Fair Price for Publishing/Master Recording Rights

[adamrkenyon]

What would be a fair price range if a library wants to purchase the master recording and publishing rights for a couple of vintage tracks?

[irthlingz]

I'll let others attempt to answer this (though I'm pretty sure the answer starts with "it depends"), but just to be clear: Is this a total buyout, where they want to own the "writer share" as well as the "publisher share" of the publishing?

===
Michael

[adamrkenyon]

No, the publisher would just get master recording and the publishing. The artist would retain the writers share, so the artist would not get a percentage of sync fees, but only royalties which are most likely to miniscule.

[Kolstad]

There are too many variables in the dark here, like if the song was released and if it is well known. If they get first release it could be a bonus though. So, anything from 20k up to several hundred thousand, I would say, assuming the songs are great.. of course, you don't sell that stuff to a library or similar business. More likely buyers are the big labels, a fund or a big artist.

[AlanHall]

What they said ^^^

You haven't shared any background info on these recordings. We'd love to hear the war stories that surround them

The 'end use' would be a big factor in determining the anticipated value to the library. Do they have a buyer lined up? (TV spot, feature film, documentary, etc. etc.) There would be a budget that caps the max that could be paid out; but as mentioned, for something big it could be 10s of thousands of dollars. Does the lib want it for 'stock'? Now they're gambling on the purchase, because there's no guarantee for them; so I'd guess not much would be offered.

Another way to approach the value of the music is to figure out what the masters actually cost to produce (or equivalent cost if done at home or pro bono). In the old days, the record company owned the masters because they paid for the sessions. So the value of the master was an actual number on someone's ledger. Is there 'value added' to be calculated on top of the physical cost? If you think there may be no (or minimal) residuals, then how much more do you want to part with the right to a share of sync fees? Be honest with yourself about this. Have the tapes been sitting on a shelf earning you zero dollars for the last 40 years?

Maybe you can fix a low end to the "acceptable" dollar value, and a high end to the "expected" dollar value, and negotiate within that range. Good luck, and happy hunting!

[adamrkenyon]

These are 4-track vintage synth pop tracks from the late 80s, that virtually no one has heard, about 13 songs.
A library has expressed interest in purchasing them for their vintage catalog. They talked about 1K/song.

They also said they would be open to an admin deal, meaning they would pitch the songs, the artists would still own them, but the library and artist would split sync fees.

If they purchase the rights to the songs, the artist would not get a percent of the sync fees.

Does that help?

[AlanHall]

These are 4-track vintage synth pop tracks from the late 80s, that virtually no one has heard

I'm curious now, is there a specific place or social milieu that they are associated with? A studio, an engineer or producer? C'mon, crank out the hype

...about 13 songs.
A library has expressed interest in purchasing them for their vintage catalog. They talked about 1K/song.

$1k * 13 = $13,000 cash for the album? How does that compare to the cost of making the album? Ya know, if you sell the master rights and find out later that the tunes have caught on fire with the audience, you can always pull a 'Taylor Swift' and re-record the songs to make new masters...

[Kolstad]

These are 4-track vintage synth pop tracks from the late 80s, that virtually no one has heard, about 13 songs.
A library has expressed interest in purchasing them for their vintage catalog. They talked about 1K/song.

They also said they would be open to an admin deal, meaning they would pitch the songs, the artists would still own them, but the library and artist would split sync fees.

If they purchase the rights to the songs, the artist would not get a percent of the sync fees.

Does that help?

The worth of these tracks is probably at least x10 what they offer, so it depends how business willing you are. If you are just done with it, and don’t want to pulsur anything further, well you could give them a good deal.

If you believe in the works as a publisher, you could also send them to a producer and get them recorded well, and then market them beter yourself.

But since you are asking the questions the way you are, you are probably best off taking the money and be done with it.

There are so many variables in this, and many of them are subjective. Value determination and value proposition is difficult, and depend a lot on who you are, your network and your situation.