The Outsight Report #15

Entering a deal without a contract is a bad idea in any industry. Prior contracts are especially important for agreements that pay nothing up front, but offer an artist royalties based on future use within a particular medium.

While these seem convenient, artists are often left out of the equation. They are still entitled to public performance royalties, however these returns are split between the artist and the library and are generally much less than expected.

Be wary of production companies that present themselves as publishers. They often offer deals that lock the artist into long term agreements, strip them of their rights, and siphon huge amounts of money from their overall income. 

Be sure that you have retained all copyrights to your music or have addressed any copyright issues. Copyrights guarantee an artist's ability to reproduce, distribute, perform, display and derive other works from an original song. Music supervisors expect any copyrights issues to be buttoned up before an artist pitches a project.

While non-exclusive deals are great for not limiting a song's earning potential, there are some downfalls to allowing too many companies to represent the same song. A better option is to diversify your licensing partners so that your music is being widely represented across media.

Signing a sync licensing agreement can be a major turning point in an artist's career, but offering an entire catalogue to a library before doing the research is a serious sin. Make sure they align with your brand before signing over your work and regretting it later.

Music supervisors' inboxes are inundated with pitches. If the only place they can find your contact information is in the original pitch, then you are in trouble. Make yourself easy to find by embedding your contact info in the track’s metadata.