Exclusivity in contracts with licensing partners is something I am nervous about. It’s a tough call, because the “re-titling” process is looked down upon, but offers me more flexibility to proliferate my music (although I’m careful to limit things so that I am not “spamming” myself everywhere). At the same time, I think I have seen (well-established) companies work harder and the monetary rewards bigger with exclusive situations. For example, I have a couple partners (Harpo, Musikvergnuegen) that
compensate me upfront for writing tracks for them, then the arrangement is that they exclusively own those tracks but I collect
the writer/performer royalties for my lifetime. Both companies have been doing GREAT with getting the tracks placed a lot and lots of revenue coming to me (both from front end licensing fees and back end royalties). However, a few other exclusive deals I had amounted to nothing and I had to work hard to end those contracts…some really good tracks “went to waste in hiding” in my opinion, for several years while a company tried to get its operational ducks in order, etc.
Welcome comments about your experiences and opinions!