Diatribe: We’ve all heard a lot about why Spotify and other music streaming services are bad for musicians - of course I totally agree and don’t need to repeat those arguments here. But I would add that streaming tv and film services are even WORSE for music makers...
And that’s because Netflix, HBO Max, and others are increasingly forcing composers into accepting work-for-hire or direct license agreements. This basically means the composer has to sign away any rights to the intellectual property...
...and forfeit the performance royalties that many of us rely on from ASCAP, BMI etc. And it’s not as though those companies are paying generous up-front fees to make up for that lost income.
Instead they are pushing the fees ever downward and then collecting all those residual earnings off our compositions for themselves. I’ve seen offers that make me wonder who can afford to work at such low rates, but I also know how erratic this work can be...
... and walking away from money is never an easy call. Composing for a series is a LOT of work, involving 7-day weeks and 14-hour work days, sometimes for months at a time. I don’t have any answers to this, but as long as composers continue to accept these deals...
...then I’m afraid the trend will only expand into cable, broadcast and theatrical release scoring work. I am a proud member of @UMAW_ and their work around pay-per-stream on Spotify etc are good and deserve support...
...but unfortunately film composers in the US don’t have a union at the table when negotiating with the TV streaming companies. At least not yet. Diatribe over.
