dBE.Music - How It Works

How It Works

Our Mission
Step by Step
Song Submission Rules
Additional Paperwork
Cancellation

You sign up here on this web site and create an account. You send us your material and we review it to see if it is useable in TV, Film or Advertising. If we can use it, we will try to place it in media using our contacts in the Film and Television industries, our sister website songsforsync.com and various other means. If a song is placed, we split the revenue 50/50. Tada!

Here are more details:

dBE.Music's niche is hip, undiscovered independent music. We take a boutique approach when dealing with end-users like music supervisors or movie producers - we provide personal attention to each of their projects. These people are bombarded and overwhelmed with music all the time. We are able to ease their burden by providing music that is clearly appropriate for their project, both in quality of song and recording, and in fit for the scene.

To that end, we review mountains of recordings, but can select and present to them only the very best material. Our success, your success, depends on maintaining that trust.

So here's how things work between you and dBE.Music:

sign up and create an account in which you agree to our Terms of Service (TOS)
pay our small membership fee of $49.95 per year through PayPal
submit your songs for us to review by using the Submit page and sending a CD or CDR.
when appropriate, we will accept one or more of your songs into our catalog
the catalog, containing your song(s) will be actively solicited to end-users

You must be a songwriter of each song you wish to submit. You do not have to be the sole songwriter - you can have co-writers, so long as they agree to have the song submitted and sign the Co-writer Agreement discussed below. This means that NO managers, publishers, or label representatives can be members or submit songs. If you fall into these categories and wish to have songs considered for placement, please have your songwriter join and submit the material.

Submitting songs is done by entering the names of the songs you are sending into our database and then printing a page to accompany the submission. That way we have a record of who submitted what. Submission must be sent by mail on CD or CDR as the reviewing process requires a physical copy. No MP3s or MP3 CDs should be sent.

You may submit up to 15 songs each year. If you want submit more songs, you can do so with a per song charge of only $2.00 each. If you want to submit fewer songs, that is your choice, of course, but be aware that unused submissions will not carry forward into the next year.

If we can use a particular song, you will be notified via the web site (when you sign in). In addition an email alert may be sent. You will need to execute some additional paperwork before we can proceed to represent your song. More on this below. The term of the contract is one year, but will only start after you return these completed papers and the status of your song on the web site becomes "in catalogue". You will be able to cancel this contract at any time subject to the TOS. PLEASE BE SURE TO READ THE TOS COMPLETELY TO UNDERSTAND YOUR RIGHTS AND OBLIGATIONS.

All songs to be submitted must:

Have Master quality recording
May contain no samples except those from cleared libraries (ie: a commercially licensed keyboard sampler)
Must have all additional rights holders (co-writers of the song, publishers of the song, labels) clearly identified and agreed to the TOS using the Additional Paperwork below.

Prior to our being able to represent your song(s) to end-users, we will need you to complete 3 pieces of paperwork. You will download the forms from this web site. They are the Sideman Agreement, the Co-writers Agreement, and the Publisher/Label Agreement. On the first, you need to have everyone who performed on the recording and all producers sign that they agree with our TOS (you can give them a copy). They agree that if you get any money from placement, and they are owed any portion, you will pay them that amount. On the second, you need to get any co-writers to sign agreeing with the TOS and specifying their percentage ownership of the song. Co-writers will be paid directly by dBE.Music. The third is for any publishing companies or record labels that may own rights to your song or the recording. An authorized representative of each company must sign agreeing to our TOS and specifying their percentage ownership of the song or recording. They will be paid directly by dBE.Music as well.

You will also need to send a copy of the copyright registration for each song and recording that is accepted by dBE.Music. For those writers in the USA, this should be a Library of Congress Form PA and Form SR (covering both the Song and the Recording). The equivalent documentation from a governmental body will suffice for non US writers. Of course, these must be the filed and returned (ie accepted) forms, not just the application form.

Remember there is Membership to the web site, and there is a contract for each song. You may cancel either at any time. Cancellation of Membership may be done through the web site and will prevent any further dues. Your previous membership fee is non-refundable.

Cancellation of the contract for any song requires written notice to dBE.Music by registered letter and is subject to terms as described in the TOS. Please refer to the TOS for details.

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