Recording - November 2014 - 55

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call every person they don't sign.
To me it's kind of a turn-off when people
have songs forwarded and they call me.
Because it's just like, they'll say their name
and they'll say, "You remember that song that
you got forwarded."
For them it's everything, and for you it's one of
many.
I know that's hard, but that's kind of the reality.

a film without looking like an idiot when they
have to go to the director and say, "Actually,
we can't clear that song anymore." So our deal is
not for everybody. It really isn't, and it's very
hard for people to let go sometimes. You really
have to fundamentally understand what we do,
who we are, and believe in us.
The retail model for music really doesn't exist
anymore. That's going to a free model, it really
is. And, you know, our margins are very low. I
think that the fantasy is that you're going to
write a song and get a $35,000 sync. But we're
not dealing in hits most of the time. For the
most part, we are dealing in non-hits, and
they're really only paying the big dollars for the

hits, and everybody else kind of gets crushed. So
that's the way our business model works.
Anyway, we've got to get you on a plane. We've got
like two minutes for you guys to come up and
shake Jeff's hand. Jeff, you're amazing. Seriously,
dude, I could stay home and you could just stay up
here all weekend long. Is this guy incredibly good,
or what? Jeff Freundlich...
I just want to say one more thing. Have you guys
thanked this guy? Because this guy changes lives.
So, to this guy, thank you! [applause]
Wow, thanks you guys, and thank you for saying
that Jeff! Mr. Jeff Freundlich, ladies and
gentlemen! [applause]

Audience Member: What kind of publishing
deals do you do? Are they co-publishing, or do
you take all of the publishing?
Our deals are exclusive. I don't believe in
non-exclusivity for contracts. Most of my
clients don't want to get the same piece of
music from two people. They are worldwide,
because we are distributed in 37 countries.
We always put our money where our mouth is
and pay money upfront. We take 100% of
publishing. The songwriter's share of the
copyright always stays with the writer, and
that's how they receive performance royalties
through BMI and ASCAP. And we've generated millions of dollars in performance

"Don't spend a lot of money on your
recordings because you're probably
not ready to record those songs yet.
What you really need to do is use TAXI
to get the feedback about how to
make your songs better."
-Jeff Freundlich
royalties for our writers. It works. The other
component of our deal in particular is that
we do everything in perpetuity. You should
not do a deal with us if you don't believe in
who we are and what it is that we do. This
goes back to what I was saying before. We
had several songs from some artist in the
1960s, and we pitched the stuff for two and a
half years, nothing hit. All of a sudden we get
two really amazing things in movies for this
particular guy, and if we had had a reversion
clause in the contract, the guy would've
missed the opportunity-we would have
missed the opportunity-and quite frankly,
we probably would've lost the client, because
the reason that we're... This is part of our
secret sauce, and there's a billion ways to
build a mousetrap, right? But our particular
mousetrap is that we want our clients to
know that if we pitch them a song and it's on
their computer for three or four years -
which is often the case- we want them to
know with confidence that they can temp it in
55
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