say.
Cue sheets aside,if you can get the actual media buys from the companies that do the network buying,where the shows played here in the states and elsewhere this will give you a closer accounting of whats happening.I believe that info can be obtained but what an amazing pain in the ass.Some have lawyers go after it in my experience.One more thing you have to do takes away from being a composer!
Hey Art,
How are things working out with Tunesat? Do you feel it is worth the money? Just curious.
Sure do. It helps me track of what is running where. I have quite a few cues that get played constantly on various shows on the Scripps network. Scripps has not yet finalized their deal with BMI. My rep at BMI says it will be valuable to have as much data as possible to ensure I get the maximum payout when they do settle.
I caught this on another forum. Sounds like Scripps is playing hardball. In my experience, getting the PROs to pay on these deals is very frustrating and unproductive. I’m trying to get paid for major national airplay from first quarter 2008 and ASCAP is giving me the big runaround. They want me to provide all the info from the ad agency. I think that’s their job and told them so but sometimes it’s like talking to the wall.
“I have just learned to my cost that the Scripps Network..(HGTV,Food Network amongst others) don’t pay any back-end royalties for any of the music that is used on their shows.
I’m told by BMI that the production companies sign individual contracts with Sripps.
Is this cue sheet royalty thing some kind of ‘Gentlemen’s Agreement’ between Networks and PRS’s?
Can anyone enlighten me to what’s going on here?
Who’s being paid for all the music….and there’s tonnes!!…on HGTV and The Food Network?
I here that BMI and Ascap have been ‘Negotating ‘ with Scripps since 2002!….hmmm.”
Unless I’m missing something, that sounds kinda creepy, like WTF..how’d they get away with that for 8 years? Where does that money sit while they negotiate?! yuck:(
Get away with what? If Scripps isn’t licensed by ASCAP/BMI/SESAC, they don’t have to pay a dime. And I can assure you they don’t want to… Cue sheet royalties are NOT a given. EVER. Most production companies don’t even file them until well after the show has aired, I recently learned.
For a time, Scripps were having composers come to the Knoxville office to do music for all of their shows for $25/hour, ALL IN. Never see another dime for their work.
Damnit, guys – have some backbone!
Ah, cue sheets…
If you’re an ASCAP writer they’re pretty meaningless, thanks to their practice of paying estimates based on surveys. Come up on the survey dates and they’ll then guess as to how much money you should make that quarter. Don’t come up on any of the survey dates and you get nothing, even if you shove cue sheets under their noses and TV guide listing proving the show in which you had that one song/composition aired 12 times ’cause of syndication.
There is no hard and fast rule as to when a production has to file a cue sheets. It is suggested that they do so “in a timely manner” but that can mean 9 months after the first release of the film or airing of a show.
To get around the cue sheet problem, I suggest that y’all have a clause in your license with any production using your work that commits them to delivery of cue sheets within a specific time frame after first release/airing of the project.
Something like this:
“Licensee [that’s them] shall deliver to the appropriate PROs a music cue sheet with regard to the Program, and furnish a copy of completed music cue sheet (as filed with the respective PROs) to Licensor [that’s you] no later than thirty (30) days after the first release of the Program in any media (excluding festival or preview showings).”
To keep your music from getting lost in the Scripps like scenarios, I suggest you use the wording often found in licensing agreements from the majors. This explicitly prohibits them from airing a show that doesn’t have a license with the PROs:
“5. LICENSED USE.
(a) PERFORMANCE and EXHIBITION RIGHTS:
(i) The non-exclusive, irrevocable right to use, distribute and perform the Compositions and the Masters throughout the Term and Territory, as embodied in the Program and in-context trailers and advertisements thereof, in any manner in any and all media now known or hereafter devised (including without limitation all forms of theatrical and non-theatrical exhibition, video cassettes, video discs, DVDs, video tape and any other form of audiovisual device for home video or otherwise on a buyout basis, and all forms of television including without limitation free, pay, and basic origination television, whether programming is transmitted by over-the-air broadcast, microwave, cable, closed circuit or direct broadcast satellite or by any other means now known or hereafter devised, PROVIDED that such television exhibitors have valid performance licenses from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (“ASCAP”), Broadcast Music, Inc. (“BMI”), and/or other applicable performing rights societies (“PROs”) acting on behalf of Licensor, as the case may be.]
(ii) The exhibition or performance of the Program in countries or regions outside of the U.S. shall be subject to clearance by PROs in accordance with their customary practices and the payment of their customary fees.”
