Received my first library contact

[fretman]

Hello everyone, I greatly appreciate any insight you're willing to share.

In the past I have had several submissions forwarded but only now have I heard from the "end customer". Since this is my first time to get this far, I don't know what to expect. Their email says this:

I run the A&R team at <snip>, the acclaimed online music licensing service founded by songwriters. <snip> is a leader in helping talented artists generate more revenue from their music.
Thanks for submitting your songs to us via Taxi. I think your music is a great match for our clients around the world, and I'd like to connect with you about licensing your music.
Our website features award-winning artists and composers. We hand-pick every artist and every song.
I look forward to hearing back from you and sharing more about how we can help license your music.

Does this sound right? Do I just respond with something like: Thank you for your email. Yes, please let me know how to proceed.

This is indeed the reason I submitted music to Taxi, right? They wouldn't be able to intercept and grab my music before something better/real come along, right? Why wouldn't I want to proceed with this? But I don't even know which piece this is for (I've had several forwards recently).

Thanks again for sharing any experience/insights you may have. Paul https://www.taxi.com/members/fretman

[melodea]

You HAVE to remove the name of the library!!!! It's a breach of the TAxi rules!

[fretman]

Ooops, edited my post. Thank you very much! I got a little too excited there. I hope the title of your reply gets changed, too. Maybe delete it?

[melodea]

Hi there, the whole mail is still visible including the name and everything. Also the library wouldn’t be pleased to see there privat mails been public. I would delete the whole post and start from scratch with your own words. Descretion is VERY important in the business world.

[cosmicdolphin]

Ouch..Sounds like a stock reply - this is an RF type Library so most of their business is micro licensing to content creators , anyone can send them demo tracks directly on their website

--- snip ---

If you're an artist, composer, producer, record label or publisher interested in including your music with ***, we'd love to hear from you.

LET'S HAVE A LISTEN!

To contact our music team, please send an email message to *******@*********music.com with:

1. Your contact information (name, website, email, phone)
2. Information about you and your music (albums, experience, history)
2. Links to listen to your best music online. This could be an iTunes link, Website links, Soundcloud link or similar.
(Please do not email MP3 files directly.)
We'll have a listen and if the music is a match for ***, we'll be back in touch with all the details on working with you and your music.

---- snip ----

We make music licensing easy
T***** S***** Music makes it easy to license music for your business. There are license types for:

Filmmakers and Videographers
Professional Photographers
Small Business videos
Corporate videos
Real Estate videos
Crowdfunding and kickstarter videos
YouTube videos
Nonprofit & Charity videos
and more

---- snip ----

Not really the kind of opportunity I would want to be paying membership and submission fees for personally. YMMV.

[fretman]

Hi there, the whole mail is still visible including the name and everything. Also the library wouldn’t be pleased to see there private mails been public. I would delete the whole post and start from scratch with your own words. Discretion is VERY important in the business world.

Edited again to remove the reference. Hopefully I got it all this time. I don't see a way to delete the original post.

[melodea]

Ok, I had two contacts like that in the past. Normally they would give you a contract (after you politely answer back the initial mail) with blank spaces for future songs you write after they briefed you. From the first company, I sign a contract with I haven't heard back.....Crickets....
In the second case, I signed a contract for future collabs with two songs already mentioned in the contract. These were the songs they received from Taxi and ultimately made them contact me. So from what I can see so far, normally you sign a work for hire contract, that will turn out in actual work and placements so God will
Of course, I would in any case read the contract thoroughly or even get an attorney to check it for you. From my experience, either you sign the given contract or not!

[fretman]

Thank you for your response. There is no cost to me for this. I'm thinking of going with a non-exclusive deal so I can pitch the song elsewhere. I mean, why not? What do I have to lose since I can still pitch the song myself elsewhere? Am I missing something here?

Thank you for any guidance you're willing to share.

[cosmicdolphin]

What do I have to lose since I can still pitch the song myself elsewhere? Am I missing something here?

You lose the option to sign it to an Exclusive LIbrary for the next 3 years.

If an exclusive library were to get you a placement it would potentially mean a nice sync fee that you would almost certainly never get from a Royalty Free Library.

Nobody really knows as it may sit on the shelf and never get used ....or it could be perfect for something and earn you a boatload in a good library.

in the RF world you are talking very small amounts - Look at their subscriptions. Clients pay between $16 - $60 per month for Unlimited access to use all of the music. Great deal for the client..not much to spread around for the writers. Your cut will come out of a fractional share of this revenue. You could always ask them how much you can expect to earn if one of their clients uses your song but I predict it will be coffee money level.

If you're sending the song to Non-Exclusives then in a sense you have little to lose except your time but be aware there are some other libraries that won't take the same song if it's signed to TSM ( because of their low prices / subscription model I assume )

Mark

[melodea]

So, I've got an email from the above-mentioned T*****S***** company and it seems to be an exclusive contract for 3 years BUT without PRO registration. That's a stock music library, right?