Is this a fair deal?

[SteveBaruah]

Hi All,

So a music library has shown interest in taking some of my cues exclusively. However, I'm not sure the deal they are offering is really fair.

The deal:
No buy out fee.
No share of sync fees.
50/50 on back end/royalties.

I'm only just starting to get my stuff signed to libraries, and this is my first exclusive offer, but isn't there normally a buy out fee? Or a split of sync fees?
The library has a long list of corporate clients on its website, McDonnalds etc.

Thanks for any info!


Steve

[hummingbird]

An exclusive deal these days very seldom has up front money.

I am concerned about the no sync fees but because I don't have the rest of the details it's hard to assess.

If you're getting 100 percent of the writer's royalties, that's good.

Really all of it needs to be taken in context. Was this for a TAXI listing forward?

[SteveBaruah]

Hi Hummingbird,

Thanks for your feedback. No, not for a Taxi listing, but thought the info could help other Taxi members.
The deal is fairly straight forward:
No money up front (buy out)
They keep all sync fees.
I get 100% of the writer's back end
They get 100% of the publisher's back end.

The thing that shocked me is they don't split sync fees (I thought this was standard).
Their website and customer list is impressive enough.
Maybe just picking up that back end (royalties) makes the deal worth while......?

Thanks.

[Kolstad]

I would personally not sign a deal like that. For me there has to be a compensation if they want all of the sync fees. There's rarely much back end for production music.

[guscave]

There's rarely much back end for production music.

Not exactly. I know several composers making a good living from production music and about 85% of their income is back-end royalties. I personally have deals with libraries that don't pay sync fee, but get me placements in shows that have been paying me royalties for over 7 years now.

There are a lot of different things to consider weather to work with these types of libraries, but one thing you might want to look into is do they revert the rights back to you after a certain period. If so, you can provide a few tracks and see how they do. If you don't see any action, you can pull them out of their catalog.

[VanderBoegh]

Hey Steve, it might be worth sending a few private messages to some of the more high-profile members to see if they've heard of the company. The thing that's concerning to me is that, if it didn't come from a Taxi forward, then there hasn't been anybody to vouch for the company (Taxi does a pretty dang good job "screening" the libraries before allowing them to run listings).

That being said, I wouldn't let the lack of upfront money or sync fees scare you off. I still rarely get upfront payments - and these days, you really have to be an established composer with a killer resume to command up-front's - but I've made a full-time job out of this business off backend royalties alone. There's TONS of money in backend!!

The lack of synch fees is a tad bit alarming, but not a deal-breaker to me. As long as these tracks aren't your "golden babies", sign 'em away and replace them with more. Let the company have 20-30 or so (if you can make that much... that totally depends on your personal output...) and see what they do with them. All of the libraries I write for DO give me a cut of the synch fee, but you know what??? So far, I haven't landed a synch. So I'm getting 50% of nothing on that front, haha. But again, I'm still making a full-time job from just the backend royalties.

If it were me, I'd sign the deal.

~~Matt

[SteveBaruah]

Thanks to all of you. Really valuable information and insights. I'll weigh it all up and make a decision.



Cheers,
Steve

[hummingbird]

Yeah I wouldn't sign a deal that doesn't share the income from my music with me.

[Kolstad]

There's rarely much back end for production music.

This came off as a crazy blanket statement, which is not true at all, as others also point out. Of course there are plenty performance royalties out there for tv use (film not so much in the US, but in other territories also film).

What I should have spelled out was that there are libraries who make sync money on non-broadcast uses (like corporate videos). Non-broadcast is all front-end money. This is why this type of deal can be an issue, because in those instances you will not make any backend monies, and they will collect sync fees. Consequently, its a free ride on your music for the library.

I'm not saying that this is the case for this deal (I have no idea), but it is something to be cautious of. The library world can be shady, so it does matter if someone can vouch for the library as other posters have stated.

[eeoo]

Maybe I missed it but I don't think you specified if this was for instrumentals or vocal songs. If it's for songs i wouldn't go for it. I've tended to make more money from sync than backend from songs with vocals. Instrumental cues I suppose is different but again, in my experience, sync money is out there for instros as well. Good luck!

EO