$350 Fee To Work With Licensing Company - Legit?

[LumpyTrousers]

I recently received an e-mail from a licensing company regarding one of my songs - I assume they found it on Broadjam or on my website.  They are asking for a $350 signup fee to work with them.

 

Is this legit?  They say the fee is necessary because they don't take any of the publishing.

[James Anderson]

it sonds like a scam Az09

[MonoStone]

Post up the name of the company. Someone might know about them. And if it is a scam (which sounds highly likely) then it alerts others.

 

A quick google search will normally reveal a scam, unless you just happen to be one of the first potential victims.

 

Then again... could be real Either way it's worth investigating. ... scam emails are usually badly written or far too generic. Someone really interested in you will write a personal email I'd imagine.

[LumpyTrousers]

Thanks for your responses - the company is songandfilm.com.  They have a nice website and I didn't find any negative references in web searches.

 

I suppose it could be someone hijacking a legit company's info as well.  The e-mail also has a phone number to call - which is a little unusual for scam, I think.

[LumpyTrousers]

It's a licensing offer - they claim to have placed lots of music with high profile projects, but I dunno - I've had two other licensing offers and they never asked for any money up front.  So probably a scam or semi-scam.

[MonoStone]

http://jpfolks.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/204087/page/16

 

http://www.soundsonline-forums.com/showthread.php?t=11703&page=2

 

They've clearly been at it for a while.

 

I guess there's a difference between a full on SCAM (e.g someone claiming to be Nigerian Royalty to con you out of your cash) and a company which maybe has some dubious practices. Very possible that it's a real company which in some way does what it says, maybe even does license music, and no doubt then someone there to take calls and tell you everything's rosey... but if that's the case then the question is did they really single you out because your music is awesome, or do they mail a whole load of amateur musicians in order to get them paying the sign up and membership fees?

 

I have no idea whether this company are any good or worth the money. But I guess there are choices of licensing companies, and best to go with whichever has the best reputation and results.... and then only if you really think your stuff is ready and your investment will be worthwhile....

 

Oh by the way.. I have no experience with such things. Just saying what I think seems like common sense.

Edited October 26, 2013 by MonoStone

[DonnaMarilyn]

Have a look at this site.

http://www.musiclibraryreport.com

 

It's fully up to date regarding legitimate music licensing agencies, their conditions, and their requirements. 

 

Donna

Edited November 3, 2013 by DonnaMarilyn

[AlanStarkie]

Don't ever pay a pub to licence your songs.

 

A reputable publisher will sign your songs because they can see a return and think your songs are good enough.

 

I've signed a few publishing contracts and never paid for the privilege.

 

They're touting for business and will have emailed another hundred artists along with you.

 

Sorry for the negative feedback but that's the general rule - 

 

A decent publisher worth having doesn't ask for money, they make your songs make money for you both.

[Friso]

it seems to me just like a nasty scam approach. if a company is interested in your song they should pay for it. not you.

[BigBubbaBrown]

Unsolicited contact regarding services is almost always an indication of a scam. It's true of door to door home repair outfits (many of which demand up front payment "for materials" then you never see them again), people who claim they can make you a fortune through youtube if you pay them $500 to get started, and this licensing racket you were contacted about.

 

Unless you explicitly put it into the public domain your song is already licensed. If people want to use it for their own purposes they either have to contact you or you will, assuming you can prove that you're the author of the song (as an aside, before you upload any more you might want to download software like MuseScore, transcribe each part, print it out, then mail it to yourself. It's not as air tight as registering with the copyright office but the postmark will still give you more evidence than just uploading it and relying on the "date modified" field of the original file) or didn't put it under one of the Creative Commons variants, have grounds for legal action against them.

 

Legitimate companies who deal with things like this will generally wait for you to contact them. I've been wanting to get into the soundtrack game for a while and my dad offered to put me in touch with his agent to find out how to go about it. If it's something you're interested in it I can pass along any information I get. I can almost guarantee that any firms he tells me about won't demand up front payment. They'll just act as a mediator and take a cut of any revenue they help generate.

[LumpyTrousers]

Thanks for all the responses!  Just so you know, I never responded to this, since you all confirmed what I suspected, just a way to relieve me of $350.  I have paid for memberships to services like TAXI and Broadjam, so I didn't think it was completely off base, although TAXI and Broadjam never contacted me directly, LOL. 

[ondray]

Don't ever pay a pub to licence your songs.

 

A reputable publisher will sign your songs because they can see a return and think your songs are good enough.

 

I've signed a few publishing contracts and never paid for the privilege.

 

They're touting for business and will have emailed another hundred artists along with you.

 

Sorry for the negative feedback but that's the general rule - 

 

A decent publisher worth having doesn't ask for money, they make your songs make money for you both.

 

^^ Don't pay to work, simple. They're suppose to give you money. 

[midnighthowler]

I'm a little confused from the beginning on this one .... I've never heard of a licensing co. Except maybe something like harry fox for mechanicals etc ... and they take a small percentage when a song is released .... some smaller publishing company's issued there own mechanicals too .... I know realize that this forum is worldwide , which I had a hard time grasping st first ...so maybe there's some other ones in UK etc .... I'm in the USA ... be interesting to hear about em

[tomcollins]

firstly , is the song out there ? that is the first question ? if it is and it is a style of this company (some do scan ) , nut still , raise flag, !!! 350 , was there a contract , some do send them , mostly fraud , if stand they would come to you , and say "blah blah blah_ I am so and so ,  but it is not heard of , depending of a few things, if it seems to good ...... it more then likely is ,.

[midnighthowler]

I hadn't even got to the part about the $350 , or whether it sounded like a scam yet ... which it does .. but I'm still back at the first line about a liscensing company .... i dont know what that is ...? I've never heard of a songwriter paying someone to use one of their songs ... i would thimk that usually an artist or record label would be paying the 9.1 cent rate to the songwriter or publishing company to use the song , or negotiating a reduced rate ....... this whole thing sounds backwards to me .... but then again. I'm in Nashville Tenn , and this website is world wide .. I'm sure there's lots of things I've never heard of ....I would call harry fox a mechanical licensing and royalty collection agency ........ the more I think about this the more lost i am ... gonna drink a six pack and go back to the song I'm working on

[MikeRobinson]

There are some legitimate sites like "taxi.com" which charge a modest per-submission fee to listen to your song – and they're quite up-front about the fact that this is both to pay their expenses and to keep the riff-raff out.  They're in the primary business of satisfying the needs of, for example, film companies and advertising agencies for specific sound clips.  They're absolutely above the board, provide a useful service, and have been in business for a very long time now.

 

The solicitation that opened this thread, however, raised immediate suspicions because the (other ...) company wanted a fairly large sum of money, $350.00, in order to do – "what, exactly?"  Plus, they approached the songwriter out of the blue with this solicitation for money.  All of the hallmarks of a scam, and properly treated as such.

[stringdreamer]

Absolutely 100% bogus!!  If the company thought they could make money off of your material, whatever form it is in, they would be offering you money up front, not the other way around.  Anytime you are asked for money to publish or record something that you intend to sell, if they want money, that means they don't think you're going to sell anything, or that they don't have any means to help you in anyway other than cashing your check.