Sunday, February 3, 2008

Please Welcome Triple Scoop Music - New Advertiser

Over a decade ago, I sat in a seminar and heard photographer Charles Lewis talk about the risks of putting copyrighted music on videos you are delivering to clients - the chief risk being - it's a breach of the music owner's copyright, and good luck getting permission. Lewis offered a collection of music - on tape at the time - with all the necessary clearances.

Times they have a changed, and now what options do you have?

(Complete post, after the Jump)
Enter Triple Scoop Music. These guys have some awesome music for all sorts of uses to accompany your photography, from slide shows to client CD's/DVD's, and so forth. All of my podcasts/equipment presentations use their music as background audio, and the titles where chosen by me. Their fees are extremely reasonable ($60 a song), and the depth of their collection impressive. Here's the meat of their 99-year license:
FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS:
  • Photo Slideshows for you and your photography clients
  • Photo presentations on CD
  • Photo presentations on DVD
  • Website-based photo galleries/slideshows
  • Powerpoint presentations
  • Portfolio presentations
  • Music for your personal or commercial website (one domain per license)
  • On-hold music for your business
  • Podcasts
So, go check them out, and see what they have to offer. They are good people making good music, and their contribution to your visuals will make a difference.


Please post your comments by clicking the link below. If you've got questions, please pose them in our Photo Business Forum Flickr Group Discussion Threads.

11 comments:

Aric said...

I just have a quick question regarding these guys....

How is Triple Scoop Music devaluing their work as musicians any different from Getty Images undervaluing photography and hurting our industry?

$60 a song seems to be waaay too low, just like $60 an image is waaay too low.

Am I missing something here?

John Harrington said...

Aric --

Several mis-conceptions here:

1) TSM does not have the market force that Getty has, and thus, does not have the ability to sway the entire market as Getty has done.

2) TSM and maybe one or two other providers, are the sole providers of this service outside of arrangements between major labels and major media buyers.

3) TSM has made it easy to secure a license to composed music. I spent an equivalent of several weeks trying to jump through the hoops and getting nowhere with the RIAA/et al over licensing songs for my uses.

4) TSM is not coming in and stepping into a market that already exists and devastating it. They are essentially providing a legal path to acquire music that previously didn't exist, and helping "legalize" the photographers who were using music in the shadows.

5) I can quantify that $60 is too low for my images, but I cannot quantify if it's too low for a 2-4 minute music track.

By way of reference, to contemplate (not reach a conclusion by any means), visiting:

http://www.bmi.com/career/print/C1516

Tells you that, for example, how BMI calculates royalties for use of all popular (i.e. plays on the radio) music is around $0.32 a minute for classical, and where played on TV, can be about $1 or so comparably, and these would be for thousands of listeners, if not many many times more.

Because TSM expects the audiences for your use to be much smaller, with the broadest uses in the first few months/year or so of use, a 99 year license would not begin to approach the combined listenership of one play on a radio station, where the artist collects a dollar or two, or even a TV station as background music where a collected fee might be $5 in most circumstances.

Since many of TSM's performers are also partners in the organization/label, there's almost no middleman between the fees collected and the fees paid to the artist, so one photographer paying $60 for one song to be used in one (or even a few) of their presentations is more than likely paying the artist much more than they would have collected had that same song been played on a radio station even several times to tens of thousands of people.

I understand, at first blush, your question, but the comparison, upon deeper analysis isn't an apples to apples one.

Hope this helps.

John Ricard said...

John, I think you should rewrite your original post to incorporate your answer to Aric into the original post. A lot of times I don't even read the comments section and I'll bet a lot of other people don't either.

Anonymous said...

It is good to that photographers are getting tools to help them market their work. Quality music at a reasonable fee is a key tool to make photos more enjoyable (and marketable). I will definitely look into Triple Scoop for future projects.
Another aspect of making photo CDs more enjoyable (and yes more marketable) is CD's label. As obvious as this sounds, good labels elude many photographers because of the poor and complex disc labeling options available. I have been using a new product called the DiscPainter put out by Dymo. It has allowed me to created impressive CD labels using my own photos. It allows easy adding of text descriptions, photographer info, and copy write info right on the label.
Competition in the photography world is fierce. Photographers who want to be taken seriously and sell their work effectively must use every tool available to them. Professional looking labels and quality music are two necessary tools.

topical ointment said...

Needle Drop and Buyout Music has been around for a long time... that's why sometimes you hear the same music on the evening news... and then, as background for a colon-cleanse commercial. How apropos these days...

Unknown said...

If you are in need of music for a non-profit situation, consider http://www.mobygratis.com/film-music.html.

Anonymous said...

I have the dymo printer and its perfect for this kind of thing...i get soo much use out of it everyday and for my music stuff on the side... u can't beat its quality and the professional look it gives ur work.

Anonymous said...

I just love that little cute printer...omg it perfect for when i do my scrapbooking...let me tell you...now i know that i print all my pictures for the scrap book its self but then i choose one and thats the cover picture for the cd that i put in the back...omg all my friends love when i do my scrapbooks and they ask me to do theirs also.

Anonymous said...

i like my dymo…it lets me do watever i want with the ablility to look professional all the time..it takes only 3 mins to print on the best feature.the software is cool but i like the option from rinting from photoshop or quarkexpress.

Dede said...

I have the dymo printer and its perfect for my son's new project...him and his friends started a band.. now i am able to put their picure on a cd and send it out to all my friends and family...its great and very easy to use and the quality is amazing

Anonymous said...

Hi there,

I just thought it may be of some interest to you to know, a while back i came across a british labels company who sold me a batch of plain labels at a really low price. If you are at all interested then it may be worth visiting their website so see what other types of label printing they do.

Newer Post Older Post