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I have had one of my songs placed in TV with a music library and am wondering if I should see about getting out of the contract. They placed one song that was used last November in TV and are telling me I will be paid by this Oct or Nov. but never have told me how much money or any other information. My contract states that I will be paid quarterly and I thought I would be paid by last March 1st but they are saying they had not collected the money yet..it was placed in another country..blah blah. I'm new at this contract business but I'm feeling that it might be best to move on but I'm not sure how complicated it is to get out of a contract I signed. If anyone has any suggestions for me that knows more about this part of the music business I would appreciate any feedback. I signed this contract several years ago and this was my first song placement with this company.

3920 wrote:I have had one of my songs placed in TV with a music library and am wondering if I should see about getting out of the contract. They placed one song that was used last November in TV and are telling me I will be paid by this Oct or Nov. but never have told me how much money or any other information. My contract states that I will be paid quarterly and I thought I would be paid by last March 1st but they are saying they had not collected the money yet..it was placed in another country..blah blah. I'm new at this contract business but I'm feeling that it might be best to move on but I'm not sure how complicated it is to get out of a contract I signed. If anyone has any suggestions for me that knows more about this part of the music business I would appreciate any feedback. I signed this contract several years ago and this was my first song placement with this company.

My general sense for this (without knowing the specifics) is to suggest that probably what they're saying is true. I know that just foreign royalties alone take an extraordinary amount of time (like years). As a bit of prep for a presentation I found a placement in March of 2008 where the foreign royalty from Singapore didn't show up until September 2010. That's more than two years. Now that's different that the licensing fee that I guess you're referring to but still, all this stuff takes forever.

I'd suggest hanging in there and letting the situation runs its course. I think the worst thing we can do is become impatient (even though it may be justified), especially to the point of trying to break a contract. It's almost inconceivable that things can take as long as they do but that's the reality more times than not.

Hope that helps.

No one is cheating you. Stick with the contract.

You should be writing more songs and getting those songs placed. Worrying about one placement isn't going to help. You need hundreds of songs licensed in order to make a lot of money.

You are still new to the game. Just keep putting out more songs and signing more deals. That is how you get enough money to not worry about a deal here and there.

Trust me; more music = more money!

It's a slow business; you have to keep building a catalog. Worrying about the money from a single track is pretty insane, as you'll only make significant money in the aggregate. At the end of the day, it could be the price of a cup of coffee, but it's in the repetition and rotation that the nickels and dimes add up. It's not worth twisting yourself into knots over; the library can't do anything to speed the process, and prodding them is muy counter-productive. The mantra is write, submit, forget, repeat.

+1 to what's been said.

Best of luck and... Congrats on the placement!

Casey