Is a 70-80 percent placement rate good for a library?

[deantaylor]

I (and co-writers) are considering signing an exclusive library deal for 2 songs. The library is only 1 year old, the publishing company that runs the library is a few years older than that. They say they place 70-80 percent of their catalog. This sounds great to me. Do any other libraries achieve placement rates this high?

The deal is not only an exclusive library deal, but also an exclusive publishing deal. They can pitch the songs to other artists. This seems like a good thing. Isn't it? I don't see a downside to this. Is there one?

One sticky point is giving up our songs for 3 years .. the term is 3 years. Should we ask for a shorter term 1 or 2 years?

Thanks for any input.

Dean

[guscave]

Hi Dean,
Congrats on the deal. For me personally 2 songs is not a big deal to give up on an exclusive deal, especially if it's a library with a good placement history. If 3 years is a bit too much for you, try to see if you can get a reversion after 1 year.

Best to ya

[davewalton]

I think that not being in a library is kind of a 0% placement rate

I wouldn't have any problem with this. With two songs you can test the waters... maybe submit more later. The three year thing... not too bad and you can always ask if they'd consider something less. I think I'd give any place two years at least. I've had some good placements come long after the 1 year mark... pulling out too soon and those never would have happened.

[mojobone]

70% is great if you can confirm it. Three years seems about average. I'd be inclined to take such a deal as you've described, even without confirmation.

[Casey H]

Three years is a very reasonable reversion term, especially for film/TV libraries. I wouldn't expect a good library to agree to only 1 year since things take a lot of time in this industry. Many libraries have 5 year terms. You COULD ask them if they would consider less (2 or 2.5) but honestly I don't think you need to here. It's best to pick a good library and have confidence that within a few years they will place your song(s).

Good luck!
Casey

[deantaylor]

Thanks guys. Good to get your perspectives.

Sounds like you agree that a 70-80 percent placement rate is really good. I've never seen one that high (that I could estimate myself). Do any other libraries have rates this high or higher? Or what would you estimate to be a good rate?

What about the full publishing deal? That's a good thing .. right?

But the lib is only 1 year old, so will they sustain 70-80%.. no one knows. And we don't know what percentage of those placements are 'big' placements and what percent are 'minor' placements. So some faith/coin-flipping is involved .. as usual. lol

[Casey H]

Thanks guys. Good to get your perspectives.

Sounds like you agree that a 70-80 percent placement rate is really good. I've never seen one that high (that I could estimate myself). Do any other libraries have rates this high or higher? Or what would you estimate to be a good rate?

What about the full publishing deal? That's a good thing .. right?

But the lib is only 1 year old, so will they sustain 70-80%.. no one knows. And we don't know what percentage of those placements are 'big' placements and what percent are 'minor' placements. So some faith/coin-flipping is involved .. as usual. lol

Something's bothering me. How could a library that's only been in exsistence for a year have a 70-80% placement rate? I don't think that's possible. I'm wondering where this statistic came from. That doesn't mean this isn't a good deal... just that something doesn't make sense.

[fullbirdmusic]

Good points above here.

You should ask them who their clients are, what they use the music for, and maybe some numbers if they'll show you. Most libraries are willing to provide statistics of either potential projected performance, or after a while, your performance in relation to the rest of their catalog.

But that specific 70-80% number should somehow be verified. Do you know anyone else part of their library? Find out who they are and ask how they've done; at least 4 or 5 other folks just to get an idea. And check out http://www.musiclibraryreport.com for some comments on them if they're listed. That site is somewhat of a free-for-all in that there's no guarantee the people making comments have real experience there, but there is some good info. Good luck. Exclusive deals tend to make more money.
HTH, Wes

[deantaylor]

Hey Casey,
The publishing-management company that started the library has been in biz for 2 years, so I guess they already had some contacts to pitch to. In addition to pitching their own catalog, they have an established company with 4 offices worldwide who also pitches the catalog. So, it is possible that they placed 80 percent of their catalog in year 1.

Hey Jeff,
Thanks. Good thoughts. I think we already covered our bases here. We asked a number of our friends, couldn't find anyone who is already in their catalog. Nobody had even heard of them. It's small, overseas (but the catalog gets pitched worldwide), and only a year old. Not on musiclibraryreport. As for verifying, we asked some very specific questions, they answered some of them. And we verified the 80 percent number twice. Even asked what kind of placements .. said not all are film-tv-ads .. some are 'other' .. we assume smaller stuff, like corp videos, etc.

The library has been very responsive. I've been wondering if we should ask for more data, but i'm not sure that will help. If they are being very specific about the 80%, we already have the answer. If they are interpretting the numbers in some way to make themselves look good, they'll probably continue to do so. They did provide a list of 'clients' and we did have reasons to question whether these were actually clients that their songs were placed with or the clients of the bigger firm that administers their catalog .... I think what they gave us was a bit misleading or was not as specific as we'd like ... but ... idk, just doesn't seem like we'll benefit much from asking for even more detail or clarifications. Would you ask for more????

OUur gut is saying take the deal, but we're still not 100%.

Dean