Re: film music rights,icensing etc.(OT).

[info at zoekeating <info@zoekeating.com>]

one other thing...

copyright owners ask for different amounts for the same music and same kind of license. it could be thousands of dollars, or it could be few hundred, it all depends on the budget of the film production (which might be why directors and producers always take care to present themselves as broke when they ask to use a piece of music)! 

On Feb 12, 2008, at 1:57 PM, info at zoekeating wrote:

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.