Interesting fact: If you are a music writer, you need to get your song played 1,000,000 times on Spotify to make $3,000 (which very few songs ever hit). Or you can license your song just ONCE and make $3,000!
A lot of starving artist hit me up and ask for copywriting/business advice….and sometimes I’m not super sure how to help them since the music industry is not my specialty.
However I recently came across a woman named Joyce Kettering who is a musical artist that’s been able to license and sell a bunch of songs. Like….A LOT of songs.
Here’s some of the 2016 full-year stats Joyce had:
- She wrote and produced 110 music tracks.
- 52 of those 110 were placed in music libraries.
- 100+ total licensed songs from just 2016 till mid-2017!!
These are extremely impressive numbers….so I’m gonna get off the keyboard, and let Joyce start typing from here on out:
—Joyce Starts Talking Here—
I’ve written over 100 songs. I don’t perform live, I don’t have a fan base. I don’t know anyone in the music industry.
The point is: I like to sit at home and make music.
I am NOT interested in dragging my gear around the country to perform live and entertain people when I don’t feel like it.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d love the attention! It just seems like a lot of effort I’m not prepared to put in.
My music is all over the place:
- I write electro-orchestral tunes in the vein of Woodkid and Hans Zimmer.
- I write ambient, atmospheric tunes influenced by Air and Radiohead.
- Once in awhile, I try to write happy music but rarely make it work.
Half the time I just don’t get social media.
So I hate performing live. I don’t have a “genre” to stick to. I don’t know marketing super well…..
As you can see, I don’t really have what it takes to build my “tribe”, a loyal following of listeners who will come to all my shows, buy my albums and support me in any way they can.
Still, I manage to make lots of money making music.
How?
I license it.
That means that in exchange for the right to use my music in a project, people and companies give me money.
Given my profile as a non-gigging musician, music licensing is my best bet to make a decent living with music.
BUT I’d argue it’s the best bet for 90% of musicians.
Why? Well…. We all know album sales are not what they used to be and the money from streaming platforms isn’t exactly rolling in…
I laughed when I saw my Spotify streaming earnings for the first time!
$0.18 in the bank!
That was in March 2017. I had released 2 EPs and 2 albums in November 2016, 4 months prior:
Over a year later in 2017 I’m up to….
$1.69 !
How did I make that huge jump in earnings I hear you ask ;)
Well, from April 2017, I started driving traffic to Spotify:
After over three month of driving traffic to Spotify, I have $1.69 in the bank.
So that’s a $1.51 return on investment for asking my small following (essentially friends and family) to listen to my music on Spotify instead of any other platform.
Sweet! :)
What a great time to be alive!
Now I can hear you protest that I don’t have any fans and therefore very few streams and that I could try other streaming services to earn more.
Well, that’s incorrect.
First of all, all the streaming platforms pay less than peanuts (literally):
I used the statistics from my distributor (Distrokid) to calculate the average stream earning per platform.
This is what I got:
Whichever platform you look at, it’s a long shot to make a decent living that way.
Second, it’s true my streaming numbers are not very impressive.
9 months after releasing 2 EPs and 2 albums:
15,098 streams = $49.69
They’re also pretty average when compared to other indie musicians.
Your streaming numbers would have to be EXCEPTIONAL if you were to count on streaming income to make a living.
1,000,000 streams on Spotify will get you approximately $3,000 in royalties:
I need 1 MILLION plays to make about $3,000!
Can you even hit that target in a whole year? I’m not even sure I could make it in TEN years!
So unless you’re Bruno Mars or Taylor Swift, it’s unlikely you’ll make significant money through pure music streaming.
Enter the Money-Maker Known As Music Licensing:
Here are 6 different ways you could make $3,000 with music licensing. It might take you a whole year when you’re first starting out but it certainly won’t take you 10 years to get there!
By getting a song licensed in just ONE advertisement you can pull in $3,000+.
Now doesn’t that seem much more achievable than 1 MILLION streams on Spotify?
Instead of aiming for a HUGE number and not knowing where to start, you could aim for a much more manageable number of sales.
In fact, they are a LOT of other projects that could use your music AND the sales prices above are fairly conservative (as you’ll find out in a little bit).
So now you know WHY music licensing is a great income stream for musicians.
Let me show you HOW you can get your music licensed.
This is what I did to license 52 songs last year:
I’ve licensed a lot of my songs and made more money off my music than most musicians could ever hope for. Here’s the exact steps I took:
1.) I wrote a LOT of music in a LOT of different genres:
When I first started exploring the world of music licensing, I read or heard somewhere that you needed about 100-200 tracks to make a decent living through production music libraries (I’ll explain what those are later).
