Crash course in music for TV

[aluntay]

long time lurker etc...


Background:

My cousin does a lot of work for Discovery channel, Horizon and various other documentaries. His current project is for the Discovery channel.
Over christmas i asked him for some scenes so that I could have a go at writing to picture, more just to see if I was any good at it.
Well ive submitted a piece to him and he liked it see below:

Sounds good!

I'm in a bit of a dilemma now, as we can just leave it at this, or we can
tweak away at it, you spend lots of your free time making it great, then my
executive producer says 'no, I prefer this track' and pulls out a bit of
library music and everything was for nothing... last year I had some guys do
some music for me for free, they got it spot on and my boss just didn't like
it and there was nothing I could do. Also, I think there are laws about it
having to be registered as library music, otherwise they will need to get
you to sign a contract if you make something they liked etc, saying you
don't own any of it... it's a messy back-stabbing world and I don't want to
drag you into to it... but it's up to you!

Aside all that, considering that was your first ever stab at this thing it
sounded very promising!

I have no clue as to what needs to be done re publishing copyright contract etc and am frantically trawling the web trying to find out, but time is running out.

A few bullet points on what I should be doing would be appreciated.

e.g

1. register with xxxx
2. make sure you xxxx

etc etc



thanks in advance,

yours cluelessly,

Alun

p.s. im based in the UK and am guessing the doc will be shown worldwide?

 

[Ashermusic]

In the U.S it would be:

1. Join either ASCAP or BMI.
2. Make up cue sheets at the end of the project and submit them to which ever one you joined.

I imagine it is similar in the U.K.