Exhibit 99.3
MARKETING AND SERVICES
AGREEMENT
This Marketing and Services
Agreement (the “Agreement”) is made and is effective
this 12th day of January, 2005 by and between Traffix Music, Inc.,
a Delaware corporation having an address at One Blue Hill Plaza,
Fifth Floor, Pearl River, New York 10965 (“Traffix
Music”) and Madacy Entertainment Group, Limited, a Canadian
corporation having an address at 3333 Graham Blvd., Suite 102,
Montreal, Quebec, Canada H3R 3L5 (“Madacy”) and
EZ-Tracks L.P., a Quebec limited partnership having a principal
address at 3333 Graham Blvd., Suite 102, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3R 3L5 (“Partnership”).
Recitals
WHEREAS, Madacy owns, or has the
distribution rights to, in excess of 10,000 Masters as pre-recorded
by third party artists, including the Intellectual Property Rights
(as defined herein) attributable thereto; and
WHEREAS, Traffix Music is a marketer
of products and services through its proprietary and third party
media. Traffix Music and its affiliates have created a
software program accessible via the Internet whereby consumers can
download music for personal use (the “Program”), a form
of which is located at each of the Websites; and
WHEREAS, the parties hereto are
desirous of Madacy to license to the Partnership the right to sell,
promote and otherwise distribute to third parties a portion of the
Madacy music library; and
WHEREAS, the parties hereto are
desirous of Traffix Music to license to the Partnership the use of
the Program in connection with the operation of the Website and the
conduct of the business of the Partnership;
WHEREAS, the parties hereto are
desirous of Traffix Music providing certain services to the
Partnership; namely assistance and support with respect to the
sales, promotion and marketing of the Program in connection with
the operation of the Websites and the Business of the Partnership
and the provision of certain administrative services to the
Partnership, all upon the terms and conditions set forth in this
Agreement.
NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of
the mutual promises and covenants contained herein, the receipt and
sufficiency of which is hereby acknowledged, the parties agree as
follows:
Any terms not otherwise defined
herein shall have the meanings ascribed thereto in Schedule A
to this Agreement.
EXECUTION COPY
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ARTICLE I
OBLIGATIONS OF THE
PARTIES
1.01
During the Term, Madacy hereby
grants the Partnership a non-exclusive (subject to the restrictions
contained in Section 2.4 of the Partnership Agreement),
royalty-free license to such portions of its entire music,
consisting of the Madacy Songs and the Masters to the Madacy Songs,
as the Partnership reasonably requests and requires for the full
and proper exploitation of the Program in connection with the
operation of the Websites and the Business of the
Partnership. The Parties hereto agree that such requests
shall take into account the diversity and depth of Masters which
have already been made available hereunder (and the avoidance of
any redundancy) and, where applicable, the costs and efforts
required to provide Masters as compared to their anticipated
benefit or value to the Program, the whole subject to the
following:
a. The License shall only apply to Masters that
Madacy has the right to license for downloading and is entitled to
make available to the Partnership;
b. The License shall permit the Partnership, and
Traffix Music on behalf of the Partnership in rendering its
services under this Agreement, to use the Masters for the following
purposes:
i. For
the download by an end-user of Madacy Songs from the Websites for a
fee; and
ii. For the download by an end-user of Madacy Songs
from the Websites for free as a premium for further revenue
generating activity.
