Music publishing agreements series; (part 4) Recent South African publishing success stories

Licensing for film

Licensing of music for film, video and other audio-visual productions has become a key function of publishers world-wide, and South Africa is no exception. There are several ways a film producer and director will go about sourcing music, a crucial aspect of any movie, video or television programme. Often, the producer will engage a composer like Trevor Jones to compose a dedicated score for the entire film.

These days, the trend is to combine a score with existing recordings which are well-known and recognised by an audience, creating a “recall” effect of that music for a scene in the film. Sometimes the producer will use only existing recordings. Finally, it is possible that a producer of a low-budget film will use “production” or “library” music. In all cases, however, there will be a list of credits at the end of the film, showing all the music that was used, the composers, publishers, and performers.

A dedicated film score will usually involve a one-off fee for composition, production and synchronisation, with the copyright being transferred to the producer/film studio as commissioned work. (it is not unknown for the composer to receive a cut of box-office takings, although this is rare).

If, on the other hand, the publisher negotiates the use of one of the composer/artist’s existing recordings this opens up several income streams. In the case of a major film production, these might include:

• A synchronisation fee payable from the film producer to the publisher, who will consequently credit the composer’s royalty account in accordance with the publishing agreement;

• A master re-use fee payable from the film producer to the label, as owner of the sound recording, which will consequently credit the artist’s royalty account in accordance with the recording agreement;

• A mechanical royalty payable to the composer and publisher, if the song appears on a soundtrack album of the film;

• Public performance royalties for the composer and publisher from the PRO in each country where the film is shown in public cinemas (provided each country is a member of the Berne convention)

Most large publishing houses these days have at least one film and television music co-ordinator. This person is in touch with the film production industry and has his “ear to the ground”, so to speak, for opportunities. It is vital, if you would like to see your compositions end up in films, to have an ongoing rapport with this person, and to keep feeding him new music and ideas about upcoming for compositions. Naturally, this opportunity also comes with a threat: if you are signed to a major publisher, it is likely that the music supervisor will have thousands of songs to choose from.

There have been cases where a composer is signed to a publisher, but it is the composer who somehow gets his composition on to a film, and not the publisher. In my opinion, it would be very unfair for the publisher to share in the income resulting from such a deal, therefore my advice is that you insert a clause in the agreement precisely to that effect. (this should apply to all license income in my opinion). Alternatively, the agreement should at the very least provide for an increase in the usually applicable split, in the composer’s favour, where it is he that finds the deal.

Music supervision

‘Music supervision’ is a term used by publishers to describe the process of overseeing, as a dedicated project, the entire musical content of a production (usually in the fields of film, television, documentaries, video games, commercials/advertising campaigns and the internet), even where their own writers are not always used, and some content has to be licensed from other publishers. One example of this was the movie “Spud”, where Geoff Paynter Publishing was dedicated with the task of sourcing and clearing all the licenses for all the music used on the movie, and did a superb job.

Naturally, publishers will prefer to use their own writers’ music on such projects, if the director and producer allow it, since this will mean greater income and no-other “middle-men.” On the movie “Inside story,” Sheer Publishing did the music supervision, and was responsible for licensing all of the music for the movie – which used many of Sheer’s composer’s works. Another music supervision project worked on by Sheer was the movie “Ordinary People” which was scored by legendary South African guitarist and producer Mauritz Lotz, a Sheer composer, and again used many of Sheer’s other composers. It also employed the services of Babelas featuring Jack Parrow.

Licensing for television

This is becoming bigger and bigger business for publishers, due to the increasingly-competitive nature of the TV broadcast industry in South Africa. Broadcasters need more content, and this means that they, or the producers from which they are sourcing the content, need more music. Some examples of television licenses negotiated by Sheer include “Big Brother Stargame” (the theme music), well-known soapie Jacob’s Cross (where most of the commercial and library music was provided by the Publisher) and the huge soapie “Generations,” which used the Sheer’s library music.

Commercial advertising

As South African (and even international) advertising agencies look more and more to use South African music on their radio and television (and viral) advertising campaigns, this is where the publishers come in. The past Kellogg’s Cornflakes Instant Porridge campaign used “Pata Pata,” Wimpy used One Republic’s “Good Life” and Clear Active Skin Lotion used Flash Mob performing Kabelo’s “Impilo.” Naturally, local publishers often also license non-South African music, to which they have acquired the territorial rights to use in the country e.g. Cadbury South Africa used Bon Iver’s “Fall Creek Boys Choir.”

Placing music in advertisements can be a very lucrative income stream for both composer and publisher. While South Africa’s advertising industry operates on a far smaller scale than the US or Japan (where music composers treasure the advertising market above all else), South Africa’s advertising industry is highly-advanced and respected worldwide.

The beauty of having a publisher that is well-placed with the advertising agencies is that synchronisation fees are payable, but performance royalties are also racked up, for every flighting, unless the agency negotiates this away. Some publishers are now starting to employ dedicated television co-ordinators, who will be responsible, inter alia, for advertising uses.

Most overseas advertising agencies have music departments. Some South African agencies are starting to follow suit. If your publisher is worth his salt, he will know these people.