mysterious success story?

[stuarta]

I have a kind of success story to tell, but it is interlaced with a mystery. The other day I received a royalty notice from my PRO, PRS in the U.K. It stated that I was due royalties from a song I have been passing to Taxi for a while. The song is called ‘Strangerland’ and it has been forwarded from a number of Dispatch listings. However, I have never been contacted by anyone as a result of those forwards, and, I haven’t signed any contracts with any Libraries, Publishing agencies, or the like, for ‘Strangerland’, or given anyone permission to use it.According to the sparse details on my royalty notice, ‘Strangerland’ was used sometime in 2007, by Belgian(SABAM)Films, and it was used on a production called ‘Wiitekerke’. Some internet searching leads me to believe that ‘Wittekerke’ is a popular TV soap drama in Belgium, Holland, and Germany.So, although I’m delighted that my music has apparently been of use to someone, I’m somewhat perplexed as to how they got hold of ‘Strangerland’. I had thought that the chain from musician to production goes something like; musician responds to a listing, Taxi forwards to a Library, Library contacts musician to make a deal and exchange contracts, Library is contacted by production (TV, film, etc.).I’m not able to ascertain which libraries/companies ‘Strangerland’ was forwarded to in 2007, because I had been uploading from ‘Broadjam’. After Taxi started its own upload service I stopped using ‘Broadjam’ and all of the 'Broadjam' notices, critiques, and info. are now inaccessible. (I’m hoping Taxi may still have the old ‘Taxi/Broadjam’ databases).Anyway, the mystery is: Have I been left out of the loop somewhere?

[mazz]

It sounds to me like the place to start would be your PRO. If the production company filed a cue sheet, which it sounds like they might have, then you should be able to get that info from the PRO. You can then contact the production company as to who/where they obtained your music from.Royalties are good, unauthorized usage of your music is not OK.You might want to check with TAXI and Broadjam as to the status of the old Broadjam/TAXI records.Happy Holidays!Mazz

[songbird]

A similar thing happened to me recently. A track that I hadn't signed any deal on (but had been forwarded by TAXI) appeared on my royalty statement. I got my PRO to follow it up and it turned out to be an error and my song hadn't been the one that was used after all. The overseas PRO where the broadcast occurred had incorrectly matched the info. on the cue sheet to someone else with the same surname (different first name). The track name was similar but not exactly the same. Apparently they will have to reverse the royalty on my next statement. I would ask your PRO to follow it up with the overseas PRO, and be absolutely sure that it was your track used before you follow it up with the production company. You may then be able to track down the TV station that broadcasts the show (perhaps via their website) and ask for a contact name for the production company. Best of luck!

[stuarta]

Thank you Mazz and Songbird for your suggestions. Taxi has sent me my forwarding history, and my next move is to get in touch with my PRO. Songbird, I did look in the PRO database and there is a song under the title of Stranger Lands, so, a possible avenue for confusion. However, the artist names and mine bear no similarity. I'll keep you posted.Happy New Years to you.