Licencing advice needed

[P de Caumette]

I know some of you have done/do sountracks for documentaries. I am in the process of writing a soundtrack for a production company. I just received their licencing contract and even though I am not a lawyer, the terms of the licencing seem very abusive to me (they want my children and grand children)

Would someone be kind enough to either point me to the link for standard licencing contracts or better yet e-mail me an attachment at decaumette@optonline.net.

I would be indebted to the person that helps me out here (but I won\'t sign anything about that either images/icons/wink.gif )

Thank you

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Originally posted by P de Caumette:
I know some of you have done/do sountracks for documentaries. I am in the process of writing a soundtrack for a production company. I just received their licencing contract and even though I am not a lawyer, the terms of the licencing seem very abusive to me (they want my children and grand children)

Would someone be kind enough to either point me to the link for standard licencing contracts or better yet e-mail me an attachment at decaumette@optonline.net.

I would be indebted to the person that helps me out here (but I won\'t sign anything about that either images/icons/wink.gif )

Thank you <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Hi Paul,

I do this all the time, and am happy to help out.

Make sure you retain ALL copyrights. You are granting a one-time, one-shot license of particular music for a particular production. Be sure that you retain full ownership of both AUTHOR and PUBLISHER copyrights, and that they are simply a licensee.

This is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY important. Author and Publisher copyrights are the way you will be paid your residuals. The production company you\'re working for does not deserve that money--it is yours. But almost all of them will try to screw you out of it, hoping you won\'t be aware enough to stop them. Be clear: You are striking a licensing deal, period. They are buying only the right to use your work in one specific case, and not purchasing ANY ownership.

There will usually be some language to the effect that you don\'t own copyrights to their work, i.e., the production. That is fair--because you certainly don\'t have any right to claim ownership of any aspect of THEIR work. An attorney can sort that out for you, because sometimes these get entangled in the language and need to be very clearly deliniated.

Make sure to strike out anything that describes subsequent uses. Let them know you are interested in subsequent placement, but that it needs to be negotiated on a per-use basis. You might even include that language, that you are giving them the right to negotiate for subsequent use. PBS boilerplates include this, and although the wording can sometimes look a little funny, these are generally harmless clauses. Try not to agree to any specific rates for subsequent use, unless they bend you over and the deal starts to crumble. At that point, agree to a fee for ONE subsequent use.

If they start grumbling about exclusivity, offer up a finite period, say one year of exclusivity. However, do not let them tie this to copyright or ownership. All music should be owned by you at all times, otherwise, tell them you\'d be happy to negotiate a buyout. DO NOT CAVE IN!!!!

Those are the biggest potential problems.

Now, that said, you should immediately go find an experienced entertainment attorney, and get a consultation on this contract before signing it. Even though I regularly deal with licensing contracts, I am always amazed at the little things my attorney finds. He has gotten me a better deal in exactly 100% of the contracts I have given him for review.

If you are feeling bad about this contract, that is a RED FLAG!!!! Get a lawyer...and good luck. Once you\'ve gone through several of these, you won\'t entirely be able to shake the creepy feeling you get when you sign, but it will get a little easier.

[donimon]

While in theory I think keeping the ownership and publishing is a great concept, it seems on most TV projects you keep writer\'s share and the production co./or network takes the publishing. If they\'re licensing existing tracks from you (similar to them using a music library), then that\'s one situation where you would keep both. But if you\'re writing new music for their production, usually there will be a composer agreement which says basically that you get paid x$ and keep the writer\'s share and they own it and take the publisher\'s share. The only situations where that is usually negotiable is on low budget films where they don\'t have much $$ so you can negotiate to keep publishing. But I have never seen a cable/network deal that allows you to keep publishing. Or maybe I need Bruce\'s agent....

[P de Caumette]

Bruce, Jeff & Hudson

I am very grateful for your insights.

The fees I am receiving do not justify giving away publishing. I might agree to give the production company exclusive licensing for a limited period of time.

What time frame do you recommend for the exclusivity: one year, 5 years...?

I want to stay fair but not to be taken advantage of in a big way...


Thank you images/icons/smile.gif

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Originally posted by P de Caumette:
Bruce, Jeff & Hudson

I am very grateful for your insights.

The fees I am receiving do not justify giving away publishing. I might agree to give the production company exclusive licensing for a limited period of time.

What time frame do you recommend for the exclusivity: one year, 5 years...?

I want to stay fair but not to be taken advantage of in a big way...


Thank you images/icons/smile.gif <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Start with an offer of no exclusivity, and see how it goes. Give them a year if they scream. I would try to avoid giving them more than that. It\'s fair for them to want the shows theme to be exclusive, but you might try to even cap that at five years. The shelf life of a documentary is very short compared to a piece of music, so fairness is on your side.

[P de Caumette]

Thanks Bruce,

you the man!

[keytar]

Granted, everything Bruce has said makes sense. However, if this is your first licensing scenario, don\'t scare them away. It might look good on your resume if you\'re trying to build a career doing this. We all \"whore\" out from time to time at the beginning. images/icons/smile.gif

[pantonality]

A very recent Electronic Musician (possibly still current) had a detailed article on this subject. Hidden in one of the side bars was a link to a web site that has a generic sample contract. It\'s very professional and fair. I\'m not at home, but perhaps this information will be enough to help you find it.

