As composers, I believe we all create and collaborate for various reasons. While the predominant reason is to get paid for our 'products', (a) not all composers write music primarily to get paid and (b) there are many of reasons in addition to money why we write music.
So in the initial stages of a...
Expand postAs composers, I believe we all create and collaborate for various reasons. While the predominant reason is to get paid for our 'products', (a) not all composers write music primarily to get paid and (b) there are many of reasons in addition to money why we write music.
So in the initial stages of a collaboration we, the composers, will work out an 'understanding' (normally called a 'contract') with our stakeholders (normally called the producers). Often we are both veterans of previous projects and have made 'judgements' what serves as a 'win' for each of us.
So in order for us to collaborate we both need to have an agreement that serves as a 'win-win' for both sides. My point here based on my recent experience (which I will summarize below), is that there is a certain plateau that we the composers need to achieve to solidify a 'win' from our perspective. If we bend too much, regardless of the quality of our music, we can feel exploited and dissatisfied with the arrangement.
Let me use my recent experience (which I will simplify for this discussion). I am a composer who is more interested for short films, in having my music heard than getting paid for it. I do expect to be paid for features. So for short films with under about 20 minutes of music, I 'waive my charge' for the music I write as long as:
1. The music I deliver is used in the film (otherwise they are charged)
2. I own the copyright and publishing rights and grant them a non-exclusive license with the proviso that it will not be used in any other IMDB film
3. The music comes as a single file placed at the beginning and is not broken into parts and used in a location in the film not specified by the cue. Though I allow the music to be used as need for things like trailers and promotional videos.
4. No other composers music is in the film, but commercial vocal music may be licensed.
I received a contract proposal yesterday. I judged it would be a 'challenge' because the producer was also a lawyer. That film was originally part of a 'competition' but the producer pulled it out of the competition because they were unhappy with the competition/festival contract.
This may sound 'trivial' but when I read anything formal I expect it to be free of spelling and grammatical errors. And one would think they would get my name correct - throughout the contract I am referred to as "Irvin" and my last name is "Irwin".
But let's ignore this a press on...
They make the assumption that 'waiving the fee' means I am 'volunteering' to score the film. In fact the contract is called, "Volunteer Composer Agreement.pdf". In addition to not getting paid, they assume I give up all rights to the music. They assume that any money I win for a 'best score' award comes to me minus the fee they paid to enter the festival competition. And the clause the rubbed me the most was "After 9/23/2023, the Executive Producer is free to remove or replace any or all of Composer’s music from the film, at her sole discretion and to delete Composer’s film credit, if all his music is removed or not used". There is more but you get the idea.
So I think you get the idea of what has happened - no lawyer required for review here. The production company gets the music scored for free to do whatever they want with it and in return they offer me a name credit in the film - not even an IMDB listing (but perhaps they forgot to include that or never heard of IMDB :) )
My 'win' seemed to be limited to a end title listing with no guarantee that the music would even be in the film after a year. If it were a work for hire, perhaps with a sufficient payment that could be above the bar.
But... Mea culpa! We are talking about a short - the platform we use to fine tune our skills and experiment with new ones. In my 35 IMDB films, only two made it to more than one showing at a competition or festival - one to Amazon and one to an International Short Channel. In fact, less than five had any agreements at all - not a contract and not even emails.
So here was my response:
"What you propose would be more of a feature contract than a short scored for free. Most composers I know charge for everything including shorts. I am not volunteering for credit. There is a difference between a volunteer and my offer to waive my costs as long as my music is heard.
You left me with no positives. I am not going to spend a week of my time for credit. I already have 35. I want when people watch the short to be involved with my music and it may not even be in the film after a year.
What you propose only works for me as a work for hire and i am paid a competitive stipend. "
Bottom line - win for them and no win for me. So I declined and have moved on.
