Signing to a TV music supervisor?

[jdstamper]

Does anyonew know how it normally works if you're dealing directly with a TV series who wants to license your track for a single episode? Is it basically a single use non-exclusive deal? ... so you could still license your track exclusively to a library at a later date, right?

Thanks, Jim

[mojobone]

Well, no, not unless the exclusive library served only the film market, or some other non-TV market. This is not to say you couldn't sign it, or that they wouldn't sign it; just that it technically wouldn't be exclusive.

[jdstamper]

Yes I guess there's really 2 parts to my question, and let's assume this is an instrumental track used as underscore ...

1. Would the TV series use typically be non-exclusive so that they don't lock up the rights to the track with only 1 usage? Or would they likely be planning to use it in other episodes, or even other productions?

2. How likely is it that a library would sign it later as an exclusive (from that point on) track, knowing that it had indeed already been used once?

Thanks, Jim

[mojobone]

1. I couldn't tell you that, you'll have to discuss it with them. Some series will re-purpose the same track; (it's pretty common for a particular piece of underscore to become part of a regular show's sonic signature) maybe that generates a new license and fee or maybe it's on a needle-drop basis; they license the track in perpetuity or for a period of time, there's one upfront license fee, and you get back end for every time they re-use it. That depends on your contract.

2. You can't sign it as exclusive once it's been used. Since you're dealing directly with the super, it seems unlikely they'll license the track and never use it, which is the only way you could sign it elsewhere as exclusive; in that case, you'd need to have it removed from any libraries it's signed to non-exclusively. Since you're dealing directly, I don't see how you can get your track back without returning the money; then again, I'm not a lawyer. However, since the non-vocal is treated as a separate (albeit derivative) work, you can still sign the underlying composition exclusively and the original version with vocal non-exclusively.

In other words, the TV series can lock up the sound recording if they want to and word the contract that way, but you still own and control the copyright in the song. Does that help?

[jdstamper]

Yes, These are all good things to think about when making a deal directly with a supe for an episode.

I'd be interested if anyone has experiences to offer on how it worked out for you contracting your track with supe for a series or episode / vs. contracting it with a library.

Thanks!

[rnrmachine]

I don't have much experience but I do know if your song is being used as an underscore it would be odd for TV supervisor to expect exclusivity for that particular episode. A publisher however it's not odd at all.

If you are dealing with the supervisor directly he MIGHT be considering it a work for hire which would be totally different, but avoid that. Unless you are desperate to get your feet wet... So you have some credentials.. you can say, I did this... etc.. I would stay firm with non exclusive when dealing with a supervisor UNLESS they might use it in future episodes and OR you are not too attached to that piece. If it wasn't much work at all and you could easily bust out more just like it then there is no reason to be too strict with the deal. imho If the plans were to use it in more then one episode that would then be advantageous. Hearing your piece a few times in a season would be a BIG push for you in this world, imho. I would almost be willing to do that for free, just for the credentials... depending on the show of course.

As far as having experience and knowing standards beyond what I have read on this forum and my own SMALL dealings. I am sorry I can't help more. The only things I have done so far have been non-exclusive.

Rob

[mazz]

I think the way to think of this would be to consider yourself an exclusive library for the purposes of this discussion.

If you were an exclusive library, you would still market your entire catalog to various TV shows, etc., and would have no problem signing a single piece of music to several different music supervisors for different shows. The piece is exclusive to your library, the composer cannot pitch it themselves to either libraries or supervisors, but the fact that the piece is exclusive doesn't mean once it's in one show it's now "off the market" so to speak.

So if you directly license a piece of music to a supervisor (basically acting as your own publisher), there's no reason you couldn't pitch it to an exclusive library. Where the issue comes in is, when you sign the piece, the library becomes your publisher. So who collects the publishing on the piece that you placed yourself as the publisher? Would the library want to re-title the composition so they could collect publishing on any placements they generate? I'm not sure of the answer to those questions, but it's something to consider.

Things to think about.

Mazz

[Casey H]

My understanding is most direct deals to music sups (unless they are MAJOR placements) are non-exclusive. TV shows generally don't want to be music publishers-- they just want to be sure the rights are free and clear to what they do use.

You most likely could sign the track to an exclusive library later. However you should disclose it and see if the library has any issues with it. If they take over publishing and use the same title as was used in your direct placement, I believe they would collect future performance royalties even if generated by your original placement. So you may want to discuss using an alternate title if you want to separate royalties.

Also, many exclusive libraries are only exclusive as far as other libraries, not direct pitching.

Please correct me if anything I said was incorrect.

Casey

[jdstamper]

Everyone's replies have been really helpful and well said. It makes a lot of sense to me that dealing with a supe should usually be non-exclusive and you are basically acting as your own publisher.

Thanks again for your insight. Jim

[matto]

I think the title of your thread is kind of "unfortunate" since you would not be "signing to a music supervisor", a supervisor would be licensing one of your tracks from you. In TV or film this would almost always be completely non-exclusive unless the song was written specifically for the TV show or movie. In advertising the licensor might want some degree of exclusivity.

The important thing to understand is that all you are granting the user is a license to use the song in a specified manner, you still retain complete control over the song. The only thing you won't be able to do is grant another user (whether another supervisor, ad agency or music library) a license, or other rights, that would conflict with the license or rights granted to the first user.

Would an exclusive library be interested in offering you a deal on a song that had already been placed? Maybe, maybe not. Depends on the library and you'd have to discuss it with them. It is definitely something you'd want to disclose if offered a deal...

As far as re-titling, if it was a use with longterm royalty generating potential (such as worldwide reruns for years) then you would want to use a separate title when you sign the song with the library otherwise they will be collecting half of the royalties generated by your placement. Of course being an exclusive library they might well balk at this.

So...my advice would be if the deal with the supe looks great, license it to them, then if you want it represented by a library choose a non-exclusive one. If an exclusive library is later interested in it also, write them a new one.

HTH,

matto