Instrumentals, Their Vocal Versions, and Multiple Libraries

[ChipD]

Mazz and others covered the subject well.

I just want add emphasis on something that may or may not be clear. If you have the instrumental track for a song in any library (exclusive or non-exclusive), you cannot sign an exclusive somewhere else for the vocal version. That would be a contract violation. This question comes up from time to time and I've met songwriters who don't understand it.

Casey

Thanks for this clarification, Casey. Essentially, you are saying that an instrumental track and the same song with vocals are, for the purposes of exclusively library placement, THE SAME SONG.

It's important for us to know that. I think that all of us would love to get a vocal song in an exclusive library that actively markets our music to the biggest network and film clients and it would be a shame to lose out on an opportunity if an instrumental version was signed with a library that placed it once on an obscure cable network for a one-time run at 3AM, earning us like a buck-fitty!

[richmstudios]

Thank you guys for taking time out of your busy day to expound upon this topic yet again. Your advice, opinions and personal experience are quite helpful to folks like me who are still new to this. Suzanne and I have gotten a few nice forwards but no placements yet. The eagerness to flood the market with our songs is oh so very tempting at this stage of the game.

There were some very good points made about having your song compete against itself that I'll need to consider.

...to simply go blindly into the fray is not advised, no matter what blanket statements and pronouncements some may make. Arm yourself with knowledge and be professional and businesslike in your dealings. - Mazz

I'll take this advice and think before I leap - still in the research stage so I haven't made any foolish mistakes (yet).

Rich

[Casey H]

Mazz and others covered the subject well.

I just want add emphasis on something that may or may not be clear. If you have the instrumental track for a song in any library (exclusive or non-exclusive), you cannot sign an exclusive somewhere else for the vocal version. That would be a contract violation. This question comes up from time to time and I've met songwriters who don't understand it.

Casey

Thanks for this clarification, Casey. Essentially, you are saying that an instrumental track and the same song with vocals are, for the purposes of exclusively library placement, THE SAME SONG.

It's important for us to know that. I think that all of us would love to get a vocal song in an exclusive library that actively markets our music to the biggest network and film clients and it would be a shame to lose out on an opportunity if an instrumental version was signed with a library that placed it once on an obscure cable network for a one-time run at 3AM, earning us like a buck-fitty!

The vocal and instrumental track are the same song (for our purposes under discussion) for lots of reasons including this: When you place a song with vocals in a library, the library usually also asks for the no-vocal mix. End users may choose between either or do mixes with both, switching depending on dialogue in scenes. And, there could be instrumental passages- intros, breaks, etc in a vocal version. So, you can't really separate them.

Casey