For greater certainty, the License
shall not permit the Partnership or Traffix Music in rendering its
services under this Agreement to provide the download of all or any
part of Madacy Songs for use as ring-tones, ring-backs or any other
telephony use or any other use other than direct marketing via the
Channels of Distribution. The Partnership shall have no
rights to assign or sub-license its rights hereunder;
c. The License shall be subject to Madacy having
obtained the appropriate mechanical licenses
(“Mechanicals”) to permit the use of the Masters for
downloading, which Madacy agrees to use reasonable commercial
efforts to obtain;
d. Madacy shall make those Masters which require
the obtaining of Mechanicals available to the Partnership in
batches as Mechanicals are obtained. Madacy shall advise
Traffix Music, on behalf of the Partnership, on a weekly basis, of
those Masters, if any, for which Mechanicals have been obtained in
such week and shall make such Masters available to the Partnership
as soon as possible thereafter. Madacy shall exercise its
reasonable commercial efforts to obtain Mechanicals in a timely
fashion;
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e. The Masters which are the subject of this
License are hereby listed on Schedule B hereto. In
addition, Schedule B shall be amended from time to time during
the Term of this Agreement as Madacy makes further Masters
available (ie. as Mechanicals are obtained for additional batches
of Masters or as additional Masters are obtained by Madacy) or
ceases to make Masters available (due to its loss of rights to the
Track or inability to make the Track available for
download).
f.
The present License granted
hereunder shall expressly not include the artwork which Madacy uses
for its CD products. Madacy shall provide appropriate artwork
to the Partnership to highlight/present each genre of music being
offered.
g. It is acknowledged that any limitations on use
or term of use of Masters or artwork to which Madacy is subject
shall equally apply to the license of Masters or artwork by Madacy
to the Partnership.
h. Other than as set forth in paragraph (i) below,
Madacy will be solely responsible for all costs associated with
acquiring the Madacy Songs (i.e. purchasing the Masters and
securing the third party licenses). However, with respect to
Publishing and Royalties (a) the Partnership (and Traffix Music)
will give Madacy direct access to the Websites’ reporting
database for the purposes of permitting Madacy, as and when it
desires in its sole discretion, to analyze the composition and
volume of downloads of Madacy Songs and to generate a report of the
name and number of the songs downloaded from the Websites (such
songs and the corresponding Publishing and Royalty rates will be
identified in the library of Madacy Songs provided to the
Partnership) for such period as Madacy desires, and (b) Madacy will
provide the Partnership, within five (5) days of the end of each
month, with an invoice for the Publishing and Royalties due for the
immediately preceding month, (c) the Partnership will pay to Madacy
the amount determined in such monthly report within five (5)
business days of receipt of the invoice and (d) Madacy will remit
the Publishing and Royalties to the appropriate third party.
Notwithstanding the generality of the foregoing, each of Madacy and
Traffix Music shall be directly responsible for the amount of any
Shortfall resulting from a Proprietary Premium Program in
accordance with Section 1.05(a) hereof.
The Partnership hereby acknowledges
and agrees that the payment of Publishing is required by applicable
federal law and Royalties are contractual obligations of
Madacy. Accordingly, the payment to Madacy of Publishing
and Royalties will be made by the Partnership on a priority basis
to all other payments, reimbursements or disbursements of the
Partnership.
i.
The Parties acknowledge that Madacy
has licensed the San Juan Songs from SJMG and has obtained, in such
license, the right to sub-license substantially all of the San Juan
Songs to the Partnership. The Parties further acknowledge
that Madacy is responsible to pay to SJMG the San Juan Royalty and
the San Juan Guarantee. The Partnership hereby agrees that it
shall pay to Madacy with respect to each fiscal year of the
Partnership a royalty equal to the greater of (a) the
San
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Juan Royalty with respect to such
year and (b) the San Juan Guarantee with respect to such year, so
as to permit Madacy to satisfy its obligations to SJMG under its
license with SJMG. Notwithstanding the generality of the
foregoing and the five (5) year initial term of Madacy’s
license with SJMG of the San Juan Songs and the guarantees
thereunder, in the event Madacy ceases, at any time, to license the
Madacy Songs to the Partnership, the Partnership’s
obligations to Madacy under this paragraph shall be limited to the
amount which is otherwise payable for the full fiscal year in which
Madacy ceases to license the Madacy Songs (being the greater of the
San Juan Royalty and the San Juan Guarantee with respect to such
year) and all San Juan Guarantees for subsequent years shall be the
sole responsibility of Madacy.