It’s hard to find anyone at BMI who even knows about this but there is a rep at the Nashville office who does know. I have spoken with her a number of times over the last 8 months (just last week in fact) and according to her they are very close. As she said, ” there are a lot of lawyers involved”. She also mentioned it is not their longest running negotiation but they do eventually get settled. I do know that I have gotten settlements from BMI in the past on music I had totally forgotten about. I’ve had music running for 5 years on Scripps so hopefully a nice fat check awaits!
Good luck with that Art, and all who share that scenario…I’ve been a C.O.D. guy for so long that the notion of waiting 5 years to get paid is on odd one to say the least, even if that is the nature of the beast;)
The Scripps money will be gravy for us. We did get paid a nice chunk to create all that music.
I hope so, Art. I had a similar situation with a small cable station in NYC that was airing a TV series for which I wrote the music, much of it featured songs. It ran nine years with no accounting to ASCAP. When the issue was finally resolved I received a check for 6 figures.
It’s just a shame that composers have to constantly monitor activity for their music. You waste so much time chasing down your money.
Yeah, its sort of screwed that the PROs supposed to be getting us our money (at a price to us) and are collecting the pools of it, don’t feel inclined to get thier hands too dirty doing it. I had a song that unbeknownst to me, had been on a local station’s show ID for a decade and played EVERY DAY. I didn’t have my head in that place when it was first aired and know one told me about the usage till a friend reported back. Now when I’, in that mind frame, the station switched hands and of course if you don’t dispute your royalties within 6 months they claim tough S on you then. I’d like my 10 years worth of royalties now please…fat chance;)
That’s really a drag. Was that ASCAP or BMI?
ASCAP…
I guess that the way I phrased that mighta made me sound bitter over it, and I’m not, water under the bridge of sighs, That’s just my general frustration over how weird and amorphously extortionist on one end and and unhelpful (at least ASCAP) is, on the other.
Is it the same for the other PROs?
I mean, my statements say right on them : if you want to dispute the statement you got 60 days or forever hold your peace. How does that help anyone when people don’t file cue sheets and ASCAP makes you go on an Easter egg hunt to find your own placements and administer every aspect of your job AND their job…ugh…just a rant…sorry…gotta go make music now;)
ASCAP can be really bad. They tend to take care of the bigger song guys and ignore background music guys. I had a :60 national commercial for a major kids character on Nick a few years ago. It ran 15 times a day for quite a while. When I received my ASCAP statement, that tune was nowhere to be found. I wasn’t surprised, considering how many times this happens. But what was infuriating was the attitude I received from member services. They told me that Viacom didn’t include that piece of music in their cue sheets. So I politely said to the rep, “Isn’t it ASCAP’s job to pursue this?” And the answer was, “Sorry, there’s nothing we can do?” Excuse me? Nothing you can do? I was stunned. Total BS, but how do you fight this kind of irresponsibility and indifference?
I don’t know if BMI or SESAC is any better but the idea of switching PROs after so many years and a huge catalog of tunes would create even bigger problems and confusion.
I’ve been with BMI for over 30 years and was thinking about switching to ASCAP recently. Mainly because Paul Williams was just elected president. Paul and I go back a long way and he’s a great guy. I played guitar for him for many years and consider him a friend.
Paul was kind enough to set up an interview for me with one of the head guys and I did consider making the switch. But I got a real education about the PROs (and ASCAP in particular) over on the FMPro list. A number of composers on that list have been fighting battles with ASCAP for many years. One of the main complaints is that a one minute custom instrumental score cue for film or TV is paid by ASCAP only 20% of what a one minute song cue is paid, even if the song is buried in the background of a scene. Also, ASCAP’s licenses with the broadcasters make no reference to song or score in determining license fees. The lack of transparency and cavalier attitude towards composers over songwriters, are other complaints heard on the list. For those reasons I decided to stay with BMI. Is BMI any better? I really don’t know but one longtime ASCAP member on that list (who I respect and is very knowledgeable about this subject) did finally switch to BMI.
WOW..sorry to hear that story , but it sound like my assessment of ASCAP was right. I think I’m gonna look into BMI. I’m at as convenient time as ever to switch if its worth it (and not some ‘havin to pass through the kung fu halls of hell and fight your way out’ kind of scenario;).
I’ve recovered full publishing rights on some of my material so they need to be re-registered anyhow and I’m sick of feeding already successful stars and ASCAP executives with my humble (but nonetheless mine) performance royalties…I just don’t know if BMI or SESAC are any better either.
