Dear PCAM Member,
This is the latest in a series of Newsletters that we publish five times a year, following meetings of the PCAM Committee.
Each Newsletter contains a brief report from the recent Committee meeting, plus other current news and views and an edited version of a recent query to the PCAM Helpdesk.
We would like to receive more contributions to the Newsletter from PCAM members. If you want to write something for inclusion or send us a link to something interesting you have read or seen, please contact admin@pcam.co.uk.
Best regards,
The PCAM Committee
CONTENTS
— Message from the PCAM Chair
— New Member Testimonial
— Opportunity in Dubai
— Next PCAM Meeting and Social Event
— Notes from the PCAM Committee Meeting: 27 September 2022
— Case Study from the PCAM Helpdesk
MESSAGE FROM THE PCAM CHAIR
Quite a lot seems to have happened in the UK over the past couple of months — but one thing that hasn’t changed is PCAM’s commitment to ensuring we protect the conditions under which we work to ensure that they are fair, and upholding the standards and value of our members’ professional creativity. Since our last Committee meetin we have been working away on a number of burning topics that include studies into royalties from advertising on digital social platforms (or rather the lack of them), royalties from non-linear television, navigating business in the music for gaming space, and fair remuneration education for brands and their agencies. We hope to provide valuable information to you on these subjects in the very near future. If you have any useful information on the areas mentioned above, we’d love to hear from you (admin@pcam.co.uk).
The general industry is looking fairly stable but if you were hoping for major growth, the outlook is rather bleak. The recently released 2022 Q3 Bellwether report from our friends at the IPA (the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) conveyed a fairly pessimistic view from the 200 advertising and marketing companies that they survey. The report reveals that advertisers have been cutting back on big-ticket advertising such as TV and radio, which fell for the first time since Q1 2021. While there was only a slight decrease from 0.0% in Q2 to -3.1%, the IPA said it was “indicative of a cautious reduction.” There has also been a slump in audio (-2%) but video and online advertisers saw a bump with +8.7% and +0.8% respectively. Content is king, so we should expect higher volumes of work at lower budgets.
I’d like to repeat the message from our last Newsletter. Despite this gloomy business outlook, PCAM members still have the upper hand in our industry. We are professional creators, experienced in the business of music in advertising as well as the creative side, and this should be promoted as reduced risk to your client. Cutting spend on music — which in the majority of cases reduces effectiveness — is a false economy. Working for rates that are simply unfair damages both your own worth and the value of the work all our members provide.
We hope that the current economic dip will be short-lived (the IPA report suggests it will be) so let’s make sure we protect our value now, saying no to free demos(!) and only accepting fair remuneration, so we can have a healthy industry in more buoyant times.
We wish you all the very best over the coming months. If you are struggling with anything, please look after yourself and reach out for help via the PCAM Helpdesk (info@pcam.co.uk) or at https://www.helpmusicians.org.uk/. We look forward to seeing some of you at our Christmas gathering after our Committee meeting on Tuesday 6 December. Details are in this Newsletter.
Paul Reynolds
PCAM Chair
NEW MEMBER TESTIMONIAL
It’s nice to hear from new members that PCAM is of use to them as they start their careers in the industry.
Recently, we heard from a new member who is a composer and music producer specialising in pop, electronic and dance music production and who also writes compositions for audio branding jobs, who said:
“I signed up to PCAM last month and have since been listening to all of the PCAM podcasts. Thanks so much for sharing some really useful information on there — it’s much appreciated!”
We hope to update and add to those podcasts soon, and they remain a useful resource for new and older members alike.
UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY IN DUBAI
A unique opportunity has arisen for a composer / sound engineer to join the most established music company in Dubai, working primarily in advertising, events and sonic branding.
The candidate will need to demonstrate superb creative skills, originality, orchestration ability on Protools and a comprehensive knowledge of all aspects of sound engineering. An ability to grasp a feel for oriental touches in due course would be essential.
We would offer a two-year initial contract plus full package remuneration between 80-100,000 USD and additional composition fees.
Please send showreel / credentials to: bkxxxx@protonmail.com.
NEXT PCAM MEETING
The next PCAM Committee meeting will be held on Tuesday 6 December as an in-person meeting in Soho from 4.00-6.00 pm and will be followed by a PCAM social event. All members are welcome at the social event and, subject to logistics, are also welcome to attend the meeting.
The venue for the meeting and social event will be announced shortly.
If you wish to attend the either the social event and/or the meeting, please let PCAM Administrator Bob Fromer know (bob.fromer@outlook.com) if you haven’t already done so (so far, more than 30 people are planning to attend the social event).
