CONTRACT

[crashgates]

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[cosmicdolphin]

Ok so correct me if I am reading you correctly.The sync fee is to intice you to produce/offer/make available and will vary from artist to artist and can vary from zero to the sky

Yes ..theorectical scenario : a CosmicDolphin song in a movie might get offered a $5k sync fee...a song by Depeche Mode in the same movie might attract a $50k sync fee because it's much more well known , can bring an audience with it, has much more cred/cachet than an unknown middle aged sync artist from a smll English village. I can probably count on one hand how many extra moviegoers will buy a movie ticket because my song is in it. Famous bands bring a lot more to the table so they get paid more.

Why would anyone pay both a blanket fee as a tv station and a sync fee to use something in an ad thats broadcast on that station unless they have to pay both

A blanket fee would cover the catalogue of a production music library which might include tracks by people like me & Casey and other Taxi members but it doesn't usually include famous bands/songs in that catalogue. Just stuff written by people doing production music or maybe unknown/indie artists. If you want a famous song you normally have to approach the publisher for a quote. Even then many bands have power of veto as they may not want their own 'brand' associated with certain things. For example if I was famous I would never want my music used in anything religious as I'm an atheist.

The people making TV Ads are not the same people as making the TV shows. TV shows are made by production companies and the production comanies use tons of music so they buy the blanket licence. Ads are usually put together by Ad agencies on behalf of their client and will do their own music searches or send out the brief to publisher to see what comes back. As there is usually quite a big budget in advertising the music budget is higher so they afford to pay a good whack for the perfect track. I

Backend royalities is more egalitarian so to speak ie everyone gets the same for a set placement, or does other factors like artist recognition/viewership/audience size/colour of their hair /other/etc etc come into the equation, not exaclty clear how that all works too

No, it's the same for everyone but obviously famous artists get infintely more air time with their music so everything is multiplied

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[ochaim]

with respect to libraries, a blanket license is paid by the production company for the sync and master use of the catalogue.

with respect to PRO’s, the so called blanket license is a public performance license paid by the broadcaster to the PRO, where the cost is based on their business’s details and metrics.

[crashgates]

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[ochaim]

[quote=ochaim post_id=611101 time=<a href="tel:1697143096">1697143096</a> user_id=100725]
a blanket license is paid by the production company for the sync and master use of the catalogue.

yes another complication as in who is paying which license fee and for what

ie the prod co, the ad agency, the station
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i think i answered who pays what, no?

[crashgates]

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[ochaim]

sort of, I'm still going back/referring to my original question to Mark about paying sync fees and the public broadcast fee to the PRO/PRS at the same time as apposed to paying sync fees and library/SA license fees for use of their catalogue at the same time

or maybe I am not explaining that properly

also what does the public broadcast fee offer the station in regards to use of famous or not so famous music verses what does a sync fee offer a station in regards to use of famous or not so famous music

others have explained this already.

[crashgates]

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[Casey H]

It can be confusing.

There are 2 main sources of revenue for our music in Film/TV.

(1) Up-front sync fee. A one time payment for allowing your song to be synchronized to video in a TV show, movie, video, etc. If this is through a library, they will collect that fee and pay you (usually) 50%. If it is direct from you to the production company/music supervisor, you get 100%.

(2) Back-end performance royalties paid to you directly from your PRO. When ANY entity-- TV show, movie, restaurant/bar (e.g. live gigs), concert venue, etc. publicly plays or performs a song, they are required to purchase a licenses with the applicable PROs. This is where PRO money comes from. Libraries don't have to collect your PRO money as they register your song with your PRO with themselves as the publisher and you as the writer. The rest goes on autopilot-- they get the publisher's 50% and you get the writer's 50%. If no library involved, you would register the song yourself and get paid both shares.

As discussed earlier, blanket licenses are where a production company pays a library one fee for access to a large volume of tracks. In most cases, the writers get little or no share of that fee. However, back end PRO money can sometimes be lucrative and well worth it.

Sync agencies act very much like music libraries. Some are exclusive, some non-exclusive. They generally get 50% of sync. Some allow you to keep 100% of PRO (you collect the publisher's share), while some to the standard 50/50 on PRO as libraries do. In most cases. sync agencies are even more selective than libraries and pitch to higher bar opportunities. All their placements earn a sync fee.

The way people get paid for their music in film/TV is the same whether a famous person or not. The difference in the the amount of money involved. Famous artists can command much larger sync fees. The back-end PRO payments are the same, based on formulas for what network, what show, time of day, length of play, featured or background, etc. However, productions that use a famous person's music are more likely to be in the most major networks, prime time, longest plays, etc. And while in the US, we don't get PRO money for movies playing in theaters here, in other countries there is PRO payment for that and we get paid for overseas play. Again, a famous person's song might be more likely to be used in movies that get played all over the world and hence, earn more money. But no one at the PRO is saying, "Oh this is Taylor Swift, pay her $$$$$$$" and "This is Casey, pay him $$".

It's important to understand the money sources, where the money comes from, etc. and forget all this "famous person" stuff.

When a song is used in a video production (TV show, etc), the production company is required to file a cue sheet with the PROs that lists all the music used, length of play, type of use, writers, publishers, etc. The PRO license and cue sheet filing is what makes the performance royalty world go round.

As an aside, I have a cue sheet on which a Bruce Springsteen song and mine both appear. In other words, both our songs where used on the show. We get paid PRO money by the same formulas.

I may have jumped around a little but I hope I got it all out there. Corrections by knowledgeable folks welcome.

HTH
Casey