Thanks so much for that Art and all…good solid info is hard to find…I was playing in a rock band when I first signed on with ASCAP…WTF did I know then, not that the ASCAP was exactly the same then as now;)
I might sound like the Dudley Doright of the music business, but is it really that hard for people to play fair and do their job…we don’t get cut that kind of slack as composers!…Imagine that conversation w/ASCAP above turned around with a director:
Director: So there were 4 music cues missing on that last reel.
Composer: Yeah, I don’t know where those tracks went.
Director: But isn’t it your job to make sure all the tracks are cut to pic and in their proper places?
Composer: Yeah, sorry, nothin’ I can do.
NOT GONNA FLY…EVER, and I wouldn’t want it to…
I like doing my job well!
Hey has anyone here actually switched or know if the process is a run around?
Thanks to all for the insights.
I’ve heard some good things about SESAC. The owner of one of the major libraries once told me that he’d be much happier if all his writers were SESAC members. They pay more and they pay faster. The point is, they pay.
A buddy of mine wrote a bunch of cues for a very popular cable series which has since gone worldwide syndication, playing 7 days a week. He was a member of ASCAP and never received a dime for all that airplay. It was the usual excuses why they didn’t pay – not picked up in the survey, missing cue sheets, can you give us more information, etc. He pulled all his music and joined SESAC and since then has received a steady flow of royalties from the same series for which ASCAP was paying nothing. Pretty telling. If you’re ready to make a change it would be worth talking to SESAC.
You have to provide an ad promo form to ascap with the ad agency giving you the sheet of stations buys –the airtimes dates and ID Spot number the ad agency gives it.
Same thing for BMI–
its a wicked game but YOU MUST play it to get paid.
And any production-FILM or TV– a cue sheet COPY should be sent to their TV/Film Dept and also be sure the SONG itself is registered under a solo title to you-the cue sheet will match it-(unless youve retitled the songs).
Hope this helps
see ascap or bmi sites re-INFO for registering PROMO spots!
Any idea if deal between Scripps/BMI would mean ASCAP likely to follow?
When I was considering switching to ASCAP Shawn LeMone led me to believe that they had a deal with Scripps. Don’t know if that’s true. I’m still waiting for BMI to make their deal, sigh…
I spoke with Doug Wood, who is on ASCAP’s Board of Directors to get the answer. He said the following:
“ASCAP has had an agreement with Scripps since 2007.
As far as I know, Scripps requires all program producers for Food Network, HGTV, DIY, Great American Country and Fine Living to clear all music rights at the source, including features, themes and backgrounds. Some are licensed directly from libraries, others are licensed from composers under WFH agreements.
Presumably the PRO license is an insurance policy for the occasional usage that’s not licensed directly.
I don’t have any details of the BMI license; if you do, please send them along.”
I hope that answers the ASCAP/Scripps question.
Michael
This is great information regarding the SCRIPPS issue. However, it still makes me wonder whether or not I will receive royalties on my HGTV tracks that are used.
Has anyone on here received HGTV royalties since 2007?
I think it depends on whether your tracks came from a library, or whether you licensed them directly –as a writer for hire.
In this case, it was through a library.
So as a WFH you are giving up any/all writer’s share royalties? Is that correct?
It depends on your deal. As a WFH, you are generally giving up your copyright, unless you structure a different deal.
I’ve been “hired” to score films, where there wasn’t a lot of money. In that situation, I licensed the music to the client, with the understanding that I retain all rights.
And as I look at the contracts and see the copyright gone, so too goes the writers share. I assumed, although alot of my work was for Scripps and therefore was going to collect no royalties, that if there were backend monies (eventually), I would still get the writers share. Ouch.
I like to say that the good thing about going to law school was that I can tell how badly they’re trying to screw me when I read a contract.
Thanks for your insights MichaelL. Now I’m just going to sit quietly with this pitcher of martinis…..
The WFH that I did gave me the right to re-use as long as I re-title. I also retain the writer’s share of the PRO income. Now if BMI would just make that deal with Scripps!
always GET THIS IN YOUR CONTRACT..
notwithstanding the foregoing the writer shall be entitled to receive 100% of their share of the writers airplay performances of the compositions use for the productions broadcast’s which will be paid to the writer directly thru their performance rights society (ASCAP/BMI)..
any verbal agreement on retaining your writers AIRPLAY just wont work!