[Fmpro] ASCAP - song as feature

[Ed]

Pete,

You completely missed my point.  Again, everyone I talked with during the review of my situation from the top people on down said the same thing - "if it's a song you will get paid as feature whether the song is featured in the scene or not.  Not to worry about the review.".  ASCAP personel told me they always consider and pay song as a "feature".  If someone is singing lyrics to your music it's considered a "feature" performance.    The production company made the error on the cue sheet in regards to my tune.  As far as your tune passing ASCAP's review - call them!  Question them as to whether it should be paid as feature vs background.  Wadda ya got to lose?  This is "our" organization!

As far as song vs score, I do not believe music I write that has lyrics put to it is worth more than my music without the lyrics.  It's a silly debate.  One minute of music with lyrics and one minute of music without lyrics is worth the same $$$.  They both are used for the same purpose, to support the visual (movies/tv), the story, etc...

Ed

  

Message: 8
Date: Fri, 11 Jan 2008 21:01:36 -0800 (PST)
From: Pete <musical411 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Fmpro] FMPRO Digest, Vol 33, Issue 15
To: Ed <edbaker4 at earthlink.net>, fmpro at nxport.com
Message-ID: <693497.93013.qm at web53709.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1

Thanks Ed,

So, it's both of our experiences that a song marked as
"background vocal" on the cue sheet was not
automatically given feature credit when processed.

My song has lyrics, but you can't hear a word of it in
the scene. The car engine is louder than my song
playing on the car radio. So, I don't think it would
pass ASCAP's review. The music is not the focus of the
audience's attention (which is the definition of
Feature Performance).