Corporate Gig Music Question

[AndrewMSV]

I'm doing a corporate gig.
I have to compose/provide royalty free music to accompany the montage I'm doing.

The plan is to compose three songs for the Suits to listen to and for them to pick one.

Do I charge for having composed three royalty free songs or just charge for the one they choose?

Suppose I gave them all three on a CD for posterity or for their media department? Will they dispute the charge for all three songs when they are only expecting needle-drop on one of them?

Any thoughts?
Thanks.

[RatVega]

Are you planning on actually composing them? Sounds like a lot of work that should have been a contract item...

We usually use SonicFire Pro, which makes "composing" 3 pieces a snap.

This is one of those sticky areas (like logo design) where you could go on endlessly. I'll guess that they expect to receive and pay for one song.

If you're actually composing, I'd go "theme" level only until they pick, then reserve "artistic privilege" for the final.

[AndrewMSV]

Yes, I am "composing" the songs, as far as they know >wink wink<
Sonicfire Pro 4 came in the mail about a week ago. :-)

But nevertheless, they have a budget for me to 'acquire' (which can mean compose or purchase) royalty free music for them so I want to take advantage of that budget item.

Do you think claiming $1000 for a royalty free song is too much? Also, I've already told them that they would own all three songs that I compose so hypothetically they'd need to pay for it to own it.

Anyway, thanks for the advice. I kind of think that they will likely only expect to buy ONE song as well.

[RatVega]

First, there's a semi-ethical question here... As long as you're selling "royalty-free musical treatments" or words to that effect, you'll never be misrepresenting anything coming off SonicFire Pro 4 with that Mood gizmo.

"exclusive" and "original" are words I'd avoid.

I understand the desire to spend the budget, but $1000 may be a bit steep. In fairness, I think I'd do diligence on all three with the intent of delivering all; they just pick the most appropriate one. This fulfills the ownership issue and you can collect the grand in good conscience.

[AndrewMSV]

First, there's a semi-ethical question here... As long as you're selling "royalty-free musical treatments" or words to that effect, you'll never be misrepresenting anything coming off SonicFire Pro 4 with that Mood gizmo.

"exclusive" and "original" are words I'd avoid.

I understand the desire to spend the budget, but $1000 may be a bit steep. In fairness, I think I'd do diligence on all three with the intent of delivering all; they just pick the most appropriate one. This fulfills the ownership issue and you can collect the grand in good conscience.

Sounds good to me. That's kind of what I was thinking.
(their music budget was actually more like $1500 but I didn't want to take it all. That's too obvious. :???:)
If their lawyers come after me, I'll forward their calls to you. :-)
thanks for the advice.

Anybody else have any thoughts?

[freddymedal]

I would say charge them for the one song. If it's similar to the Adobe plug in "Smart Sound Quick Tracks" those are pretty easy to create, and you know what there budget is so they probably don't want to pay for the 2 they don't use.