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I have some songs that I unfortunately signed to a library in perpetuity. It's been over 2 years and these songs haven't shown up on the librarie's website or any of their albums. Has anyone gone through the process of trying to get your publishing rights back? Is there a standard contract or process?

If it's in perpetuity and an exclusive library, I don't believe you can get your publishing rights back. I'm not in any exclusive libraries so I'm not 100% sure.

It's likely only possible to do what you are talking about with some kind of legal action (which you will probably lose) as the contract you willingly signed is exclusive in perp.

You likely can't sue the publisher for "breach of contract" or similar as most contracts have some kind of clause that states "contract is not an assurance that music will be used" etc.

It's always a gamble with any signing and you are hoping everyone does what you expect. In this case although the tunes haven't shown up on the website, they sti might be pushed to clients via hard drive or download - you don't really know.

My advice is to forget about it and look for new avenues. And I can relate to that the that might smart. Keep on keeping on.

Jon,

Every year I seem to have more cues showing up on my BMI statement with placements on deals signed in 2009, 2010, 2011 etc.

Two years in "production music time" is not a lot of time.

To me, it continues to re-enforce the need to continue to feed the front end. The music we sign with libraries today may be in our paycheck in 2018.

Chuck

I guess the other side to this is that it's a newer company and showing signs of instability, and those songs are possibly gone forever in the known universe to paraphrase my contract. But my questions have been answered. It's another case where the "write, submit, repeat".... and fugetaboutit philosophy comes in.
Thanks for chiming in.

Jon
If you are SURE this is what you want to do, have you thought of just emailing them and asking? Just be sure it's what you really want because if they say no, it may taint their attitude about you and make things worse regarding your tracks.

Chuck makes a great point that 2 years is a short amount of time in this business.

Best of luck,
Casey

Casey H wrote:Jon
If you are SURE this is what you want to do, have you thought of just emailing them and asking? Just be sure it's what you really want because if they say no, it may taint their attitude about you and make things worse regarding your tracks.

Chuck makes a great point that 2 years is a short amount of time in this business.

Best of luck,
Casey

Hey Casey, yes I have thought about that. And then I wondered if maybe there is a protocol for doing this. It's not the length of time that concerns me, it's what I have been seeing go on in the company. I'm worried that they are just going to go away and my songs will be locked up forever on the guys hard drive.

Mic they go out if business will you be able to submit them to other libraries? Check your contract and see if there us anything covering mergers or corporate takeovers of the library. If they do fail, there probably won't be anyone left to sue you if you submit them to other libraries.

Hey Jon, I'd start by just sending a polite email to the library owner, asking him/her if they had plans to put your songs on their website, or if they are shipping them to clients via hard drives. Don't mention anything about wanting out of your contract (probably impossible anyway, as others have mentioned), but a slight "hey remember me" message might go a long ways.

For what it's worth, I write music for six (that I can think of off the top of my head) libraries that don't use a website at all. Period. No web presence of any sort. Doesn't mean they aren't working for me though... Case in point, one of these libraries has gotten my music used over 100 times on a single season of just one show. They feed the music directly to the shows via hard drives and WeTransfer packages rather than having a searchable website.

So don't let the lack of web presence - or your individual lack on an otherwise searchable web presence - be too much of a cause for alarm.

~~Matt

Thanks Matt, that's the best idea, just send them an email. The problem is they don't always communicate. But a reminder as you say is a good idea. Maybe the situation with them isn't as dire as it seems.