Payment for song in film

Hi guys

So bit of a business question here. Pitched a song idea for this producer that I’ve worked with before through another film I did a song for.

This time however I’ll actually get paid as oppossed to money from album sales.
It’s a small mid budget film and my song is the main song for credits (rest of film is scored already). So my question is how much is considered a decent amount to ask for in this case, as I have no real experience on this front.

Going off the last film which went cannes festival and had a UK release , I’m assuming this film will also do decently well.

Any help is greatly appreciated

Hi @BenBeard,

good question. Depends where and how long this film will be shown.

But in your case I think around $1000 will be a good starting point.

Kind regards,
Alexey :slight_smile:

Its usually done based a little off the films production budget, PRS here in the U.K has 3 tiers, sub £750k is 2k, sub £3m is 5k and over £3m is 10k. These are rates aimed at production tracks.

These are very much guides though, at the end of the day it comes down to what the perceived value of the track is, known tracks can go for many time these amounts.

Also if your film was made for less than £1m then budget is going to be more tightly controlled than say a blockbuster.

I’m guessing they will already have a budget in mind though, music budget will be broken down into score, recording for the score and then clearing licenses, which is usually handled by a music supervisor.

I’ve also heard of artists almost giving away the track to appear in the film, either out of wanting to or as a favour. The Wrestler uses Sweet Child O’ Mine at the end, which was said to have been donated by Axl Rose because that license would have been a gigantic chunk of the films budget.