Music Licensing?

[handrick]

Hi all,I am hoping someone can give me some infoa music licensing company got in touch and the deal is non exclusive.here is what they said about it"We deal with Performance royalties that are divided up as 50% Writers and 50% Publishing. You retain all the writers as well as 20% of the publishing, which makes up your 70% and leaves us with the 30% share from the publishing"Is this the norm for this kinda thing??any help on the matter much appreciatedAndrew

[stevebarden]

Aug 17, 2009, 10:37am, handrick wrote:Hi all,I am hoping someone can give me some infoa music licensing company got in touch and the deal is non exclusive.here is what they said about it"We deal with Performance royalties that are divided up as 50% Writers and 50% Publishing. You retain all the writers as well as 20% of the publishing, which makes up your 70% and leaves us with the 30% share from the publishing"Is this the norm for this kinda thing??any help on the matter much appreciatedAndrewThat's actually quite good as things go these days. It's typically 50/50 - they keep all of the publishing and you keep the writer's share.What do they say about licensing fees? That's typically a 50/50 split as well. Perhaps they're taking all of the licensing fees and enticing you with a 70/30 carrot? That could be fine if your work gets placed and generates the back-end performance royalties. More often than not, we survive on only the license fees. Unless a placement is a network show (as opposed to a cable show), you may see little (if any) performance royalties.Steve

[mazz]

Andrew,As Steve said, check to see how they handle the upfront sync/license fees. The "usual" setup these days seems to be a 50/50 split of the performance royalties, but as Steve said, the 70/30 is a good split which makes me think: what's the catch?I've not seen much in the way of license fees at this stage of my career, but I have generated performance royalties. Yes, for cable it's pretty low and for the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere, it's even less, but it all adds up. Check to see what placements this company has had and try to find out what their marketing efforts are. If they have great placements, it might be OK to give up the license fees, but that's up to you. License fees can be a good source of revenue, but many placements are by libraries that sell a blanket license to a bunch of pieces and all the money generated for the writer is backend performance royalties.Lots to think about but it's better to go in with your eyes open.Good luck and congrats on the contact.Mazz

[handrick]

Thanks guys, much appreciated.The company seem to have good connections and very professional attitude.Its a 24 month contract which can be terminated at any time. Up front Licensing is split 70/30 as well. I think they are just artist friendly... here's hoping... I can't seem to see a catch.... famous last words... thanks againAndrew