Selfhood is a boutique music publisher founded and led by Berlin based, multi-media artistst and educator Sky Deep. As an international artists first growing up between Los Angeles and New York and then traveling, touring the world and living in Germany since 2012, Sky has a unique perspective as an independent artist with a deep love for community and team work.
With more than 25 years experience in the entertainment industry, Sky has combined her artistic passions and lessons learned over the many years in a way where she can continue to create while also collaborating with and supporting other artists to get more of a foothold in the music business while keeping their creative juices flowing.
We work together with a team of artists and audio professionals to provide music intended for general enjoyment and synchronization with Film/TV.
We offer publishing administration services to support artists in getting royalties due for their music.
We offer music production services to support our team of artists in their professional development.
We also hold monthly songwriting camps to deepen the Selfhood catalog of offerings.
All of this is done to consistently generate fresh sounding material to suit as many motion picture scenarios as possible.
Even if Selfhood is handling publishing administration for you, if you are a member of a PRO, such as PRS, you will be paid your share of any performance royalties directly by the PRO. However, if you’re not a member of a collection society, then Selfhood will collect your royalties for you and distribute them as follows: Selfhood makes distributions quarterly in January, April, July and October. You will receive an email statement from us if the balance of your account totals over €40. When you receive a statement from us, you will be asked to provide payment information so that we can distribute your royalties out to you.
The way TV works in the UK, Germany and some other but not all places, is under blanket license deals, so any producer can use any track at any-time as long as the tracks are registered with the PRS, MCPS, GEMA (which we do here at Selfhood as your publisher) & PPL / GVL (this is the Master Rights registration; usually done by the record label/whoever paid for the recording*). TV shows report what music they use to the collection societies which then allows us to collect and distribute the royalties to our artists. However, we can only confirm usages once the royalties come through around 12 months after the air date, meaning that often our artists hear their music being used without us informing them.Your music may have been used on some shows as we pitch music daily to all our main clients, however these are busy people and unfortunately don’t have time to inform us when they use a track. Simple answer to the question, yes it was through Selfhood, however, due to the nature of TV you will only receive the sync information once the royalties come through.*If you don’t have your tracks registered with the PPL yet but would like to then Selfhood can help with the track registrations, just contact us.
Radio royalties should come through automatically about 9-12 months after the date of the broadcast and, because of this, we are unable to proactively make claims for broadcasts like we can for gigs. However, we are able to follow up with the PROs if you haven’t been paid for specific broadcasts after 12 months – that’s why it’s a good idea to keep your Selfhood team up to date with any broadcasts you’re aware of.
Really this answer covers this question no mater which PRO you inquire about: Unless you have joined the PRS as a writer, you will not have a PRS/CAE number. Everything we do at Selfhood goes through our publisher PRO memberships, but we always recommend that our writers join PRS as it means you will be paid your share of performance royalties directly from PRS. This means you will receive your performance royalties faster than if the royalties had to pass through Selfhood first. It’s also much easier for the overseas PROs to pay out your writer share of royalties for any international gigs, radio play, TV broadcasts etc. if you’re a member of PRS.
As a rough guide, royalties from smaller gigs (pubs and small venues) can take 6-9 months to come through; royalties from larger gigs (academies, for example) usually take 9-12 months to come through and royalties from overseas gigs and festivals can take a year or more to come through. It’s important to note that this waiting time begins from when you add your gigs to Selfhood.
If your music is receiving substantial views on YouTube or if you know it is being used without your permission on the platform then please email us to ensure it has been delivered to YouTube’s Content ID platform, ensure it is protected and where possible royalties are being generated.
As a service to Film/TV productions, curation or production of our portfolio is directly overseen by Berlin-based producer Sky Deep, the founder of Selfhood. Sky Deep has a history of working behind the scenes in Film, TV and Theater for over 20 years in different capacities on set, in production offices and as a sound designer, composer and audio engineer.
With a unique perspective as both creator, producer and technician, Sky knows how to adjust and deliver sound to fit many perspectives while also maintaining her connections to the independent and diverse pool of musical talent she frequently engages with
Our team offers a wide range of audio and creative services such as: Custom compositions, Music Supervision services, Live Stream A/V Production, Audio Editing & Mixing, Immersive Audio consultations.
If you don't see something listed here, just ask and it's possible we can help out on anything related to audio and music.
Your advantage in working with us is that you get everything first-hand without long licensing channels through third parties. We obtain all licensing so your legal team only needs to communicate directly with Selfhood. Our legal team is based in Germany and well equipped for all international discussions regarding music licensing and media law.
While keeping a sensibility for the modern times and popular genres, we work with artists from all over the world and have curated collections covering different marginalize social and identity groups. We also keep a special eye out for artists and projects with a unique voice from emerging, cutting edge music communities.
So if you wish to stay ahead of the times and/or sway off the mainstream path, we are here for you.