Steve Chandler
http://www.mp3.com/stevechandler (\"http://www.mp3.com/stevechandler\")

[pantonality]

OK, I found it, here\'s a link to the article;

http://emusician.com/ar/emusic_music_licensing_indies/index.htm (\"http://emusician.com/ar/emusic_music_licensing_indies/index.htm\")

Here\'s a link to the resources web site and the link to the sample contract;

http://www.globalgraffiti.com/EM.htm (\"http://www.globalgraffiti.com/EM.htm\")

I hope this is helpful.

Steve Chandler

[P de Caumette]

Keytar, I hear you.

There are times when you have to swallow your pride and bend over in this business, but it all depends on the prize and how much bending you have to do. images/icons/frown.gif

The fact that I relocated from Paris to the USA and that I then had to switch from a promising performing career to a 100% composing/producing one (carpal tunnel) might justify making big concessions at first.
But in this particular case the concessions are not justified considering the piece of cake.

Did I forget to mention the woman I\'m dealing with is neurotic and abusive? images/icons/mad.gif images/icons/mad.gif

I\'ve made up my mind. Either we sign a standard licencing agreement or I get to keep the music and feed my stock library (Bruce comments make sense to me)

Steve,
Thank you very much for going out of your way to get me this link. I\'ll download the standard licensing contract and mail it over to the production company.

I want to thank all of you for your prompt and wise advice. It means a lot to me images/icons/smile.gif

[Netvudu]

There are times when you have to swallow your pride and bend over in this business<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">lol...can´t we change the uh...style of the analogies we´re using. Just changing the verbs will do images/icons/grin.gif

[Hudson]

Analogies? What analogies?? The swallow and bend over stuff was literal...how else do you think we get these jobs?
-Hudson


Originally posted by Netvudu:
</font><blockquote><font size=\"1\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">quote:</font><hr /><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">There are times when you have to swallow your pride and bend over in this business<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">lol...can´t we change the uh...style of the analogies we´re using. Just changing the verbs will do images/icons/grin.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">

[Hudson]

Hi Jeff,

Yeah, there\'s a big diff between a licensing deal, which is what Patrick is dealing with, and a \"Work Made For Hire\" deal where you\'re actually composing original work for a project. As Bruce said, you should always retain all rights on a licensing deal, and there\'s rarely ever an exception to that rule.

Also, don\'t confuse \"Work Made For Hire\" with \"Wok Made For Hire\". I took the latter job once and wound up cooking stir fry for a month on the \"Return Of FuManChu\" set. To this day I still have nightmares involving soy sauce and chopstick splinters.
-Hudson

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Originally posted by donimon:
usually there will be a composer agreement which says basically that you get paid x$ and keep the writer\'s share and they own it and take the publisher\'s share. The only situations where that is usually negotiable is on low budget films where they don\'t have much $$ so you can negotiate to keep publishing. But I have never seen a cable/network deal that allows you to keep publishing. Or maybe I need Bruce\'s agent.... <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Yes. I hand those back to them, and give them MY composer agreement. Granted, some situations you can\'t do that. If they want you badly enough, they\'ll take the deal, and you get to keep the music. If they only want to pay licensing money, then they don\'t deserve publishing, even if it is a \"license for hire.\"

This strategy has allowed me to build up a huge catalog that I own 100%...which I then turn around and relicense for sometimes more than I got paid to write it. I have one silly little Miles-esque tune that has earned almost as much as a pop song, it has been pimped out so many times (it\'s the one Scarbee likes...).

If someone is balking on publishing, I\'ve had success with knocking off $100 per minute. They\'ll usually give it up, because they\'re not getting that much return on the shelf life of most shows. It\'s a good deal for me, because I can make up that money on one subsequent license, and the rest is cream.

In LA, probably you can\'t play this way, because you have the \"1000 other guys\" factor. In less saturated markets, you can call the shots a lot more.

Now, if they\'re paying serious buyout cash, I\'m listening. I usually have to give an exclusive on themes, but I end up owning them in some cases, because I\'ll always try the \"bucks for ownership\" thing, and some people will take it. I guess I jumped to the conclusion in this case that Patrick wasn\'t laughing all the way to the bank, and the terms seemed harsh for what he was being paid.

My agent? You\'re talking to him, haha. Some of my theatrical work is represented by Helen Merill Agency, but most of my clients call me up directly. I do have a great lawyer, who reviews all my deals and does the dirty work when I need to play hardball, so that I don\'t have to get my relationship all screwed up in that. He plays bad cop for me, and I get to say things like, \"Well, he\'s very tough...I\'ll talk to him and see what we can do.\" Works like a charm.

[Netvudu]

Right. I don´t wanna be a musician anymore graemlins/tounge_images/icons/smile.gif

[Bruce A. Richardson]

Originally posted by Netvudu:
Right. I don´t wanna be a musician anymore graemlins/tounge_images/icons/smile.gif <font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">Your words say no, but your eyes...

[P de Caumette]

Your words say no, but your eyes...
<font size=\"2\" face=\"Verdana, Arial\">images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif images/icons/grin.gif Thanks Bruce, I needed a laugh this morning.

[Netvudu]

hah,hah...very good.


Bruce...yer banned =P