Jingle all the way...

[Guest]

Anyone here well versed in that "bastard child" of serious musicians/songwriters and the recording world...the commercial jingle? http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif What sort of business set-up, royalties, and all should one expect? I think last month's GP had a bit of a short blurb on it. Does one normally sell a jingle package to a business, implying once the sales fees are in place no further royalties are due, or license (maybe "lease" is closer to the word I'm looking for) the package to said business guaranteeing possible royalties. How is this accomplished? I've never heard of an ASCAP log for jingles (doesn't mean there's not one, only that I've never heard of it). To that end, what about copyrights, etc.?

[alphajerk]

i think most of its either work-for-hire or licensing [use in particular ad]

 

i could be wrong.

[Guest]

I'm not WELL versed in this area, but I followed a listserve by film music magazine for several months and learned a lot about these types of things.

 

General practice these days is a "buyout" meaning you provide the finished package for a one time fee. That fee should be appropriate for the type and size of the market you are composing the jingle for. Local stuff obviously doesn't pay as well as national. The deal you cut will depend on who you are dealing with. Most ad agencies will probably want you to do a buyout deal. One of the main complaints on the listserve I mentioned was that if you did manage to retain your copyright/writers royalties/publishing that ASCAP only paid royalties for a given spot if it showed up in their "survey", and the calculated rate is pretty small. I don't think BMI even pays for jingles.

 

It's always best to try and retain as much ownership of your work as possible. What starts out as a local jingle could possibly go on to bigger and better things. If you sign away your rights, you have no future say in the matter. If you DO sign away your rights, get as much $$ as possible from the buyout.

 

Prices vary depending on market, area and who you are. Well known composers can make a lot of money for a jingle. Unknowns can usually get 2-5K for a local jingle buyout. National can bring 25K.

 

Always copyright your material!!! Hope this helps!

 

Chris

[Anderton]

Now is probably as good a time as any to remind you that there is NO SUCH THING as a "standard" contract. You can negotiate for whatever you want, and even be creative. For example, for a jingle, you might stipulate that you own all rights to versions longer than 3 minutes, so you're covered if it turns into a pop tune. Or that the rights revert to you in a certain number of years, or 1 year after the last time it appears in the medium for which it was designed (e.g., radio).

 

Generally everything is a payment/rights tradeoff. If they're willing to offer you $1,000,000 for a jingle, well sure, let them have all rights forever. But for lesser amounts, you can usually finagle greater rights retention. ("Well gee, since you can only pay $5K, how about letting me...")

 

Good luck!

[Guest]

You might try

http://www.pmamusic.com/html/body_about.html

 

for more info on this area.

I would never sell any music as a buyout unless the money was huge, and I mean huge. It's too bad that there are so many composers and musicians who are so eager to work that they undersell themselves and their service. This only hurts everyone in the business in the long run.

A good jingle can be considered great music in my opinion. I'm sick of the fact that a guy who writes the the #98 song in the country has the potential to make 10 times more from royalties than someone who writes a jingle that airs 15 times a day in 80 of the top 100 markets in the country.

Well, you can ignore my ranting, I'm doing a ton of jingles and it makes me angry to see some the composers I'm working with get nothing on the back end for their efforts.

 

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Tiny G

[Guest]

No, no, don't apologize for your ranting...it's energy well spent. I'm glad to hear all of these opinions here, as I'm considering entering the jingle market on a free lance basis, so I'm interested in all the tips I can get, especially from those who've been burned and know better now!

 

Thanks,

 

Ted

[alphajerk]

i think a jingle done well is as good as any platinum song and really makes whatever its on [ad] better. i dont think jingle writers should be embarrased [unless their work is embarrasing] but make it the best possible stuff.

[Guest]

I agree with Tiny whole heartedly. I didn't mean to suggest you should work toward a buyout deal. Unfortunately, it has become the most widely used (abused) method of doing business in this industry. One reason is that with todays' digital technology, their are tons of amature bedroom 'composers' that have such low overhead they can, and DO, sell their creations for as little as $250 per deal. Makes it very hard for the new guy that spent the last 4 years in school learning the trade, that has invested heavily in sound and recording equipment, to get good paying jobs.

[Guest]

I'd like to think that any product would speak for itself, i.e., if it sounds amateurish, no one will buy it. Unfortunately, as you know by using a quick flick of the tuning dial, there's a huge amount of CRAP on the airwaves. A lot of the jingles suck, too http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif ... But, there can be a market to fill on all levels. Let the pros write the new Toyota jingle. Let the bedroom guys do Al's Used Tires. Kinda like the other music scene...not everyone's gonna play Madison Square Garden. Let Sting do that. Other folks can have fun playing Harvey's Saloon on Friday and Saturday...