1.02
Traffix Music shall be responsible
for the creation, maintenance and hosting of the Websites (the
ownership of which shall vest exclusively in the Partnership), any
developments and modifications to the technology associated with
the Program, the origination and publication of all advertising on
the Websites. Traffix Music shall be solely responsible, for
its own account, for all Traffix Music Contributed Expenses.
Traffix Music shall also be responsible for administering for the
account of the Partnership the payment of all Partnership
Out-of-Pocket Expenses, Marketing Expenses, New Revenue Source
Commissions and Accounting Expenses incurred by Traffix Music for
the account of the Partnership in carrying out its obligations
hereunder. In addition, each of Traffix Music and Madacy may
further incur certain Direct Out-of-Pocket Expenses for the account
of the Partnership. Subject to the priority payment of all
Publishing and Royalties in accordance with Section 1.01(h)
above, Traffix Music and Madacy shall be reimbursed out of Gross
Revenues for all such expenses, other than Traffix Music
Contributed Expenses, the whole subject to Section 1.03
below.
1.03
During the Term, Traffix Music
hereby grants the Partnership, a non-exclusive (subject to the
restrictions contained in Section 2.4 of the Partnership
Agreement), royalty-free license to the use of the Program in
connection with the operation of the Website and the conduct of the
Business of the Partnership, except that such license shall be
exclusive to the Partnership with respect to the conduct of a
business identical or materially similar to the Business of the
Partnership, and Traffix Music also grants Madacy a non-exclusive,
royalty-free license to the use of the Program for the purposes set
forth in Section 1.06 of this Agreement (the license of the
Program described in this Section may be referred to as the
“Program License”).
1.04
Traffix Music will be responsible
for marketing the Program to all Channels of Distribution, other
than the Madacy Channels (defined below). Madacy will be
responsible for marketing the Program to brick-and-mortar
businesses as well as to any current or future customers of
Madacy’s hard-copy entertainment products (the “Madacy
Channels”). Traffix Music will be solely responsible
for media buying necessary to generate traffic and sales.
Traffix Music may not commit to, or incur, aggregate marketing
and/or advertising expenses on behalf of the Partnership
in
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excess of the greater of (a) $10,000
per month, and (b) the amount set out in the marketing/advertising
budgets established from time to time by Madacy.
In the event Traffix Music uses any
of its proprietary media for marketing the Program, it shall be
entitled to reimbursement for the value of such media, which value
shall be the lowest rate such media is made generally available to
Traffix Music’s customers; however, Traffix Music shall not
use more than $5,000.00 of such media in the aggregate in any
calendar month (and $30,000 in any calendar year) without the
written consent of the Partnership.
Each of Traffix Music and Madacy, in
their capacity as independent contractors hereunder, shall use its
reasonable commercial efforts to assist the Partnership in the
promotion, marketing, distribution, sales and Upsales of the Madacy
Songs via the Websites and the services promoted thereby and to
assist the Partnership in the generation of Gross Revenues
therefrom, including, without limitation, through the promotion of
Website Sales, Websites’ Database Sales and New Revenue
Source Sales; provided, however, that neither Contractor shall have
any obligation or other liability whatsoever for any acts or
failures to act of the other (or such other’s
Affiliates). Such efforts shall be performed in accordance
with all applicable industry standards and federal, provincial,
state and local government rules, regulations or requirements now
in effect or which may hereafter be in effect in the conduct of its
activities. To the extent that Madacy or Traffix Music
wishes, in providing such assistance to the Partnership or
otherwise, to construct a marketing arrangement that is out of the
ordinary course ( i.e. , involves extra web development, or
requires a non-compete), then such deal shall be subject to the
prior approval of the Partnership and Madacy.
