Question regarding contract

[Joseph]

I was contacted by a library and in the email they say this as part of the agreement:

"We would become your exclusive licensing agent and distributor for your material worldwide through our distribution network. We are in over 30 countries presently, with great distributors. We have no problem with you licensing your own material, but we ask to be your exclusive music library partner. That way we can get the highest prices when we license your material.
You can still license out your own material anywhere you want to, and are not selling it to us. We ask only that we are the sole music library distributor for you.
Your share of the synch fees we collect: 25% over the $1,000 per track mark, on each individual track."

Now, I'm just confused, but does this mean I can't sign up with any other licensing companies or libraries or does this mean that just the tracks I write and submit to this company are exclusive? I've heard of exclusive tracks, but never exclusive distributor/library. If I can't be part of any other libraries, than I should only submit to direc to sup listings right? Have any of you dealt with something like this? Is it worth it? They seem like a great company and I have no doubt they can place my music, but I'd just like a little advice before I commit. Thanks you for your help.

-Joseph

[FMstereo]

Hi Joseph

I haven't seen anything like this before, as usually a library is exclusive ONLY in respect of the tracks that you submit to them.

However, they do seem to be saying that they want to be your "exclusive music library partner" and that they are "the sole music library distributor for you". It's not entirely clear without reading the whole contract.

I would not sign a contract like this if it meant that I couldn't sign any other tracks with another library. It's all very fine to say that you can "still license out your own material anywhere you want to", however, from my perspective, the best way for me to get my music licensed is via a range of different libraries and publishers.

The other issue I have with this is that for the synch fees, you're getting "25% over the $1,000 per track mark, on each individual track". Does that mean that if the synch license is less than $1,000 you get nothing? Many synch fees are less than $1,000. In addition, most libraries will split synch fees 50/50.

I recommend you go direct to the library with your questions, or even contact a music attorney. Hopefully some more experienced members will chime in as well.

[Russell Landwehr]

I was contacted by a library and in the email they say this as part of the agreement:

"We would become your exclusive licensing agent and distributor for your material worldwide through our distribution network. We are in over 30 countries presently, with great distributors. We have no problem with you licensing your own material, but we ask to be your exclusive music library partner. That way we can get the highest prices when we license your material.
You can still license out your own material anywhere you want to, and are not selling it to us. We ask only that we are the sole music library distributor for you.
Your share of the synch fees we collect: 25% over the $1,000 per track mark, on each individual track."

Now, I'm just confused, but does this mean I can't sign up with any other licensing companies or libraries or does this mean that just the tracks I write and submit to this company are exclusive? I've heard of exclusive tracks, but never exclusive distributor/library. If I can't be part of any other libraries, than I should only submit to direc to sup listings right? Have any of you dealt with something like this? Is it worth it? They seem like a great company and I have no doubt they can place my music, but I'd just like a little advice before I commit. Thanks you for your help.

-Joseph

Hi Joseph.

This sounds like their "simple explanation" of the contract. You will need to read the details of the actual contract to know for sure.

Russell

[shellsings]

There are some extremely high bar publishers/libraries that will do this. But they are HIGH bar and are representing the person as an ARTIST or BAND promoting them as well. This wording does not sound very professional. I would be very cautious about this and if they want YOU, not just your tracks, they best be paying you more money. Being an exclusive deal, obviously songs signed exclusively can't be signed anywhere else.
But it sounds like once you sign with them they want to be the only library you are involved with. Personally I would steer clear of this.. the fact that it sounds like they are not going to pay you anything unless you reach 1000 in synchs is extremely sketchy... and just not cool


I would ask questions like:

Are you actually saying that you are representing ME and ALL my Music? or just the songs I send to you

IF the synch fees are below 1000 what are the splits? Are you taking part of the synch fee only, or some of the backend royalty as well.

You say I can license my music on my own, you mean directly to Music Supervisors, I just can't sign them to any other libraries. Is that correct?

Please send me the full contract so I can read all the details

[ochaim]

Shell's questions really get into the important aspects of the deal, and helps clarify what most of us probably find questionable.

Recently I tried introducing a library owner to fellow taxi member/co-writer's work (outside of our collabs). This song of his was a collab with another taxi member who ended up having this type of "exclusive representation" deal where anything he writes is assigned exclusively to this other library. This was very unfortunate because the library owner I sent it to really liked it and would have signed it if the other cowriter's work wasn't already spoken for.