At that point, I didn’t have much going for me:
- I had major writer’s block when it came to lyric writing.
- The music I wrote didn’t fit any particular genre of music and varied greatly from one track to another.
- I wasn’t very good at music production.
This is how I solved everything:
- I gave up on vocals and focused on instrumental music.
- I wrote a lot of everything, experimented different genres, trying unfamiliar styles that would “sell.”
- I embraced the notion that quality comes with quantity (i.e. the more I produce music the better I will be at producing music).
This is what I learned:
- There is a LOT of demand for instrumental music and ZERO need for songs with mediocre vocals.
- I can write happy advertisement-ready music but I don’t enjoy it and I’m more prolific when I write electro-orchestral trailer music or sci-fi atmospheric music.
- I can write really good music really fast. Knowing that is really helpful when there’s a big deadline looming.
Could I make more money if I wrote great lyrics and performed great vocals?
Possibly. A colleague who has all that now only submits instrumentals because he realized his versions with vocals never sell.
Could I make more money if I stuck to one genre?
Probably. It’d be easier to market my work and stand out from the crowd (provided I went super-niche).
Could I make more money if I persevered in writing happy music?
Maybe. Happy music is perfect for high-paying advertising jobs BUT it’s hard enough earning a living as a musician. Might as well enjoy it and write music you enjoy!
With my music recorded, mixed and mastered…
https://media.giphy.com/media/tesOpJlQwEjQs/giphy.gif
… I started looking for places who might be happy to use my music and…
2. I got 50+ tracks working for me in production music libraries:
If you’re just starting out and have ZERO experience and network in the music industry, getting your music in a production music library is a great first step.
Production music libraries are platforms that curate music with licensing opportunities in mind.
So their role is not to promote music to venues or potential fans, they don’t really care about that, it’s not their business.
The focus of music libraries is to make your tracks available for licensing to potential customers like ad agencies, YouTubers that need music for their video, videographers, indie filmmakers, music supervisors on TV shows (a LOT of reality TV shows out there! :p ), etc.
Navigating production music libraries can be tricky because they’re all different and you never really know which ones you can trust or not.
When I first started trying to get my music licensed, I just submitted lots of music to lots of music libraries, without really paying attention to anything except making sure I didn’t tie down my entire catalogue (about 10 tracks at the time) to an exclusive deal.
Note that I still manage to make a big mistake a tie down 4 of my best tracks to a 5 year exclusive deal. I have gotten ZERO licensing $$$ from these 4 tracks. 1 of those consistently outperforms all my other tracks on streaming platform so I KNOW it’s good :)
https://soundcloud.com/madlassmusic/all-we-need-instrumental
Overtime, I’ve refined my approach and have gotten better at identifying serious music libraries that can get me good licensing opportunities.
I ask myself 3 questions when I submit music to a library:
1.) Can being associated with them damage my “brand”?
In truth, at this stage I have no “brand” BUT I don’t want my best music on crappy royalty-free platforms selling tracks for $1 a pop.
For those libraries, I’ll use a pseudonym and submit music I’m not especially proud of. That doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s usually just meh.
Why the pseudonym when nobody knows my name?
Well… if I ever do make it to the next level and get some bigger opportunities, I don’t want to be perceived as low-quality.
2.) Do they require exclusivity for the tracks I give them?
I don’t necessarily mind granting exclusivity on some tracks (you tend to get paid more for those) but I always make sure that I have plenty of tracks left available for non-exclusive deals.
3.) Are they worth my time?
Basically, do they pay well.
For one track accepted to a music library, it’ll take about 10-15 minutes to set it up properly (with a good description, relevant keywords and track information).
I want to make sure the music library will be worth my time before I submit 50 new tunes.
Let’s take a few examples:
Now that I know a few musicians who are also pursuing music licensing, I also ask around to find out if anyone has anything good or bad to say about a particular library.
Here are a few examples of production music libraries that will hopefully give you a better idea of what I’m talking about :D
- Audiosparx.com (fairly big player that will give you a good idea of all the admin that comes with licensing, i.e. writing a description for your song, finding the right keywords to increase its chance of appearing in the search results, etc.)
- Jinglepunks.com (big player, lucrative but selective).
- Premiumbeat.com (“race to the bottom” type of library in the sense that they really sell their catalogue for cheap…)
- Railroadtrax.com (small boutique library, competent & super friendly)
This is what I didn’t do (which saved me a lot of time licensing my music):
I DID NOT Get my music copyrighted.
I don’t waste any time, money or energy getting my music copyrighted.
Why?
There are more than 10 hours of music being uploaded onto Youtube, Spotify, Soundcloud and other listening platforms every MINUTE of every day.
