Film Festivals and PRO s

[guitaroboe]

Hey guys and gals,
I currently reside and work in Europe and I would like to join a US PRO.
I have done soundtracks for a few US indie films that have been screened (or will be screened)
at several US film festivals. I was wondering whether they count as public performances
that ASCAP or BMI would recognize in order to accept me as a member. Some of those
films are now selling at Amazon as DVDs. Does that count as well?
any thoughts will be greatly appreciated
cheers
Adonis

[fullbirdmusic]

Hey Adonis,

DVDs count for royalties, and you will have to register with one of the US PROs to have the collect royalties for you. I'm not sure how it would work with retroactively collecting money, but I don't think BMI does that for example.

Film festivals receive no broadcast royalties. HTH

[mazz]

Theatrical performances of films in the US do not generate performance royalties. This is due to an antitrust suit from some 60 or 70 years ago involving ASCAP and the film studios and holds to this day. From my knowledge, the US is the only country that has this law in place.

As far as I know, unless you've negotiated with the film makers a percentage of the sale price of a DVD (sometimes known as "points") or a "bump" after a certain number of sales, PROs will not track DVD sales as "performances".

I believe that all foreign PROs have relationships with ASCAP, BMI and SESAC so it's not necessary, and in fact may be impossible, to join a US PRO. You should ask your local PRO about this and also contact the US PROs to get the real details. I know that I get international royalties from ASCAP and they list the countries and the local PROs on the statements and I would imagine that it works the other way as well.

Good luck!!

Mazz

[guitaroboe]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH GUYS!!!!
A.

[coachdebra]

b/c you don't get royalties on film displays, you may want to (in future) negotiate a limited license for your music. In other words - pay me this much for Festivals. If it gets bought for distribution, you'll pay me this much for that licensing...

You want to be on the lower end for simply festivals for non-studio films. Because generally these film makers have extremely tight budgets and it's all spec until they get picked up for distribution. But if they get picked up, then amazing things can happen ...

Debra