Publishing Deal Offer - Your Advice please!!!

[Pinkstar]

We currently have an offer from what it seems like a well respected Publishing Company. I followed up with them after the Rally and after them listening to our music they showed interest.I'd like to ask the more experienced people on here with deals....What do you think about this agreement? It looks very simple and straight forward to me. Not sure about the 5 year term, I'd feel better about 3 years.Thank you;)JVBTERM: 5 Years Rights: All RightsTerritory: Worldwide Income/Collections: Not Including Performance Royalties Publisher will pay to your publishing company fifty percent (50%) of all Gross Revenue derived from any and all uses of your share of the Compositions and your share of the Masters after deducting a fifteen percent (15%) administration fee to Publisher Public Performance Royalties: Writer’s Share: You will receive directly from your performing rights organization one hundred percent (100%) of the so-called “Writer’s Share” of public performance royalties derived from your share of the Compositions. Publisher’s Share: Your publishing Company will receive directly from its performing rights organization fifty percent (50%) of the so-called “Publisher’s Share” of public performance royalties derived from your share of the Compositions. Publishing company will receive fifty percent (50%) of the Publisher’s Share of performance royalties from your share of the Compositions to retain for its own account. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------Exclusivity for Licensing Only: We take no ownership to your compositions, just administration rights and act in your behalf to generate income for your titles. We do ask exclusivity in representing your song(s) for licensing only; however, you still retain the right to use any and all distribution avenues to sell your material through shows, websites, etc

[gitarrero]

congrats for the contract offer.my advice is simple: read the contract and highlight/mark everything you don't understand. than go to a qualified entertainment attorney and let him/her explain you everything you don't understand.in this way you don't just get something like "yes, it's a good contract" or "no it's not" but you LEARN some principles and concepts of publishing contracts.some PRO's also offer legal advice for reduced rates or even for free.in my experience it's important to learn not only the musical aspects but also the business aspects of this industry if you want to work in it.best of luck,martin

[hummingbird]

Martin gave good advice. The offer reads well, but all we can offer here is opinion.

[ciskokidd]

Hi JVB,From the looks of the language it appears to be a co-publishing deal with you retaining half of the publishing rights. I'm not sure about the 15% royalty fee, though.This appears to be a pretty fair contract. Co-pub deals are not that common - most publishers want to retain 100% of the publishing. Still, I would follow Martin's advice and have a qualified music attorney look at this.Best of luck,Cisco

[Pinkstar]

Thank you guys! I wasn't sure about the last part; "Exclusivity for Licensing Only"I spoke directly with the Publisher; she told me that I'll still be able to get song placements on my own just not sign with any other placement company.

[Pinkstar]

Thank you Cisco, and yes, I sent it to my laywer to look it over. I'm generally very excited about this. ~J

[Casey H]

I absolutely agree you should get it reviewed by an entertainment attorney. From a pure numbers and exclusivity point of view, it looks like a decent deal. They only want exclusivity for film/TV licensing as opposed to full publishing rights to your song(s). So, you could still pitch the songs for potential artist placements. However, you will not be able to sign these songs with other music libraries for film/TV placement. That is not bad if they are a company with a solid track record of film/TV placements. If you already have these songs signed elsewhere on a non-exclusive basis, you need to see if you can get out of those agreements before signing this one. The track record of the company is an important factor. If you don't already have this information, such as from their website, ask them (nicely) what recent placements they have made.The financial terms appear to be:If they license your song for film/TV, you get 1/2 the license fee after they deduct 15%. That's not bad. A number of companies deduct reasonable administration fees. So, for a $1000 license fee, you would get $425..Performance royalties collected through PRO's like ASCAP, BMI, etc are 50% to the writer ("Writer's Share") and 50% to the publisher ("Publisher's Share"). These are paid for public performances which usually are TV/radio broadcasts. You would get 100% of the Writer's Share (50% of the total) and 50% of the Publisher's Share (25% of the total), meaning that you will earn 75% of every performance royalty dollar. That's very good. Many companies take 50% of the publisher's share which would earn you only 50% of each PRO dollar.HTH (I just finally realized that stood for "hope that helps"!!!)Good Luck!Casey

[rlcmusic]

Hi..... I'm just looking at the "5 year" term of this contract. Shouldn't the contract include a reversion clause? ie: if the publisher doesn't find a usage for the song in film/T.V within a specific time period (eg, 1 year), then the contract can be terminated by the songwriter?I'm not suggesting that this publisher will sit on the song 'but' wouldn't a reversion clause be wise?

[Pinkstar]

Quote:Hi..... I'm just looking at the "5 year" term of this contract. Shouldn't the contract include a reversion clause? ie: if the publisher doesn't find a usage for the song in film/T.V within a specific time period (eg, 1 year), then the contract can be terminated by the songwriter?I'm not suggesting that this publisher will sit on the song 'but' wouldn't a reversion clause be wise?I was thinking about that as well. I asked if a 3 year contract would be possible but she told me they do 5 years with all of their artists.

[Casey H]

Quote:Hi..... I'm just looking at the "5 year" term of this contract. Shouldn't the contract include a reversion clause? ie: if the publisher doesn't find a usage for the song in film/T.V within a specific time period (eg, 1 year), then the contract can be terminated by the songwriter?I'm not suggesting that this publisher will sit on the song 'but' wouldn't a reversion clause be wise?HiReversion clauses generally apply to publishing contracts whereby the writer assigns the copyright of the song (e.g. full publishing upfront) to the publisher FOREVER and then if there is no placement within N years, the rights revert back to the writer. Since forever is a very long time, the clause is very much needed. This agreement already has a limited term of 5 years, so that doesn't apply here.That's not to say that an attorney MIGHT not advise someone to ask for a term shorter than 5 years in a deal like this. It depends on a lot of factors that the attorney would consider, with special attention possibly given to the quality of the company. 5 years is not an unusual term in this business.Good question, though! Casey