Members Contacting Listing Companies -- Ouch!

[fusilierb]

Problem is that you don't have multiple people taking (or registering) for publishing rights to those paperclips. I was firmly in the camp of put your music in as many places as possible for the reasons your listed, but have since been talked out of it by many folks here with success in making a living writing for libraries and libraries themselves that I'm working with. Having the same piece of music coming at producers/editors/etc with a different title muddies up the "who owns what" water and is creating issues. Issues that the big libraries and big boys have no interest in dealing with. They are all legal issues surrounding ownership/publishing rights. As far as I understand it, exclusive publishing agreements are going to be the norm again for the big boys and we should get used to it and prepare for it.

Trick is to keep writing. Once you have a catalogue of 100's of pieces that are ready for prime time, you'll need to pick and choose where you put them and who is the real "publisher" of the pieces. At least that's the word on the street.
B

[orest]

I've done this myself, licensing the same song(s) with different libraries, non-exclusively.

Now I'm putting my effort in 1 library at the moment, and I'm only composing to this library, a pretty big one.
I've read about this, and I know what some libraries think of this as well.

My mind is set to think "exclusively" instead, even if the libraries have non-exclusive agreements.
I think that's better to do for future relationships.

[wta]

You DON'T want to list one song with multiple outlets, that'll cause a major problem BUT you could easily use different outlets for different pieces and have no issues.

THE MAJOR issue is on this thread is that if you're signed with Taxi NOT to be representing yourself or communicating to Taxi's clients UNTIL THEY want to talk to you. Secondly don't use the same music that you have listed with Taxi with other publishers/libraries and of course not using that same music and market indepently. It's also vital you wash your hands after you use the washroom,don't pick your nose in public and to you Yankees out there say "Your Welcome" when someone says "Thank You" to you and NOT, "UH, HUh"!!!

wta

[kevinmathie]

My mind is set to think "exclusively" instead, even if the libraries have non-exclusive agreements.
I think that's better to do for future relationships.

Yep, that's exactly what I do too. The contract may say non-exclusive, but once a song has a contract associated with it, I don't shop it around to anyone else.

[guscave]

I don’t believe that the non-exclusive deals are going to go away. There’s just way too many libraries doing them & they’re making enough money which wouldn’t justify them changing.

Beside the industry has more than enough room to cater to both. Those end-users who prefer the boutique style libraries will work with libraries that offer exclusive deals to their writers, while those who want the bigger selections & don't mind the duplicate songs (and probably cheaper cost) will continue with the non-exclusive libraries.

Also I think that if you decide to work with several different libraries non-exclusively, you should try to spread you music in a way that they don’t all get the same material. For example: If you you’re working with 5 libraries that are looking for acoustic guitar pieces send 5 separate acoustic guitar songs. If you don’t have 5, start writing them…

[Mark Kaufman]

The only real solution I can think of from TAXI's standpoint would be to make it clearly understood that unsolicited contact of a forwarded-to company will result in automatic loss of membership--goodbye prospects, goodbye membership fee. I understand that this would be an after-the-fact solution, but it sounds fair to me, and I imagine the listing companies surely understand that the idea of preventing each and every loose cannon from blasting off is like herding cats.

[cardell]

The only real solution I can think of from TAXI's standpoint would be to make it clearly understood that unsolicited contact of a forwarded-to company will result in automatic loss of membership--goodbye prospects, goodbye membership fee. I understand that this would be an after-the-fact solution, but it sounds fair to me, and I imagine the listing companies surely understand that the idea of preventing each and every loose cannon from blasting off is like herding cats.

Yes, I agree Mark. This will achieve the desired result.

Stuart

[davewalton]

The only real solution I can think of from TAXI's standpoint would be to make it clearly understood that unsolicited contact of a forwarded-to company will result in automatic loss of membership--goodbye prospects, goodbye membership fee. I understand that this would be an after-the-fact solution, but it sounds fair to me, and I imagine the listing companies surely understand that the idea of preventing each and every loose cannon from blasting off is like herding cats.

Yes, I agree Mark. This will achieve the desired result.

Stuart

Well... that really can't be a blanket policy either. What about the companies that accept unsolicited submissions? Obviously we can't be hamstrung from participating in their music submission process just because we had a Taxi forward to them. Some don't mind the contact... there has been more than a few Taxi deals that have been gotten because of professional contact with the forwarding company. Maybe an option for the listing company "Do not contact under any circumstance"... part of the information Taxi gathers for the listing company sign up process. Some will check that box... some won't. *Then* the rule for "any contact with those companies that choose that box, the membership will be terminated. That seems fair and balanced.

[hummingbird]

I really don't see how TAXI can police its entire membership, nor can it ask its listing clients to assess the suitability of contact by this or that person within this timeframe.

Obviously some people feel its their right to contact a listing party immediately after a forward (often before the listing party even has a chance to hear the music), potentially damaging a relationship for themselves and others.

You can't insist that someone hire you, and it's not appropriate to spam a company.

One polite email, asking for permission to submit to the most appropriate party, that doesn't mention TAXI or the forward, some time after a forward, would be the best compromise.

But if every forwarded member is going to contact the listing party, then we've got a problem. And the only solution is for TAXI not to devulge that information.

And that sucks. I'm very irritated that my right to know who is considering my music is being sabatoged by other thoughtless members. If you're reading this, I hope you will reconsider doing this again.

[Mark Kaufman]

Well... that really can't be a blanket policy either. What about the companies that accept unsolicited submissions? Obviously we can't be hamstrung from participating in their music submission process just because we had a Taxi forward to them. Some don't mind the contact... there has been more than a few Taxi deals that have been gotten because of professional contact with the forwarding company. Maybe an option for the listing company "Do not contact under any circumstance"... part of the information Taxi gathers for the listing company sign up process. Some will check that box... some won't. *Then* the rule for "any contact with those companies that choose that box, the membership will be terminated. That seems fair and balanced.

I was thinking about that late last night, Dave, and I agree with you. But even with that caveat, something tells me there are probably yet more shades of gray that could make such a new rule fall down. This is like carrying water in your hands. But I think some rule like that is probably the best bet.

Some blanket email from Michael, as well as this thread, will probably cause less of it to happen for a while...but people want what they want, and plenty of them are simply going to bang on every door trying to get it.