Just received a contract : question about publishing and master rights

[JLB333]

Hey all! I hope this is the right place for this type of question...I've been forwarded from a TAXI Listing to a music library. They sent me a contract and now I need to approve this contract (or not). What bothers me is that it was mentioned in the TAXI Listing that "This company offers an EXCLUSIVE deal. You’ll split any upfront sync fees 50/50. They’ll get 100% of the Publisher’s share, and you’ll get 100% of the Writer’s share. You must own or control 100% of your Masters and Copyright."

So my first understanding of this is that they got the Publisher share and I will still be the master's owner. But the contract's title is "Publishing and Recording agreement" and when it comes to the master it is written : "The Composer acknowledges that the Master is the exclusive property of the Publisher or its licensees...The Composer assigns allright in the Master in perpetuity to the Publisher".

So my understanding of this is that I give away both the publisher share and the master ownership for perpetuity. This was not my inital understanding when I read the TAXI Listing.

Is it something that is common? Am I asking myself too much questions? As it could be my first library signature, should I go with this without asking myself too much questions...? What would you do if it was one of your track? I need to also mention that it looks like a small library..but I could be wrong...
Thanks for your advices and have a great day!

[Casey H]

You still get 50% of sync and 50% of composer PRO royalties. No trickery

Upfront sync fees, which relate to the master, are paid directly to the publisher who then pays you your 50% share. PRO royalties (ASCAP, BMI, etc.) are paid directly to the composer and publisher. You get your 100% of writer's share and they get 100% of publisher's share (each of those 100% slices is 50% of the total PRO dollar pie).

It is not an uncommon deal. The biggest factor here to be sure of is that you are OK with signing your track(s) with a library, exclusively forever, with no reversion in the future. While scary, many times these deals result in good placements. If you write a lot of tracks, and know you can write plenty more where these came from, it's worth a shot. If you don't write a lot of tracks and consider your tracks to be more "your babies", this might not be the deal for you. But keep in mind that writing a lot of tracks is key towards success in this biz.

Taxi doesn't allow us to mention specific library names on this forum so you may want to remove that link.

Best,
Casey

[cosmicdolphin]

All sounds pretty standard to me, honestly the fact is you should be churning out so many cues that you don't even think about it afer a while.

[ochaim]

It sounds like there is a misunderstanding of:

“You must own or control 100% of your Masters and Copyright.”

The listing indicates you should *currently* own 100% of the master and copyright. Not that you will continue to own the master and copyright as a result of signing this track to the library.

The listing wants to make sure you currently own those things so you have the authority to sign those over.

[Telefunkin]

Is it something that is common? Am I asking myself too much questions? As it could be my first library signature, should I go with this without asking myself too much questions...? What would you do if it was one of your track?

A: What Casey and CosmicDolphin said. If you're comfortable with the library and their terms (pretty standard), and can write lots more tracks, then why not get your foot in the door, gain some experience of working with a library, and just see what happens?

As a general comment, even small libraries can be doing great business (although this one doesn't display its placements or clients), and can also attract wider distribution as they expand. You and your music will also be more significant to them ('big fish in a small pond'), whereas a massive global library might have far more reach but will already have tons of composers and tons of music in every genre ('small fish in a big pond'). Which is best? Nobody can tell you, but in your position I'd take a risk on this library by giving them something to work with, and at least your music is out there and available rather than sitting on your hard drive. Down the road you'll probably get the chance to work with bigger libraries too and develop more of a 'spread bet', and by that time it might be clearer which libraries are working best for you. Good luck to you .

[JLB333]

Thnaks guys for your help! Really appreciate