1.05
During the Term and subject to the
terms and conditions of this Agreement, neither Contractor shall
enter, directly or indirectly, into another relationship or
business enterprise which, materially similar to, and directly
competitive with the relationship set out herein and/or the
Business. For greater certainty, Madacy hereby agrees that it
shall not make its Masters available in bulk in any transaction or
relationship for zero or nominal cash consideration.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, the
Parties hereby agree that during the term of the Agreement between
the Parties:
i.
Madacy and its Affiliates shall be
entitled, at all times, to make their recorded music available for
download, on a non-exclusive basis, to any entity which is
providing the services of an on-line music store on a fair market
value pay-per-download basis;
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ii. Madacy and its Affiliates shall be entitled, at
all times, to make their recorded music available for download, on
a pay-for-use basis, to any of its present or future Madacy Channel
customers or Affiliates customers and Madacy and its Affiliates
shall further be entitled to offer exclusively for download to such
customers any packages (pre-set selection of recorded music) which
they have made or make exclusively available to such customer for
sale via its Madacy Channel (the individual songs of such package
being still available individually to the Websites); and
iii. Madacy and its Affiliates shall be entitled, at
all times, to enter into, participate in, or carry out such
promotional, marketing or licensing activities with their
brick-and-mortar customers in support of their CD and DVD sales (or
any replacement configuration thereof) as they deem appropriate or
necessary, in their sole discretion acting reasonably, to create,
maintain or enhance their business or relationship with such
customer (e.g. provide free downloads of a limited number of
songs/tracks as a promotion or give-away to retail customers in
support of brick-and-mortar sales).
Other than as set forth above,
neither Contractor may create, supply, support, operate, or
otherwise be involved with, either directly or indirectly, a
website that is materially similar to the Websites and directly
competitive with the Business of the Partnership. It is
further acknowledged and agreed that a number of Madacy Songs may
be controlled by Madacy on a non-exclusive basis. As such,
other parties may retain rights to such Madacy Songs for use via
download or otherwise. Such use shall not be deemed a breach
of this Agreement.
The Parties hereby agree that Madacy
shall be the exclusive provider of music-for-download content to
the Partnership (ie. any music that the Partnership
licenses/obtains/uses in the exploitation of its Business will
emanate from/flow through Madacy). Any other product (ie.
other than music) may be sourced directly by the Partnership and
Traffix Music in rendering its services to the Partnership under
this Agreement.
1.06
Each of the Contractors may use the
Program as a premium or give-away (“Premium”) to
generate sales for its own (non-3 rd party)
products/services (“Proprietary Premium Program”) and
any revenue generated from the sales of such Party’s
products/services shall belong solely to such Contractor; however,
any revenue generated on the Websites from the consumers who
receive such premiums will be included as Website Sales (e.g., if
the consumer redeems his free songs and purchases more music, or if
the consumer clicks on an advertising banner, then such additional
revenue is included). In addition, Premium programs may be
carried out solely for the benefit of the Business (ie. they are
not being carried out in support of the business of either of the
Contractors) (“Partnership Premium Program”).
Notwithstanding the generality of the foregoing, the following
shall apply to any Premium:
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a. With respect to Proprietary Premium Programs,
the Contractor carrying out the premium deal shall be directly and
personally liable to the Partnership for Publishing and Royalties
with respect thereto. In the event that the revenues
generated from a Proprietary Premium Program are insufficient and
give rise to a Shortfall (ie. the revenues from the program are
less than the Publishing and Royalties with respect thereto), the
Contractor carrying out the Proprietary Premium Program shall be
directly responsible for the payment of such Shortfall.
b. With respect to Partnership Premium Programs, in
the event that one or more Partnership Premium Programs are carried
out in any fiscal quarter of the Partnership and an aggregate
Shortfall is realized from these Premium programs and there are
insufficient Gross Revenues in such fiscal quarter from all of the
revenue sources of the Websites to fully cover off the Shortfall
(any remaining Shortfall after the application of other Gross
Revenues hereinafter referred to as a “Net Partnership
Shortfall”) the amount, if any, of the Net Partnership
Shortfall shall be borne and funded equally by the Contractors
.
