What's Happening: Week of May 14, 2018

I have some new stock music in the pipeline since my last post here, so let me start with that.

My latest submission to my podcast intro collection is highly dramatic. So I'm calling it "Highly Dramatic Intro." My original idea was to call it "High Drama Intro," but I already have an item called "High Drama" and didn't want to risk getting confused later. It features lots of aggressive staccato strings and big legato brass, with percussion (of course!). I'm offering it in :30, :15 and stinger versions (no loop version on this one). Check out a preview of the :30 version.

New to my inspirational and motivational music collection is "Making The Difference." This is upbeat, motivational background music to help you convey positive messages in healthcare, lifestyle, political and other subject matter. It's a little over two minutes in length; here's a thirty second sample from the beginning of the track.



Both items are in curation at Pond5. Keep an eye on my Twitter feed for more information when I have confirmation that they are online and available to license.

My featured stock music item this week is Moving Ahead. It's a nice, bright soft rock tune that features a melodica/harmonica melody and is a good choice for healthcare, lifestyle backgrounds or character development montages in your family-friendly or rom-com projects. If you're interested, please check it out at Pond5.

Finally, here's a strange thing. Last time I was on the ASCAP site to register titles for the items now in the pipeline, I noticed I had royalty revenue for the April 2018 quarter. I'm not expecting performance royalties, because no one has licensed any of my stock music for broadcast (that I'm aware of yet). No cue sheets yet. So I looked at the report.

Apparently, ASCAP has worked out deals with various internet companies like YouTube, Spotify and iHeart to collect performance royalties on music. And that's good. On the less good side, my royalty total for all my stuff came out to exactly $0.01. And that might have been generous. At least they can't say I haven't contributed anything to their bottom line.

And so it goes. As always, I thank you for your support, whether it's licensing, streaming my album, EPs or singles, or just stopping by to read. Please feel free to stop in again, leave a comment or contact me using the form in this blog.

Until next time, take care.

B~)

Announcement About My Pond5 Works Registered With ASCAP

Effective immediately, I have registered all the music in my Pond5 portfolio, except for certain arrangements of public-domain Christmas music, with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). I had previously registered selected works from the portfolio with ASCAP, but this week extended that to most of my catalog.

For those who aren't familiar with ASCAP, it's a performance rights organization, or "PRO." PROs like ASCAP and Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) in the United States, or their counterparts in other countries, collect royalties when music written by their members (for example, composers like me) is "performed" in public. Performances can be live or recorded, and include film and television, radio, night clubs and the web.

What this means for you

If you're licensing my work for your personal, private use (say, for a family video), none of what I'm writing about here applies to you. You don't even need to read beyond this point. (But thanks for sticking with me this far!)

However, if you license my work for use in a film, television, radio, a website or other public setting, you need to fill out a cue sheet. This is a document that tells about your project and what specific music you're using for it. If you've never done this before, a good resource to help you get started figuring things out is this page from Pond5 on PRO tracks and cue sheets.

What it means for me

This is very important to me, because it gives me a better opportunity to share in the profits from public performances of my work. Except under certain circumstances, as a media producer there is no extra cost for you to fill out the cue sheet. For example, in film and television the broadcaster, not the producer, is responsible for paying the actual royalties. I suggest you do some research, starting with the link I provided, to determine the requirements for your specific situation.

I hope you will understand and support this decision. I feel strongly that my future viability as a musical artist depends on being able to collect as much of the available royalties for my work as possible. Again, if you're interested in licensing any of my stock music for personal, private use, this change has no impact on you.

As always, I thank you for supporting me and my work, either through licensing stock music, downloading or streaming my commercially available work, or just stopping by to read.