Discussion with President of new CBS records

[dan p]

Recently I had a phone conversation with the President of CBS records.
CBS had been growing two music libraries of which I was trying to be a part of.I just happened to be a little late to the party.Both are filled already with 10,000 songs each.
Two things he told me:
1.CBS now wants to use their own libraries for CBS shows and advertisements.
2.One of the libraries offers there music for 100 dollars per song.
Competition gets worse.Lets hope others dont follow the same route!
Are we as musician/composers getting a raw deal?


Dan P

[rack gear]

a lot of film studios and production companies are also going this way. the tv people just figured out that they were financing someone else's business without equity.

also, to be fair - tv cue composers had made a habit of submitting the same cue dozens of times under different names to shows - everyone I know who writes for TV does this - it was only a matter of time before the networks and tv producers/studios figured out how to do this for themselves.

of course, this is different from actual show composers who write to picture and are part of the staff of the show - all of the above is for incidental cues - deep background and generic instrumental stuff...

It's a free open market. Someone is still making music for that music library, and/or making music when they don't have something pre-exisiting that fits - try to be that person.

[drBill]

Disney tried this awhile back. To the point of PULLING all existing music OFF their movies that Disney didn't own 100%. That only lasted until they figured out how much it was going to cost them to re dub all their pictures. (Spend several million to bring in 50,000 per year in additional publishing? Hmmm, maybe not such a good idea.)

They have tried to hold to that paradigm since that point, and I think they have fairly well, but the reality is, the director is not going to be happy if he/she has only a finite small group of music to choose from. 10,000 may sound like a lot, but when it comes to music, that's a drop in the bucket.

[Igotsoul4u]

I have seen this happening in the sports industry as well. Teams are getting their own songs written so they don't have to pay royalties. kinda scary but I ended up bowing out of a few situations.

[narcoman]

actually it goes through a cycle of this anyway. in the 60's all music on TV WAS inhouse. The freelance stuff started to happen to pull costs down in the 70s. when inhouse again in the 80's.... then freelance. CBS will do this until they see how much it will cost them and someone will have the bright idea - in ten years time - to outsource it all. Nothings changed!

[xaos]

I used to compose and record for a library back in the 90s. I was paid a small fee (happy to take it)and gave up all royalties. What the OP posted has been going on for a while. I heard my tunes on Hollywood blockbuster trailers, sports programs, zit cream commercials, you name it. As long as I/we are willing to give away a good or passable product for nothing, why wouldn't they use needle drop? I decided not to be part of the problem after a year in the business because, from my/our vantagepoint, it is not sustainable business.

[kafka]

Originally Posted by narcoman

actually it goes through a cycle of this anyway. in the 60's all music on TV WAS inhouse. The freelance stuff started to happen to pull costs down in the 70s. when inhouse again in the 80's.... then freelance. CBS will do this until they see how much it will cost them and someone will have the bright idea - in ten years time - to outsource it all. Nothings changed!

True. The reason Warner Brothers used Raymond Scott's music for all of their cartoons in the 50's was that they bought his entire catalog from CBS in 1943 (he didn't even own it at the time). All of those pieces were recorded back in the 30's, and Scott never scored a single cartoon in his life.

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by kafka

True. The reason Warner Brothers used Raymond Scott's music for all of their cartoons in the 50's was that they bought his entire catalog from CBS in 1943 (he didn't even own it at the time). All of those pieces were recorded back in the 30's, and Scott never scored a single cartoon in his life.

nice fact. Didn't know that.