Some fun facts about copyright popped up in my discussion with colleagues and friends today. It may be useful for you to know.
1. PROs in almost every other territory collect performance royalties from movie theaters, while the ones in the U.S don’t.
Yup. It’s pretty hard to believe. While movie business is lucrative in this country, maybe more so in recent years, it’s probably not so great for the composers. Out of every dollar collected from the box office in the entire country, as a composer, the PROs collect zero for you. Maybe it’s time to pursue another career…?
You would think that ASCAP, BMI & SESAC are the “better” ones compare to the ones out there in rest of the world and make sure everyone gets all their money. At the end of the day, the U.S. has one of the biggest music markets in the entire freaking world! Surprise, surprise. It’s not easy to make a living as a composer in this country, even when you are a successful one, if you rely solely on collecting royalties to put food on the table. Good news is , if the movie that uses your tracks got played in oversea territories, PROs in the U.S. WILL collect the money from foreign PROs and send it to you. Well, this process may take a while… To be precise, according to BMI, the money will be sent out 1-2 years after the performance occur. But money is money, right?
On the other hand, if you compose music for TV shows, or if the movies that use your tracks play on TV stations, that usage IS under the jurisdiction of ASCAP, BMI & SESAC. So if you can get into that game, your life may be just a little bit easier.
2. Global content licensing?
Specifically, this is about Netflix. Ever wonder why you can’t watch Netflix when you go overseas? It’s because Netflix does not obtain the rights to provide streaming service for their content in every territory. Not yet.
However, Netflix is trying to reach global content licenses with the major production companies. In plain English, this means to pay a fixed license fee, obtain the right to play the content across the globe, and never worry about paying royalties. In this case, Netflix would have foreseeable and controllable costs. OK, from a corporate strategy point of view, it makes a lot of sense. In the wonderland of copyright? Not so much.
Because copyright law works on a territorial basis, it is hard to even think about the possibility of global content licensing. In some countries, the PROs are very involved in collecting money from every kind of public performance, so that they would simply not acknowledge the license and still demand royalties from Netflix. Well, that would destroy the whole purpose of global content licensing. In some countries, it may be even illegal.
In fact, we humans do not agree on a lot of things. There were disastrous wars caused by disagreement. It could be potentially dangerous. You just never know.
It seems like Netflix still have a long way to go before it reaches the 200 countries goal. It almost sounds like working for world peace.
What is Performing Right Royalties? (and what it means to you, if you create film music) http://www.filmmusicmag.com/kb/questions/37/What+are+performing+rights+royalties%3F
ASCAP’s International Payment System http://www.ascap.com/members/payment/international.aspx
BMI International FAQs http://www.bmi.com/faq/category/international
Netflix’s Ted Sarandos Talks Global Licensing (and other stuff) http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-netflixs-ted-sarandos-talks-global-licensing-sports-market-and-china-20150513-story.html#page=1
Netflix Wants the World http://variety.com/2015/digital/news/netflix-wants-the-world-can-it-really-expand-to-200-countries-in-2-years-1201411740/