Anyone have royalties?

[EtherealWidow]

Thinking about applying for royalties with ASCAP. I know most of us here do music purely for pleasure, but I'm thinking about putting my music to work. Any knowledge or advice on royalties? Which royalty company do you use? Forgive me if my terminology is off, this is all still new to me.

[deeder]

Wide subject!
Since I’m located in the France I presume I can’t help you.
A thing to be underlined is that you have to expect at least 2 years to get your royalties, and 4 years for overseas if I remember well.
So in consequence sometimes it is better to sell your work by abandoning your rights for a given period and countries restrictions for instance, in particular for TV shows, advertising. I mean lump-sum contract.
Think about your living first.
Either deposit your musical work and wait for the payment of royalties.

[Reeltarded]

I stopped my account when my BMI statements for a quarter added to less than a dollar. From a living to the gutter in a decade. Thanks, file sharing. We used to have culture. Now we have corporatism.

[Leo_Gnardo]

What deeder & Miles had to say plus, an unfortunate fact is ASCAP, BMI & SESAC sweep the lion's share of royalties to the major accounts. It's just too much trouble to figure out they owe you a dollar seventy-five, so it mostly goes to "Estate of Frank Sinatra", "Estate of Michael Jackson," Burt Bacharach, Paul Williams, Bob Dylan, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen & all the other heavy hitters. If you're lucky enough to break into the inner circle, good for you. There's a separate method for collecting internet royalties, aside from the sub-microscopic fragments one might collect from typical music file sharing companies, $40 for ten million plays, like that. You can see why some big artists have been avoiding them lately like Taylor Swift and Adele. Those few artists who are assured their fans will buy their work and won't be upset that they can't get it on the free or almost-free music services.

FWIW some of my crustomers who do well in the music biz & happy with their careers are jingle writers. Who would have expected?

[gui_tarzan]

That actually makes sense. Maybe I should do that, I have all kinds of "hooks" in my head but nothing complete.

[EtherealWidow]

I figured it was probably a situation like that. Really weak returns unless you're huge. Is it possible to actually sell the rights of the song outright? Tried googling "sell song copyrights", but the results were for selling the songs while under copyright, rather than selling the rights themselves.

[deeder]

$1,260 minimum online: http://www.thatericalper.com/wp-content ... ge2015.jpg

[Leo_Gnardo]

Some insight on BMI from New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/08/magaz ... sic-t.html

As the article reminds, BMI as well as ASCAP and SESAC are Performing Rights Organizations. What's not in the article, how does one go about licensing music for recording/distribution. Ah that's yet another item - Harry Fox Agency handles most of that. Say you want to record some oldie goldies with your band, make a CD you can sell at gigs. You can wing it & hope you don't get caught or go to Harry Fox as one local band did here. For a dozen or so obscure oldies, total licensing was under $1000. Had they chosen major hits, probably a LOT more. Now, how do you get Harry Fox to handle your tunes? I dunno ... but don't assume it happens automagically just because you have ASCAP, BMI or SESAC membership. It's a jungle out there, gotta learn to swing from the trees or get eaten alive. Explains why managers & lawyers abound in the biz, for better or worse.

You can see why some opt for jingle writing, the biz is between the ad agency / hiring company and the talent aka musician. One guy who's made a living at it - remember one hit wonder Survivor: "Eye of the Tiger"? Couldn't switch on the radio in the 80's without hearing it. Same guy - "Mister Backyard Barbecue Chef: This Bud's For YOU!" and similar ads for years. Ka-CHING! He's got a house in swanky Westchester County NY. Jingles can pay.

[Reeltarded]

Yes, HFA clears everything.

If I have advice to give, it's look for acorns elsewhere. I did this for a living for many years with some success. It's all gone now. It's all free and nobody ever wants to see anything grand that isn't crowd funded and nobody gets paid.

You can't get paid selling songs to people who won't get paid. If you are writing for Adele, you can make a buck. You are not writing for Adele. At least you didn't have to go through all the trouble with that 30 years of development and a couple million dollars in gear.

[Reeltarded]

I still write every day of my life. I throw the songs away. Keep writing, that's good. I do.

[Leo_Gnardo]

Whups almost forgot, if you can get your music used as film soundtrack, TV/cable show theme, that's another way of making a living in the moozik biz besides regular jingles. Also beware what's offered in contracts. I've heard of "sign this & we own your music including everything you write in the future."

There's also ad/soundtrack producers who hire studio musos & give the order "play it so it sounds - like - but not a copy of - the hit song." Sly way around paying royalties. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much. IIRC Tom Waits collected serious $$$ from an ad outfit that was copying his style. Early 90's there was a tire outfit that copied Natalie Merchant in their ads. I asked her, she wasn't aware of it but also hadn't released any of her work to be used in ads. Not long after that, didn't hear the ads any more. Coincidence?

[Reeltarded]

Placement is all the money now.