The European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) has published its latest report, focusing on contracts for audiovisual composers – people writing music for TV, film, online video etc. It takes aim at the increasingly-common ‘buyout’ contracts in the sector.
“Composers often find themselves negotiating in the dark with large entities who pressure them to give up their royalties or a significant part of them in exchange for a single (and often meagre) lump-sum payment,” is how the report words that. “If they refuse such contracts or wish to challenge their terms, they face the risk of being blacklisted and excluded from future work opportunities.”
The report also criticises the ‘work-made-for-hire’ doctrine in the US, and the trend for ‘pseudo-publishing’ – which sees “producers and broadcasters requiring composers to sign away or significantly reduce the publishing rights to the works (often representing between 30% to 75% of their potential royalties) while not fulfilling their legal obligations nor traditional publishing services related to the exploitation of the works and to transparency”. You can read the full report here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’
