Hello all,
I have been patiently developing an idea over the past year, and I'd like to get some feedback on it, as far as...would it be useful to you as a service? Are there better alternatives from your standpoint? Any comments are greatly appreciated.
Over the past year I've had the chance to do some composition work for cable tv stations, internet producers and a few small independent films. During these experiences I found that some of my friends' work was better suited to the visual image than anything I could create. I contacted an entertainment lawyer, and learned how to properly license their works to these outlets. (Of course I got their permission first). I looked at the body of work that I had personally created in addition to my friends' work, and realized I had a nice library of music.
Thinking I might have something interesting cooking, I started looking at all the music libraries/music licensing services on the internet (Pump Audio, Killer Tracks, Magnatune, etc)...and I noticed that all this so-called "production music" was uniformly bland and boring. Then I looked at more established publishing administration companies such as Ocean Way and Bug Music. Great companies, great music, but you really need to be selling records and on a label to have a chance with them.
I'm trying to cater to a third group of artists - artists whose music is far superior to your typical music library, but for one reason or another are not signed, on tour, whatever. The artists I am working with are so good it makes me cry, but one of them is 41 years old and without a band, the other is busy doing other things...etc.
Here's one of the main issues - I'm trying arrange the actual artist agreement to fit between what a library service would offer and what a major administrator would offer. What I mean by that - I want to offer three choices to artists. 1) To have their tracks "pre-cleared" and sent out and made available, via a hard drive, to producers/supervisors in all mediums...tv, internet, film, video games, commercials. 2) Let artists place "restrictions" on certain uses. For example, if the artist did not want their music to be in commercials, they could "restrict" that use. Their music would then not be included on the hard drive sent to advertisers. 3) Allow the artist to reserve the right to clear any and all proposed uses of the track. This is what an artist of some stature would get at a big company. If the artist wanted to reserve the right to clear uses, the music would never get sent out on a hard drive, and would be kept in-house for requests, or sent on CD's only to bigger productions where clearing the track is part of the typical procedure. Obviously "pre-cleared" tracks have a higher chance of getting used, and fully restricted tracks would have to be of a superior quality for me to accept, since the market for those placements is highly competetive.
Finally, the goal is to create a superior library, and move from where we are (cable tv, indie films, internet) to bigger indie films, commercials, etc. Also the agreement is non-exclusive, all proceeds from placements split 50/50. Questions or comments are hugely appreciated.