NOTES FROM THE PCAM COMMITTEE MEETING: 27 SEPTEMBER 2022
The PCAM Committee held a Zoom meeting on 27 September 2022, with the following members in attendance: Paul Reynolds, Tony Satchell, Jonathan Watts, George Hyde, Bob Fromer, plus Toby Jarvis from A-Mnemonic. Here is a rundown of some of the main topics discussed at the meeting:
State of the Industry. Jonathan Watts and others confirmed that, given current economic uncertainty, brands are reducing usage times, and many are favouring short six-to-eight-week bursts in order to save money.
The current situation makes it even more important that PCAM develops our campaign for fair remuneration for composers and ethical practices by clients and Agencies. When we have the basic concepts and some materials developed, the aim to is to take the campaign to IPA, ISBA and the APA for potential support.
“We need to reinforce the value of original composition in the current circumstances,” Jonathan said, “but we also need to understand where Agencies are coming from.”
Audio branding. There was an extensive discussion during the meeting about audio (sonic) branding.
Jonathan Watts started the conversation by noting that the PCAM rate card doesn’t appear to work for audio branding: no one is getting anything near the implied PCAM rate.
A lot of the work involved in audio branding projects is research, Paul Reynolds added, and this has to be built into fees.
Toby Jarvis suggested that dealing with brands on sonic branding projects is often much better than dealing with Agencies, who are offering derisory rates, often because cost controllers are trying to force rates down.
Jonathan wondered why Agencies are even involved in audio branding. Most Agencies now work tactically, Paul noted, and don’t represent clients for very long, so they’re not suited to managing long-term branding projects. And they might be missing a trick: they could be charging their mark-up on proper remuneration for audio branding projects and changing their relationship with their clients, but that’s not their current thinking.
In many cases, George Hyde said, it’s the brands that want control so they can adapt and change their branding over time.
Brands own their visual logos, Jonathan added, and don’t see why they can’t own their sonic logo as well, which would give them the autonomy to use it as they see fit. From our point of view, this can be dealt with by clauses around re-recording, but the brands have to be willing to pay for that control.
In many cases, Paul said, the brands also want to control publishing and other rights for their sonic logos, but then they don’t publish, so no one gets paid.
What’s obvious, George added, is that education is needed around the subject of audio branding — something that PCAM should be tackling.
And while we’re at it, Jonathan said, do we need to revise our pricing with regard to social media and streaming? This is where much advertising is now going, and libraries are cleaning up in this space.
PCAM/PRS events. PCAM Chair Paul Redynolds and Dave Newton at the PRS have agreed that the PCAM/PRS Mental Health Seminar will be held in January (date TBC). We hope to have a couple of hours after the presentations for networking.
Paul and Dave are also trying to find a date, perhaps before Christmas, for a joint Seminar for PCAM members and others on the Soundmouse template, with Soundmouse participation, which the PRS is keen to facilitate.
Composers’ fees/royalties on streaming platforms and for targeted online marketing. Paul Reynolds has talked to Dave Newton at the PRS about royalty reporting from digital and streaming services.
Netflix, Disney and Amazon Prime pay a certain amount for royalties to the PRS at the moment, though they will soon have ad-supported services that may not do so. Other ad-supported services such as ITV Hub pay for ads based on what’s on linear TV, though the ads on streaming services are very different. Some platforms – such as All 4 – are claiming that they can’t supply data. And in any case, it’s unclear whether the PRS has the ability to ingest the data.
So the PRS is working with ICE, a global rights agency, to get information on advertising on TikTok, Spotify etc, and a meeting will be set up with PCAM, the PRS and ICE to discuss why these huge platforms are not reporting on advertising when they clearly have the data to do so.
Paul said: “We need to find out what’s going on, because if these giant platforms are ad-supported but don’t pay royalties for advertising music, then the whole industry is undermined.”
PCAM HELPDESK Q&A
Here is a recent question and answer exchange from the PCAM Helpdesk (the question is in black type and the Helpdesk answer is in blue):
Q: I am putting together a quote for an agency that has a big automotive client with a new product launch. I have been asked to quote on writing a music track for a staged event for the big reveal, which will be played on their website, on YouTube and across social platforms (UK only but some European markets may also be interested).
A musician would play the music live on guitar with my backing track for the event. I’m not sure what I should charge for the composition fee for something like this and would welcome your guidance — and also for suggested usage for online. Also, if, say, two markets in Europe decided to run the event idea, would it still be better to offer European rather than country-by-country usage?
Is it more usual to keep the demo fee separate or absorb it into the composition fee if the work goes ahead?
A: I would charge them a Production Fee (to reflect your time, studio costs, musicians’ fees etc) plus your usual Composition Fee (current market rate is between £1,500-£5,000) plus a One-Year UK Online Licence Fee, and then quote for a One-Year Online European Licence Fee at a discount, pointing out to them that it would be cheaper and probably more convenient for them to take the European Licence up front rather than do country-by-country licences.
If you check out the “Fees & Usages” page on the PCAM website you will see our suggested Licence Fee rates.
Good luck with the job!