[Fmpro] Fwd: This Week in FMW: FTV Music Conf, NeKo Demo, New SESAC Office, ASCAP UK Awards

[Mark Northam]

On 10/24/07 11:19 AM, "kirbyko3 at aol.com" <kirbyko3 at aol.com> wrote:

> While I appreciate the intensity with which FMN tries to hold the PRO's to the
> fire, it seems that while you're covering the backend, you're selling out the
> front end: the sync fees.

I'm selling out? Uh-oh....

Would you feel just as concerned if a music library had normal sync fees but
paid no portion of those to the composer? If so, you've probably just
indicted about 30-40% of the entire library industry.

> 
> So my ultimate questions are:
> 
> 1) why does FMN endorse such practices? (the non-paying libraries)

We don't endorse them. We accept their advertising - big difference. The
same argument could be made by US musicians saying "why do we endorse the
Bulgarian film orchestra" because we accept advertising from them.

For that matter, we also accept advertising from Sony and their CineScore
soundtrack-creating software product. By accepting advertising, we no more
endorse a product or service than a newspaper endorses the quality of the
product/service of an advertiser, whether it be a used car ad, "personals"
ad, or a regular display advertiser.

> 2) how about creating a compendium of libraries indicating what their business
> models are -- sort of like a "Composer's Guide to working with Music
> Libraries" -- the same way you guys have done the other reports that you
> offer, like the going rate for scoring gigs, etc.

It's actually in the works, scheduled for completion at the end of the year.
Most music libraries we've talked to are very reluctant to publicly disclose
their deals, and many libraries have different deals depending on the market
clout of the composer they're doing the deal with, so a public listing of
libraries and their deal types is unlikely. However, a directory of music
libraries with as much info as we can gather and they will provide is what
we're working on.

> 
> This usually-vocal list is really dead-silent about this topic...? I'm kinda
> surprised.? I guess I expected more outrage.

That could be said for several important topics on this list :-)

Best,

Mark

---------------------------------
Mark Northam, CEO
Global Media Development Group

http://www.DemoCheck.com - Get Your Music Heard By The Pros

1-800-774-3700 ext. 702 / 310-645-9000 ext. 702
http://www.gmdgroup.com
Yahoo/Skype: marknortham  /  AIM: mnortham