[Joseph]

Ok, I emailed them back and am waiting for the contract. I'll post some more detailed snippets when I can. In the meantime, I'd like to know if anyone has worked with or heard of this company. I can't find much about them on the internet except for their own webpage. I don't want to post their name publicly on the forum, so could someone PM me about it? I would really appreciate it. Thanks for all the comments.

-Joseph

[matto]

I've worked for some of the biggest production libraries in the world and none have ever asked me to be my "exclusive library partner" for everything I write. That would be an extremely unusual scenario. To me this reads like a typical "semi-exclusive" arrangement where they want to exclusively represent the tracks you sign with them for production music purposes, but otherwise you can still do whatever you wish with them. But you are correct, it is not entirely clear so it needs to be confirmed that it only affects the tracks you choose to give to them.

As to the sync issue, again it's not clear if the individual license fee has to be $1000 or greater, or whether they'll start paying the 25% after the track has racked up $1000 in cumulative sync income. That would need to be clarified as well. Neither is ideal, but obviously the latter would be better.

My general feeling is that a percentage smaller than 50% can be okay IF that percentage is paid on ALL revenue generated by the tracks (including blankets, direct performance, youtube monetization etc etc). Here that clearly doesn't seem to be the case.

I would proceed with caution...and I would definitely NEVER sign a deal that makes any library my sole library representative for ALL my music. Cause that's basically like an unpaid staff writer position...

m

[Joseph]

Again, thanks for the help everyone. So I just received another email regarding the information that they need from like IPI number, address, etc. Here is Part of the message that further explains but I am still slightly confused as this is my first contract I've dealt with:

"3. A full list of the songs that you want us to have - our standard deal is hybrid exclusive, so we ask that you not submit these tracks to other music libraries, but you may do anything else you'd like with them, including license them on your own (just not to other music libraries).

You will receive 25% of any upfront sync fee over $1000 per tracks as well as all the writers royalties (which are generally substantial on most of our placements). We will receive the publishing royalties, but only for placements we make. To register the tracks with these splits, we will add _[name of company] to any titles you send us. That way it won't affect anything else you may choose to do with your tracks."

So from what I understand: I can still submit to and be associated with other libraries and licensing companies, I can submit these same exclusive tracks on my own with the exception to other libraries, I get the writer's royalties and they get publishing royalties. The only thing I'm still confused about is the 25% of upfront sync fees over $1000.

I'm going to send them an email with my information that he needs and ask him to clarify this.

-Joseph

[Cruciform]

Hi Joseph,

I know which library this is and they do have global distribution of their catalogue, so you'd stand to make royalties from all over the place.

Per your final post, you do understand it correctly.

1) They are the exclusive library rep ONLY for the tracks you sign to them. It's more like an administration deal than a traditional publishing deal, because you retain the copyright and can still market these tracks directly to supes and other end users. You just cannot submit them to any other libraries.

2) You are free to work with other libraries with other music. (Sidenote: if you as a writer were signed exclusively to one library, you'd expect to be paid a salary or retainer. Pretty rare. )

3) They will receive publishing royalties but only on placements they make. That's why they append their company code to your song title when registering. It means you can still register your music with the original title and be paid publishing royalties from placements you have organised directly, such as through a supe.

3) Of sync fees less than $1000, you will see nothing. Of sync fees greater than $1000 you will be paid 25%.

Since a lot of sync fees will be less than 1k, you would never see any of that income. Most exclusives split all sync fees 50/50 (unless they have paid you a buyout fee). Having said that, the majority of your placements via this library would probably be backend only placements so it might be a moot point. They probably derive the majority of their upfront income from blanket licenses and subscriptions which means individual sync licenses are less common. Some libraries share their blanket income with writers, others don't - I'd take a guess they don't.

Given the size of their catalogue and their expansion, I seriously doubt they would negotiate alternate terms. You have to decide if this deal feels right for you at this time.

[Joseph]

Thanks for the help, Rob! The only thing that still eludes me is the sync fee issue. It sounds kind of bad but I don't know what the standard deal is and you also mentioned that there could be serious royalties which could make up for that lost sync fee, right?The deal sounds much better now that it's exclusive only to the tracks and not to my entire musical output. I politely requested clarification on the matter from them but I have yet to hear back.

-Joseph