c. It is expressly understood and agreed that no
Party shall carry out any Premium program unless such program has a
registration, survey or other revenue generating benefit (save and
except for the effecting of Proprietary Premium Programs by Madacy
for its customers which sell entertainment product in CD or DVD (or
any “hard” replacements thereof format)).
d. No Party shall, without the express prior
written approval of Madacy, carry out any Premium program which
permits the download or access by any one participant of more than
twenty-five (25) tracks (songs) of which no more than ten (10)
tracks (songs) may be subject to Publishing or
Royalties.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, in
the event that any Premium program has a pre-determined associated
revenue stream at least equal to the maximum potential Publishing
and Royalty cost of such Premium, the foregoing limitation shall
not apply (e.g. a Premium which has a fixed $1.50 revenue from the
party providing the premium shall be entitled to have such number
of tracks (songs) as have an aggregate Publishing and Royalty cost
of up to $1.50). The Parties further agree to review the
foregoing limitation from time to time to determine its
reasonableness and appropriateness
1.07
The Database will be owned by the
Partnership. Each Contractor shall be permitted to use the
Database, but at its own cost and expense, for the marketing and
promotion of any Exempt Sales. If a Contractor elects to
promote its own products/services in the media of the Websites
(e.g., banners, exit traffic) on a cost per acquisition basis or
otherwise, then such Contractor shall pay for such media at the
lowest rate it offers to third parties for similar media buys
(provided such rates are consistent with market norms), and such
fees shall be deemed Website Sales. In the event of a License
Extension, Madacy shall continue to have free access to the
Database during such extended term.
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ARTICLE 2
ADMINISTRATION, BILLINGS AND
COLLECTIONS
2.01
Traffix Music shall provide all of
the administration services required the Partnership. In
particular, Traffix Music shall be responsible for the fulfillment,
billing, collection and customer service relating to any sales that
occur on the Websites and shall maintain, on a current basis, all
of the books and records of the Partnership (accounting, legal and
otherwise). Each Contractor shall be responsible for the
fulfillment, billing, collection and customer service relating to
any other sales of the Program.
2.02
Each Contractor shall submit to the
Partnership, on a monthly basis commencing on the one month
anniversary of the Effective Date, all records, information and
reports prepared by that Contractor relating to (i) any sales or
other distributions made in the prior month that resulted in any
Gross Revenues, and (ii) any Partnership Expenses (copies of such
invoices) incurred in the prior month, as well as (iii) such other
information as is reasonably required to determine compliance with
the terms of this Agreement. Traffix Music will be
responsible (at its cost) for the reconciliation of all such
records, and will deliver to the Partnership (with a copy to
Madacy) an accounting in the form of monthly (unaudited)
statements. All revenue generated from the Program will be
delivered to Traffix Music, and Traffix Music will deposit all such
amounts in a separately identified bank account in the name of the
Partnership.
2.03
The Partnership shall have the
right, but not more than twice in any twelve month period, during
normal business hours and upon reasonable advance notice, to cause
(at its expense) the books and records of the Contractors to be
inspected and audited by an independent third-party accountant or
firm of accountants; provided , that , in all
instances such inspection/audit does not unreasonably interfere
with that Party’s business activities. In the event
that as a result of such inspection and audit, it is determined
that a Party underreported sales or other distributions or over
reported expenses by an amount that exceeds five percent (5%) of
the amount so reported, the Party responsible for the
underreporting/overreporting shall pay the entire cost of the
examination and audit, together with interest at the rate of eight
percent (8%) per annum on the amount of the
underreported/overreported amount from the date such reporting was
made until the date the proper amount is reported and properly
recorded.
