TV Music Licensing pays songwriters and composers differently than Film Music Licensing does. Most songwriters don't know that, and they ask me the question pretty frequently! The short answer is "yes, it pays differently," in the U.S. In the United States, composers of scores, background music and featured songs do NOT get paid when the music is played in a movie theater. In other words, there's no back end, no performance royalty for music played in theaters. But there IS a performance royalty for theater play in many, if not most other countries. So, while you won't get an ASCAP,...

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Dear Passengers, How much effort is enough? How do you know when you've given the music business your best shot and it simply wasn't enough? I saw this very issue debated on our forum. Somebody was ready to give up on songwriting because he felt that he had given it all he had, and the wall was too high for him to get over. I had three reactions to what he had written. 1) He was frustrated and wanted his friends on the forum to talk him out of quitting. 2) How badly did he really want to be in...

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