International Royalties

[popbaby]

Does anyone have any experience with international royalties? Over the years I've had placements that have aired all over the world, but I currently have a placement that is constantly airing in 20+ different countries. Hypothetically, should the total of those international royalties be lesser, greater, or equal to domestic with ascap?

[guitaroboe]

Hey!
International royalties are all over the place meaning that their rates can be minimal or great-depending
on what country the music has been performed! another thing to keep in mind is that you have to be VERY
patient regarding the actual payment of those royalties, they tend to be very slow!
The good thing is that your music is being performed. All those royalties WILL add up and they will keep on
coming from places that you never thought they would !!!

good for you!

Adonis

[matto]

Hi Popbaby,

It's impossible to estimate whether it will be greater or lesser with the information you are providing. It depends on what type of a placement it is and what it brought/is bringing in domestically on one hand, and which foreign countries the broadcast is 'constantly airing' in on the other.

E.g. I have had placements in blockbuster Hollywood movies, and on those the international royalties dwarf the domestic ones. On the other hand, a feature placement in a hit broadcast network sitcom will typically do much better domestically than internationally over its lifetime, between initial run, reruns (typically two for sitcoms) and syndication.
Everything else will be somewhere in the middle. It really depends on specifics.

The other thing is that some countries will pay far better than others. In general I've found that the major western European nations (Germany, France, UK, Italy and Spain), Australia, Japan and Canada pay the best. Latin America in general pays terribly. I don't think I have ever seen anything from China and Russia. So there again it depends on specifics...

matto

[popbaby]

Thanks so much for the replies. I believe the country list below is constantly evolving as they continue to license the show, but this will give you an idea. It's the Theme song for a series and movie with a second season about to air here in the states. In my experience the UK actually pays pretty well and I've seen a little bit from Canada for this specific use, but it was less than 1/4 of what the domestic royalties were. The only issue with intl' is that ascap isn't too specific on how often and when it airs.

Canada Teletoon
France Canal J
United States Disney Channel
Netherlands, Belgium Disney Channel Netherlands and Flanders
United Kingdom Disney Channel (UK & Ireland)
Greece Disney Channel (Greece)
Turkey Disney Channel (Turkey)
Poland Disney Channel (Poland)
Hungary Disney Channel (Hungary)
Czech Republic Disney Channel (Czech Republic)
Spain Disney Channel (Spain)
Italy Disney Channel (Italy)
Serbia Disney Channel (Serbia)
Ukraine Disney Channel (Ukraine)
Denmark Disney Channel Scandinavia
Kazakhstan Disney Channel (Kazakhstan)
Bulgaria Disney Channel Bulgaria
Germany Disney Channel (Germany)
Israel Disney Channel (Israel)
Brazil Disney XD (Brazil)
Mexico Disney XD (Mexico)
Russia Disney Channel (Russia)
India Star World,Star Plus,Zee Cinema,Zee TV
Pakistan Disney Channel Middle East Disney Channel India

[mojobone]

E.g. I have had placements in blockbuster Hollywood movies, and on those the international royalties dwarf the domestic ones.

This is, in part, because in Europe, there is a performance royalty for music in movies, but in the US, only the composers are compensated, (for theatrical performance, as opposed to TV and live theater) so folks like Matto, who control both copyrights, get about double what a US label or publisher would for a movie in domestic release. Revenues are smaller in Europe, but the music producer is generally paid better, proportionally, than in the US.

[matto]

Actually that's incorrect. We're talking strictly composer's royalties here.
The difference comes from the fact that in the US *nobody* is paid for theatrical performances (i.e. movie theaters) , whereas everywhere else you do get paid for those. They can be quite significant if the movie is a hit in the better paying international markets.

Popbaby my *guess* would be that your international royalties will exceed your domestic ones since the show is on cable domestically so the domestic payout isn't anywhere near what it would be on broadcast tv. And you do have some of the better paying foreign markets in the mix. It's just a guess though since I don't have anything substantially similar to compare it to. I really don't know how foreign Disney Channels pay in comparison with other tv stations in the same market...

[popbaby]

Actually that's incorrect. We're talking strictly composer's royalties here.
The difference comes from the fact that in the US *nobody* is paid for theatrical performances (i.e. movie theaters) , whereas everywhere else you do get paid for those. They can be quite significant if the movie is a hit in the better paying international markets.

Popbaby my *guess* would be that your international royalties will exceed your domestic ones since the show is on cable domestically so the domestic payout isn't anywhere near what it would be on broadcast tv. And you do have some of the better paying foreign markets in the mix. It's just a guess though since I don't have anything substantially similar to compare it to. I really don't know how foreign Disney Channels pay in comparison with other tv stations in the same market...

Matto, I really appreciate your insight. Thank you. One thing I wasn't anticipating with the theme is that it would only pay ONCE regardless of how many times it actually airs in the episode. The only time it pays out for the end credits (etc), is if the program is more than an hour and then it will pay 1/10th of the original play. Kinda lame for me, because it always plays twice, as the main title and then the end credits for a total of 1:15 secs. I'm hoping that the intl PRO's might look at this differently, and if I'm not mistaken SOCAN is taking into consideration this, as well as the length of the play. Once again, this is speculation, but I should have more definitive information come Aug and Nov.

[mojobone]

Actually that's incorrect. We're talking strictly composer's royalties here.
The difference comes from the fact that in the US *nobody* is paid for theatrical performances (i.e. movie theaters) , whereas everywhere else you do get paid for those. They can be quite significant if the movie is a hit in the better paying international markets.

That's what I meant. Just, uh, maybe not what I typed. Sorry, for the confusion!