What are the chances of MY music being exactly what some little leach needs?
2. Even if I did copyright all of my music and someone stole one of my songs, I’d only start to care if they made a shit ton of cash with it and I didn’t get a dime.
In fact, it’d have to be so much money that spending years in court making advance payments to lawyers would be worth it.
Again, highly unlikely.
3. If someone is making shit loads of money with my music, that’s good news!
If Beyonce’s next hit single uses one of my instrumentals, here’s what will happen:
- I’ll get my head out of my ass and realize SHE made it a hit and the music has very little to do with it.
- I’ll record a video demonstrating that the instrumental Beyonce’s singing to was actually written by little me.
- I’ll post the video everywhere to promote my music licensing platform, basically saying: Beyonce loves my music, it must be good!
Now, of course, it’s your call and it’s your responsibility. I’m just spouting off my opinion here. I’ve decided that, for my music, copyrighting is not worth my time and money. I may live to regret it.
By all means, get every single one of your songs copyrighted if you like. Just make sure you’re not using this step as an excuse not to move forward, like a wantrepreneur creating an LLC before having a product.
I DID NOT I Pay to get my music heard.
Another no-no for me is paying to get work.
I don’t pay any subscription service like Taxi, Songtradr or Music X-Ray.
These are what I call “opportunity platforms”: websites that curate music licensing opportunities.
The difference with a production music library is that a library will take your tracks and put them on their website where potential customers can browse, search and find them.
On the other hand, opportunity platforms are letting you know about what their customers are CURRENTLY looking for and YOU can put your own music in front of those customers.
It goes a little bit like this…
Opportunity platforms can be great because you know exactly what kind of tune to pitch.
The flipside is they know it and most have you pay them for their service.
Fair enough I guess, they ARE providing you with information you don’t have easy access to.
There’s also an argument that by asking for a small submission fee, they ensure the quality of submissions are VERY GOOD.
My view is there are a LOT of businesses out there taking advantage of people’s passion projects. One of the most common passion projects is music.
Until you have a really good idea of what kind of music you want to write and you can clearly see in what type of project that music would work, I suggest staying away from paid opportunities.
I think you’ll learn a lot more by doing it yourself and looking for opportunities yourself:
There are others that are less expensive (for example Music Clout offers unlimited submissions for the platinum members who pay $179/year).
Songtradr is another one. The free plan gives you 35 credits per months. For $7.99/month, you get 250 monthly credits. One submission usually costs 2-5 credits so that’s about 840 submissions for $95/year.
Much better…
I only use free stuff. Maybe that’s a mistake but I don’t think so.
I’ve asked musicians from varying backgrounds and at various stages of their careers to share their experience with these services….
Most have been bitterly disappointed. Many feel like they’ve been scammed after spending more than $200 with nothing to show for it.
In fact, only 2 out of 30+ musicians who got back to me got a paid gig through these platforms.
Both are very experienced and accomplished musicians. One of them I know has also landed plenty of other licensing opportunities without paying a dime.
All of this suggest to me that you are better off submitting your music to free opportunities, at least until you have proof that your music is good enough by landing your first placement.
It seems these paying “opportunity platforms” can be lucrative but you’ll mostly be wasting your money if you start out that way.
One of the free platforms I use is Songtradr. They got me on 4 small licenses in the past few months.
Let’s have a look at Songtradr’s pricing tool. Songtradr are a curator of licensing opportunities. They’re basically a platform where music composers can upload their tracks and submit music to licensing opportunities.
If you’re a little geek who likes playing with figures like me, you can go ahead and register to Songtradr for free and have some fun with their pricing tool!
What I’m GOING to do (to license even more music):
1.) Get up to speed:
Too many tracks that are not working for me in music libraries yet. Need to upload and set up new tunes.
2.) Transition from amateur to pro:
In the past few years, I spent a lot of time experimenting with music and exploring different genres.
I didn’t care about quality too much as I focused on writing, recording and producing a maximum number of tracks possible.
That has served its purpose. I am now VERY confident in my music production skills AND I know I can write good music in different genres.
Now is the time to niche down and focus on high-quality only.
I’m taking down all the mediocre tunes on my licensing platform, keeping only the really good ones that wouldn’t sound out of place on a TV show, in a documentary, in a video game.
I am raising the prices, showing how hard I worked instead of how desperate I am for my music to work :)
3.) The Direct Sales Approach
With my tunes set up and working for me in production music libraries, I feel going direct to the customer is how I will get to the next level.
