In the current music industry, licensing your music has proved as one of the best ways to make money for artists. If you want to make this process smooth, it’s important to understand the role of a music supervisor and to prepare your music accordingly.
Choosing the right music supervisor will ensure rights clearance advertising for different types of master recording advertising.
Getting your music licensed for use in TV, advertising, films, movie trailers, and video games are a great way to turn your music set into a lucrative form of income. If you want to license your music and tap this revenue stream, you must be aware of the goals of music supervisors to boost your chances of getting licensed and perform these preparatory steps to help you move immediately on licensing opportunities when they arrive.
You can learn more about the musician’s “new use” and “re-use” fees and how they relate to music used in your ad campaign. If you intend to license a song/track for your spot, you might be confused about musician’s union back-end fees. People often ask that their production is non-union, thus are they liable to pay the musician’s “new use” and “re-use” fees? Depending on the situation there are different answers to the question. In different scenarios with regard to your obligations to pay musician’s fees, which is connected to the master license terms and conditions that the label will issue to you.
In Scenario 1 if you license a track that was recorded in the US and it was recorded under an American Federation of Musicians (AFM) commercial contract — (and that contract can be found by the AFM!) — and the labels master license requires these payments as part of your user agreement, then you must pay regardless of the union status of your company or production.
Scenario 2 is about the track that was recorded in the US, but there is no contract, the producer is off the hook for payments to musicians. The AFM must provide the producer with evidence that there was, in fact, an original session report.
While in Scenario 3 if there is a particular track having an original session report, but it cannot be found within the timeline of your first broadcast airing and/or exhibition schedule. The unions retain the right to come back to the producer if and when a session report is found and demand payment.
Michael Welsh is the founder/CEO of Michael Welsh Productions, Inc. – a company specializing in music licensing and supervision for advertising, for over 30 years. You can send your questions on related issues to info@michaelwelshprods.com. Michaelwelshprods.com.
