music licensing: who has done it?

Anyone out there who is making music dealt with placements/licensing? How did you get it rolling, who with, etc?

My band managed a few placements on MTV documentaries (I Used to Be Fat....my crowning creative achievement is having 20 seconds of my guitar playing soundtracking this show) that got set up by one of our labels via 'just knowing someone'. It certainly didn't pay very well.

my drummer's father made those childrens music cd's sold at wal mart & got his children to sing on them, guess he had never claimed the royalties or whatever and got a huge cheque for them a couple years go

I have some pretty specific questions and I'm having a hard time finding the answers. A track I produced for another artist was recently used in a Google ad, and I am going to get paid, however:

1) Only the instrumental was used for the ad, so it was all 100% content that I made. I'm not too worried about this since it wouldn't have come about if the vocalist hadn't signed with a music licensing company, hustled to gain the exposure, etc. But since we have a 50/50 split on the track (vocals & music), does that still technically apply if they only use the instrumental?

2) Speaking of the music licensing company, I only found out about all this after the ad had already come out. Is that how it works, or should the licensing company technically have involved me in the process at any point?

since we have a 50/50 split on the track (vocals & music), does that still technically apply if they only use the instrumental?

afaik yes

Speaking of the music licensing company, I only found out about all this after the ad had already come out. Is that how it works, or should the licensing company technically have involved me in the process at any point?

who owns the publishing? that's who the licensing company would talk with - or, more likely, their representative, whoever admins their rights.

who owns the publishing?

Good question -- a few years ago we signed something with a different licensing company, who apparently the artist is no longer working with. Otherwise he doesn't have a label, and we're both registered with ASCAP as PRO.

I talked about this with a friend last night and it sounds like it's all pretty standard, as often as not he doesn't find out that a track has been licensed until he gets the check.