If you’re just starting out, you might want to try that approach at the same time as you contact music libraries. I really do think that we all underestimate our network and you might very well have a few rapper friends or Youtubers that could use some music and wouldn’t mind paying $20 for the privilege. You might know someone who works in an ad agency and can put music in front of a supervisor.
It’s not the approach I started with but it’s definitely the approach I’m going to be focusing on in the next few months.
Why?
Well, no more splitting 50/50 for a start :)
No, really, my music is already set up in a few key libraries that I trust. I’ll be adding a few new tunes here and there to show I’m still active and avoid dropping down their internal SEO ladder.
With my catalogue working for me in production music libraries, I’ll be focusing on getting deals over the line by going direct to my customer.
After a couple of years writing a LOT of music to make sure I had 100+ tracks for production music libraries, I’ve figured out what I enjoy writing and what I’m best at.
With that question finally answered, I have a clear idea of who my ideal customer is.
And with THAT question finally answered, I’m ready to go direct and license more music!
In a year’s time, if Neville’s up for it, I’ll let you know how that went ;)
Sincerely,
Joyce Kettering
My Music Website: Madlassmusic.com
My Teaching Licensing Website: CreativeAndProductive.com
My SoundCloud Channel: SoundCloud.com/madlassmusic
Download this entire post for your files:
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P.S. Joyce shares even more in-depth instructions on licensing music (and her step-by-step process) over at MadLassMusic.com
Hey your article enlightened me everything but still I dont know what to do with my strange genra of music. Here is the link mayby somebody can help https://soundcloud.com/user-713361823
Hi.
Your work is always copyrighted even if you don’t register it. When you created the file or saved as master wav. You can add your name and copyright. Also you have the original composition on your daw and when it was first created.
I also use Bmi.com to register all my work there and it’s is free.
Esa
Thanks for the tip, Esa. I’ve been wondering about how to get started with BMI.
Joyce you just sayin, you spelled cooments and conversation wrong.
Great article Joyce!! We need more musicians giving useful information, as well as advice. I guess I have to actually be patient and not give up so easily, or become frustrated, I will apply some of your methods, you’ve inspired me thanks.
hello Joyce and Neville
ive been a guitarist/songwriter for a few years. played in bands and have always been passionate about writing. Id always wanted to pursue licensing my music, as i have a lot of songs, riffs and music written. I write in a few styles like Rock, Pop, Alt Rock, Reggae, and also Latin. I understand its always best to find a “niche” so as to maybe lessen the competition in the libraries? so maybe the Latin sound? this is my Latin band, and we play a mix of Latin and Psychedelic Rock: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVmXWiUgUSo
but i also write Rock and Alt Rock music as well, this is a project i had a couple years back (and yes, my production skills have gone up since then. haha.. as well as the songwriting). https://www.reverbnation.com/mantis7
also, another question i have is: i have music that ive written with lyrics and vocals.. but some of them can be played without any vocals, as the music stands out on its own. Can i submit the same song, one with lyrics and singing and another just as an instrumental? and what if i take out the verse “groove” part of a song, and just have a recording of that looped.. can that also be submitted to these libraries as a separate track/submission?
and lastly, here’s a song that ive always thought had ‘commercial’ potential. its a song i wrote with a singer friend of mine (sorry for the low quality youtube vid. hehe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbupWsYjO-o&t=1s
thanks for your time and helpful information!
Pablo
Great article, thanks!
Producing/composing since 1988. So obviously, with hundreds of tunes, this is interesting for me to get into. :)
Having a song out for licensing, can I still use it for “personal” projects (self produced nature films/documentaries)?
Does your tracks need metadata and/or mastering? I think I work a bit different than most, since I pretty much have a mastering setup in my DAW running through the whole production process. For me, making mostly Trance/House/Ambient, mastering in post is kind of just adding more cream to an already over-saturated cake, if you get my point? Whats your opinion on mastering?
I live in Sweden, and here music is automaticly copyrighted. You dont need to do anything. As soon as you make a song it belongs to YOU. Would this pose a problem when trying to license, or is it just a plus?
Hi Joyce,
First, thanks very much for your generousosity in sharing your accumulated knowledge. I am unclear about one aspect. I thought music licensing was where the buyer pays a one time flat fee, the amount designated by the artist, and that’s it, no more payments regardless of how many times the track is used or in which way it’s used. Please clarify, is there additional income if it’s used repeatedly in a commercial or movie or TV show? Thanks again, Steve
Hi Joyce,
Really great article! Would you happen to have any library suggestions for K-Pop tracks with vocals?
Thx! :)
Hi Joyce,
You have an amazing attitude about this business and the giving of your insights. Well done!!
I will be checking back in for sure.
Best,
Leland Bond
lelandbondmusic.com
lelandbond.sourceaudio.com
Hi, Joyce.
