freeman

Hello AngelCityOutlaw, So it all depends on the agreement in question. In France, you cannot sign a buy-out contract (fixed remuneration) with a French composer: it is illegal ; even if you have signed a contract to that effect or even if the composer is not registered with SACEM: he can always ask to receive a royalty fee for their tracks / work. So, if I let 4 French composers work on my video game, it may cost me a certain amount (which i don't know) ; USA is a good choice then. I am outraged by the lack of transparency and flexibility of SACEM. In any case, thank you so much for your return, I see more clearly now, and i think my english is improving a lot these days ! Au plaisir, Alex

Hello everybody, I have no problem paying royalties for the composers who will work on my game. For me, good musics in a game is essential: these are the only elements that can transcend a video game. I'm thinking in particular of games like NFS: Underground. The problem is that I do not know how much I will have to spend and therefore this constitutes a risk. How can you trust an organization that is not transparent? No longer having a response from SACEM, I even asked my French composers to contact it themselves for this response. Currently, none have come back to me with a cost estimation and I highly doubt that will happen. In France, there is a big disagreement between game creators and SACEM; I understand better why today. What I would like to know is how it works in the USA; because there is a good chance that I will turn to the USA from now on. How does it generally work between a music composer and a video game company in the USA ? Is it mostly buy-out type contracts? Can the composer claim royalties even if the contract does not allow it? I saw that you also had SACEM equivalents like ASCAP and BMI. How does it work in law? Thank you for your enlightening responses. Best regards, Alex

Hello everybody, I am French and I am working on the creation of an independent video game for PC. I'm going to need 17 background music for the game. I thought I would find 4 French music composers to make them, but in our country, we unfortunately have a state organization called SACEM which automatically collects royalties for composers based on sales of the game. We can't do without them. The 2 intrinsic problems is that it can quickly cost and we have no idea and no control over the final amount to pay. Personally, after having contacted them for more information and precise figures, I have no further news from them. It's not for lack of trying ... So my idea now is to look at the USA! To my knowledge, there is not the same problem of royalty fees; companies in the sector generally work with composers on buy-out type contracts: where the author of the music assigns his rights in return for a fixed remuneration. Can you confirm that this is the case? Do you have some documentation on this or anecdotes? Best regards, Alex