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This week, sync licensing, Let’s go -
First, last week, I said “...the mechanical royalty goes to the songwriter...and the songwriters who share in the copyright.”However, I excluded the publisher. A mechanical license requiring payment of a mechanical royalty is owed to the music publisher AND songwriter. Most independent artists are BOTH, but I wanted to clear that up, and thank music instructor Israel “Iz” Charles in Florida for writing in about that. ✊
Now for Synchronization or Sync license. This is the license, granted by the composer, that’s used for movies, TV shows, YouTube, games, ads, or anyplace where music and images are synchronized together, hence the name.
So if you have a deal, the rights belong to the songwriter and publishing house, while the copyright is divided between the master owner like a label, and the composition of the song owned by the publisher/songwriter. However, if you are a self contained songwriter and publisher, you will be keeping a handsome 100% of all revenue generated by both the writer and the publisher. Make sense?
There are two permissions needed to make a sync license deal go, the sync itself (permission to use) and the master use which will both come to you as the owner of both. You can also issue an exclusive licence where you can not give permission of use to anyone else until that licence is over or non exclusive.
A term you need to know is music supervisors. These are the guys that place the music in the visual media and the ones that make sure you get paid for that placement. In a sync licencing world you can literally become the best known voice nobody knows. Be advised, supervisors are not looking for the next big hit, they are looking for songs that fit. They are not looking to clear samples, they are not going to wait on you to finish an idea that might be close to what they want. If they ask on a Monday, they want it on Monday. Only send finished cleared product to a music supervisor. You want to get on their radar, even if your song misses. If it is close they will possibly give you another shot. If it’s filled with samples or you send ideas, you will be bounced from their list and not considered again, they have little time and are on strict deadlines.
I know your next question; how much can I get? Well that range is from dinner and drinks for a no budget indie film, to hundreds of thousands for a major placement. There are several variables like how much of the song is used, will it be the original recording or is it a cover and where is it used. As stated earlier; some of the uses include games - the money usually comes directly from the game company, commercials - money usually comes from ad agencies or TV studios, and movies where the money typically comes from the production company. It’s a grind but well worth the effort. Thanks for reading, next week, it’s all about the licence for samples.
This week's Independent Artists of the Week is Indy artist with Christmas Music. Click on the name, scroll down the page to hear, buy and support.
For more information or to hire Unda The Hat as your brand or label consultant send a message via undathehat.com. See you next week.