Cheated out of placement residuals

[mikeythekid]

closed

[mikeythekid]

..

[bluewine]

I'm curious, off the top of your head what kind of dough do you think your in for?

Blue

[mikeythekid]

Hey blue,
Not really sure, probably not anything substantial but every little bit helps when your trying to make a living in this circus. Also would just like the credit too

[bluewine]

Originally Posted by mikeythekid

Hey blue,
Not really sure, probably not anything substantial but every little bit helps when your trying to make a living in this circus. Also would just like the credit too

Got it, makes sense.

Good luck.

Blue

[lostcontrol_]

I don't have experience in these matters, but why not just ask MTV about the threshold, or ask the band how far the threshold still is?

[atomicdog]

The real question is who holds the copyright. Who owns the publishing rights. It's not unusual that the band does not own its own material and is not entitled to residuals. That's show biz.

[Roy Vogt]

Who is their management? It might be worth a couple of hundred bucks to have a Music Attorney send a "lawyer letter" to them (or the band if they have no management) just to start things moving in a positive direction.

[Roy Vogt]

Originally Posted by atomicdog

The real question is who holds the copyright. Who owns the publishing rights. It's not unusual that the band does not own its own material and is not entitled to residuals. That's show biz.

If the band has taken a buyout (a cash payment for their material and surrendered the rights for it) that may be the case, but if the OP has copyright on the material (he is a BMI writer, apparently) he should still be due the writer's mechanicals for use if he can prove he wrote the songs. This is independent of which publishing company owns the rights. I might check in the the Nashville office of BMI if you're a BMI writer.

[MarkMgibson]

Go and see a lawyer and get him/her to find out what's going on. If you wrote the songs, you should be receiving royalties. I know there's a few lawyers on this site, perhaps they can help.

What happens if one of these songs is covered by a major artist? That could mean a lot of money, so who cares about "burning bridges". If they're your songs, make sure you get full writing credit. If the songs are being played on MTV, they must be selling records, and you should be due royalties. Get some legal advice ASAP.

[kennydakid]

I'm not a entertainment lawyer, however based on my experience, hiring a lawyer, or at least consulting one who is in the right field, can give you a better idea of what your options are. People often wait too long to get legal advice and it hurts them in the end. I do mostly criminal defense and a lot of people could have benefited greatly by hiring me earlier in the process or at least asking me if what they were about to do (threatening, taking what they thought was theirs back) would lead to possible criminal charges. I wish you luck in resolving the issue.

[mikeythekid]

Thanks for all the great input. I luckily have a lawyer in the family, though not an entertainment one, I'll get her input and see if she can draft a letter to send their way. I contacted Bmi and am awaiting their response as well. Ill post my findings as they come