One problem
I usually that the artist just comes up to me and says that they want me to
place their music. It’s not that easy. If I going to approach supervisors, I
really need to know all the rights and have those cleared. If I just borrow
your song and try to place it, that would be like to borrow away your car. Sure, if I
borrowed it to a person that you admire like a famous movie star, maybe you
wouldn’t mind. Still, I don’t think you would be totally happy that I just
borrowed out your car to anyone.

More you want
me to borrow out my own car. At the same time, why should I do that? Placing a song into production is kind of a lot of work. Just doing it just to be friendly can be total suicide in the business.

It all
comes down to rights. There are two rights to a song. The master and the
composition. To be able to place a song (more or less borrow out the rights for
money) I need to be in full control over these rights. That doesn’t mean that I
need to own the rights, just that I have some paper that says that I can place
this song and keep it going. In most cases why should I do this massive job if
I didn’t earn any money myself?

For the
master rights. Here is the recording. If you record the same song twice in
different studios it’s two masters with two different master rights. Here I
need to be sure that the master is yours. Too many times I find out that the
song then was given out by a small record label. Yes, then it could be their
property. What is common is that the artist has used samples. Have those samples
been cleared? Just because you download it from the internet makes it that you
can use it. Even if you download it and pay for it, be sure that this sample
now belongs to you and you have the right to use it.

Then you
have the composition. This is the writing of the song. So even if you have recorded
the song twice in different studios both songs have just one composition right.
Still, that right can be divided. Let’s say that you wrote the song with your
best friend. During the recording, the producer added stuff and you got a
professional songwriter to add to the song. If they are all part of the
composition ( the things you register at your PRO) they also have a part in the
saying of a placement. That means that even if you are really happy to be
placed in the new Scooby-Doo movie it might don’t mean that the producer finds
that appealing and even if the producer just owns 2% of the composition it
still has it’s an opinion and the song is not cleared. If you then make things
even harder. Then the professional songwriter is signed to a publisher. Then
the publisher owns that part that they wrote in. 

So even you
think this is your song, it’s not. And to be working with supervisors and
placement they want everything cleared beforehand. Everything in placement
goes fast (I will get to that in the next blogpost). There is no time to go
back and check with people that they are okay with each thing.

What you do
then is different ways. I can have a song that is not cleared. Then I more or
less sit and wait for someone to call me and tell their interest. Then I can
tell them that they have to wait for two days while I go around to all people
and ask for their permission. Usually never works, but if you have a really
famous song and people are very keen on it, yes it might work.

Another way
is to pre-clear everything I get papers from everybody that they are ok with
that we say yes to things for them. Then I can say yes direct when someone is
calling.

If that
happens then I can also send out the song in systems where your pre-clear
things ahead of time, that is the most efficient way to do things. At the same
time, you will lose some control over your work. So you can’t be too fussy about placement.

In the end
of it. If you want a professional to place your music you need to be able to
handle over some rights. You don’t just go out there and suggest music to
supervisors. There is a whole thing around rights that need to be checked out.
If you don’t have all this cleared don’t go out there and try to borrow out
something that might not be yours.