please help, royalties on a movie film score?

[Pedantic Sound]

Royalties in film are a tricky thing, I thought most music score was a paid per gig deal no royalties on DVDs sold. I know in video games for instance, the vast majority of artists see no money in royalties from tracks on the video game because the gaming companies can argue that individual artists song contributes in virtually no way to the decision to purchase said game by the customer.

You might want to talk to the distributors/producers/whoever is in charge of that sort of thing.

[DrummerMan]

I've only limited experience with this but I just looked up a couple links that seem to confirm my understanding, which is:
You only collect royalties where there is a preexisting deal for your PRO to collect royalties. This includes most tv and radio performance but doesn't include theatrical performance or DVD release or download of any kind.

http://www.ascap.com/members/payment/whocollect.aspx

http://www.filmmusicmag.com/?p=39

Basically you are looking at $0 in royalties unless the film gets played on tv somewhere down the road. There can be mechanical royalties if there's a soundtrack album released and based on sales of that (if that's in your contract, but that doesn't have anything to do with your PRO). I've never experienced or known anyone else who's experienced mechanical royalties on DVD sales though. I mean, maybe John Williams has the pull to get away with something like that, but that would be a whole other level, and is all just speculation on my part anyway.

[minister]

Originally Posted by DrummerMan

....royalties...(don't) include theatrical performance or DVD release or download of any kind.

....

Basically you are looking at $0 in royalties unless the film gets played on tv somewhere down the road. There can be mechanical royalties if there's a soundtrack album released and based on sales of that (if that's in your contract, but that doesn't have anything to do with your PRO)....

This is my understanding as well and consistent with the deals I have signed that were fairly standard. No royalties for anything except if the film is broadcast. As you said, "There can be mechanical royalties if there's a soundtrack album released" but ONLY if you have it in your agreement NOW. I have worked that into 2 deals but I also knew that I should not COUNT ON THAT as part of my fee. And that is wholly separate from BMI or ASCAP (PRO).

[ckbarlow]

Thanks for the confirmation. Agrees with other forum responses, etc. that I've just found.

CK

[narcoman]

its residuals for synch re-use of your music that you need to look at. Work it hard baby!!