Exclusively signings/selling tracks to public?

[daveydad]

There has always been enough interest in my music to make it available to the public online on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby, etc. I see a lot of exclusive listings come through the mill with Taxi and have been submitting to many of them. But now I wonder how most of these libraries/agencies/etc would view this if they want my song exclusively?

BTW, I recently signed one song exclusively with a library and they were perfectly fine with me selling it to the public; in fact, they said one day they may sell their library music on iTunes, too! Are they the norm or exception? Thanks for the input!

[Cruciform]

So far as I can tell, there's no standard. Some publishers are only interested in exploiting the sync rights. Some want all rights and will do public releases themselves. Just take it as it comes. Don't hold back music just because you've publicly released it.

[daveydad]

Agree

[mazz]

The kind of deal you describe could be described as "semi-exclusive" or "exclusive only to licensing/sync opportunities". This means that you probably can't put your music in another library (that would be a non-exclusive deal), but you can promote your music to the general public.

It's just one of many flavors of deal out there. IMO it's good to keep some of your rights when a library wants exclusive representation but is not willing to pay up front for the copyright. If they do, then you would have to take it off the market altogether and they would have to make it well worth it in order for you to consider that.

Keep going.

Mazz

[Casey H]

As others mentioned, exclusive deals come in a few flavors and there is no standard deal. The main flavors are:

• Fully exclusive to everything with assignment of copyright.
  Fully exclusive to everything without assignment of copyright.
  Exclusive to film/TV only (anything 'sync'), no assignment of copyright.
  Exclusive only as far as other music libraries, no assignment of copyright.

Always read contracts carefully and ask questions.

Best,
Casey

[daveydad]

Thanks everyone! Great input! And just today I received my copy of All You Need to Know About the Music Business!