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 PCAM Administrator Bob Fromer on: bob.fromer@outlook.com.
Best regards,
The PCAM Committee
CONTENTS
— PCAM Summer Social Event
— PCAM at the PRS Media Music Workshop
— BAPAM
— Blanket Licences
— Third New PCAM Podcast Released
— PCAM Q&As Volume 4 Now Available!
— Virtual Assistant
— Notes from the PCAM Committee Meeting: 11 June 2024
— Remaining Committee Meeting Dates in 2024
— Case Study from the PCAM Helpdesk
— PCAM Social Media
PCAM SUMMER SOCIAL EVENT
PCAM held a successful Summer Social on 11 June, following a PCAM Committee meeting, from 6.00-9.00 pm at The Fox pub in Shoreditch.
Around 40 members attended on a pleasant summer evening, and there was good food, an initial free drink for everyone, and a lot of networking and chat.
One of the main discussion topics was the potential menace – and opportunities – posed by the use of AI in the industry – a topic that we hope to explore in a PCAM/PRS Seminar later this year.
PCAM at THE PRS Media Music Workshop
PCAM Committee members Becky Wixon and James Bargent participated on 20 June at the first of several PRS Media Music Workshop sessions aimed at young black music creators and other groups under-represented in the industry. There were about 20 attendees in the session @ The Hub at PRS at London Bridge, many of them from Lewisham College.
Further sessions, to be spread over the rest of this year and into next year, will cover Writing for Film, Writing for Sync, Writing for Broadcasting, Writing Trailer Music, and Writing for Computer Games. More PCAM members—to be confirmed – will be speakers at each of these sessions.
BAPAM
BAPAM (The British Association for Performing Arts Medicine at www.bapam.co.uk) offers a wide range of health and wellbeing services – many of them for free. These include mental health counselling, help with performance-related injuries, and referral to medical experts who understand the arts and the issues involved.
BAPAM is a specialist medical charity providing free clinics, resources, and training workshops, which are available to performing artists and creators, production crew, and backstage workers. BAPAM consists of clinical experts helping all those working and studying in the arts to prevent and overcome work and practice-related physical and mental health problems.
BAPAM clinicians know what it takes to develop and sustain a creative career and are experts at helping you solve health problems.
BAPAM will be sending information about their services for distribution to PCAM members and may ask our members to take part in a survey, in part to let them know what kinds of services we would like BAPAM to provide.
BLANKET LICENSES:
A brief history, what they are, and why they’re causing problems
By Chris Smith
The issuing of blanket licenses, whereby the end user can use any piece of music within a designated repertoire, has grown enormously in recent years and appears to be creating some problems.
Originally, blanket licences in the UK were issued exclusively to the large broadcasters (BBC, ITV, C4) by the Performing Right Society, which negotiated a substantial fee for allowing the broadcasters to use any of the works that it controlled. The value of a minute of music was calculated by dividing the licence fee by the number of minutes used and rights owners (composer and publisher) were paid accordingly.
Critical to this process was the comprehensive reporting of usage in the form of cue sheets, which was (and still is) a required condition of the licence being granted.
Variations on the terms of the blanket licence first occurred with the emergence of satellite TV, specifically Sky in the UK, which argued that because it was a new and developing platform with a number of different channels, a small audience, and very limited advertising revenue, it couldn’t be treated in the same way as, for example, the BBC, when negotiating a blanket licence. Once this argument had been accepted, a much lower licence fee was levied and the reporting requirements on the specific musical works used were reduced from 100% reporting to a ‘sampling’ system, whereby music usage reporting was only provided for a certain number of days in a given period. All music within that sample period was subject to a multiplier and music that was not in the sample period did not get paid. So, for example, if the sample period was one month a year, all works in the month sampled would be boosted by a multiplier of 12 and music used in the other eleven months would get nothing. This (to many) less than perfect system originated in the US, where cable and satellite were already well established.
Fast forward to 2024 and the blanket licensing landscape is scarcely recognisable from the relatively simple days of the 1980s. Today, it seems that anyone representing any type of musical repertoire is allowed to issue a blanket licence to virtually any type of end user and on terms that bear little resemblance to those required by the licences granted to the major broadcasters.
And this is where the problems begin.
PCAM has become aware that a number of music libraries are issuing blanket licences to advertising agencies covering all brands and products with no reporting requirements. The library receives an often very substantial licence fee for these licences.
PROBLEM 1: The library may or may not share the licence fee with the composers of the repertoire that has been licensed.
PROBLEM 2: Although this is not a problem exclusively related to blanket licences, many of the larger library publishers have international networks, so that the sub-publishers in most territories are part of the same network and will routinely retain 50% of mechanical income at source.
As an example, if Large International Publisher A does a blanket deal for UK repertoire in America and receives a £100,000 licence fee, the American office retains £50,000 and sends the other £50,000 to its UK office. Depending on the deals the UK publisher has done with its writers regarding splits on mechanical income, the UK publisher will retain anything from 50% to 75% of the £50,000 it has received.
