[filmo]

Hi,
I wanted to know whether there are any other songwriters on this forum who have dealt with or used the services of the company Songs For Film & TV? And if so, do you recommend them as a great outlet to offer songs up for (hopefully) placement in films and tv? Thanking you. Filmo

[Salley Gardens]

I've never heard of them. I did check out their website, though. It doesn't look like they offer any services, except as a place to allow others to access your work. They say they are a music licensing service, but offer absolutely no information on how this works. This is enough to warrant staying clear from them.

It doesn't look like they market the songwriters' wares at all. And if they did, I would still be wary.

You've got to create your own buzz, and post your music on a site that's up front with what they offer.

[filmo]

Thanks for the advice, my gut feeling tells me the same thing. They claim to have placed songs on major tv series such as Grey Anatomy, yet there is no information on anything specifically and even a Google search comes up with nothing more than the website. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that on their website FAQ they state an deal is non-exclusive yet after requesting a copy of an actual contract, it states specifically they want a 18 month exclusive contract as well as 50% of licensing fee and of publishing and the use of the song for free for advertising, promotional purposes...There are some ambigious clauses in the contract, I've copied parts of it here for your perusal:

2. You grant us the following rights:

a. The exclusive right during the Term to attempt to secure Qualifying Synch Uses of the Works.

b. The exclusive right to grant to the licensee of the Qualifying Synch Use in question (in your name and on

your behalf if we so elect) the following rights in the Works in question, throughout the world, in perpetuity:

i. The right to synchronize the Works in the A/V Work and to perform, exhibit, distribute, advertise,

market, promote and sell the A/V Work in any and all media, now or hereafter known;

ii. The right to use the Works in all Ancillary A/V Uses;

iii. All other rights necessary or desirable in connection with the use and exploitation of the Works in

connection with the A/V Work.

c. The exclusive right to collect all Gross Receipts derived from Qualifying Synch Uses of the Works in

perpetuity. If you receive Gross Receipts derived from Qualifying Synch Uses of the Works, you will promptly report

and turn over such monies to us for accounting hereunder.

d. The right to use your names and likenesses (including, without limitation, all professional, group, and other

names and logos), and biographical material concerning you in connection with our exercise of our rights hereunder

and the license of rights with regard to the Qualifying Synch Use in question.

[FunkDaddy]

There is absolutely no reason why you should grant this company exclusive rights. From what I see they simply throw it up on the site and allow people to buy it.

[Salley Gardens]

Yup, that's what I see, too. And nobody in their right mind, in search of talent, would go looking there on their own accord.

[SFFTV]

Hello-

This is David from Songs for Film & T.V. First of all I would like to say that as artist I commend you for being cautious about my company and others like us. I myself have been an artist for most of my life and professionally for about 15 years with 3 major record deals under my belt. When looking for outlets to expose your music you must do your homework to see if the services offered are legitimate and make sense for the way you want to go about promoting your art. Our company is a very artist friendly company and we are always looking out for our artists first and foremost. Our services include music licensing, music supervision and music publishing. We also offer a wide variety of deals most of which are non-exclusive and commission based. If we get a placement for an artist we receive a % commission for our work. My colleagues and I have been in the music publishing, licensing and production for many years prior to launching SFFTV and we take pride in getting the most exposure we can for our artists. I encourage you to drop me an email to discuss any questions you have. I'd be happy to talk with you

david@songsforfilmandtv.com

I wish you all the best in the new year and no matter what NEVER give up on your dream!!

All the best,

David

[kimberlyinnc]

I have not used them but I do know that on SONGU, in the pitching area, they are always looking for songs for television and film and if you are a member, you can pitch directly though their site. It also has class studies about music, writing, and song evaluations from grammy award winning writers. etc. It is a really nice site. I belong to it. So far I have found it very much worth it to be a part of the site.

Good luck.

Kimberly

[Salley Gardens]

SFFTV, on 08 January 2011 - 12:36 AM, said:

I encourage you to drop me an email to discuss any questions you have. I'd be happy to talk with you

David, welcome to the Muse! It might behoove you, and us, to discuss your company and our questions within this thread, rather than privately by email. Many of us will have the same questions, and many more will be lurking, giving your company further exposure.

You can start by addressing the questions and concerns already expressed.

[FunkDaddy]

SFFTV, on 08 January 2011 - 02:36 AM, said:

We also offer a wide variety of deals most of which are non-exclusive and commission based.

