(continued from page one)
Another referrer on a smaller project got $1,000 for about a minute of work.
These people referred new clients to me, and I paid them well, and I can pay you for referrals, too. And don’t worry about whether your referred people will be happy. The client I most recently scored a video for I originally worked for in 1989. I keep clients a long time because I leave them thrilled with my work.
Which brings me to my next point.
I will continue paying you a smaller honorarium of up to 5% (five percent) of my up-front net on every project I do for that client until I retire, or they do! That’s like money falling from the sky into your bank account!
I really did this before, and I’m firing it up again. Here’s why. About two years after I started this marketing experiment, I joined the faculty of a nearby university to fulfill my dream of teaching. It sucked up all my time until I was tenured, and then they immediately gave me a three-year appointment as Department Chair. I finished that stint in June of 2018, and I’ve got my schedule arranged now so I can accept new clients, and meet deadlines like before. Prior to my time with the university, I was a full-time freelancer in music, and had done that for over 25 years. I’m an award-winning 30-plus-year veteran in the music industry. I’m a good risk!
So here’s how easily you can earn these referral fees. Go listen to my demos on this site and get an idea for my range of styles and the level at which I write and produce. Then, think through your professional acquaintances, or watch for clients who need a film composer or music producer for an album.
Better yet, if we’re not already friends, let do lunch and get acquainted. Once we’ve had a half hour together, you’ll likely be totally comfortable with me, and I with you. You’ll know that I’m the real deal, and that you won’t be embarrassed giving me your referral.
There are some ground-rules to this. They’re all specified in the short contract we’ll have between us, so the following list is not the authoritative or exhaustive list of deal points, but it’ll give you an idea of how this works.
- The client must be new to me.
- To be an eligible referral, the first job with this new client must have a minimum gross music budget of at least $4,500, and a minimum net profit to me of at least $2,000.
- The client can be anywhere in the world! I’ve done remote work a lot. I even did two albums worth of music for clients in Europe, all handled via email and Paypal, and they were thrilled with my delivered work.
- Refer yourself! I’ll pay you as long as it isn’t self-dealing or a conflict of interest that would get you or me into trouble.
- You have to be first-in with the referral. (See the note below in these bullet points.)
- “Full-budget” gigs get a fifteen percent-of-net referral fee. (Defined on site.)
- “Low-budget” gigs get a ten percent-of-net referral fee. (Defined on site.)
- “Net” does not include future monies on the gig, such as mechanical royalties or P.R.O. payouts (ASCAP or BMI, e.g.). It’s just on the creative fee’s “net.”
- None of the production budget is included in the amount counted in “net” for the referral payout. In other words, here in Utah, gigs pay a whole production budget to me; I then pay performers, studio costs, contracting, cartage, music copy-work, and any incidental fees; what’s left after those payouts – the money I actually take home to spend – is what the referral fee is based on. For reference, I typically keep around 50% (half) of a full-production budget on a music project. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes less.
- On future gigs, after the initial referral gig, you’ll get either three percent (low-budget) or five percent (full-budget) of the up-front take-home as an override fee or honorarium – my way of continuing to say thanks.
- The definition of “Full-budget” and “Low-budget” will change from time to time, and will affect everyone equally. It will be specified in our contract for each referral, and I may also post that schedule on this site. The current definition of “Full-budget” and “Low budget” that I’ve specified at the time you make the referral will control for that specific deal. If inflation raises the appropriate threshold of “Full-budget”, then our contract will reflect that, as I publish the thresholds on my site or in an email notice to you. If the economy crashes, and people just won’t pay as much as before, then the threshold may go down, making it easier to qualify a gig as “Full-budget.” I’ll agree to use common sense and reasonableness in setting the threshold, and you’ll agree to trust me on it. It’s easy money anyway, right?
- Each referral will only be payable if the gig goes to completion, and full payment is made by the referred client, AND you have signed and delivered to me the Referral Contract and any needed tax forms for that particular referral. (Available via email from me to you with each deal.)
