Following on from the discussion of the monetization of music, once a contract is in place and you are owed X dollars….everybody has heard a war story or two about either…an independent filmmaker paying years late or disappearing altogether…a composer outlaying substantial amounts of money on musicians only to have to wait a long time to receive a package payment…and so on. It’s part of business, and dealt with every day by more than just composers, but given the ephemeral nature of what we do I think there’s an added fear for composers of pushing their clients to cut checks as required.
Every young composer starting out – unless you’re of means already and have a float, I can guarantee you you’ll at least a few times go through the situation of having to really press for what you are owed contractually, whilst having others pressing you, especially with package deals. I’ve found of late that early communication about musician deadlines can help, but even then situations arise. And sometimes it genuinely takes a while to get checks or wires approved. Stuff goes astray. And in some worlds (like commercials) the net terms can be pretty ridiculous, where they’ll sit on the invoice for almost 90 days before even looking at it.
Would be interested in thoughts on how people have handled that.
