What’s in your wallet… I mean music budget?

Your script is in hand and it’s time to break it down so you can start preparing your production budget.  Your list of budget breakdown elements probably looks a bit like this:
•    cast members
•    extras
•    stunts
•    special effects
•    props
•    vehicles
•    animals
•    wardrobe
•    make up
•    sound effects
•    special equipment.

Take another look at the list again.  See anything missing?  Could it be….Music!!

Music is that budget line item that is either put in the budget with no dollars allocated to it or there’s too little.  A lot of the times the music budget is left out all together.  The kicker is, there’s always a need for music in the film.  In some rare cases you’ll find a film that has no music at all.  I know this because I’ve worked on films where this has happened.  I worked several months on the film clearing song just to find out that the director/producers didn’t have the money to license the songs.

Another issue is many times the songs that are selected recorded by high profile, upper tier artists.  It may be a great song, but the cost to license the song is most likely going to exceed the music budget and possibly your entire production budget.  This happens when the song is used as temp music.  It starts to grow on the editor and director that they decided to use the song anyway knowing that the fees will be out of reach.

Determining how much to budget for music can be a daunting task if you are not familiar with how publishers and record labels determine the licensing fees that they quote.  Even if you have experience with music clearance and licensing, there are still a lot of factors to consider in making the best estimate for your music budget.  When I say this, I mean creating a realistic music budget.  Not just throwing an amount on a spreadsheet.

Some factors that must be considered when estimating your music budget is:

•    Term: This is how long you want to retain the license.  Most terms are 1 year, 5 years, 10 years, or perpetually.  The longer the term, the higher the licensing fee.

•    Territory: Where you plan to screen or exhibit your film will affect the licensing fees.  Worldwide rights will generate a much higher fee than just in the US or Europe.  Specific regions such as France only or just in Texas will lower the fees.

•    Duration: The length of time the track will be used in your project will increase the fee as well.

•    Use: If the track will be used as a theme, featured music, credit music, or background music has will cause the fees to go up or down depending on how you use the song.

•    Media: How you plan to screen or exhibit your film is a big factor as well.  If you’re looking for just festival rights, the fees will be much lower than theatrical.  You can also request home video/DVD rights, paid cable TV rights, free cable TV rights, broadcast TV rights, VOD rights and any other media.  All of these can be bundled in to “All Media” where you will pay more or pick one or more to bring the fees down.

Any combination of rights will be factored in to generate the final licensing fees.  If the fees come in too high, you can remove some of the rights, find more money or find another song.  On just about every film I’ve worked on, I have had to deal with one situation or the other when there’s not enough money.

This was just a quick and dirty view of creating your music budget and what’s involved.  A real life situation can bring in more issues such as multiple publishers, Most Favored Nations (MFN) Clause, denial of rights all together.

The bottom line is, if you can here it, clear it and make sure you have enough in your music budget to pay for it!