Why composers don’t work

I’m not usually au courant on happenings in the business of film and TV music (obviously, because I’m not a composer), but Billboard recently reported on a bitter dispute between European composers and TV producers who demand up to 50% of the publishing rights to the music, regardless of whether the composer already is with a  publishing company.  Hence, the formation of the European Federation of Film Composers and Audiovisual Music. A quote:

David Ferguson recalls being asked in 1999 to work on a major U.K. TV film. “I said no to signing the clause,” he says. “The [TV company's] publisher told me if I didn’t ‘behave sensibly,’ the producer would be given a list of eight composers who would.” Ferguson signed.

Musimagen member José Nieto, an award-winning composer, says he has not been offered TV work since 1992, when he refused to sign the 50% clause. “The contracts are absurd and aberrant, but I have been lucky outside TV,” says Nieto, who is published by Paris-based Amplitude.

So if you wonder why some guys don’t seem to be working (you know, on TV projects that might produce CDs you might want to hear), this is some of what is going on.