I was contacted by a producer. They want to use my song in their film and they want it for free

[PatchAdamz]

so here the answer of the chinese producer when I said they have to pay for my music:
"thank you for your offer, good luck"

Thanks everyone for help me understand the value of my music!!

[cryophonik]

Turn the tables around and ask them if you can use their film for free to promote your new song. Oh, and you'd like them to change a few of the lines before they send it, and you'll be adding some female voiceovers. It will be free exposure for them!

[vurt]

i do hope the film doesn't blow up and become the next big thing!

[PatchAdamz]

Somehow I think it wont......
Anyway, whatever it does, nobody's getting paid.......

[vurt]

Somehow I think it wont......
Anyway, whatever it does, nobody's getting paid.......

well it wouldn't bother me, i have no dreams to break in to film music these days. but if i did, i personally would take a film credit as payment if i didn't have any back catalogue to show future clients.
some folk push and push work and never get a credit, so a foot in the door, if this is your dream, is a good start.

imo of course.

that said, as already discussed earlier, china doesn't have the same laws as us regards copyright, so they may just use it anyway. but without the credit on imdb.

[Daniele Nasuti]

Turn the tables around and ask them if you can use their film for free to promote your new song. Oh, and you'd like them to change a few of the lines before they send it, and you'll be adding some female voiceovers. It will be free exposure for them!

ahahah that's great, I have to try!!

i do hope the film doesn't blow up and become the next big thing!

I don't care, I thought a lot about this choice I had to do and asked to lot of people, read all and took my time and now I know and feel I did the right choice.

I think if all composers would have really loved music instead of money and did the choice I did, then these problems would have already disappeared from the world.

PLUS I didn't even know if I would have liked the film because they didn't tell almost anything about it, just a very short phrase about the story.
Could have also been possible that I didn't like it and I didn't want my music to be associated to that.

Last thing, I'm not interested in working with directors and producers that don't understand the real value of music.
I mean, did ever exist a huge famous and good director/producer who did great movies and doesn't understand the real importance(and value) of music for a film? I don't think so.

[PatchAdamz]

Somehow I think it wont......
Anyway, whatever it does, nobody's getting paid.......

that said, as already discussed earlier, china doesn't have the same laws as us regards copyright, so they may just use it anyway. but without the credit on imdb.

A friend of mine from China once said, "If you give or sell your music to one person in China, then you give it to all of China...".

I dont know if that is true but an offer for zero, from a country rated worst for digital violations, should make anyone concerned.

It should be noted, it is very common for artist to get paid AND get credit.
If its a verifiable, well known director and film company they wont be asking: "Can you give it to us for free......."

Also, its very unlikely it will ever be on imdb.
If they are flatly refusing to pay a dime, then I would be surprised if they have any distribution or industry backing.
Asking for artist to work for free is the moniker of a company that knows their film may never see the light of day.

Having done film work over the years, I have never been asked to work for free.

[Uncle E]

I think if all composers would have really loved music instead of money and did the choice I did, then these problems would have already disappeared from the world.

There are a lot of factors at play once you get to that level. How much will you make on the back-end? Publishing? Who are the director and actors? How likely are they to hire you again? What are your chances of winning awards? What's the size of the potential audience?

Conversely, how will it affect you if you turn it down? Are your agent and publishing company going to rep you once they know you turn gigs down? How is anyone going to find out who you are if you never get in front of them?

[revvy]

I think if all composers would have really loved music instead of money and did the choice I did, then these problems would have already disappeared from the world.

There are a lot of factors at play once you get to that level. How much will you make on the back-end? Publishing? Who are the director and actors? How likely are they to hire you again? What are your chances of winning awards? What's the size of the potential audience?

Conversely, how will it affect you if you turn it down? Are your agent and publishing company going to rep you once they know you turn gigs down? How is anyone going to find out who you are if you never get in front of them?

Exactly.

From someone who works professionally in the industry, and sometimes hasn't got paid:

[osiris]

This reminds me of the post awhile back where the guy wanted to enter a song contest, but the people who threw the contest wanted to own the entire rights to the song and the 'contract' stated royalties MIGHT be paid at the discretion of the company. MIGHT. There's something very slimy about this.

[jancivil]

I had a week of free McDonalds when I was at college

thats not even food.

elitist

[BONES]

Turn the tables around and ask them if you can use their film for free to promote your new song. Oh, and you'd like them to change a few of the lines before they send it, and you'll be adding some female voiceovers. It will be free exposure for them!

Really? I'd f**king jump at the chance to have any of our music in a feature film. The exposure would be worth a hundred times more than anything they paid you. And I've worked on half-a-dozen films for free. It's something people interested in film-making do, for no reason other than to help out fellow film-makers.

Having done film work over the years, I have never been asked to work for free.

As I said, I've happily worked on several films for free, just to help out. We did music for a mate once but mostly I did visual effects (my day job) for people wanting to make short films for competitions. Competitions offer great exposure for anyone involved, if the film is successful, but I had no interest in that side of it.

I had no idea there were so many mercenary pricks around here, with delusions of grandeur about what their music is actually worth. Why do any of you even think you should get paid for your music? It's certainly not an expectation I've ever had.

[revvy]

A colleague bought me breakfast this morning.

So that’s free lunch and free breakfast I’ve had

OP: “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.

[Vortifex]

..

[BertKoor]

I'd f**king jump at the chance to have any of our music in a feature film. The exposure would be worth a hundred times more than anything they paid you. And I've worked on half-a-dozen films for free.

May I ask, just out of interest, what came out of that 'exposure'?