PROBLEM 3: Because the remaining “writer’s share” is unattributable (because there are no reporting requirements), the remaining money is divided and distributed to every work within the repertoire. So if there is, for example, £25,000 left to pay to writers and the repertoire contains 100,000 works, every writer will receive 25p for each work they have composed, regardless of how, or if, that work has been used.
There appears to be a growing feeling among library composers that this is not a great system, particularly when the repertoire is licensed to an advertising agency.
The agency knows exactly which works it has used and can easily supply that information to the publisher. It also knows all the details of the usage. Furthermore, all works in the UK library repertoire will have been registered with Soundmouse so that exact usage can be tracked and logged. And the sync licence on a big commercial is worth considerably more than 25p — or even many multiples of 25p!
In all of this, there is a bigger and extremely obvious question to be asked: Why are blanket licences being issued with no reporting requirements?
Many library publishers claim that end users won’t sign up to licence deals that demand detailed reporting because it creates too much administrative work. To which, the reaction of many library composers is: “So what?” If library publishers cannot negotiate terms that are acceptable to themselves and to the composers they represent, they should simply refuse to issue a blanket licence.
Or could it be that the large amounts of licensing fees many publishers are receiving means they are not too bothered about negotiating terms that result in more accurate and appropriate remuneration for their writers…?
THIRD NEW PCAM PODCAST RELEASED
The third in our new series of PCAM Podcasts was released on Friday 28 June. Called Show Me the Money Part 1 — Royalties & Publishing, this latest episode explores the subject of music royalties and publishing, how income is derived from these, and how to manage copyrights.
The host and moderator is composer, producer, and PCAM Director Chris Smith from The Barbershop Music Company, and the episode consists of conversation between legal and publishing expert George Hyde (Music Affairs) and PCAM Chair Paul Reynolds (Senior VP, Massive Music).
The podcast is available on all major platforms: Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, and Deezer.
There have been more than 110 downloads of the new PCAM podcasts published so far, and we hope PCAM members will enjoy them, find them helpful, and will subscribe, leave a review, and spread the word!
Previous episodes released are:
- There & Then to Here & Now (PCAM past, present and future)
- Can You Hear Me Knocking? (How to get into the industry)
Future episodes, to be released at the end of July, August, and September, are:
- One Bite of the Cherry (Responding to a brief)
- Show Me the Money Part 2 (Quoting and budgeting)
- The Minefield That Is … Soundalikes
PCAM Q&As VOLUME 4 NOW AVAILABLE!
Over the past few years, an edited selection of questions sent to the PCAM Helpdesk, and the answers provided by PCAM Committee member Tony Satchell, who runs the Helpdesk, have been published annually on the PCAM website.
Now, a new selection of Helpdesk Q&As from 2023 has been published here: https://www.pcam.co.uk/pcam-helpdesk-faqs.
Because people in the industry often run into similar kinds of problems and ask similar kinds of questions, perusing these questions and answers may be helpful, especially for new members.
VIRTUAL Assistant
PCAM’s very own Project Coordinator, Michelle, also works as a Virtual Assistant for the music industry (her background is BASCA, BBC, Arts Council and various TV production companies),
If you would like some assistance with your administrative and daily tasks, she’d be very happy to hear from you: penpapermouse@gmail.com.
Michelle is now also a qualified Mental Health First Aider and a Wellbeing Facilitator trainee.
NOTES FROM THE PCAM COMMITTEE MEETING: 11 JUNE 2024
The PCAM Committee held its most recent meeting on 11 June as in-person meeting at Massive Music in Shoreditch.
Those present were Committee members Paul Reynolds, Chris Smith, Tony Satchell, Bankey Ojo, Becky Wixon, and Bob Fromer.
Apologies were received from Freddie Webb, Amelia Vernede, Simon Elms, Jonathan Watt, Greg Owens, Chris Green, James Bargent, and Michelle Murchan.
Guests were Simon Surtees, Dominic Glynn, Michael Cryne, and Paul Cartledge and Phil Hewson from Yellow Boat Music.
Here are some highlights from discussions that took place at the meeting:
PCAM recruitment campaign. Over the past month or so, work has begun on a PCAM recruitment campaign, in response to a slight falloff in membership and income over the first half of the year (after three years of significant growth). This falloff in part may reflect the lack of work available for media composers at the present time.
A fair amount of progress has already been made, including the creation of leaflets that weredistributed at the PCAM/PRS Wellbeing Seminar on 9 May and that remain with PRS for distribution at other events, but it was decided that it would be good to contact a range of other organisations. Some of those suggested were:
- An international composers’ forum called Vi-Control.
- The Alliance for Women Film Composers.
- Library music groups.
- Fiverr, Guru, and other organisations for freelance composers.
Fundraising drive for the PCAM Education Project. PCAM is looking for suggestions for organisations that might be approached with regard to funding for the comprehensive PCAM Education project, and any suggestions will be welcome.
