|
Author:
Brooke Wentz
“Copyright is the backbone for intellectual growth.” - Former CEO, Fortune 100
Brooke Wentz is a seasoned intellectual property rights executive who founded
The Rights Workshop, a consulting and mediation business, in 2002. Author of
Hey, That’s My Music! Music Supervision, Licensing and Content Acquisition (Hal
Leonard, 2007), Wentz brings twenty-five years of experience in music licensing
and publishing, record production and performing rights organization administration
to clients of The Rights Workshop.
|
“Copyright is the backbone for intellectual growth.” - Former CEO, Fortune 100
Brooke Wentz is a seasoned intellectual property rights executive who founded
The Rights Workshop, a consulting and mediation business, in 2002. Author of
Hey, That’s My Music! Music Supervision, Licensing and Content Acquisition (Hal
Leonard, 2007), Wentz brings twenty-five years of experience in music licensing
and publishing, record production and performing rights organization administration
to clients of The Rights Workshop.
Prior to founding The Rights Workshop, Ms. Wentz spent six years as Music
Director for ESPN, the largest US cable network, administering legal policy and
overseeing all music rights including music for the X Games, World Cup and Sports
Century telecasts. She initiated the company’s publishing efforts, spearheading
relationships with foreign sub-publishers and was responsible for original scores,
commercial music clearance, and production music libraries. Ms. Wentz exercised options for all 50 Greatest
Athletes programs that continued for two years after the Millennium. Earlier in her career Wentz worked for
Arista Records and the Reich Music Foundation.
An accomplished producer, Ms. Wentz has released over 25 critically-acclaimed recordings. She received
recognition from Hillary Clinton for Global Divas, an album produced for the 1996 Third World Conference on
Women held in Beijing. Ms. Wentz won a Billboard Award for Global Meditation, a 4CD box set of interna-
tional music.
Ms. Wentz is a frequent guest speaker and educator on content acquisition, digital rights and the future of
media. She has been hired as an expert witness for copyright infringement cases and is a TASA-registered
expert witness. Ms. Wentz has served on the faculty of San Francisco State University and Baruch College,
and currently teaches the Business of Music at Pyramind: The Institute for Digital Audio Training. She is an
active governor on the NARAS board.
Ms. Wentz holds a B.A. magna cum laude from Barnard College and a MBA from Columbia University.
|
MUSIC SUPERVISION AND RIGHTS CLEARANCE
Music supervision is a vast job that can include many different smaller jobs: music selection, clearance, budgeting, scheduling, composer delivery and negotiation, to name a few. Music supervisors need a healthy dose of business finesse and a hard shell against rejection. In many people’s eyes, the job seems illustrious, hip and fun. In reality, a music supervisor is a hard-working mediator who caters to the needs of directors, producers and other creative people. As a supervisor, I must check my personal tastes at the door and do the best to service my client.
A music supervisor oversees the music usage and music budget of a production. These detailed minded, puzzle loving sorts, have to be specialists in negotiation and mediation. Compared to other copyrights, clearance of music rights tends to be a more complex and unwieldy procedure. This is due to the fact that there are generally at least two different entities to contact for the clearance of any given piece of recorded music. The first copyright is on the song itself, meaning the intangible words and music. The second copyright is on the specific recording of the song that you want to use.
There are three sources of music that productions can look to: originally scored music (by a composer), music production libraries, and pre-existing, already recorded commercial music. There is nothing that makes one source inherently more or less successful for the movie than the others. Your choice of source should depend on your vision and budget. But no matter which one you choose each piece of music contains two copyrights that need permission (even when it involves a composer of new material for the movie) and it is very important to hire a supervisor who is knowledgeable about rights issues and has vast contacts.
The first right to be secured is from the publisher. The publisher represents the songwriter, and can be a single individual or a huge conglomerate like Warner Chappell, Universal, EMI, etc. The song publisher grants synchronization rights. A synchronization right is the authorization to use a composition locked with a moving image or other audio/visual work. Just like in synchronized swimming, where all the swimmers move in unison together, a synchronization right grants permission to use a composition in unison with an image, where the sound and the image are integrated.
The second right to be secured is from the master holder, or owner, who controls the rights to the specific recorded performance of a song. When you hire a composer they are providing you with both rights, and music production libraries quote rates and fees based on the combined rights. But commercial music is bit more complicated because there are generally two separate entities that have separate rights to the music you want and both must be requested.
Exceptions include compositions in public domain, and a new recording of an existing song (as opposed to the most well known recording.). Let’s say you want to use Carlos Santana’s well-known version of the song “Oye Como Va” (from the 1970 Columbia album Abraxas) in a television production, you must secure two permissions. The first right is from the music publisher, EMI Music Publishing, who controls the estate of the writer of the song, Tito Puente. The second must be secured from the owner of the master recording of this song, Columbia Records, which is now controlled by Sony/BMG.
If you decide you want to use another version of the same song, this time by Joe Cuba Sextette, you would still need to secure permission from EMI Music Publishing. However, as to the master, you would now need to obtain permission from Pazzazz, the record label that is the copyright owner of Joe Cuba Sextette’s performance of Tito Puente’s song. Either way, permission must be granted prior to using the song in a new production.
These two points of contact—publisher and master owner—are called “ sides.” Both sides must agree to the use of the song before the requesting party can move ahead. If either denies permission, you may not use the particular recording that you have in mind.
Unlike hiring a composer or using a music production library, where you are essentially going to one source for both copyrights for the music you want, when using commercial music first permission must be requested and granted from two entities. Then, a contract has to be drafted and signed. And paid. Doing this for a number of recordings can involve many dozens of companies. And many different pricings. Most importantly, you need to keep in mind that pricing for commercial tracks, unlike library rates or composer fees, can be entirely capricious. If the publisher wants to charge $500,000 to use 10 seconds of “Honky Tonk Women,” the publisher may do so.
Record labels do the same. They originated to produce records and own masters of their recordings. They often came from humble beginnings, as recording studios such as Sun Records (Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins), Motown (Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Temptations), Stax (Sam & Dave, Isaac Hayes, Booker T & the MGs), and Atlantic (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Coltrane, Eric Clapton). These studios captured the many styles of talent on vinyl and brought the music to the masses, hence they control the master recordings.
Because there are no set rules or rate sheets for licensing outside of the statutory mechanical license, fees are entirely subjective. Just like a piece of art at auction, the sky’s the limit. Factors such as the “hit value” of a song, its Billboard chart placement, its potential use and frequency of use, and the temperament of the artist all affect the fee. Some artists could care less what your project is about, they just want money. Some are pickier, and may only license to, say, independent films. Still others don’t even consider requests, or will only authorize use of their music if they feel passionate about your work. Because license fees are all over the map it is important to involve a seasoned rights negotiator, which could the music supervisor, to secure your rights.
The process of securing music rights is an ever-changing road filled with pitfalls, protocols and personalities. The reach of media has expanded to such an extent that neither clients nor licensors are ever fully aware of the market saturation in order to charge a fee. It is very important in this climate for productions to involve a music supervisor in order to keep up with the ever-changing times.
The preceeding are excerpts from Hey, That’s My Music! Music Supervision, Licensing, and Content Acquisition by Brooke Wentz, published by Hal Leonard’s Music Pro Guides, 2007.
|