Charging and T&C for composing commission? Advice please
There is the possibility that a local wedding photographer will commission me to compose some music to use on a commercial basis producing wedding videos and DVDs. He has suggested 30mins of unobtrusive ‘background music’ to go with the images which I feel I can provide. He would sell the products as part of his wedding service to his clients or as parts of various packages.
If I were to offer him a license to use the music (without exclusivity) for his wedding Video/DVDs only would this protect my own usage of the music? What would be the best way to charge for this music, one off fee or a commission basis. I would personally prefer one off up front payment, or good in lieu so I can re-invest in my studio gear. I would ask for ‘music composed by’ credit on the cover sleeves of any products produced.
So my questions are …
Are the terms and conditions I have outlined above suitable for the purpose?
What would be a reasonable amount to demand for a one off payment so I can take this into the initial negotiations?
I would be grateful of your input on this before I go ahead with the initial meeting.
Many thanks
Peter
If I were to offer him a license to use the music (without exclusivity) for his wedding Video/DVDs only would this protect my own usage of the music? What would be the best way to charge for this music, one off fee or a commission basis. I would personally prefer one off up front payment, or good in lieu so I can re-invest in my studio gear. I would ask for ‘music composed by’ credit on the cover sleeves of any products produced.
So my questions are …
Are the terms and conditions I have outlined above suitable for the purpose?
What would be a reasonable amount to demand for a one off payment so I can take this into the initial negotiations?
I would be grateful of your input on this before I go ahead with the initial meeting.
Many thanks
Peter
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Escape Velocity on -
Throb's thrown in some great thoughts... mine is much simpler (it being Saturday morning here).
I'd offer the guy a choice - a once-off commission fee followed up by an ongoing license (make it a respectable amount) paid annually... or a once-off commission fee followed up by a less exhorbitant ongoing "per use" royalty, with a contractual clause entitling you to audit his use. The "per use" royalty will probably be more attractive if he's a play-by-the-rules guy - "nothing to hide" = "sure - inspect the books, you'll get paid"; whereas "shonky operator" = "I don't want anyone looking at the books and I'll pay a premium to keep it that way".
It might be a more direct approach to getting the leverage that Throbs mentioned.
Of course... My $0.05 only. :)
Cheers
Jez
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Permalink Reply by Dave Robins on -
Hi Peter,
Couple of pointers - the musicians union have some sample contracts that cover this kind of work - in effect you are providing a soundtrack for your client so a soundtrack based contract would be fine. You need to be a member of the union to get the contracts but its worth it as they also provide legal advise and check your final contracts for you to make sure your not signing anything that will stitch you up. Other sample contracts are available on the net to download for free or a small fee, but they tend to be from the US so require a bit of tidying up $/£ etc and also some of the clauses are related to specific US copyright law - but nonetheless again a better place to start than nothing.
Secondly if you are serious about doing this kind of thing longer term, I would also suggest you join the MCPS - the body who collects mechanical royalties for artists (i.e. the royalties from products sold with you your music on ie CD's/DVD's/downloads etc) WHilst your client is most likely not a member and you will probably handle royalty colection between yourselves, if you are looking to do this professionally then it will be worth it in the long run - they also have a very extensive web resource that can help you aswell.
Thirdly dont sign anything until you are 100% happy with it!!
Hope this helps
Cheers
Dave.
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