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Hi,

As the title of this post suggests. I have a question about signing in-perpetuity contracts. I have already signed a couple of instrumental cues on an exclusive in-perpetuity basis but I was wondering whether anyone here would sign this kind of deal if they were asked to write a whole album for a Publisher.

Any seasoned Pro's advice would be great.

Thank you.

Mark

I don't think there's a one size fits all answer to that. If you feel like that publisher is a good fit for you, I personally have no problem with in-perpetuity contracts. Again, not that this would necessarily be good for your situation, but the majority of my deals are exclusive, in perpetuity. A lot of the vets around here recommend spreading your tracks around, like a financial portfolio, between exclusive/non-ex/in-perp/reversion clause deals.

Hope that helps.

I struggled with this too in the beginning. But another taxi member who successfully writes music full time gave me this piece of wisdom.
You are going to need to have hundreds (if not more) instrumental cues out in the world in order to be successful.
Sign your full album exclusive in perpetuity with this publisher, then forget it and move on and write a whole lot more cues.
Use that first album as a test case with that publisher. If they get you loads of placements, great! Write more for them!
If that publisher turns out to be less than ideal, then it won't matter that much, because it will just be 10 cues in amongst the other 1000 you have written.

I agree with Kylie but would add a couple of other things to think about. If the library is frequently getting placements in the genre's/styles your good at, then sign away and be glad of the opportunity. Even if they aren't it doesn't mean they won't, so it could still worth signing because in a few years time when you might have got your tracks back through reversion they could sound dated and you might not get a deal on them anywhere else anyway. There's also every chance that you'll have become a better composer/producer and will be making better tracks, so your 'old stuff' will no longer represent your best work. There can be exceptions, and others might see it differently, but in general I'd say keep looking for opportunities to sign deals and take them when you can, then move on and write more tracks.

Thanks for all of your replies guys. Much appreciated

I don't have a problem with in perpetuity deals, but I do prefer having a reversion clause. It makes me feel better about the contract and the library. That said, even when I have reversion clauses, I have never used them, I have never tried to revert the music back. It's just too cumbersome for both me and the library. So why do I like reversion clauses? Mainly because we can't foresee the future I guess. For example I had about a dozen tracks signed to a library which went out of business, and with a reversion clause the tracks came back to me without question. Instead of potentially being warehoused or sold to another library where I might or might not want them to be.

I my opinon I think there's a one size fits all answer to that. If you feel like that publisher is a good fit for you