I appreciate your information. It is really informative. I have been considering to use one of the licensing companies. What i wonder is that what the difference is between Singtradr and other library sites you recommended.
I looked around them, but wasn’t be able to find any differences.
Another quetion is whether i can use more than one. Will it be a legal issue if i use more than one of them?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Jean,
SongTradr is a music library AND an opportunity platform in the sense that it will list licensing opportunities that you can directly apply for. Most music libraries just make your tracks available to license on their platform.
Having your music in different libraries is not an issue as long as you sign a NON-exclusive agreement with them.
Hi, Joyce.
Thanks for the quick reply. SongTradr sounds better than other libraries then as it provides another option. Licensing and copyright things have been the pain in the ass since I began to compose music.
Hey Joyce, hi all, Just came across this guy Jessie who’s sharing his music licensing experience on his personal blog also videos are available on you tube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aXmnriVo1Y https://www.syncmymusic.com/video1 have a look and let me know what you think:) Thanks
Hi Joyce,
I am considering going down a similar road of licensing as yourself and found your article very enlightening and inspirational. I have been approached through linkedin by a company called Fresh Sync about a sync deal. They take 50% of the fee, is this normal? Also, I’m feeling hesitant about the clause below as I’m wondering if I could lose deals because of the 30 day wait. Do you think this clause is a hindrance or is it normal practice?
Hope I’m not too late as I just discovered this post.
Best regards,
Steve
Right of First Refusal On Exclusive Licenses. If you are offered an opportunity for an
exclusive license for a Song by someone other than Fresh Sync, you agree to give Fresh Sync the opportunity to match or beat those terms, as described below:
a) Notice. If Artist receives an offer from any third party wishing to enter into an exclusive license with respect to one or more Songs (an “Offer”), Artist agrees to notify Fresh Sync five days of receiving such Offer. This notice will include the principal financial and other terms of the Offer. Artist agrees not to accept the Offer or terminate this Agreement until the procedures described in this Section 4 have been followed.
b) Right to Match. Fresh Sync has a period of thirty (30) days from the day it receives notice of the Offer to either match or improve upon the terms of the Offer. If Fresh Sync agrees to match or improve upon the terms of the Offer, Artist agrees that (i) it will enter into a license with Fresh Sync with respect to that Song or Songs and (ii) Artist will not terminate this Agreement for a period of one (1) year following the date that such license is agreed.
Hi Steve :)
50% split is normal. Standard is basically you get 100% of the writer’s share, the music library gets 100% of the publisher’s share. That’s a 50/50 split in effect. It can vary but 50/50 is pretty standard when you’re starting out.
Regarding the 30 day wait, yeah, I guess you could miss out on some opportunities there. I wouldn’t worry too much about it though (I figure it’s a good problem to have) but I’m not a big worrier to start with so…. go with your gut and don’t sign anything you’re not confortable with! :)
Hi Joyce,
Thanks alot for the article. Awesome article. Loved it. I just have one doubt. It might be a stupid question. Forgive me if it is :D I have few instrumental tracks (orchestral) ready which I am planning on releasing it as an album. My doubt is if I release it through any other media distribution services, can I still put it in music libraries?
Hi Rohith,
What kind of media distribution service?
If it’s a publisher or record label, there’s a good chance they signed you on an exclusive deal.
If you mean a distribution service to get your music in the Apple Store, on Spotify, etc., then you’re probably ok, unless you also gave that service some exclusivity to your music (CD Baby Pro for example).
So to answer your question….. better check with them and get written confirmation from them directly!
Thanks, Such a great article really helped out a lot
Thanks
Hi Gabriel, thanks for the kind words, I’m glad the article helped! :)
Hi Joyce,
I just wondering which listed sync agency websites pay straightforward without andy specific time frames, e.g. uload=accepted=payment in the same day, and which one might be reliable and not rip you off. (meaning: fairly pay for good music)
Thanks
Seb
Hi Seb,
Music libraries pay you when a customer pays them. When a customer purchases a license to your track through their website, the library pays over your share, usually monthly or quarterly.
There are companies that will purchase your track outright but I don’t work with those because, in my experience, they usually involve handing over your copyright.
It’s difficult to give you a list of reliable libraries because some libraries that were reliable in the past suddenly become unreliable (unfortunately!) but you can get a good feel for their professionalism and pricing by researching their website. Music Library Report is also a cool tool with music library reviews and an active forum.
Hey, Joyce.
“I’m Brazilian and I never give up” (it’s just a comic saying that exists here, lol).
I want to learn a lot how to bid my songs and I loved your post, but I have some questions.
