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Hi Zoe,
First of all thank you kindly for your great and
detailed advice this is very valuable and what i was
looking for.
So here is the situation:
The song was not written by me,just recorded and
produced with a couple of new arrangements.
When i was with this Cuban son band,after many record
label offers and promises that didnt amount to
anything but a waste of time and money we decided to
create our own record label.
In both of the CDs that we recorded at the time,i was
the singer songwritter and producer of the band
Although i also produced our first CD(including this
particular song they are interested in)i gave the
whole band credit for the production,but i learned my
lesson that people dont value your time and effort
even when you dont get a penny from it,and made sure
my name was printed as the producer of our second CD.
The Band split and unfortunately we are not in
contact(except with 2 of the former members) but i
still have the masters of both productions.When we
created the label as far as i recall our bass player
had every Band member including me sign a paper to
recognize her as the representative of our label,but
there was no time contract specified.
Last but not least all of my songwritting is
registered with the GEMA here in germany which is like
ASCAP or BMI.
So my question is,
do they still have to get a license from me(or our
label or producer)even if i am not the original
songwritter of this song?
How is it this honorarium calculated if i was to allow
them to use the song for a limited time frame?when you
say 200.-sync 200.- master,what does that mean
exactly?
thank you much again!!
Luis
--- info at zoekeating <info@zoekeating.com> wrote:
> Hi Luis,
>
> I deal with these sort of requests at least once a
> week, in addition
> to never ending requests from theater and dance
> companies. Here are a
> few things to consider...and I don't know your exact
> situation so
> they might not all apply...
>
> TIME
> First of all, no matter how simple a license, the
> time you spend
> thinking about it, emailing, negotiating, and
> drafting up
> documents...that is your valuable time lost. If you
> give your music
> to someone for free, it's like *you* are paying
> *them*. This might be
> hard for them to grasp, but imagine if you were to
> get requests like
> this almost every day then you'd be spending all
> your time doing
> this. Sometimes a well-organized production company
> sends you a
> nicely spelled out license where all you have to do
> is add a few bits
> and send it back. But often, it is left to the
> composer or their
> representative to draft a license, and this takes
> time.
>
> PUBLICITY
> In my experience, very few films make it past the
> festival stage, or
> even into any major festivals. Even when they do,
> the creator of the
> underscore music is not usually feted (other than by
> other
> musicians!). Yes, it is great for your resume and if
> you want to grow
> your list of credits, but I find that directors and
> producers highly
> overestimate the amount of publicity a composer will
> get for
> contributing music. Composing the entire score is
> entirely different....
>
> BUDGET
> The budget is always tight. I've worked on some
> Hollywood films, and
> even they claim the budget is very tight. No one
> wants to pay anyone
> if they can help it but would they not pay their
> crew? What about
> their lawyers? Music should be, and is, budgeted for
> in the
> production costs, just like any other
> service...unless they are
> clueless amateurs (in which case you should educate
> them).
>
> The equation to keep in mind is: your music in
> exchange for X.
> X = publicity, or money, or resume building, or a
> combination of the
> three.
> So think about what X is for you.
>
> There are cases where it really is worth it to give
> someone music for
> social, or creative, or you really love someone's
> movie, and in those
> situations you feel good about giving your music
> away. Just examine
> your motives and make sure that you're not giving
> someone your music
> because you are flattered, or it makes you feel
> validated.
>
> CONTRACT
> A simple approach is to offer your music for a
> limited term festival
> synchronization and master license for a small
> "honorarium". The
> license allows them to use your music music in their
> film for 1 year
> (or sometimes 2 years). Pricewise, a label like
> Nonesuch might quote
> $500 per track for a 1 year festival license for a
> well-known artist,
> and then the publisher of the song might also quote
> $500...for a
> total of $1000. If you are both the publisher and
> the record label,
> you can be "nice" and offer a 1 year master/sync
> combined for say
> $400 ($200 sync + $200 master). That is my low
> floor. You can write
> up the contract to be automatically renewable, so
> they pay you every
> year.
>
> What comes after a festival license is more
> complicated...a buy out?
> Royalties per DVD? In my experience, very few films
> make it past the
> festival stage, although every director thinks
> theirs will! I've had
> it written up in the festival licenses that a second
> "option" will be
> exercised if the film is bought, or it goes to dvd,
> etc. Sometimes
> that 2nd option is spelled out in excruciating
> detail, and sometimes
> it is just stated that a good faith negotiation will
> occur.
>
> COPYRIGHTS
> Make sure in any license that you are designated
> owner of all
> copyrights and state your affilation (ASCAP, BMI,
> etc). Specify in
> the contract how and where you should be credited. I
> didn't specify
> this when I started out and was amazed at several
> films, who said it
> would be great "publicity", then didn't credit me at
> all....so no one
> knew it was me!
>
>
> I work with an entertainment lawyer based in
> Portland named Peter
> Shaver. He is very reasonable, friendly, an all
> around cool dude, and
> specializes in working with bands on these issues.
> When I have
> something that comes up, I just write to Peter and
> he can vet a legal
> document or create a new one in a matter of hours.
> His email is
> pvshaver (at) hotmail.com
>
> Hope that helps. It's in all our interests that this
> stuff not be
> mysterious!
>
> celloly, Zoe
>
>
>
> On Feb 12, 2008, at 7:10 AM, L.A. Angulo wrote:
>
> > Hi gang,
> > I got t a call today from a fellow film producer
> in
> > England that would like to use a song from one of
> my
> > CDs as a sound track he heard in Itunes for a film
> > currently being produced in Havana Cuba.
> > This particular track is an old remake of mine of
> a
> > very old tune whos publisher is registered and
> being
> > sold at CD baby.According to him this is his first
> > production and is being filmed by a cuban crew
> with
> > him as a producer and the film is being sponsored
> from
> > different independent sources and the budget is
> very
> > tight,so he asked me if it would be ok to use it
> > without financial ties or agreements on my
> part,once
> > the publisher agrees for them to use it.The film
> also
> > will be sent with high hopes to all of the film
> > festivals like in europe and around the world.
> > Ive never done anything like this and so i thought
> id
> > ask this list,because he wants to send me a
> contract
> > form for me to sign, is there anything i should be
> > aware of before doing this,and are there
> rearrangemet
> > royalties or CD percentage fees or anything like
> that
> > even when youz are not the author of the song?or
> would
> > it be wise to let him use it which will perhaps
> > increase CD sales for us?
> > thanx!
> > cheers
> > Luis
> >
> > www.myspace.com/luisangulocom
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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=== message truncated ===
www.myspace.com/luisangulocom
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