a question for anyone in the industry (re: production and royalties)
hey djtt-ers
so today i just got word thats much music, (the mtv of canada) will be using one of my tunes in a commercial. it was an original instrumental electro track that i made a few years back that i just chopped to 30 seconds and had someone throw some much music plugs in.
ive looked into SOCAN already, which is a cadadian orginisation that pays out roaylties when your music is used commercially or played by other people.
my assumption is, after they buy the track they own the rights to it, but does anyone out there know how to go about getting the proper compensation for my work?
Congrats 
It depends in what kind of a deal that you get into them with - all that really matters is whats written on the piece of paper that you sign at the end of the day.
You might want to go see a contract lawyer who specializes in that part of the industry after you get a copy of the contract that they wish to use - that would help you out a lot. Its pretty important that you understand exactly what your rights are and a patent lawyer is going to be able to read deeper into the contract than you will be able to, then explain to you exactly what your rights are - from there you can negotiate the contract better. Personally i would be pushing to keep the rights to your track and having them pay you a royalty depending on how many times its played on TV - if the ad catches on with the public then you will be much better off this way.
I personally don’t have any personal experience with commercial music licensing for TV, so its hard to offer firm advice in this area - but those would be my initial thoughts on the matter. Keep us updated, i would love to hear how the process runs and works out for you.
keep in mind that they have an army of lawyers who are paid very well to make sure their interests are secure.
At least have one guy with half a brain on your side making sure yours are too.
hey
yeah as bento says there are basically two options, firstly they buy the rights to use the track for xxxx flat rate amount and that’s all you’ll get. Or alternatively you sell them the rights on a per airing or per use basis.
The second one will be worth more in the long term if the adverts takes off, and in either case you may be able to have some leeway on bargaining more specific details like how many time, when and where etc etc but the problem with this is that being what i guess is a relatively new artist you dont have much bargaining power to play with. Push too hard and they’ll just think your awkward and select a different track instead.
Obviously get a proper music lawyer to look it over when you get details and get him to make sure that its not a rip off and that its a sensible value for your area and the normal going rate, but to be honest unless its a particularly bad deal it may be worth looking at it as a marketing tool, and even if your not making all that much money from it see the “profit” as getting your name out there and hopefully if it picks up or goes well it’ll lead to more work which you will then have a little clout and be in a better position to negotiate.
k