Questions about first library deal!

[cademan7]

Hey, I just got an offer from a music library for two pieces of mine. I have a couple of questions though about whether or not this is a good deal or not. I don't know what the industry standard is, but they are offering 25% of all the sync fees and then I get the writer's share of royalties and they get the publishers share. It's also an exclusive deal, so they want to claim part of the copyright to my songs. I'm a little worried about that, because I don't know if that's how it works or not. But I don't want to give my copyrights away if I don't know that it will make any money. Should I charge an upfront fee?

I would love anybody's thoughts and opinions, because this is all new to me. haha

Thanks,
Cade

[Cruciform]

What is the primary market for the library? If it's a cable tv focused company where they obtain maximum usage by doing gratis and low-cost blanket deals then the split of syncs is virtually a moot point because there would very rarely be any.

But as a general rule of thumb, receiving less than 50% of syncs is hard to justify.

Writer's PRO to you and publisher's to them is very standard. Assigning copyright on an exclusive deal is also widely practiced. A valid reason for that is the use of sub-publishers. If they are not using sub-pubs to get your work into other territories then they are not maximising the full potential earnings of the music and therefore they shouldn't be wanting to take copyright. In that case it should only be an exclusive administration deal for the relevant territory (eg. USA) where you retain copyright and can thus exploit your work in other countries.

As to your suggestion of charging them an upfront fee, that's not going to work. You can try, but they will simply say, "No thanks" and move on.

Sometimes you can negotiate but you'd have to be bringing something really special to the table. The hard truth is that there is a massive over-supply of music. Libraries can afford to ignore you and move on to the next option.

The main control you have is whether or not to sign a deal in the context of how well it fits into your overall business plan.

[larrymagee]

Hi - I just posted the same question in Peer to Peer. I hope it's the same publisher and not a trend. I'm waiting for some replies but I'm going to point out to them that the TAXI listing said 50/50. Maybe that will work for you, too. I might ask Taxi to make a call for me if they don't agree. Ideally the listings should be accurate.

[larrymagee]

Hey - I just heard from a couple of people on my post about this 25% thing and I see now that the Taxi Listing was correct. I've accepted the deal at 25%. details at http://forums.taxi.com/topic131502.html