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

[Uncle E]

The company asked OP to use their vocal. What if the vocal was great? What if the end product turned out better than OP’s original? What if OP turned it around and used their vocal to promote himself? What if OP put in a requirement for them to get it professionally mixed and he ended up with a better mix than he could do himself? So many possibilities beyond money.

[vurt]

The company asked OP to use their vocal. What if the vocal was great? What if the end product turned out better than OP’s original? What if OP turned it around and used their vocal to promote himself? What if OP put in a requirement for them to get it professionally mixed and he ended up with a better mix than he could do himself? So many possibilities beyond money.

indeed, we can't know what may have happened!!

if it was me, id want to know more about the film, is it something id be interested in seeing? is it on the other hand, going to be something i have a personal issue with?

if a company like troma (cheap culty horror porn) id probably do it for the laughs!

[BONES]

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

As I said, I didn't work on films for exposure, I did it to help out. AFAIK I was never credited. I mentioned it to point out that people who work in film are often happy to work for free, just to help other film-makers, so it doesn't surprise me that a producer might have the expectation that someone would give them music for free.

In a few years AI will be scoring them all anyway, so it's not like there will be any careers to be had.

[revvy]

if a company like troma (cheap culty horror porn) id probably do it for the laughs!

Hammer would be even better.

[Daniele Nasuti]

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.

So I have some news. The trailer of that film came out and watching it I understood why they asked me music for free... It's really a low quality film. You can feel watching the trailer, seems like a student's film.
PLUS I don't like that genre and type of movies so my answer would have been no anyway as soon as I knew more about the film.

The thing I don't understand is why that producer who figurate on IMDB on films with 100.000 and 1.000.000 $ budget is now doing kind of student film...
Now I really doubt about IMDB too... can't trust the budget written on IMDB at all!!

LAST THING, for those who were encouraging me to do it for exposure: that would have been a NEGATIVE exposure since that's really not my genre and I don't want my name to be associated with something like that. The film could be interesting and beautiful, I don't know, but in this case it's really not for me.

So saying no this time has really been the best choice I could do in this situation, and I'm very happy I had the courage to do it.

Thanks everyone for your comments and advices, I read all and even if I don't agree with some of them I'm really thankful for everyone who spent the time to share his opinion here!! Thank you!