Back-end royalties only (no sync fee)?

[matto]

To answer the question about accounting, some companies will send you a fairly to very detailed quarterly statement listing the clients that licensed your music and individual amounts. Some will send a more general statement listing how much each song has made from various income sources (blankets, sync, direct performance etc). Some will send you an email each time a song has been placed where a sync fee was generated. Some will do none of the above and just mail you a check (where sync fees are involved).

Obviously if you have a contract with a company which states that they will share sync income with you and then they tell you there isn't any sync income so they can keep it to themselves, they would be in breach of contract. And since most contracts contain a clause allowing you to audit their books, it would be pretty risky for a company to do this.

I have found the overwhelming amount of companies I've encountered over the years to be on the up and up, and in fact the vast majority of them are run by very nice, honest and friendly individuals. Rarely you will get a bad vibe off someone and then it's usually best to stay away from doing business with them, if only for your own piece of mind...

matto

[jaysoul]

Thanks again Casey, I hear you and you're probably right.

Hi and thank you as well Matt for commenting. I understand the process and you're right companies would take a fairly big risk. Although in my case the publisher willingly took that risk because he was US based and dealt with mostly foreign artists like myself. A contract then proves to be not worth a lot unless you as an indie artist can scrape together enough funds and the right attorney or accountant to audit (or sue in proven breach of contract) - all arranged from abroad.

Anyway - i hear you both clearly and it's great that your experiences are much more positive. Thanks for letting me know guys!

cheers!
jay

[SANDPEARL]

Hi guys,

Just got email from a indie publisher regarding a forwarded song. How common is it for music being placed in tv shows in exchange for back-end royalties only, no sync fee?

Would appreciate your thoughts.

Thanks
Jay

if you have a good amount of quality tracks and get with the right library this style of deal can be quite lucrative...my last PRO payout was WAY beyond my expectations and since then even more cue sheets have shown up in my account...(really looking forward to my next PRO payout)...like a few have mentioned upfront fees are far and few (and i've had some) but make most of my $ this way...good luck

[jaysoul]

hey sandpearl, thanks for letting me know. good to hear and congrats on the juicy PRO cheques!

[coachdebra]

Thanks again Casey, I hear you and you're probably right.

Hi and thank you as well Matt for commenting. I understand the process and you're right companies would take a fairly big risk. Although in my case the publisher willingly took that risk because he was US based and dealt with mostly foreign artists like myself. A contract then proves to be not worth a lot unless you as an indie artist can scrape together enough funds and the right attorney or accountant to audit (or sue in proven breach of contract) - all arranged from abroad.

Anyway - i hear you both clearly and it's great that your experiences are much more positive. Thanks for letting me know guys!

cheers!
jay

This is beyond a breach, I think this might constitute fraud. And in that case, you might be able to get some satisfaction by writing a letter to the attorney general of the state the Library is incorporated in. The name and address of that attorney general will be listed in the state's .gov website.

[Casey H]

I have found the overwhelming amount of companies I've encountered over the years to be on the up and up, and in fact the vast majority of them are run by very nice, honest and friendly individuals. Rarely you will get a bad vibe off someone and then it's usually best to stay away from doing business with them, if only for your own piece of mind...

matto

I think this is the most important thing on this thread. My experiences as well as those of thousands of songwriters and composers who place music in libraries have been positive--- no evil man out there to screw you. Bad apples, as Matt said, may happen but they are more the oddball rarity.

I'd say in the many years I've been doing this and participating on this forum, I've seen way more people screw themselves by thinking everything is a bad deal than I've ever seen someone get a truly raw deal.

Casey

[jaysoul]

Thank you Debra for commenting and the tip. I'll let this rest as it happened quite a few years ago. But yeah it definitely bordered on fraud. Only after going public and posting my story on my own website (found by Google of course), the publisher finally paid me the monies he had been owing me for 18 months.

Casey - great to hear. Bring on the deals

Jay