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I wrote a cue for a 30sec tv spot, and it's being treated as a perpetual license agreement for use in that ad.

Hiring a composer is a first for the production company, so I may need to provide my own perpetual license agreement. I have some messages out to lawyers to hopefully purchase one, but I'm wondering if anyone has one they use that they'd be willing to share?

As in a Work for Hire?

Do not sign "perpetual" anything (unless you get paid a lot)!

At least negotiate the license to end after 5 years... Otherwise, they will most likely NEVER use the music again (typically they need it for a year at the most), and it will effectively die with them.
If they liberate your music after 5 years, you can use it for something else later.

mikehalloran wrote:As well in Work for hire?

Surprisingly....no. I thought this would be a work-for-hire job, but I am able to keep all the rights to the music and retain publishers share. So they are treating it as a licensing contract.

FMiguelez wrote:Do not sign "perpetual" anything (unless you get paid a lot)!

At least negotiate the license to end after 5 years... Otherwise, they will most likely NEVER use the music again (typically they need it for a year at the most), and it will effectively die with them.
If they liberate your music after 5 years, you can use it for something else later.

I didn't realize perpetuity also meant "exclusive." If I'm owner/publisher of the music, can't I do what I want with it and license out to others? Otherwise, yeah, that's a good idea then to limit the time.

*Frantically digging through my Passman book....*

I am not going to try to answer the question. You need to understand some very basic things about the music business, in this case, a sync license.

Q: When do you need an attorney?

A: BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING!!!!

These three books are highly recommended. In this situation, the Passman is probably the one to read first. Don't ask which is best, though — read all three. The amount you will save in legal fees by knowing what to ask and when easily covers the cost.

All are also available in Kindle editions.

What They'll Never Tell You About the Music Business, Third Edition: The Complete Guide for Musicians, Songwriters, Producers, Managers, Industry Executives, Attorneys, Investors, and Accountants Paperback by Peter M. Thall (Author)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/16077 ... UTF8&psc=1

All You Need to Know About the Music Business: Ninth Edition Hardcover by Donald S. Passman
http://www.amazon.com/Need-Know-About-M ... 1501104896

Music Money and Success 7th Edition: The Insider's Guide to Making Money in the Music Business Paperback
by Jeffrey Brabec (Author) , Todd Brabec (Author)
http://www.amazon.com/Music-Money-Succe ... 0825673690

PoliticalBonobo wrote:
I didn't realize perpetuity also meant "exclusive." If I'm owner/publisher of the music, can't I do what I want with it and license out to others? Otherwise, yeah, that's a good idea then to limit the time.

*Frantically digging through my Passman book....*

Perpetuity not always includes exclusivity (you can license music to x for ever, but still can license it to y as well), but IME it almost always does. And unless you specify it in your contract, they normally think of it as work-for-hire (it's theirs - they just got it off your head), or exclusivity for perpetuity. This last case, exclusivity for perpetuity, is the worst, unless very handsomely paid for.

Stop asking for legal advice online. Papers have apparently been signed. Lawyers will not practice law in online forums. Non-lawyers should never attempt to practice law in such forums. Well-meaning friends usually haven't a clue. Those knowledgeable about the music business will tell you to get an attorney. Laws can vary in different countries.

So, consult an attorney to find out the following:

a) if you've been screwed... (did you really grant rights that will bite you or is the license completely worthless because the other side knows as little as you?)

b) if screwed, how badly? (see a)

c) Can anything be done?

d) Should anything be done? (Will spending money accomplish anything worthwhile?)

Best of luck to you.

Nothing has been signed yet, no one's getting screwed, and I have all 3 (and read 2) of those books . Those books unfortunately don't come with boilerplate contracts so I'm guessing most composers just wing it until they have made a large enough fortune to afford a lawyer, or they use dad's lawyer or something.

However, I did mention in my original post that I have messages out to lawyers, so I will hopefully be talking to some, assuming that I don't have to sell my car to afford to do so.

