Guest Contributor Maya Halfon

Maya Halfon is a music supervisor at Michael Welsh Productions. She began at the fully independent electronic label, Quango, doing marketing and then pitching music in house to film, TV and advertising, as well as handling in house licensing before becoming a music supervisor; now she specializes in music for advertising. In addition to music selection, MWP also administers music, image, or film rights clearances, as well as producer deals or any other right that can come up when music and brands intersect. Michael Welsh, CEO of the company, has a background as a composer for film, television and advertising and worked as a music supervisor at the major studios. Michael Welsh Productions handled all music supervision and rights clearances for Gap brands international television campaigns including “Jump, Jive and Wail,” “West Side Story,” “Madonna and Missy,” and “Audrey’s Back.” Current MWP clients include Macy’s, Chico’s, Nike, Nokia, HSN and Chivas Regal. TuneCore is very pleased to have Maya Halfon contribute just one story of her life in this industry. --Peter

We Got You Covered

Coming from the other side of the desk, I find one of the best things about being a music supervisor is that I’m now in a position to help independent and even unsigned artists get their music exposed, and get them paid for it. Coming from the indie world, I also know that there is far too much to do and too few people to do it, or simply how easy it is to get swept away by the creative side of music, letting the logistic and legal side slip through the cracks. Usually, the first thing to go is the clearing of mechanical rights on covers, interpolations found in covers, or samples in songs. Often, songs have multiple writers and thus multiple publishers; to make matters even more complicated, some of them will be represented by Harry Fox (www.harryfoxagency.com) and some of them won’t, which means that a bit of extra legwork is needed, as well as reaching out to individual publishers. Many times you’ll have to go to the publishers individually--it varies on a case by case basis.

And there are problems that can arise even in seemingly straightforward covers: songs can contain interpolations (essentially, incorporations) of other songs, which musicians may not even be aware of (for example, one of the more popular versions of “Sing, Sing, Sing,” which we mention below, contained an interpolation of a song entitled “Christopher Columbus” by Leon Brown Barry and Andy Razaf).

Perhaps even more confusing (and most avoided) is the clearing of samples. There are several myths about samples, all of which are untrue, that tend to circulate in musician’s circles: that a sample less than a certain amount of time doesn’t have to be cleared, or if it’s less than a certain amount of bars, the artist is excused from clearance. None of this is true. A sample is a sample, and in addition to publishing rights, master rights need to be cleared with the appropriate label.

Though it is required by law to get mechanical licenses and the applicable master license cleared, the purpose of this article is to encourage you to clear these rights so as to avoid missing potential opportunities, rather than as a scare tactic outlining the legal ramifications (which are minimal). A few months ago, however we came across a very near miss that should act as a wake-up call to independent artists and what they put on their CDs.

One of our clients, Macy’s, is a big fan of using updated covers of well known songs that reflect their brand's image, and most recently, all of the spots were awarded to covers by unsigned independent artists. For their Veteran’s Day campaign, they asked for a cover of the Louis Prima original “Sing, Sing, Sing.” After listening to hundreds of versions, we sent Macy’s roughly twenty versions. The one they ultimately chose was a fun, modern reworking by a great unsigned band who we’ll call the “Cat’s Meow” (to protect the guilty party).

We went about requesting quotes, starting with the master--that was no problem, the band owns the recording. Then we went to the publishers...

“The who?” they publisher asked me quizzically when I followed up on their quote. “We don’t have any record of this master in our system.” As it turned out, the Cat’s Meow hadn’t gotten a mechanical license. Not only did the publisher not have any record of the master, but they refused to quote a master use fee until the mechanical rights had been cleared.

And I don’t blame the Cat’s Meow for neglecting this. Harry Fox is not an easy website to navigate, especially if you don’t have music industry experience. The lack of a mechanical license caused a hold up in the project that endangered Macy’s using the track.

The happy ending to this story is that the Cat’s Meow did indeed get their song into a Macy’s commercial. But the advertising world (and film and TV for that matter), is incredibly fast paced. Had the deadline been any earlier, the spot could easily have been awarded to someone else with their paperwork in order, which doubtlessly happens all the time.

So a word of warning: unsexy as it may be, paperwork is completely necessary in the music industry, despite seeming counterintuitive to anyone remotely artistic. In addition to missing potential opportunities (and the fact that it’s the law), there are several other reasons why getting your paperwork in place will work to your advantage:

• Some music-selling platforms are getting pressure from publishers to have mechanical licenses in place. As the music industry wanes, publishers will eventually require it to be a condition of these platforms to show evidence of licenses.
• Everyone wants the most exposure for their work. Be aware that the more exposure you get the more open you are to being caught by the publishers.

If it all seems daunting to you (which it can), be aware that you can always hire a clearance company like ourselves to assure that you have all licenses completed and your paperwork in order so that when an opportunity does arise, you are ready. The process can take up to four weeks, so it’s always a good idea to sort out mechanical rights long before you release your record or start pitching your music.

For more information, please feel free to contact me at info@michaelwelshprods.com or (626) 796- 7821. I’d love to hear from you.

Comments

[mia theodoratus]

These things are always wake up calls. At a certain point I love to say that too much free exposer can give you frost bite.

Right now I am fighting with a major tv show that had me on set and then asked me to quickly compose a couple of pieces. They asked if they could use them and if I would own the rights-of course I did because I just composed them

Then after they were done shooting the tried to get me to sign a waiver so they could use everything I wrote for free whenever and however they wanted. The big 0-no BMI, no residual-nothing.

didn't sign it and they started insulting me.

when i got home i copyrighted the pieces and registored them to BMI to protect myself.

at first i was angry, but i guess that is how it works these days. 3 other musicians signed the waive.

mia
www.miatheodoratus.com

[ian mcgrady]

I'm acting as label with the artist. How do I show that I have mechanical license? Via my BMI account? The copyright?

[Maya]

Harry Fox is an agency for publishers for mechanical licenses. ASCAP is a performance rights society that collects royalties for writers for performances of their songs in TV, radio, etc.

[Jeff]

Michael,

Thank you for this useful info.

Question: what's the difference between Harry Fox and ASCAP?

Will be writing you directly about clearance fees!

Jeff