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Derek Lefholz is Film and TV licensing can be quite complex.<\/p>\n \u2018Firstly you have to understand the bare essentials of a \u2018You really want to try to maintain your rights for both \u2018When you get a song placed on a TV show, they have to clear \u2018So usually the label, if we\u2019re talking major label deal, What about cover songs?<\/p>\n \u2018If you have a cover song, you can licence the song for film In practice, this means things can get expensive. <\/p>\n \u2018Let\u2019s say we cover an original Beatles song and we have a licence request. They want to Music Supervisor helps solve this problem.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re an agent for the artist. And with that said, we have This service is popular with music supervisors, who can use musicsupervisor.com<\/a> to search for and license suitable music quickly. It\u2019s How did he find Soundreef?<\/p>\n \u2018I was looking for a way for artists to make money with \u2018They don\u2019t pay\u2026 ASCAP doesn\u2019t actually pay any retail He explains that this is to do with the way that income is \u2018If Muzak were to go and get some independent music \u2013 I\u2019m an (For more on why it works this way, see our blog post on how PROs (collecting societies) distribute royalties<\/a> and distribute royalties internationally<\/a>.)<\/p>\n \u2018So with all this, and also with the non-exclusive nature of \u2018A company like ours and Soundreef was kind of a match made Does he ever deal with PROs? <\/p>\n \u2018I deal with the PROs, but I don\u2019t know how long I\u2019ll deal \u2018The bottom line is this: no PROs are paying any indie guys, \u2018Last year, in 2013, I had about 10 or 15 of my songs used \u2018It\u2019s ridiculous. And do you really think that I\u2019m gonna be \u2018Artists don\u2019t necessarily want to deal with all of \u2018For instance, I\u2019ll give you a very specific example, ASCAP, \u2018And basically their consolation is, you can apply to our Sounds like the artist has to jump through a lot of hoops. <\/p>\n \u2018That\u2019s the nature of the industry right now. I mean, with \u2018It takes a long time to start getting money. When you go to Harry Fox<\/a> you can\u2019t even talk to anybody at In Part 2, Lefholz A member of the Derek Lefholz is Director of Artist Relations and Radio in Retail for Music Supervisor Incorporated, Owner and President of Embark Music, as well as continuing to create music as an artist in his own right. He took some time out to tell us what musicians need to know about the music business: how film and TV licensing works, what<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nDirector of Artist Relations and Radio in Retail for <\/i>Music Supervisor Incorporated<\/a>, Owner and President of <\/i>Embark Music<\/a>,
\nas well as continuing to create music as an artist in his own right. He took
\nsome time out to tell us what musicians need to know about the music business:
\nhow film and TV licensing works, what Music Supervisor does and PROs (collecting
\nsocieties).<\/i><\/p>\n
\nsong,\u2019 Lefholz explains. \u2018A song is complete, it is one piece of music, but it
\nis really two separate entities, that being the writer and the publisher
\nportion of a song.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nsides of your music, moving forward as an artist in the industry. It\u2019s going to
\ngive you more flexibility to do different things and to make more money, to
\nfind new avenues for your music if you have all rights. Then you don\u2019t have
\nsomeone who\u2019s retitling<\/a> your works or whatever.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nwhat\u2019s called the \u201cAll-in\u201d licence. And that is compiled of the master use, and
\nthen the sync use licence. The sync kind of correlates with the publishing side
\nand the master kind of correlates with the writer\u2019s side. Although, confusingly
\nenough, within music there\u2019s also a third, unseen right, which is the master
\nrights.\u2019<\/p>\n
\ntraditionally \u2013 because there\u2019s a lot of different ways things work today \u2013
\nholds the master to that album. The publishing is usually represented by a
\npublisher that is an affiliate to the label in some way. Then the only thing that stays with the
\nartist is the writer\u2019s share, whoever wrote the song that stays. Now that\u2019s not to say that you couldn\u2019t go
\ngive a song to someone, and give them the writer rights too \u2013 it happens \u2013 but
\nhopefully the artist or the band maintains rights to at least their writers
\nshare. That\u2019s why we always tell artists
\nto keep their publishing. This is basically
\nthe parts you\u2019re working with that make a licence possible.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nand TV, but it makes it that much harder because they have to go clear the
\noriginal publisher of the song. When you do a cover, you own the master side of
\nit but the publishing is always retained to the original publisher.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nlicence it for $5,000. Well they may go
\nto the publisher and the publisher says, now we\u2019re going to licence the
\npublishing side of this cover for $20,000. Most favoured nation<\/a> tells
\nus that the writer\u2019s side or the master use side has to get $20,000 as well,
\nthe same amount as the publishers, so all of a sudden someone that\u2019s working
\nwith a budget of $5,000 just went to spending $40,000 for a cover song. So it\u2019s
\nbetter for people to licence music that\u2019s 100% cleared on both the writer and
\nthe publisher side.\u2019<\/p>\n
\n100% cleared songs on our catalogue, so both the writer and the publishers of
\nthe songs clear their music through us and give us the right to license their
\nmusic for a large scope of things.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nalso popular with artists: \u2018People come to us because we don\u2019t take any
