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How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 1:48 am
by markhatter
Hi,

I have about 50 songs signed across 3 libraries but have no idea how to track if any of them have actually been used. My PRO is PRS and I've seen my works registered on ASCAP as well as APRA.

Can anyone give me a basic idea of how best to go about keeping track of usage?


Thanks
Mark

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 9:39 am
by ttully
Hi Mark,
Some may use some kind of tracking software (ie. tunesat).
I find it too much work to enter thousands of tracks.......

I just rely on my quarterly statements from BMI.

My 2 cents,
Tim

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 10:08 am
by markhatter
Thank you. So the music libraries themselves don't usually have a record you can view?

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:06 am
by andygabrys
markhatter wrote:Thank you. So the music libraries themselves don't usually have a record you can view?
No although some will be in touch with you if your music is being used on bigger placements. That totally depends on the library, the size of their catalog, how many people are working there, and whether or not they feel their time is better spent notifying composers of placements or actually getting more placements.

At any rate, you are going to know in 9 months for domestic uses, and about 1.5 yrs for International uses whether you got a royalty paying placement from your PRO statement. If you received an up front payment (sync, blanket etc) you likely will have received it before those times and it will be a tip that something more might be coming. For so many instrumental placements, there is no up front payment and so you have to wait until your PRO pays out.

The suggestion for Tunesat is decent. https://tunesat.com/tunesatportal/home

They have a free account that allows you to load 50 titles (as mp3's) and it will "listen" to various channels / streams etc and detect when your music is used on a show, giving an audio clip of what it sounds like as well.

It works decently - consider these caveats:

1) It maybe prohibitively expensive to use the actual paid service, although it depends on your situation and the prices are on their website for your evaluation.
2) It will not detect alternative mixes of your titles that you upload. For example if you upload the Full mix of TENSIONSong and your Drum and Bass mix of TENSIONsong is used Tunesat will not detect it.
3) Since so many pieces of music use similar sounding loops and patterns (like the well loved and over used DAMAGE suite by Heavyocity) its possible that Tunesat will give you a FALSE positive result - and listening to the audio clip you will hear that its not your piece of music at all being used.
4) Related to #3 - at current its difficult to get your PRO to respect the Tunesat results any pay you for "missed" placements. Every PRO has a slightly different method of detecting placements.
5) The detection is based on the audio, so if your tracks are 15 tracks held non-exclusively with three retitle libraries, it won't tell you which library actually got you the placement.


What it might be useful for:

If you are happy to only have it look after 50 titles at a time, you can upload your 50 best works that you signed this year, and see whether or not you are getting traction with those genres / publishers representing them. This might influence your decision to write more material for certain situations and publishers.

If you decide to check out a different pool of tracks you can upload another 50 anytime and the first 50 (and the detection results) will be deleted from your account.

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:29 pm
by markhatter
Thank yo so much for the in depth reply!

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Tue Aug 21, 2018 9:15 pm
by jdstamper
Thanks Andy & Mark,

Very interesting. Jim

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Sat Sep 08, 2018 7:33 am
by JohnnyP
Mark, thanks for asking the question and Andy thanks for the informed answer. Andy I'm checking out your link to Tunesat right now to see about uploading the 50 for free. Thanks again for the info and the caveats! Best, John
At any rate, you are going to know in 9 months for domestic uses, and about 1.5 yrs for International uses whether you got a royalty paying placement from your PRO statement. If you received an up front payment (sync, blanket etc) you likely will have received it before those times and it will be a tip that something more might be coming. For so many instrumental placements, there is no up front payment and so you have to wait until your PRO pays out.

The suggestion for Tunesat is decent. https://tunesat.com/tunesatportal/home

They have a free account that allows you to load 50 titles (as mp3's) and it will "listen" to various channels / streams etc and detect when your music is used on a show, giving an audio clip of what it sounds like as well.

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 4:12 pm
by VanderBoegh
I've got a homemade spreadsheet I made in "Numbers" (Mac's version of Excel), where I've tracked the signing, performance, revenue, TV shows, etc of every piece of music I've signed. It's completely homemade, so it does everything that I need it to do, but might be horribly lacking for what others would want.

Aside from the homemade option, our own Keith LuBrant has a software called "Composer Catalog" which is extremely detailed and can store tons of information on each piece of music you create. Check it out here: http://www.composercatalog.com. I actually have a copy of this too, and had my intern (still can't believe I had an intern last spring, lol) add all of my non-exclusive music to it.

So, it really depends on what you're trying to track.

But in regards to individual music libraries supplying usage data to you..... probably aint' gonna happen. At least, I've never heard of any library doing this.

~~Matt

Re: How to keep track of useage?

Posted: Wed Sep 12, 2018 6:52 pm
by epister
Just to chime in with another option here... Magnetracks (www.magnetracks.com) is a cloud-based music catalog management system worth checking out as well. It also lets you do other things like host all your audio, promote your tracks to social networks, SoundCloud, etc. and manage all your deals. Give it a look.