Yet your standard contract grants you exclusive rights to the material? I'm sure somebody appreciates the canned reply but maybe you can respond to the original questions asked about your company, since I'm sure you can answer better than we can

[SFFTV]

Salley Gardens, on 09 January 2011 - 12:51 PM, said:

SFFTV, on 08 January 2011 - 12:36 AM, said:

I encourage you to drop me an email to discuss any questions you have. I'd be happy to talk with you

David, welcome to the Muse! It might behoove you, and us, to discuss your company and our questions within this thread, rather than privately by email. Many of us will have the same questions, and many more will be lurking, giving your company further exposure.

You can start by addressing the questions and concerns already expressed.

Hi Salley!

Love the name it's my Mom's

I'd like to point out that that the deal points posted by "Filmo" are from our "Exclusive Artist Agreement." As I mentioned we offer a variety of deals for each artist depending on if they have a publishing deal in place, a record deal, a record deal and publishing deal, etc. There are so many variables that are used to make a decision on what type of deal is made and I will go into that in a different posting for sure.

When we first opened our doors we were an 100% "Non-Exclusive" company but as we grew we felt that it would be best for the artist(s) to pitch them exclusively. Let me explain the thought behind the "Exclusive Vs. Non-Exclusive Deal." In creating SFFTV I decided it would be best to have a non-exclusive company the allowed the artist to go with as many song pitching companies as possible. This sounds great on paper but the reality is that if an artist has multiple companies pitching the same song(s) if can be VERY frustrating for music supervisors to find out who pitched it first especially in the advertisement world. It puts them in a very bad mood and sometimes leads to them looking elsewhere for music. That is NOT a good thing for the artist or pitching company. We are now approaching artists to rep them exclusively for that reason. It doesn't mean they will be with us FOREVER by any means we just ask for a certain period and that could be anywhere from 6 months to 2 years depending on the artist. As you can imagine every single agreement that we do requires negotiation and we are always very flexible with making artists feel like they have the perfect deal for them. I want everyone that signs with us to feel 100% comfortable with their agreement. "Filmo" with all due respect is not quite understanding the language within their agreement and would probably be well advised to seek an attorney to help them with it. Also doing a "Google" search for SFFTV's placements won't do you any good due to the fact that the song placement company is never mentioned in a placed song's credits. I assure you we are VERY successful with placements and our are doors are very open for business, thank God!! This brings brings me to another point ALWAYS seek the advice of an attorney before signing any agreement that comes your way. There is ALWAYS room for negotiation. ALWAYS avoid companies that require some sort of payment for their services. I would like to mention that we do 99% of all of our placements through our daily contact and relationships with music supervisors. The website is a "Show-Room" so to speak. This means that everyday we are getting requests or looking for places that our songs from our catalog could fit or even composing songs to fit a scene. I could go on for days but hopefully this helps a bit. I'm happy to keep posting responses to questions here on this forum. This place rocks by the way! I just discovered it "FunkDaddy" a bit of "Un-Canned" advice, you probably should come across a little less "cocky" in your posts. This business is very small and you always want to be nice You never know who you're talking to and you could make yourself look like someone that people don't want to work with. Hopefully that doesn't start a war with you, I am just trying to help.

Thanks!

[Salley Gardens]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, David!

Your explanation of exclusive vs. non-exclusive contracts makes a lot of sense, as well as why your company would offer both.

I also appreciate your emphasis about how all contracts have room for negotiation, and the importance of seeking advice from an entertainment attorney regarding a contract.

The website for SSFTV seems overly sparse on giving information about how things work. For example: How do you get your artists? Do you solicit them, or do they solicit you? Can anyone sign up? How do you promote your artists, and to whom? Do you only pitch songs that meet certain criteria, or are they treated equally? Which songs/artists have been place in which TV episodes, films. Do you place music other than actual songs? What are some examples of deals made between artists, and between Film/TV?

I agree with your advice to Funkdaddy, your assessment that the world is smaller than we think, and the importance of guarding one's own reputation. I'm sure you can appreciate is wariness, though, about the many predators "out there" preying upon wannabe superstars and the rest of us creative types.

[SFFTV]

Salley Gardens, on 11 January 2011 - 10:04 AM, said:

Thanks for the thoughtful reply, David!

