Some nikka on futureproducers got in contact with Wendy Day and asked her about this:
Wendy Day is a rap/artist advocate, manager, consultant who helps artists from getting exploited, she's the reason Birdman got his 50/50 deal (or whatever deal he has) with Universal. She's managed Twista, David Banner, Slick Rick and others.
Wendy Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Here is how you clear a sample... - Future Producers forums
I asked Wendy Day (@RapCoalition), what's the best way for an indie to clear a sample. She said check out...
DMG Clearances, Inc.- Music Clearance Provider
I just called them up. Their president has over 20 years in the music business, and used to work for the major labels. She's pretty much standardized the prices for samples, regardless of whether you're DEANNAH DUKES, or EMINEM.
Basically their services go like this.
Stage 1
They research the song. Who holds and administers the copyrights and publishing, what record label released it, artists, etc, etc. Once they know that, then they write the formal letter, requesting the usage of the sample. The company sends a quote back, and then DMG negotiates from there. Once a price/terms are agreed upon, they contact you and let you know the deal...
The cost for that service is $240 for the master recording (using a piece of the actual record), and $240 for the publishing piece (if you only want to like replay the sample, but not use the actual RECORD it came from).
Stage 2
Once the price/terms are agreed upon, then payment has to be made. DMG will facilitate the payments, do all the legal paperwork for the licenses, etc etc. Again, this price is $240 per master, and $240 for the publishing.
Average Prices of the Sample
I asked about this and she said it depends. It depends on the record being sampled, if the sample was replayed or the master recording was used, and how much of the sample is contained in the new record. She said it DOESN’T matter who the artist is. It used to be if you were EMINEM and you wanted to use a sample, they’d ass rape you, but for an indie, they wouldn’t charge much. Now the prices are pretty standard.
You’d have to pay an advance of anywhere between $2000 and $5000 for the rights to use the Master, and $2000 - $5000 for the publishing (again, if you want to replay the sample). Now they could come back and say “we don’t want an advance, we just want to own a piece of the copyright to the song”. Or they could say “yeah, just give us 50% of the copyright of the song, and forget about the advance”. Or they could ask for a percentage of the royalties.
Any combination of the above could happen, so it really depends. But if you want to clear a sample, it’ll cost you at least $500 to find out how much it’s going to cost you to use the sample.
