
The company has a great track record for big TV placements, but my understanding is that they take ALL of the sync fees (ie. they not only take the publisher's share, but they also take 100% of the writer's share as well). In addition to this, since they buy the master, they take all of the master-use license fee as well. So apart from a (negligible) up-front payment, the only income that the writer gets from such a deal is from the back-end.
I have no experience with either the sync fees or the back-end performance royalty payments that a placement in a prime-time CBS show could offer.
What I would really like to hear from you guys (that may know from actual experience), is how do the back-end PRO payments compare in % terms to the sync fees?
My "guess" is that the back-end payments would be lucky to reach 10% of the sync fee for a big placement. I have heard that the sync fees can be at least $10K-$20K for the types of shows I'm referring to above.
I don't need to know anyone's $, but I would really like to hear about the relative % between sync fees and back-end payments. With that information, it will be a lot easier to tell if this deal is even worth considering.
(I realize that one way to look at this kind of deal, is to be happy that you at least get some up-front money, even if the song never gets placed, but IMHO the song in question is actually really unique and incredibly place-able).
Thanks guys!