Always Happy to help!

That makes sense.
Thanks for the clarification.

-Mark

YouLicense will always have a free service.
From now on, YouLicense users will enjoy the possibility of upgrading their account to a “Pro Musician” account, as well as to a “Business Account”.

YouLicense.com’s users can now choose to use one of these three account options:

1. a Free Account (YouLicense Classic) that includes:
• 10 Songs Uploaded to their Artist Store
• 1 Artist Store per Account
• 1 Album
• Limited Opportunity Submissions
• Only 9% commission once a deal has been closed and the artist has been paid

2. a “Pro Musician” Account ($29.95 for 6 months) that includes:
• No Commission
• Unlimited Uploads
• 2 Artist Stores per Account
• Unlimited Storage
• Unlimited Albums
• Unlimited Opportunity Submissions

3. a “Business Account” ($59.95 for 6 months) that includes:
• No Commission
• Unlimited Uploads
• Unlimited Storage
• Unlimited Albums
• Unlimited Opportunity Submissions
• Unlimited Artist stores
• Personal Account Manager

We would love to listen to any feedback and answer any questions you may have at feedback@youlicense.com.

1. Do royalty free music companies typically require their artists to sign some sort of exclusive deal (as in they can’t have their music in multiple company’s libraries at once)?

Not typically. The norm is usually a non-exclusive agreement.
Some sites will give the artist a higher percentage for exclusive online rights to distribute the music.
You should be very careful when someone offers you an exclusive deal as there are many things to consider before accepting.

Is the site/company going to push your music and actually make it worthwhile to tie up all of your rights through one distribution channel?

Is the site/company brand new or has it been around awhile and has a proven track record?

Remember that if you sign an exclusive deal your hands are tied if something better comes along (which it quite often does). From the experiences I’ve heard from our more than 40 composers the ones who have gone for exclusive deals almost always regret it in the end.

2. What is the industry standard (is there an industry standard) with regard to profit sharing? I saw a 60/40 split mentioned in a blog entry of yours. Is this typical?

By far the industry standard is 50/50, non-exclusive.

3. Can you explain “cue sheets”?

Cue sheets are filled out by the production company after they have created a TV show, Film, Video, TV/Radio commercial, etc. They list the music tracks used (and quite often sound effects used) along with composer names and PRO (performing rights organization) cue title, duration and usage for each cue.
There are different types of usage that pay different amounts of royalties such as background or main theme song or a song with lyrics that the actors are sing along with.

Here is a Cue Sheet FAQ from the ASCAP website and a sample Cue Sheet in pdf format.

4. How is the artist/royalty free music company typically credited by the licensee of the music?

Many times they are not credited depending on which royalty free company you distribute through. In PIR’s case there is nothing in our license agreement that requires the licensee to credit anyone if they do not wish to. Listing credits would become too complicated for all of the different applications that the music we sell is used for.
For example, if someone creates a real estate video they probably do not want to put a list of credits at the end for their customers to read.
or if someone creates a flash application with some of our music in the background they will not be wanting to create an extra page to list all of the composers and distribution companies involved with the music.

Composers need to keep in mind that the majority of the uses for their music distributed through royalty free websites is not for a film or TV show with major distribution. The most common uses are for small projects, videos and applications.

When the procuction company does want to list credits we tell them to list the composer name and then our company name as the distributor.

5. What are the artists/royalty free music company’s obligations regarding BMI or ASCAP?

The only party that has an obligation to ASCAP or BMI (or the hundreds of other PROs worldwide) are the people at the production company. They simply need to fill out a cue sheet.
Some websites (including Partners In Rhyme) do not require the reporting of the use of the music to PROs. Therefore a percentage of our clients are broadcasters who purchase large quantities of music.

6. Is there anything that you think that I should know that I have not asked about already?

Before a composer starts submitting material to royalty free music sites they should get their information together on their own end first.

1. Get a website with previews of your music.
A myspace page with 3 tracks on it is ok but doesn’t really give an idea of what the entire catalog might be and also doesn’t look very professional.
Also, sending a potential distributor to another distributor’s website to hear your music is ok if that is all you have for previews but keep in mind that the distributor will take into consideration that your music is already available all over the web.

2. Do not make it difficult for the company to hear your music.
Don’t make them login to hear your music, don’t make them do a search for your music on a competitor’s website, don’t send them to a page that downloads a bunch of quicktimes and crashes their browser, don’t send them to a myspace page that takes forever to load if at all.
It is your job to get a royalty free music company to hear your music, not theirs.
Sending your music the old fashioned way on an audio CD is always great. It is slow but shows the company that you are taking the time to present yourself properly.

3. Give the company an idea of how many tracks you want to distribute.
They probably won’t be interested if you have 3 tracks that you just slapped together in Garageband. If you have 300 tracks they’re more likely to take you seriously

4. Let the company know if you have edits and loops available for your full length tracks.

As someone new to royalty free music, I have some questions that I was hoping that you or possibly some of your readers could answer:

1. Do royalty free music companies typically require their artists to sign some sort of exclusive deal (as in they can’t have their music in multiple company’s libraries at once)?

2. What is the industry standard (is there an industry standard) with regard to profit sharing? I saw a 60/40 split mentioned in a blog entry of yours. Is this typical?

3. Can you explain “cue sheets”?

4. How is the artist/royalty free music company typically credited by the licensee of the music?

5. What are the artists/royalty free music company’s obligations regarding BMI or ASCAP?

6. Is there anything that you think that I should know that I have not asked about already?

Thank you in advance for your help!

Scott