1 I would like to know if you know more platforms and sites that I can upload my songs for free as you indicated in your experiences? (The more places the songs are, the better?)
2 What is the best way to get started (why do not you just post the music and sit on your chair and wait)
3 You have some step-by-step what I need to do to succeed in licensing and get feedback.
4 What time is the indicative if it is working or not?
Hi André,
I like the motto! :)
1-3 – You’ll find a few more leads and a step-by-step to get started right here: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/licensing-in-7-days/
4 – Difficult to say. It depends more on how much time you spend researching libraries and how often you send music. It could take 3 months or 3 years depending on where your music stands, how much time you can dedicate to licensing and how often you actually get music in front of potential customers.
When nothing is happening, it’s tricky to know if the music is the problem or if it’s the marketing/getting the music in front of the right people.
I would say if you’ve send 5-10 tracks to 100 libraries or other potential customers (ad agencies, small indie filmmakers, music supervisors) and you’re not getting any traction, there’s something wrong and you need to figure out where you’re lacking (the music or the visibility or the leads that are just not the right fit for you)
Wow, Joyce, I have a lot to learn anyway … but once I came here now reading the steps that you indicated to me was:
– Is it necessary to have ISRC the songs produced or is this what you said about not needing copyright?
Hi Joyce, I can’t believe it took me so long to stumble upon this, it has been super super informative!
I’ve been producing music for a while now (instrumental pieces of varying genres), and I’m seriously considering licencing some of it, but I’m wondering about how to advertise it. For example, if I signed up with a company like audiosparx would I leave a link to that catalog on my primary website/youtube/soundcloud channels? I’m quite confident in my music, but I’m just 0% confident in my business acumen.
Hey Chris,
It kind of depends on your situation.
If you’re an indie artist, touring and focused on the performing side of your career, licensing could be just a side note on your website. For example, you could have a contact form for licensing queries or a short note saying that for licensing opportunities, your tracks are available at Audiosparx (or another library of your choice)
If you’re a music producer/composer focused on licensing your music, you could transform your website so that the focus is on license sales (as opposed to gig or album sales).
Hope that helps! Apologies for the late reply, don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything I can help you with, I’ll be quicker to reply ;)
Do you use midi, especially for drums? Thanks.
Hi Daniel,
Yes, I do!
I like to layer drums so I’ll usually have a few different tracks just for my snare, maybe a couple of MIDI tracks and an audio hit to add a bit of oomph.
Hi Joyce, I am just starting out putting my songs in music libraries. Would you recommend producing and submitting as many songs as possible to build up a large catalog? Also, I’ve been writing rock music for years but I’ve been trying to write more commercial music like pop and edm. All of the rock songs I’ve submitted to music libraries have been accepted but only about 2 out of every 10 of my pop/edm style songs have been accepted. Should I spend more time just writing rock music since it has a better chance at being accepted that my pop/edm music?
Thanks so much, your article was very informative!
Hey Erik :)
That’s the approach I took (writing lots and lots) but you don’t have to (I know musicians who earn decent money from licensing with a fairly small catalogue). There’s no one way to do it really.
Regarding genre, I would stick with what you enjoy making. It sounds like that’s rock music. Sure, EDM and pop are super popular but if you don’t enjoy it that much, chances are you’ll struggle to come up with quality tracks (which is what your small sample seems to suggest as well).
I stick to doing what I like because:
1. the music industry is soooo hard and competitive I figure if I do what I like, I’ve got a chance to do it well
2. what’s the point of making music otherwise? ;)
Hello Joyce! I’m a rap artist who is about to start my own library via sourceaudio.com .what do you know about them and how much do you think I should start off selling licenses and should I do royalty free licenses and charge @ $1,000-$2,000?
Hi Joyce,
Many thanks sharing this post… Have you tried licensing your music thru the production music platforms of one of the major labels (UMG, Sony or Warner)? Do you know how much they pay to the artists and how much they keep for themselves?
No idea! If memory serves me right, I tried getting my music on Warner’s production music platform ages ago but never heard back.
Warners…Me neither Joyce….
Hi Joyce!!!
Thank you so much for the generosity to share your time and knowledge with us!
If you d like you can check some of my music here: https://soundcloud.com/chobed/tracks
My question is… (I know you allready recomend some but i d like to know some details)
do you have a list of the “high stuff library” and the “low stuff” (with the ones you use a pseudonim)
And can you post the same track on different libraries? wich ones? and i also mean it doing the separations of “low and high quality tracks”…
I m knot sure if I explain it well… mmm I mean… I have, let say 10 crapy songs… can I upload the 10 same tracks into 3 different (crappy) libraries? (wich ones?)
