Playing with Vodpod at thupr
Tomorrow’s thupr at The Square Pig in Holborn will be the last thupr event.
It was an accidental series that has spanned two social media weeks and produced one of the very first Google + events. We’ve gamified. We’ve played. It’s had its highs and lows, big events and small events, mostly free, but the time has come for me to say ‘farewell’ – that it was fun while it lasted, but it’s outlived itself.
It’s demise is down to me: I have a busy life as a freelancer and my clients needs have to come first, so the poor event has never had the love it should have had. Communities need time, love and attention to thrive, and although it’s been a big call on my time, I haven’t given it what it needs. Which is a shame, because the events have brought together some brilliant, brilliant people with brilliant, brilliant mins, products and services.
I’ve had sporadic and invaluable help along the way – ipadio took on an entire event, I’ve had a lovely intern working with me, help from community specialist Alexander Nikolov, and more recently some really focussed, invaluable behind the scenes support from Stephen Haggard. I’d like to thank them hugely for all they’ve done.
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Ahead of tomorrows thupr event on music and PR, Gareth Cousins, Composer and Producer of Music for Advertising, Film and TV, has given us the lowdown on commisioning music for PR purposes:
Gareth Cousns
It is pretty much taken for granted that music is an important part of any advertising, marketing or branding campaign. (Ed – just think of Right Here, Right Now in the Socialnomics viral video that does the rounds) The practice of using music in film and television has long since passed into common practice for all moving image media, from films to commercials to websites and everything between. But despite this it can be very hard to find information on how to find and brief a composer, the rights that you will need, or the costs involved.
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Image via Wikipedia
Once you’ve worked out what budget you need for music in your PR or marketing campaign, what rights do you need? From the outside it seems like a thorny and complex issue, but composer Gareth Cousins explains:
- a. Music Rights Explained
Whenever a piece of music, or other creative work, is created, it becomes the Intellectual Property of the creator. This is true whether the music created is a three second sting (such as the Intel mnemonic), a pop song or a huge orchestral work.
In the UK, music rights are assigned to the PRS so that performances can be kept track of and the composers fairly compensated for their performances. The amount of royalty the composer receives depends on the length of the music and the medium is broadcast on.
This is a very well established operation and has been going for over 100 years. The royalties gather provide an essential stream of income without which the music industry (and composers in particular) would struggle to survive.
There is commonly confusion about how PRS royalty payments are made, and who makes them. Production companies or advertising agencies sometimes believe they are responsible for them, but this is never the case. These payments are the sole responsibility of broadcasters (such as BBC and ITV) or content providers (such as YouTube) who play a levy (called a blanket license) to the PRS based on the amount of music they use in a given period of time.
For this reason, composers are not able to give a 100% buyout of all of their rights to a piece of music they have composed, as is sometimes requested by clients. This is not possible while their music is controlled by the PRS (or by the associated companies abroad such as ASCAP or BMI). But it not necessary in any case, as explained above, the costs of broadcasting music are not borne by the composer’s clients, but by the broadcaster of the music.
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You’ve briefed a composer: how do you define a budget for music within your PR campaign? Gareth Cousins explains:
PCAM (The Society Of Producers and Composers Of Applied Music) publish a guideline for composers fees, which may be used as a very rough indicator of how much it will cost to commission music. The truth of the matter is that there are not set fees for this type of work, and budgets will be vary greatly, both below and above the figures they suggest. Read more »
communications, PR practise, thupr | claireatwaves | 
October 13, 2011 5:02 pm | 
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