Music Libraries…

Last week I got an email from a music supervisor who had heard a couple of instrumental songs I submitted to them through Taxi. (I won’t mention his or the company’s name on this blog in order to prevent them from getting bombarded with unsolicited material). The company is actually a well known music library and they offered me a non-exclusive deal for 2 of my songs “Heart in Me” & “Cure in the Itch”. By non-exclusive, they mean the songs get re-titled so that I can continue to plug them to other publishers.

After reviewing the agreement and exchanging emails, the music supervisor told me to feel free to upload more of my catalog onto their website so that they can offer it to their customers. This was pretty cool as some libraries would rather screen the music first. My wife being a bit skeptical asked me “what is a music supervisor”? After explaining the basics of what they do, she wasn’t as thrilled as I was. First because there is no upfront money (this is very common today). Second, there is no guarantee my songs will get placed on any TV or film project. Also there still seems to be some skepticism about a publishing company that does most of their selling via the internet.

So I thought I’d try to explain how a music library works, and the pros & cons of working with them.

First the down-side:

1) As with this recent deal you usually don’t get any money upfront. This however could actually work to your advantage (more on it later).

2) Unless a library has a need for a song for specific project or customer right now, chances are your songs is not going to be placed in anything right away, but rather entered into their catalog which can be quite large. Two of the companies I currently deal with have well over 10,000 songs each in their collection.

3) Libraries offering no sync fee to their clients are becoming more popular. This means that even if your song is picked for a TV project or commercial, you’ll still not see any upfront money, but rather royalties from BMI or ASCAP.

Now the good stuff:

1) Although you may not get any upfront money from a library, you can ask (and get) a non-exclusive deal which allows you to keep pitching the song elsewhere.

2) Well established music libraries have a number of returning clients that count on them for reliable music and cues.

3) Music libraries have the resources to quickly take care of the paper-work involved when your song is placed on film or TV.

Music Publishers that normally work in trying to place music with Artists have a lot of the same abilities as music libraries, but they rarely offer a non-exclusive deal, and in today’s world they rarely provide any upfront money. Your only hope is to get a reversion clause where after an agreed upon time you will get the rights to your song back. In my personal experience, I find that music libraries get a lot more placements than standard publishing companies. Sure a publisher can probably get your song on to the next big Artist’s album and on an episode of Grey’s Anatomy, but a good music library can help get several of your songs played on various TV shows and commercials.

A music library I’ve worked with for several years recently got one of my songs placed on the CW Network. The song played over 900 times and generated a nice check for me for over $2,000.00. And that was only one payment for the first distribution period. There may be more coming on the next distribution period from BMI.

However not all music libraries are equal. You do need to be aware of a lot of companies out there which don’t really have much clout to get anything for you. For example; I’ve seen companies that will only rely on their website to get music placed on projects (hence my wife’s apprehension about my recent deal). And it is true that there is no substitute for face to face negotiations. A successful music library is one that creates a “real” working relationship with clients as well as takes advantage of today’s technology to increase its client base. Thankfully the company I just signed with does both.

How do you know how good a music library is? Check their credits (many of them love to advertise them on their site). Not only do you want to see where they’ve gotten their songs placed, but you also want to know how long ago. If it’s not readily available, ask around.

The thing is that if you can get several music libraries pitching your songs, your odds improve greatly on having multiple plays of multiple songs resulting in a steady stream of income. Of course none of this can happen if you don’t have the right songs. But that’s something I’ll save for another blog.