Creating music for film trailers - which PRO do I join?

[drBill]

I presume you are in the US.

PRO's in the US do not pay for theatrical (ie: shown in the theater) works. Not sure how this applies to trailers. My guess would be that they will not be counted if shown in theaters.

On Television though, you may get some payments. Generally I'd think of these more as promo's than a trailer, although I suppose it actually IS a trailer, not a promo. If you music survives the cut down to :30 seconds and onto TV, generally speaking, ASCAP is better at paying out for promo's, but BMI is catching up. BMI is traditionally better for underscore. Why not ask the company where THEY think you should sign. They obviously have their (an by default your) best interest in mind.

HOWEVER, unless you only plan to write trailers the rest of your life, you're much better off taking a look at the BIG picture. What are you going to be doing down the road. Songwriting - ASCAP. Music for TV - BMI. Or ???

[bond39023]

Originally Posted by drBill

I presume you are in the US.

PRO's in the US do not pay for theatrical (ie: shown in the theater) works. Not sure how this applies to trailers. My guess would be that they will not be counted if shown in theaters.

On Television though, you may get some payments. Generally I'd think of these more as promo's than a trailer, although I suppose it actually IS a trailer, not a promo. If you music survives the cut down to :30 seconds and onto TV, generally speaking, ASCAP is better at paying out for promo's, but BMI is catching up. BMI is traditionally better for underscore. Why not ask the company where THEY think you should sign. They obviously have their (an by default your) best interest in mind.

HOWEVER, unless you only plan to write trailers the rest of your life, you're much better off taking a look at the BIG picture. What are you going to be doing down the road. Songwriting - ASCAP. Music for TV - BMI. Or ???

Thanks drBill, sorry I didn't specify - I am in the US. I will definitely ask the company for their opinion on which to join and that's good advice about the big picture, I'll definitely take that into consideration. I'm going to do some more research but I'm thinking ASCAP might be the right one for me as I am planning on doing songwriting in the future.

[ksandvik]

BMI and ASCAP are about the same concerning songwriting, don't see a difference. SESAC is better but it's tough to join that one. As for ASCAP, when they started their silly witch hunt against free music I'm glad I joined BMI.

[drBill]

I'm BMI as well. I didn't mean to insinuate that you can't write songs and be associated with BMI, of course you can. There are no "rules" or "guidelines" or even a general "status quo" other than ASCAP seems to be biased towards songwriters a bit more, and BMI towards composers for Film/TV/etc. a bit more - but either work.

[bond39023]

Ok thanks for clarifying that, ASCAP was the first one I looked into so I just kinda had the idea of that one in mind already. I'll do some more research though before making a decision.