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ARTICLE 3
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
PARTIES
The Parties acknowledge and agree
that at all times each Contractor shall be an independent
contractor with respect to the other, and both Contractors shall be
independent contractors with respect to the Partnership. Each
Contractor shall be the employer of its own personnel engaged in
the performance of this Agreement. Neither Contractor shall
be considered an agent or employee of the other or of the
Partnership. Neither Contractor shall knowingly do anything
that would cause any third party to consider the Contractors as
anything other than independent contractors. The parties
further acknowledge that the activities contemplated herein (ie.
the business of generating revenues from the use of the Program,
the Websites and the Database) and all of the benefits thereto and
obligations therefrom (including, but not limited, the goodwill
being generated therefrom) are for the benefit of the
Partnership.
ARTICLE 4
TAXES
Each Party shall be solely
responsible for payment of any and all federal, state and local
sales, use, value added and excise taxes, and any other taxes or
duties of any nature whatsoever assessed upon or with respect to
the services provided by it hereunder or otherwise arising from
this Agreement and the transactions contemplated hereby.
ARTICLE 5
DURATION
5.01
The License shall commence on the
Effective Date and shall be in effect for an initial fixed term
expiring on December 31, 2005 as it may be extended in
accordance with the provisions of this Agreement (the
“Term”). Thereafter, but subject to Sections 5.04
and 5.04 hereof, the License shall be automatically extended for up
to four (4) successive terms of two (2) years provided that each
such extension shall be subject to the Partnership (i) generating
more than two million ($2,000,000) of net profits (as set out in
its audited financial statements) in the immediately preceding term
(such amount shall be $1.0 million with respect to the initial
license term terminating on December 31, 2005) and (ii)
distributing in cash to its partners a minimum of seventy-five
percent (75%) of such net profits in such term failing which the
License shall expire without further extension (both of the
foregoing financial criteria are hereinafter collectively referred
to as the “Minimum Financial Objectives”).
Notwithstanding the foregoing, in the event that the distribution
to Madacy sp Inc. with respect to any term is inadequate to satisfy
the foregoing minimum distribution requirement for the automatic
renewal of the License (ie. less than $990,000, or $495,000 with
respect to the initial term), Traffix Music or any of its
Affiliates shall be entitled, but not obligated, to pay to Madacy
sp Inc. the amount of the shortfall in which case the Minimum
Financial Objectives shall be deemed to have been
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achieved. In the event that
either or both of the Minimum Financial Objectives have not been
satisfied, Madacy shall have the right (but not the obligation) to
renew the License on a year-by-year basis. The term of the
present Agreement with regard to all other matters shall be equal
to the Term.
5.02
Any Party may terminate this
Agreement at any time for a material breach of the terms hereof or
of the terms of the Partnership Agreement by another Party or its
Affiliates by giving prior written notice of such
termination. Such notice shall specify in reasonable detail
the breach upon which the termination is based. After receipt
of such notice, the recipient shall have thirty (30) days to
correct or cure such alleged breach. If such breach is cured
timely, then the notice shall be null and void and the Agreement
shall not terminate. Otherwise, the Agreement shall be deemed
terminated.
5.03
In the event of a breach of
Section 1.03 of this Agreement due to a Party making a sale to
the other Party’s client in violation of the terms of such
Section, then in addition to all other remedies available under
this Agreement, at law or in equity, all revenue generated from
such sale by the violating Party shall be deemed Website Sales and
subject to the Net Profit sharing provisions of this
Agreement.
5.04
Notwithstanding the provisions of
Section 5.01 hereof, in the event that Madacy or Madacy sp
Inc. shall cease, at any time, to have an interest in the Business
or in the Partnership pursuant to either a sale by the Partnership
of the Business or of all or substantially all of its assets or a
Traffix Sale (as such term is defined in the Limited Partnership
Agreement of the Partnership), Madacy hereby agrees