\npublishing from the artists, we don\u2019t do any retitling of artists\u2019 works, and
\nwe don\u2019t get paid until we make money for the artist! Which is how you guys
\nwork.\u2019<\/p>\n
\ntheir music that would be somewhat more sustainable than film and television,
\nbecause it\u2019s kind of rocky: you get a placement and you get a decent amount,
\nbut it fades. Everybody banks on the back end, you know, making money for
\nplacements, but the PROs traditionally are pro-major label. So they\u2019re not
\nreally out for the indie guys.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nroyalties to any person that belongs to ASCAP unless the song has been placed
\non a film or TV show, or has been played on radio. All the income from retail
\nthat they collect goes to major label artists.\u2019<\/p>\n
\ndistributed.<\/p>\n
\nartist too, I\u2019m a producer, so if they were to find my music on some website
\nand just go ahead and upload it because they have licensing deals in place with
\nASCAP or BMI or SESAC, and they put some Beyonc\u00e9 music in, or some other major
\nartist, like Tiesto or something like that, then when they distribute royalties
\nthat year for the retail portion of it, Tiesto\u2019s gonna get paid any earnings,
\nI\u2019m not gonna see any earnings from that.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nPROs in the United States, we knew we were able to do something like work with
\nSoundreef where we could get our catalogue to you guys and you guys could
\ncurate that for your radio stations and earn money for our artists. And so that
\nway the artists get paid directly, the PROs are not involved at all.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nin heaven because you guys traditionally don\u2019t charge the artist, you split
\nwhat you make with the artist, you\u2019re very pro-artist and so are we. It\u2019s
\njust a natural relationship to work together and come up with ways for artists
\nto make more money.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nwith the PROs.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nperiod. At least not fair rate (what the majors make). I\u2019ve been a member of
\nASCAP for probably six or seven years, I have over 200 titles registered, I
\nknow my music\u2019s been played on a lot of internet radio stations and used for
\ndifferent web series, and all kinds of digital media, I get streams on Spotify,
\nall that kind of stuff, and I\u2019ve never seen one dime from ASCAP.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nfor Elite Model Look Singapore<\/a> \u2013 they used a lot of minimal and tech house stuff that I\u2019d written \u2013 and they used
\nthat for the show and there were webisodes, but then it was also showed on TV5
\nout of Singapore, so I\u2019ve been trying to collect now from ASCAP, since summer
\n2013, and they\u2019re telling me I\u2019m gonna see my first payment in February of
\n2015!\u2019<\/p>\n
\nlike, \u201cYeah, I\u2019m getting all my money, oh yeah I\u2019m sure I\u2019m getting everything
\nI\u2019m owed.\u201d I\u2019m very passionate about the PRO situation because I feel like the
\nguise of, \u201cHey, come join us, we\u2019re gonna help you. Artists, this is your place
\nto come and have a home and collect professionally\u2026\u201d No. It\u2019s big walls, it\u2019s
\nbig business, it\u2019s major label-focused, and it\u2019s definitely not pro-indie.\u2019<\/p>\n
\ncollecting on their own from all these places. But they would definitely open \u2013
\nI mean I would be open \u2013 to working with some other affiliate that is
\ncollecting my royalties and actually paying me something.\u2019 <\/p>\n
\nunless you have over 155,000 plays per quarter on Spotify, you earn $0. You\u2019re
\nunder the threshold, you make nothing. If you hit the threshold, you make one
\ncredit. So if I have 155,000 plays in a quarter at ASCAP, I earn one credit for
\n$7.80. For 155,000 plays. If I get just below that, I get nothing.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nawards ceremony and get an award from ASCAP and potentially like a few thousand
\ndollars or something if you win, if you can prove that you have had an active
\nyear in film or TV or retail or whatever it may be. So, ASCAP\u2019s saying, I\u2019m not
\ngonna pay you your money, but show me that you\u2019re doing well enough and that I
\nshould be paying you and I\u2019ll maybe give you an award and a little bit of
\nmoney. So it\u2019s pretty dirty.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nall of the performance right collection societies, the PROs and affiliations
\nlike Sound Exchange<\/a> in the United States
\nthat collects for internet or for digital radio, like satellite radio et
\ncetera, and they pay the master and the performer for that, and that\u2019s all run
\nthrough the government and everything, there\u2019s a bunch of hoops there.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nHarry Fox, and it\u2019s all done through email\u2026 It\u2019s a lot of red tape, a lot of
\nhoops, at the end of the day for really little to no gain, because you\u2019re not
\nseeing the money that\u2019s supposed to be there, as an independent artist.\u2019<\/p>\n
\nexplains how things have really changed for artists and how artists can make
\nthe best of their music.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nRecording Academy, Derek Lefholz, aka <\/i>DegreeZero<\/a>, founded <\/i>Embark Music<\/a>, a Creative Licensing Agency and Record Label in the early 2000\u2019s. Lefholz also works as Director of
\nA&R and Radio in Retail for <\/i>Music Supervisor Inc.<\/a>, managing and consulting with thousands of musicians, artists and bands daily. As an <\/i>artist<\/a> he continues
\nto produce and has writer and publisher credits on over 200 tracks in many
\ngenres. You can contact him via <\/i>Facebook<\/a> and <\/i>Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"