The New York Post is reporting that the smallest of the US performing rights societies, SESAC, is up for sale again. Whereas the asking price was $700 million some time ago, it has now reportedly dropped to $500 million. This sets the price at about ten years of annual profit, currently $50 million  year.

SESAC is privately owned and home to a number of high-profile songwriters such as Bob Dylan. One of the difficulties of selling it is that its natural partners, such as major labels, would have difficulty arguing that there isn’t a conflict of interest in representing both their commercial interest and those of rights holders. Warner has reportedly expressed interest.

But given that there is a growing trend towards integration at the level of PROs across the globe, would this not be the time for  a large body such as Germany’s Gema, Japan’s Jasrac or France’s Sacem to pitch? It would certainly benefit the flow of information and rights in both directions – a key issue in the sector.

To discuss the issues of film and music, Just Temptation is organising the Music on Film/Film on Music (MOFFOM) Minifest & Market on the original dates of the now cancelled Popkomm international music market in Berlin. This event will include both a market part open to film and music professionals as well as a mini festival part targeting the broader audience of film and music aficionados.
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In a move that shows the ongoing devaluation of music on the web, music library Pump Audio sent out a message to its music suppliers that has caused considerable debate. In essence, the message announces a major change in the payment Pump Audio makes to music producers. Previously, the company split upfront licence fees 50/50 with creators, while also taking 50% of the publishing rights in the highly debatable “re-titling” practice. The new split is now 35/65 in favour of Pump Audio, while maintaining the share on the publishing revenue.

Many users have noted the difficulty in actually tracing the uses and therefore of seeing any performance rights within a reasonable timespan. In fact, it is thought that Pump has realised that music publishing is far from being the automatic money-spinner it is often thought to be, as it requires considerable resources to ensure that music users provide accurate cue sheets and the performance rights companies track them and pay accordingly. So they are asking more money on the front end. Their blog, meanwhile, talks about offering “the best deal in the music business”, which is a little cheeky.

There are music publishers who consider licensing as a core of their business, part of the ongoing job of exploiting a title. There are other companies that focus on the licensing part without touching publishing income.

Find-a-Track has completely revamped its operations, and is now focusing more on news from the music licensing and supervision world than sourcing music itself. Bookmark the site or grab the RSS link to be kept informed.

Having said that, we still have access to a very large catalogue of modern and nu jazz instrumentals (check some recent stuff here). So keep those requests coming.