Your explanation of exclusive vs. non-exclusive contracts makes a lot of sense, as well as why your company would offer both.

I also appreciate your emphasis about how all contracts have room for negotiation, and the importance of seeking advice from an entertainment attorney regarding a contract.

The website for SSFTV seems overly sparse on giving information about how things work. For example: How do you get your artists? Do you solicit them, or do they solicit you? Can anyone sign up? How do you promote your artists, and to whom? Do you only pitch songs that meet certain criteria, or are they treated equally? Which songs/artists have been place in which TV episodes, films. Do you place music other than actual songs? What are some examples of deals made between artists, and between Film/TV?

I agree with your advice to Funkdaddy, your assessment that the world is smaller than we think, and the importance of guarding one's own reputation. I'm sure you can appreciate is wariness, though, about the many predators "out there" preying upon wannabe superstars and the rest of us creative types.

Hi Salley!

We don't give a ton of information regarding signing up due to the fact that we have a strong a&r team that is constantly searching for artists that we feel fit our roster. We tried the "Submit Music" thing but we were overloaded with music and frankly we didn't have the time to go through it all and didn't want to leave people out in the cold so to speak. However you can always submit music @ info@songsforfilmandtv.com

We pitch directly to films, tv shows, advertisements, trailers, video games and just about everywhere in between. We are also a music supervision company and work with independent film makers. We provide them with consulting, clearance, licensing and overall musical input for their projects. We do place songs as well as instrumental compositions. We have many deals with artists including commissioning from the master side only, publishing side only, both sometimes it just depends on the individual artist's position in their career and how much sweat equity we are putting in. We have a team of producers and songwriters that work hand in hand with some of our artist. We provide them with studio time and songwriting partners. I wish I had a simple answer for you but you see each artist is completely unique in their deal with us. I hope this helps

[rose]

Quote

We don't give a ton of information regarding signing up due to the fact that we have a strong a&r team that is constantly searching for artists that we feel fit our roster. We tried the "Submit Music" thing but we were overloaded with music and frankly we didn't have the time to go through it all and didn't want to leave people out in the cold so to speak. However you can always submit music @ info@songsforfilmandtv.com

We pitch directly to films, tv shows, advertisements, trailers, video games and just about everywhere in between. We are also a music supervision company and work with independent film makers. We provide them with consulting, clearance, licensing and overall musical input for their projects. We do place songs as well as instrumental compositions. We have many deals with artists including commissioning from the master side only, publishing side only, both sometimes it just depends on the individual artist's position in their career and how much sweat equity we are putting in. We have a team of producers and songwriters that work hand in hand with some of our artist. We provide them with studio time and songwriting partners. I wish I had a simple answer for you but you see each artist is completely unique in their deal with us. I hope this helps

[/quote]

Hi David

I think we'd all like to know specifics - which songs you've placed in which TV series/ads. The series list on your site isn't quite specific enough to draw us in and you're being coy about what success you've had in your reply above. I would have thought that this would be something you'd be proud to display on your site. I lecture classes of university students, some of whom have excellent content, however without specifics of which placements you're achieved it's difficult to recommend your site (and licensing system).

Compliments on the songs on your front page, though, and your search criteria.

Best wishes

Rose

[Scotto]

I have placed some songs (from the band I'm in) with some success. We currently have a song running in the background of a commercial for the TV Guide channel and have also been used in NASCAR and Formula 1 promotions. The entity we use requires exclusive rights also. It's really a tough thing to give up from the artists perspective but I bit the bullet and have seen a little success with things. All in all I now don't have a problem with that as long as I think I might see results... and I have. Said company reached out to us to join and does review new things that I submit. I just wish I could get my own recordings up to snuff but that's another story...

My only complaint with the whole process is transparency. The only reason I know that our song was used for TV Guide is because someone saw the commercial and let me know. Other than that I only knew about the NASCAR thing when the payments arrived 6 months later and I never got to see how it was used. It's a very odd process from the artists perspective.

Can you comment on why things are run like that David? Just curious as someone who's had a few placements. Or maybe you offer a more transparent process.

Thanks,

[dtrain1234]

Hi David,

First of all, welcome to Muse Muse!! I took a look at your website and browsed your placements pages. I saw you did have a few acknowledgements of which songs were placed. I started songwriting 3 years ago and I hope that one day I can be a staff songwriter. Good luck to you.

Darin