Possibly my first deal. Not sure what to do!!

[markhatter]

Hi,

I have my first response from a music library but I'm not sure what to do next I'm sure I saw some articles on TAXI about this but can't locate them now.
This email is below. I guess I need to get an idea if the deal they are offering is any good and if an exclusive deal is the best way to go? What happens if I sign an exclusive deal for a track that has been submitted for other listings? Is that going to reflect badly on me if the other company want it?

Very pleased to have this but don't want to make a wrong move!!! Thanks in advance for any advice. Very much appreciated.

Here is the email -

We enjoyed listening to your submissions per our Taxi request. XXXXX licenses music in film, TV, and advertising, and composes original background and theme music for TV shows. We would like to consider representing some of your existing music immediately, as well as discuss your interest in creating new music on future projects.

Undoubtedly you have more music available for licensing than was uploaded on Taxi and we would love to take a listen to whatever is available. We offer both exclusive and non-exclusive representation. We can discuss this further, but exclusive representation gives your music the best opportunities in advertising, film, and international markets, and is therefore what we prioritize and are looking for at this time. We split revenue from single track placements with composer/artist and also split the backend, with the composer/artist retaining 100% of writers and assigning us 100% publishers share of performance royalties.

If you are interested, please send a link to your available music and note whether, or not it can be considered for exclusive representation.

Thanks
Mark

[andygabrys]

It's forum policy not to post the names of libraries or publishers that you get deals with. So it would be best to edit the name out of your initial post.

the-rules-t2319.html

As far as other questions:

This might help to start - https://www.taxi.com/transmitter/1504/k ... lingo.html

Its very normal as you can read above for a 50/50% split these days - in fact most deals are going to be exactly that. A question that is more important these days is "are ALL the upfront payments split including blanket licenses?".


As to whether or not this companies exclusive deal is better than the non-ex......others might respond with more info but they pitch them a little differently as do many companies that have a non-ex and a exclusive side to their holdings. As it says in your email from your library - their exclusive tracks get a wider audience.

Message me if you have more questions or wait for the other responses to your post.

[markhatter]

Hi,

I have my first response from a music library but I'm not sure what to do next I'm sure I saw some articles on TAXI about this but can't locate them now.
This email is below. I guess I need to get an idea if the deal they are offering is any good and if an exclusive deal is the best way to go? What happens if I sign an exclusive deal for a track that has been submitted for other listings? Is that going to reflect badly on me if the other company want it?

Very pleased to have this but don't want to make a wrong move!!! Thanks in advance for any advice. Very much appreciated.

Here is the email -

We enjoyed listening to your submissions per our Taxi request. XXXX licenses music in film, TV, and advertising, and composes original background and theme music for TV shows. We would like to consider representing some of your existing music immediately, as well as discuss your interest in creating new music on future projects.

Undoubtedly you have more music available for licensing than was uploaded on Taxi and we would love to take a listen to whatever is available. We offer both exclusive and non-exclusive representation. We can discuss this further, but exclusive representation gives your music the best opportunities in advertising, film, and international markets, and is therefore what we prioritize and are looking for at this time. We split revenue from single track placements with composer/artist and also split the backend, with the composer/artist retaining 100% of writers and assigning us 100% publishers share of performance royalties.

If you are interested, please send a link to your available music and note whether, or not it can be considered for exclusive representation.

Thanks
Mark

[markhatter]

HI,

Thank you for the reply. Good to see I violated the rules before I've barely started I've edited the name out now thanks.

It doesn't mention the upfront fee split either. Would you expect that to be 50/50 as well?

Thanks again
Mark

It's forum policy not to post the names of libraries or publishers that you get deals with. So it would be best to edit the name out of your initial post.

the-rules-t2319.html

As far as other questions:

This might help to start - https://www.taxi.com/transmitter/1504/k ... lingo.html

Its very normal as you can read above for a 50/50% split these days - in fact most deals are going to be exactly that. A question that is more important these days is "are ALL the upfront payments split including blanket licenses?".


As to whether or not this companies exclusive deal is better than the non-ex......others might respond with more info but they pitch them a little differently as do many companies that have a non-ex and a exclusive side to their holdings. As it says in your email from your library - their exclusive tracks get a wider audience.

Message me if you have more questions or wait for the other responses to your post.

[andygabrys]

We split revenue from single track placements with composer/artist and also split the backend, with the composer/artist retaining 100% of writers and assigning us 100% publishers share of performance royalties.

Says it all.

We split revenue from single track placements - likely meaning you don't see any upfront payments from blanket license deals where the library will make avaialbe a number of tracks to a certain TV production, but you will pick up writers royalties as they say also "split the backend".

I believe in this libraries case it is 50/505 on up front payments. You will see that money on commercial placements, film syncs, or tracks that are placed on TV in a theme situation or some other high profile use.

Most background instrumental tracks often get nothing up front (except for blanket licenses which you won't get in this case anyways) - this is due to "gratis" deals being common.

EDIT: I should have said "some". For shows that have a reasonable production budget, they do budget for music. There is a hierarchy of libraries out there, and a lot of uses from bigger older, more established libraries actually do carry an upfront payment - but if its not classified as "sync" then it will be a blanket, and you need to check your deal to see if you get any of that blanket.

Gratis deals are still common as its a way for a library to increase their visibility and uses with a larger number of users.



So the great part of your placements will be earning writers royalties through your PRO. That is fairly common.

[markhatter]

Thank you!

[cosmicdolphin]

I never realised there are Libraries that do both Exclusive & Non Exclusive deals... I always assumed it was one of the other.

Do you think certain styles of music lend themselves more to exclusive deals?

[andygabrys]

I never realised there are Libraries that do both Exclusive & Non Exclusive deals... I always assumed it was one of the other.

Do you think certain styles of music lend themselves more to exclusive deals?

some do, although that was different from what I was talking about.

For those that do, they often pitch their exclusive stuff to a wider range of opportunities, or to commercials etc. They also might pay great percentages of royalties for exclusive tracks.

Some libraries that want instrumental stuff exclusively will also allow vocal tunes in on non-ex basis.
Some ex libraries that want unusual types of instrumental music will sometimes accept non-ex tracks just to have rep in that section of their catalog.

Apart from that, I don't think style of music influences the library choice for ex or non-ex.