TheMusicSnob recently published a post which frowns upon PumpAudio’s changes to its standard licensing agreement, specifically the shift in the 50/50 split to 65/35 in favour of PumpAudio.  The post also highlights the practice of ‘Re-Title Publishing’ (also known as ‘Derivative Publishing’) where the song title is registered under an alternate title (e.g. Fields of Gold -> Gold Fields) on the cue sheet so that PumpAudio can collect a portion of the royalties.
 
PumpAudio was one of the first pre-cleared searchable music libraries that considered submissions from independent artists.  The company was acquired by Getty Images in 2007 for $42 million along with a catalogue of 20,000 independent artists.   Although the recent shift from 50/50 to 65/35 is bad news for the artist, it is a reflection of deflated upfront synchronization license fees in an increasingly competitive media landscape and down economy.

Re-Title Publishing is an accepted industry practice and serves two principle purposes:  It allows the broker to collect backend royalties in addition to frontend fees and protects the songwriter by ensuring that the broker only collects monies for the commercial use(s) he procures.  To combat any public confusion that this may cause and benefit the songwriter’s marketing efforts, many films and TV shows offer a “gratis” cue where the original song title is used as opposed to the derivative title in the screen credit roll or music soundtrack release.

Music licensing, a seemingly clandestine industry bisect, is a lucrative business for songwriters and PumpAudio was pivotal to lowering the barrier of entry for upstart and unsigned artists.  YouLicense followed suit with an ‘open’ music licensing marketplace and transparent business model.

Details on licensing music for TV and film.

Related Posts: SoundReef, Music Placement

A citizen of the United Kingdom, Don immigrated to the United States from Australia, where he jump-started his career by doing record promotion for several labels, including Chess and Capitol Records. During that time, he was involved in the promotion of The Beatles, and was singularly recognized with the only Golden Apple Award ever presented by them for “outstanding promotion in launching Apple Records in the United States”. At Capitol, Don was also Manager of International A&R/Promotion, where he signed Little River Band, and Director of Merchandising and Advertising. When Capitol created a second label, EMI America Records, in 1978, Don became its Vice President of A&R. His credits at EMI America include Michael Johnson, Kim Carnes, Sheena Easton, Kate Bush, Sir Cliff Richard, J. Geils Band, and Kenny Rogers. In 1982, Don moved back to Capitol where he signed and helped guide a number of hit-making acts, including Heart, Joe Cocker, Freddy Jackson, Melba Moore, Steve Vai, Megadeth, WASP, and George Clinton. He was personally involved with the recording careers of Tina Turner, Bob Seger, Anne Murray, The Motels, Duran Duran, Power Station, Thomas Dolby, Ashford & Simpson, Billy Squier, and assisted in the emergence of Crowded House, Poison, The Smithereens, and Great White. In 1987, Don resigned from Capitol to join CBS/Sony as Senior Vice President of A&R, Epic Records, where he personally signed and worked with such acts as Celine Dion (via Sony Canada), Bad English (finding their #1 hit “When I See You Smile”), Iron Maiden, Basia, as well as bringing his expertise to bear on the careers of Cheap Trick (finding their #1 single “The Flame”), Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, REO Speedwagon, The Jacksons, and Europe. Under his direction, the Epic A&R staff also signed successful acts, including Living Colour, Indigo Girls, Allman Brothers Band, Alice Cooper, Social Distortion, Firehouse, Suicidal Tendencies, Front 2423, Ottmar Liebert and Joe Satriani. In 1993, Don created Drive Entertainment, a company with emphasis on classic artist and niche market catalog exploitation, where he compiled and packaged over 140 albums. Five years later, Don chose to reenter the broader-based music market and, to date, operates his own independent consultancy and music supervision company. We Are Listening is delighted to have Don on board!