PCAM member Michael Cryne, who teaches at Bournemouth University, has begun to explore the possibility of a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) with the University, whereby a high-calibre graduate or possibly a PhD student would be seconded to PCAM for a year to help coordinate the Education Project, although PCAM would need to cover a third of the costs forthe KTP. This will be explored further once funding for the Education Project is found.
Finding more women for the PCAM Committee.
New Committee member Becky Wixon is keen to help increase diversity on the PCAM Committee, and has suggested three people who might be approached.
Although PCAM has had two women Chairs over the course of its 40-year+ history, we have always struggled to find and retain women on the Committee, probably not helped by the fact that less than 25% of people who take music production courses are women. An unconscious bias and an underestimation of women in the industry are still endemic.
Chris Smith told the meeting that ECSA will include a round-table discussion on building a career in the industry as a woman at its Autumn Conference in Paris in November.
AI and EU guidelines. Former PCAM Committee member Mike Connaris, who founded Mcasso Music, recently emailed the Committee about the use of AI in music creation. In part, Mike wrote: “We’ve been sent examples from creatives using the Suno software…. The quality and editing of these AI tracks is only going to get better and I suggest PCAM should address this issue … with major media music production companies quite soon.”
At our last Committee meeting, it was noted that the EU has passed an AI Act, which requires AI developers to adhere to transparency requirements, including disclosing the data used to train their models and demonstrating compliance with EU copyright law. This aspect of the legislation has particularly resonated with the music industry in Europe, which has been advocating for stronger copyright protections in the face of rapidly advancing AI technologies. UK companies will have to abide by the Act when working in Europe. Of course, in the wake of Brexit, the European AI Act will not be in force in the UK. But Simon Surtees, a composer who was formerly a civil servant working with EU states and the European Parliament, attended the meeting to argue that Britain could adopt EU directives, or create legislation that mirrors or improves on them, if the political will exists. To this end, he believes that PCAM should engage with organisations such as the Ivors, PRS, the MU, UK Music, the CRA, and others – ideally with legal involvement – to influence the new government’s approach to AI legislation, based in part on an analysis of the economic costs to the country if AI is allowed to replace human creativity.
We also want to set up a Seminar on AI to cover areas such as economic impacts, legal issues, legislation, pitfalls and possibilities, etc.
Ideas for future PCAM Seminars. Ideas submitted so far for future seminars or webinars include:
- AI and Technology.
- Peer-to-Peer Mentoring.
- Legal Issues and Advice.
- Support for Women in the Production Music Industry.
- How to Use Soundmouse.
- PCAM Podcast Topics on Music Administration (two to be covered per seminar).
Ideas for other topics are more than welcome.
ECSA. The next Conference for ECSA (The European Composer and Songwriter Alliance) will be held in Paris on 12-13 November – at the Bibliotheque Nationale! – and will coincide with the 2024 Camille Awards. Members of the PCAM Committee will attend.
PCAM Committee meeting dates in 2024
Remaining PCAM Committee meetings in 2024 will be held on the following dates:
- Tuesday 24 September (remote meeting)
- Tuesday 26 November (in-person at Massive Music)
Any PCAM member interested in attending any of these meetings should contact PCAM Administrator Bob Fromer (bob.fromer@outlook.com).
PCAM HELPDESK Q&A
Below is a question-and-answer exchange from the PCAM Helpdesk :
Q: I wonder if you might be able to help me with some advice, as PRS don’t seem to be responding to me. I recently worked on two commercials that were each around 2.5 minutes long for a pretty big company. I was paid a fee of £4,000 for the work but wondered about the terms on the contract that state: “Usage would be online, events, and internal (worldwide) for 5 years. Including a handful (up to 10) TV broadcasts in the UK & US. It excludes it being used as a full ad campaign on TV.” A composer friend of mine mentioned I would probably be due royalties from any TV broadcasts and might need to get my hands on a “clock number”, and to register the music with PRS in order to receive royalties from it, but a quick search online and email to PRS yielded nothing. Do I need to get in touch with the production company and get this number or any other kind of code, and register the music with PRS to get future royalties? Any advice you have would be greatly appreciated.
A: Well, they certainly got a great bargain there, didn’t they – the fee for that job should’ve been between £10,000-£30,000 per annum with maybe a couple of years thrown in for free! You are due royalties from any and all broadcasts of your works, whether online, terrestrial or digital.
Clock numbers are only issued for UK TV Broadcast films when the script has been approved for broadcast, but if they have them, they would certainly be worth getting. More importantly, you MUST register ALL your works past and present with PRS (and Soundmouse) if you ever want to receive any royalties! You should be able to do this from the PRS website and their enquiries email is normally very efficient.
PCAM SOCIAL MEDIA
For all the latest news on PCAM seminars and workshops, our new series of podcasts, plus industry-wide events and initiatives, be sure to follow PCAM on our socials.