[Fmpro] Wow

[Claude Castonguay]

Well the way i see it,

composers are the only people in the business who are actually paying  
to work. When you give 50 % of royalties to the publisher/producer,  
If it's on prime time and it makes 50 000$ of back end they are  
actually getting paid 24 900$ to hire a composer(25k$ minus 100$  
fee). So they could pay you 25 000$ per show and they would still not  
be taking a penny out of their pockets.

When they hire a sound man are they paying him out money? Yes, big  
time. Composers? 100$ and they actually recuperate it 250 times with  
the publishing...

Some people here may think that my 50 000$ number for a prime time  
show is exagerated? I have a friend that writes the music for a very  
big show that runs on NBC prime time nationwide in the states, he  
gets 60 000$(writer's share only) every sunday that one of his  
episodes is on.

I've had a producer tell me right off the bat that the publishing he  
gets from the music i wrote for a show he produced is actually what  
pays is rent and employees during tougher periods.

Mark you make it clear yourself that trying to recoup your monies  
from ascap is sort of like a lottery. When you win at that lottery  
you may not care for the front end, but when you take 0$ for front  
end you are setting precedents and then the little guy that hasn't  
won the ASCAP  lottery has to deal with it.

I  actually know a wealthy composer who is cynical enough to offer is  
services for free, going for the back-end, and knowing that younger  
composers(the competition) will suffocate if they have to work for  
free as they cannot wait 3 years for the ASCAP check to come in.

Claude


On 06-11-30, at 12:21, Mark Northam wrote:

> Hi Tracey -
>
> Thanks for the feedback. In my own opinion, $100 per cue is not bad  
> pay in
> some markets, and the composer who posted this is an established  
> composer on
> his way up.
>
> What I don't understand is this: Composers are subjected to an 80%  
> penalty
> for each one-minute cue when it comes to performing rights  
> royalties when
> you compare a minute of song's royalty rate to a minute of score. This
> affects ALL composer's wallets FAR more than a few hundred dollars of
> up-front money on one gig here or there. Yet where's the outrage?  
> Composers
> are losing millions of dollars each year due to ASCAP's anti- 
> composer payout
> rules, yet few people complain.
>
> Your thoughts?
>
> Best,
>
> Mark Northam
>
>
> On 11/30/06 9:11 AM, "Tracey Larvenz" <tlarvenz at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Honestly, I don't think that this posting should be up on FMN.   
>> This is the
>> kind of thing that all of us are trying to fight against.  By  
>> posting it, we
>> are not only condoning it, but assisting in its proliferation and  
>> practice.
>> I don't think that this posting is in our community's best interest,
>> although I know that this conversation has been brought up before  
>> with some
>> previous job postings.  We don't stand to gain anything by having  
>> it posted,
>> but we all lose out if someone takes the job.
>
> ---------------------------------
> Mark Northam - Publisher
> Film Music Magazine
> The Professional Voice of Music for Film & TV
> http://www.filmmusicmag.com
> 1-800-774-3700 x702 / (310) 645-9000 x702
>
>
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