[Fmpro] Turning Down Work

[Merritt Music Productions]

Hi all,

Glad to hear the expo went well!  Thought you guys might like this.  I
turned down a $5k job last week.  Here's why:

Last year I did a History Channel show for this production company.  It's a
company I really wanted to work with so I did it for less than normal -
$3,500.  I was thinking it would be the start of a long relationship and
all, you know the drill.

Anyway, the music turned out great.  I'm not saying this to brag, I mean to
prove a point here.  I have a top of the line setup with all the major
samples and such, but I also played real cello, violin, flutes, guitars,
drums and so on.  It was a real work of art in some places; they were
amazed, and loved it.  I told them my price was that low ONLY for this first
project.

After some time of not getting any more work from them, I realized: they
don't really care about the quality.  Now that they've had a show composed
for $3,500, which is not the cheapest they've had, they don't want to pay
any more.  No matter what.

But it gets better:

They called me last week and said the usual:  they LOVED my work and really
wanted me to do some more for them.  Great!  We talked about the show and
the musical needs and I determined that I would still cut them a break.  I
have a minimum of $5k.  That means that I normally don't do any type of
project unless it pays at least $5k.  So I told them I would do it for $6k.
A steal in my opinion for any real composer.

He emailed me back saying that they only had $5k in the budget (b.s.) and
that it must be the SAME contract as our earlier project together.  I asked
for him to send me the contract from the last project because I was out of
state.

Turns out the earlier one was a pure Work-for-hire, granting the writer's
share back to me.  These are the types of deals you have to look out for
nowadays.  This production company is making THEIR OWN music library from
composers who have scored their shows!  He told me this directly.  So when
you score for them, they are REUSING your music as much as they want without
paying!

I told them I would still do it, though.  $5k for non-exclusive licensing
and NOT work for hire, or $10k for pure work for hire.  

They haven't called back......

Moral - Composers should make EVERY deal be non-exclusive licensing ONLY
(huge projects could be different)

NEVER do a work for hire!

Hope everyone is well.  I'll keep ya'll posted!

Chris

Merritt Music Productions
9701 Clearwater Drive
Knoxville, TN 37923
merrittmusic.com
865-357-5473