And i have 6 HQ songs… can i upload them into 3 (other.. “the HQ ones”) libraries?? wich ones…
And wich libraries are the ones that doesnt let you upload you music into other ones..?
(hope it makes sense.. haha) Thanks!!
Hi Obed,
Cool music! Definitely very commercial and licensable :)
Regarding the music library recommendations, I don’t have the perfect answer for you. Some libraries work for some artists and not for others. What works for me won’t necessarily work for you and vice versa.
I know it’s not the answer you hoped for but it really does come down to how much work you’re willing to put in to find out what works for you :)
Given the quality of your productions, I’m not worried though, you’ll get there!
I wrote this post that should help get started: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/best-production-music-libraries/
Regarding your second question, as long as you only sign non-exclusive agreements, you can put song A in as many libraries as you want. If you sign song B to a music library under an exclusive agreement, then you can’t place B with any other library. I go into more detail here: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/exclusive-vs-nonexclusive/
Again, I can’t tell you which libraries offer exclusive or non-exclusive deals. Some offer exclusive, some offer non-exclusive, some give you the option to be exclusive or non-exclusive with them. Sometimes, a non-exclusive library becomes exclusive (like JinglePunks recently). It’s an ever changing landscape. You gotta do your research and figure out what works for you ;)
Good luck with this! Take it one step at a time, try stuff, don’t give up if you get a couple of rejections and you’ll do just fine :)
Hey Joyce!!!
thank you for the answer and the compliment :D
I just finished reading the post you suggested me, and a new question came to me … hahaha
What if I havn´t sign to a PRO ?
Because is too much paperwork (that translate into procrastination for me :c) and anyway… the only one PRO in my country have a lot of suspicion … that they dont even pay you if you are not .. like very big and known artist …. and once you sign with them you cannot sell or license you music without them knowing.. so it becames more of a obstacle than anything…
My question is… is there libraries that wont license your music if you are not afiliated with a PRO ?? (what about Audiosparx.?? I was just to put into work your advice on it)
And is there another way that an artist can collect their royalties wihout a PRO?
Thank you for all the help! :D
God Bless
Well…. if you don’t register your songs with a PRO, you’ll lose out on all your writer’s share of royalties (and publisher’s share of royalties if you self-publish).
If your music is used in an ad that runs for 6 months on TV, that’s a LOT of money to give up on for no reason. Same if it lands on a super popular TV shows that has reruns for 20 years across multiple countries.
Of course those are best case scenarios. In many cases royalties never reach the heights of the synchronization fee you get paid upfront even if you’re not registered with a PRO.
Still, I’d register with a PRO if I were you. It’s quick, easy and there’s really no downside that I can think of. If you don’t want to register with your country’s PRO, you can join ASCAP or BMI in the US or whatever PRO you prefer internationally.
If you don’t want to go down the PRO route (and there’s really no obligation!), there are plenty of libraries who will be happy to use your music anyway (usually a red flag) and I’m sure some will be happy to register your songs as theirs and collect royalties on your work ;)
Hey Joyce, you can teach and do! Very cool.
I run a website that also apparently changes people’s perception of how to do things, so how tremendous to read your info and have my eyes wired wide open about making a living from music, thanks. Suddenly I don’t feel my only option is to persuade Neil Young to team up with me for a 50-song shot in the arm of his career!
Your advice on licensing also just saved me $299, I was literally about to sign up to Taxi and Googled, “does Taxi generate work for musicians?” and your article came up. I’m sure Taxi does work for some, but as you said, maybe not a smart first step into music licensing.
Apart from explaining so much about the licensing , your advice about not going mad on buying kit for massive production sounds is spot on too.
A question: What would you do with lyrics that have been removed from tracks? My voice doesn’t do the lyrics justice, so are best gone.
Hey Andy!
Don’t give up on persuading Neil Young to give your songs a chance! :))
But yeah, try to license your tracks in the meantime, it can’t hurt :)
Not sure I get your question. If your vocals are no good, take them out and pitch the instrumentals to music libraries. There are plenty of licensing opportunities for instrumental music out there. Not having any vocals is not an issue.
That said, if you find a vocalist who does a great job on your track, you could hire them to sing on your track and license the song with his/her vocals.
You could also license your lyrics to some other singer, that’s a possibility as well. I’m not into that scene at all so I may be way off here but I think for that type of licensing (licensing lyrics to performers), you’d want to approach labels and publishers who have a roaster of performing artists looking for good songs to sing.
Hi Joyce you understood perfectly my question about vocals and lyrics. Given me food for thought.
