Your music on TV shows?

[Juniorkimbrough]

Anyone have any experience with this?

Someone has contacted us about using some of our music during Championship Bull Riding on a satellite tv station and we aren't sure how we should go about this money wise and if there is anything else we should know.

Thanks!

[Mon Rominee]

I have had many tv placements. Has money even been discussed? How exactly are they approaching you? Form letter with a found on MySpace tagline? Are your recorded works registered with a publishing house like BMI or ASCAP? Are you being shopped by anyone or are you being approached directly?

Has their broadcast plan been laid out, are they paying you scale? How many outlets / affiliate stations are picking up the broadcast? Is there an exclusivity clause for the works where they pay once and use in multiple media?

Is this a one time broadcast flat fee, or recurring royalty per airing?

I'm actually in works for airings for a new show on Bravo as we speak.

Mon

[Music Attorney]

Originally Posted by Juniorkimbrough

Anyone have any experience with this?

Someone has contacted us about using some of our music during Championship Bull Riding on a satellite tv station and we aren't sure how we should go about this money wise and if there is anything else we should know.

Thanks!

A few questions.

1. Who exactly contacted you? Was it someone with the show itself or someone licensing music on behalf of the show or someone who thinks they can get your music used (for a fee, of course).

2. Do you own the songs and the recordings of those songs? There are two very distinct copyrights in those shiny plastic discs and you should be paid separately for both. Typically, the record company will license a recording pursuant to a so-called master use license. The musical composition is licensed pursuant to a so-called sync license. These licenses have separate terms and conditions and, more importantly, separate fees

3. What’s the intended use (e.g., how long, during what point of the program, etc.), what's the media (e.g., will the show be packaged with other shows to create a DVD of the series or is it a one time tv show with a few potential repeats?), what's the territory that the media will be exploited in (e.g., is it U.S. only?), what's the term of use (e.g., do they want to use it for 5 years, perpetuity, ?), are they using the recordings/songs in context only or does it include out-of-context rights (e.g., can they use the music separate from how it’s recorded in the show as part of music for a separate radio ad campaign for the Championship or even other bull riding events), and so on.

Not sure what these guys are paying, but my guess is not much. One way of handling this is to see if they will agree to a most favored nations deal with all recordings and all songs they are licensing for the show. That way, at least you know no one is receiving a better deal. If there are any well known songs being licensed, then this approach may not work.

Best,
MA

[sleepy_monkey]

Junior, We had some of our music (Looney Mill) played at all of the University of Georgia football games on the radio...we let them do it for free just for exposure. It was pretty crazy having our music blasting during the commercials in and out of the game...haha.

Plus, I am an Alabama fan.

[Juniorkimbrough]

Apparently a former bandmate of ours caught wind of this or knows the woman and directed her to us. She seems to have found a song she really likes.....here's some of the text included in the emails. The only money that has been spoken of is paying for studio time to make some adjustments to the song....changing lyrics, taking lyrics out, etc.


"Ok. Let me know what you find out and we'll bounce the idea around too. If we could get this worked out, we air 10 times per week on RFD, 52 weeks a year . . . so that's a lot of exposure."

So, 520 television shows per year... Here is the channel (379 on DirectTV):

http://www.rfdtv.com/default.asp"



"Hubby (President, Chairman of the org) listened to all the songs. He liked I'm Gone best, too. The harmonica makes it a shoe-in for rodeo music – sax is great too. He said we need one snappy piece to intro the show each week – give it an identity like Monday night football. And then maybe take that same music but a longer version of it to use with rodeo footage? He also asked if you could 'cover' other music if we could get permission but I don't know off the top of my head what we'd want to use. I'm thinking we need to figure out how long an intro actually needs to be and see if we can't extract that from the existing version of I'm Gone and then figure out where to go from here. What we can offer you or the group or whomever is an awful lot of exposure and credit. If we have to pay for some studio time, it doesn't sound like it would be prohibitively expensive. We don't start producing the new shows until August so we have some time. But I'd LOVE to have a quick clip to play during the board meeting next week – I think the group would be totally pumped to know that this was even an option! Maybe we can pull out a short clip for that. I'm getting in touch with the production company right now to see what length clip we'd use for an intro."


"From the producer: Yes 30 seconds is pretty much a standard.... We would like a 15 second version for promos and the at least a 1:45 for the song... lyrics are really optional especially if we have VO over the top or wild audio....."

[CapnSev]

It's happened to a cover band I'm in! We put down the music and lyrics behind the Winger's restaurant commercials.

[punkbassistfc]

register with your national artist royalty rights organisation, in the states i think its bmi. other then that, they are probably using you because you are cheaper then getting a bigger artists song, and even putting you in the studio for a week would be cheaper then buying a known artists song

[Mon Rominee]

Yes. I am a BMI affiliate, and it is well worth it.

Bear in mind there are different pay-scales set for lyric vs. non-lyric bed music, and also different pay scales for regular broadcast vs. satellite (at least on the radio end of things)

MA has alot of good advice, and what I have from experiences as well, I just urge you, at some point, to have someone privvy to entertainment law look over any paperwork, as a c.y.a. precaution. It's your work, you should be compensated for it.

Mon