Licensing Sequence of Events...

[eeoo]

Can someone explain to me the sequence of events that take place once a song has been licensed? Let's say you have a song in a library that gets picked up by a t.v. program. Does the license fee that gets split between you and the library get paid out immediately or can that be a waiting game? I realize the back end royalties take several months to show up.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
eo.

[Casey H]

Can someone explain to me the sequence of events that take place once a song has been licensed? Let's say you have a song in a library that gets picked up by a t.v. program. Does the license fee that gets split between you and the library get paid out immediately or can that be a waiting game? I realize the back end royalties take several months to show up.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
eo.

There can be a waiting period because (1) you have to wait until the library gets paid which isn't always right away.... (2) Different libraries have different payment schedules such as quarterly, sem-annually, etc... So it could take a few months or more before you get paid. I'm sure it varies a lot from situation to situation and library to library.

I had music released on a DVD about 1-2 months ago which earned a license fee. The library told me I probably won't receive a check until the end of the year.

Casey

[matto]

It usually takes a few months to get the license fee share, for the reasons mentioned by Casey.

If you've got a library with semi-annual accounting and a slow paying client it can take longer.

The time it takes to get paid anything (licensing or royalties) once music has been licensed is among the more frustrating aspects of a songwriter or composers livelihood (and no different if you have traditional record cuts either), especially in the early going and if you depend on that money to pay bills...

[eeoo]

Thanks guys, appreciate it.
eo.