- This referral relationship does not make you my employee, partner, or agent. You’re simply a freelance, independent contractor doing marketing piece-work for me. As such, you’ll be responsible for all your own taxes and regulatory fees (if any), as well as your own benefits, and you agree that I am not your “employer” for any purpose.
- You must indemnify me as to any conflict of interest on your part. The best bet is, if you’re considering referring me to a client within a company for whom you work, then don’t, or agree not to take the fee. A conflict of interest like that can get you good and fired, and there’s even a chance of us both being prosecuted in civil or criminal court. Please don’t go there. Just refer me to colleagues and acquaintances not under forced association in the workplace, nor employed by the same party. For example: employees of Disney mustn’t refer me to a Disney-employed client, or on a Disney project, or heads might roll.
- None of what I’ve said in this letter, nor on my site, nor in any other way is a true “forward-looking statement” or promise or projection of your income. I can guarantee your percentage if you give me a qualifying referral, but not the amount of money that percentage might end up being, nor how long you’ll have to talk to the client to get it.
- I reserve the right to refuse any client or gig for any reason or no reason. In other words, I’m under no obligation to take the gig nor to accept the client if, in my sole opinion, it’s not a good match, or I’m just too busy, or even just if I feel wrong about it. And by the way, I don’t like doing “edgy” content, and I won’t even begin to touch porn, gratuitous violence, or heavy cursing. Rule of thumb for edginess of content: If I can show it to my family without hesitation, we’re probably good, content-wise.
- What I love working on the most is media that makes the world a better place: safer, kinder, and more beautiful. This can be documentary or narrative projects in film, and any uplifting album or concert-type music. That said, I do like getting rowdy sometimes — I’m an old jazz and rock ‘n’ roll sax player, remember — and I’m good at non-tonal techniques, I just don’t want a steady diet of it. I need tonal, lyrical, and moving, too.
- If two people demonstrably refer the same party to me (this has already happened) within a similar time frame, and for the same project, as long as both can document the truth of their referral, and both referrals come in (documented) before I seal the deal with the client, the two referrers will split the fees I pay in equal shares in every respect. (The first time this happened, I gave the whole amount to first-to-refer, and second in line got nothing, and I had an unhappy camper on my hands. Never again. Co-referrals get split.)
- If things go haywire (and I can’t see how they could, but you never know), and we end up disagreeing with each other, the upper limit of damages or compensation due to you from me is the fifteen percent commission — with no additional fees, expenses or costs. If you refer to me, you are agreeing up front that no additional damages, fees, or costs of any kind are payable by me to you. You also agree that we mediate any dispute, selecting and paying the mediator equally. (I don’t foresee this coming up – it never has in the past.)
- And … the other, more miscellaneous deal points you’ll find on the Referral Contract document we’ll sign if we do a deal.
So, in the end, I’ve designed this to be a win-win-win.
I love creating music (even more than I love teaching), and I’m good at it. Your referred client gets great music on time and within budget, and goes away thrilled. (Remember, I tend to keep my clients a long time, and over many projects.) And you get paid up to fifteen percent as if you were my agent, but you don’t have to do all that agent-y stuff (negotiation and paperwork). I do all that, and you still get the cool fee.
PLUS you get smaller overrides in the future as I do additional work for that client, even years after you made the referral. (Just be sure to keep in touch so I know where to send your money.)
I value you as a colleague and either friend or potential friend regardless of whether you refer clients to me. But won’t it be cool when you bring me new clients with cool gigs I’m excited to do, and I start paying you checks “out of nowhere” that make you and your significant other smile?
Everybody wins. That’s the way every deal should work, in my humble opinion.
Please feel free to call me at any time if you want to do lunch, or chat about this.
Warmest regards,
Arlen L. Card
Composer/Arranger/Producer
Golfer with Delusions of Adequacy
(Please leave a message or identifying text, as I only answer calls from people in my address book.)
Or email me here.