There's a reason they don't have boilerplate agreements.

As for sharing my licensing agreement(s) my 1st question is: which one?

Every one is different. The misconception here is that there is a "standard contract" or a standard set of terms one can apply. Sure, there are basic considerations. You pay me money, I let you use my music. But beyond that, everything is negotiable.

You're like the guy who walks into a hardware store to buy a drill. The salesman knows that what he really wants to buy is a hole. The real questions you are asking here (or should be asking yourself) are:

What is my music worth?

How much can I expect to get for it?

How much leverage do I have and can I match the negotiation skills of the person(s) I am dealing with?

There is much to consider. First off, exclusivity simply means that an "exclusive license" is granted and only that entity can use the music. That should tag additional money on the side of the composer. Unlimited use is another aspect. You can (and should) limit the intended use. So if you write a movie score, it should be used ONLY in timed relation to the movie (or other project) and not excerpted in anyway (commercials, BMW ads, etc.) otherwise, the person licensing can re-sell it and/or repurpose it. Expanding use beyond that should be adding value to your product.

And we're still only at the terms of the general lease. The deeper you go into the usage clauses, the more complex it gets and the more likely you absolutely need to hire a lawyer who knows about this stuff. Not as many do as you might think. I have a great attorney for my infringement cases, but he knew squat about music cue sheets until I educated him a bit. But I digress... or do I?

Music cue sheets... are they part of your agreement? They should be if you are granting a license for anything but live only use.

The list goes on and if you have to ask ANY question beyond this, you need a lawyer (read: you need a lawyer if you want to sign a reasonably fair and well crafted document).

The deeper question here is one of negotiation tactics, and those I will not share. There are books on that too. Experience (and balls) are the best teachers. The only thing I would recommend is stand up for your work and fight hard to protect it. Otherwise it will not appear to have any real value and the other party will treat it as such.

There's tons of other stuff that can be used as a bargaining chip. Again, it depends on the project, the depth of work involved in producing a worthy product, and many other considerations.

Although I recommend three books, I know of 5 others. None has standard templates. I remember some from the 1990s — all are way out of date.

mikehalloran wrote:Although I recommend three books, I know of 5 others. None has standard templates. I remember some from the 1990s — all are way out of date.

As is the concept of a boilerplate agreement.

All the advice here is helpful, but maybe I should clarify my specific situation since, as MLC mentioned, all scenarios are different. In my case, we're talking about a job that's paying a little more than a few grand. The work is done, the client has the master, and nothing has been signed yet. I know I know, in the professional world that should never be done, so this was a "handshake" deal with some general mentioned terms (I keep rights, cue gets licensed) which I am more than willing to do to get my biggest job yet. My POC with the production company is a long-time friend (not that that matters).

The production company has never used an original composer before (like many companies now, they use stock libraries), so their legal department is writing a contract. Since they could take a while, I was going to give them a general licensing agreement (with obvious tailoring to meet my contract needs), but that apparently doesn't exist.

While I think all the advice is good so far, I don't believe my contracts are at the financial level to warrant lawyer review for each contract. We're not even talking 5 figures here.

Did everyone here honestly lawyer up for their first few-thousand dollar project? The production company would have left me in the dust had I taken days to work on an agreement. I know there's obvious risk with that approach, but it's worth it.

This leaves me with 3 options:
1) Wait for the production company's contract and negotiate it, if needed.

2) Wait for one of the 3 lawyers I called to call me back and most likely tell me their price will exceed the amount I'm being paid for this.

3) Write my own license agreement up, based on not having seen any other sync or master license agreements, which will most likely be legally full of holes, useless, and appear to have been written by a chimpanzee from a legal perspective.

Sounds like I'm at #1.

PoliticalBonobo wrote: Did everyone here honestly lawyer up for their first few-thousand dollar project?

Yep. Paid off rather well in the end...