One-time Buyout FEE of $125, no sync or master- SERIOUSLY?!

[rnrmachine]

I posted in the other thread thinking I was posting to this one, not realizing there was two now, so I copy/pasted here because I feel very strongly about what I have to say... Because I care about my fellow musicians.

You guys are very talented.... please don't sell yourselves too short. I understand that some opportunities may hold more reputation value than others and thus warrant less payment. But I hope everyone continues to be apprehensive about giving in to such deals. To weigh them out with serious thought.

I understand it's not really the same thing as normal work, because a song can earn $$$ from multiple sources at the same time, unlike actual work. Like was stated, a little bit of something IS more than a lot of nothing... But selling oneself short hurts everyone on the artist end and helps everyone on the business end. And business people of late, the way they shoot and skin the American public, should be shot and skinned themselves. The world would be a better place without them in it.

So... how desperate are ya... really? Desperate for money? Or desperate for the ability to say... my music is in film/tv. Sure, if I had an opportunity to work with someone of high reputation, such as Chris Lord-Alge... he is such a fine example of a man, imho. I'd work for free. But Chris wouldn't let me work for free... that is the man he is. He pays his interns/assistants because he believes that is the right thing to do.

But don't take my word for it... you can catch his comment about that in this long... excellent video. http://www.recordproduction.com/chris-l ... eo640.html

Good Luck in all ya'll do!!

Rob

[fusilierb]

I can only speak for myself, but this particular case doesn't seem that bad to me. 125 per song is somewhat insulting, but this deal is not taking any of the writers share. This buyout only takes the synch fee off the table, which seems to be going away these days anyhow. I don't know how many placements a person would have to get to equate to 125 in synch fees at a 50/50 split, but I with the exception of something on a major network during prime time or a film, I can only guess that 125 equates to few placements. Plus you keep all the backend.

So I'm going for this particular deal. Now as far as the other post is concerned, which is a cut of the writers share, that is hard to swallow. But in that one particular case, I know that library and they have gotten me placements. It's cleary a special arrangement with one particular show and it only counts against music that I already have sitting in that library, so, for me, its not a big deal.
My pieces are already sitting there and I'll take whatever I can get from them as I've already moved on from them.

Are these good deals? Probably not going to make a career out of doing deals like this, but for people like me who are trying to buil a catalog and credits and experience, it's all that on he table right now. So you work your opportunities and keep trying to climb the ladder. Once you get a bit higher, you turn these kinds of deals down for the better ones.

Again, this particular deal isn't that bad IMHO. I can easily write a few of these a month and at least support my gear habit, while still growing the music that is available for placements. I've never counted on synch fees anyhow, so...

[mojobone]

They called Conway Twitty the "best friend a song ever had" but in my book, Mike Laskow is the best friend a songwriter ever had. I've spoken with some folks that have disagreed, but on further investigation, they all turned out to be full of shi*t. If you don't believe Mike, you can believe Matto. (heh, if you believe me, that is)

[rpittelman]

I was speaking to a guy who I know just last week who is making quite a nice leaving from writing music these days. He currently has this sort of deal with a company now. They want a lot of music from him (he has a few friends helping him on the project). He told me that if they accept the song, aka give you $125, you can pretty much guarantee that the piece will get placed. He said he's done very well with them.

Considering that I haven't heard of really any library deals paying upfront money this doesn't seem so bad to me. If the company is placing the music then send us the listings!

[Len911]

If I just assume the deal is on the up and up, and run by highly respectable and honorable people, and everyone is very happy and even ecstatic with this deal. My first question is, "What happens if the catalog is either sold to another publishing or music company,or auctioned in a bankruptcy proceeding?" Mr. Respectable certainly paid every penny of the writer's share when he owned the catalog. And the new owners bought 100% of the rights, and for all they know you were paid a million dollars for those rights, they certainly aren't under any obligation to pay anyone anything.
If it's a popular program, why not make it an industry standard, or like the trend of exclusive libraries? Sort of like when one airline, automotive, oil company raises prices, they all follow suit.
Then what happens to Ascap, Bmi, and Sesac? I suppose they would only represent publishers and music libraries, the rights holders.
Of course if Mr. Respectable was actually Mr. Shady, no indication by the deal of $125 buyout and copyright forfeiture, he could start another company and transfer the catalog to the new company.
It looks like a race to the bottom to me, and sure, probably most of the tracks wouldn't even make $125 on the backend in a lifetime, but why would anyone sell away their rights for a song? No pun intended,lol! Why mess with the standard percentages/rights that consensus has declared as fair? $0 on the frontend, and full writer's share is at least fair. Of course this might just be a case of, "if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it probably isn't a duck?"

[rpittelman]

Either I'm not understanding this correctly or other people aren't. But my understanding of this deal is that the company pays $125, there is no sync fee but we still get 100% of the writers share. Isn't that how it works? I don't have as vast an experience as some Taxi members do but I've gotten 2 deals so far through Taxi and neither of them gave me any money upfront and I haven't heard about getting any sync fees any time soon either. Sure we all want to earn more money but unless I'm missing something this just doesn't seem like a bad deal to me. Do I have this wrong?

[Casey H]

This is the same as an exclusive library deal whereby the placements they generate don't earn you a share in master/sync (unless you consider the one time $125 some master/sync money which is sometimes more than you can get out there anyway).

Many uses today, especially background instrumental for cable shows, aren't paying any master/sync. Up-front fees are dropping every day with so much music readily available. Higher-end major network placements (SONGS more so) are still paying master/sync, though probably not as much as a few years back. (The above was a general trend statement)...

A big difference is most exclusive library deals have a 2, 3, or 5 year reversion clause so if the tracks are never placed, you get them back. A deal like this is best if "sign 'em, forget 'em, and write some more" works well for you-- it does for a lot of folks.

Casey