Keep on rocking in the royalty free licensing world
Cheers
Hi Joyce,
Many thanks for this great article, and the suggestions. You’d hit the nail about the paltry streaming payouts from Spotify and others, yes!
A question, regarding the submittal on music libraries. Do you have some advice on how to proper tag/settings “Moods” on them? I find myself reiterating the same tags.
Thanks again for this article,
Alvaro
Thanks Alvaro! I appreciate the kind words :)
So I wrote a post, poetically entitled “Keyword the SHIT out of your music”. That should help! ;)
https://www.creativeandproductive.com/keywords-to-license-music/
Yikes, yes, definitely. thanks!
Hey Joyce,
I am very grateful for your article. It really inspired me to set some goals and get a direction on how to make money from music.
I was very happy last week when my application got accepted by Audiosparx. I know maybe it’s not a very big deal, but as a new artist (I only have 3 original songs and 3 remixes) this is a step forward on my musical path.
If possible, I’d like to ask you a question regarding publishing. When I uploaded my first song on Audiosparx, I saw you need a publisher. Which can be them, sharing 50% / 50% or yourself, but both need you to have an ASCAP account. my question is can you sell your music without a publisher? all the legal information on ASCAP are overwhelming, and I haven’t understood whether you are required to pay taxes to the state, or any maintenance fee in order to have an account on their website. I searched on their website and also contacted them directly but so far I did not receive an answer :( your advice would be of great help.
thank you for your time and Merry Christmas (in case you celebrate it) :)
Hi Gabriela :)
Yes, you absolutely can sell your music without a publisher, even on Audiosparx.
Here’s what Audiosparx have to say about administering your own publishing:
“If you don’t have a publisher and prefer to administer publishing yourself, you can simply enter your composer name into the Publishers field, however, please note that you must be registered at a Performing Rights Organization as a composer somewhere in the world in order to manage your own publishing in order to earn performance royalties in relation to broadcast uses of your track that we obtain for you.
You don’t have to start your own publishing company in order to manage your own publishing, you can simply do it as yourself (i.e. as a registered composer). In this case, any performance royalties that are earned will be paid to you in full (i.e. the composer’s share and the publisher’s share).”
You could also register yourself as a publisher with ASCAP if you wanted to: https://www.ascap.com/about/join
My advice when just starting out and struggling with information overload? Focus on making sales, you can worry about optimizing revenue streams and publishing once the money starts rolling in :)
It might mean missing out on a little bit of money at first but the time and energy you save by not worrying about admin is precious!! :))
Dear Joyce,
Thanks a lot for your reply.
The thing is I got concerned with publishing when I uploaded my first track, since I have the publishing field marked with red mentioning that it is mandatory, and an Error with red in the track in my account because of the same reason. So because of that, I understood that my track cannot be sold since this field is not completed. From your answer I realised I was wrong though, so thank you for that.
Also, I am a little bit of an organising freak and I’d like to be informed have everything sorted our beforehand. This is why I am looking into this now. According to your experience, would it be better to delegate Audiosparx as my publisher, or manage my own publishing? Additionally, is there anywhere where I can see the percentages I’d have to pay for royaltes if I make an account to ASCAP? I found a similar organisation in Greece (the country I live in), called AEPI and now I’m pending in between the two. If you have some time, please check this link with their tariffs for online uses of music http://www.aepi.gr/images/pdf_aepi/amivologio.nea.mesa.english_teliko.pdf From what I see here, they are reasonable. But I’d definitely wanna check the ones from ASCAP too before making a decision.
Thanks a lot for your patience and for taking the time to read all this.
Hey Gabriela,
There are quite a few questions packed in one so let me try to address a few of your comments
G: Also, I am a little bit of an organising freak and I’d like to be informed have everything sorted our beforehand.
J: I call that procrastinating :p I understand the concern as I’m a bit of an organising freak as well but the truth is, you can’t make the right decisions for your music career until you’ve tried stuff and made mistakes. It really is the only way I know to get valuable feedback and information.
G: According to your experience, would it be better to delegate Audiosparx as my publisher, or manage my own publishing?
J: That’s an impossible question for me to answer. It really depends on what stay of your career you’re at, what your ambitions are as a songwriter and/or performer, if you want to stay indie or not, etc.
G:Additionally, is there anywhere where I can see the percentages I’d have to pay for royaltes if I make an account to ASCAP? I found a similar organisation in Greece (the country I live in), called AEPI and now I’m pending in between the two. If you have some time, please check this link with their tariffs for online uses of music http://www.aepi.gr/images/pdf_aepi/amivologio.nea.mesa.english_teliko.pdf From what I see here, they are reasonable. But I’d definitely wanna check the ones from ASCAP too before making a decision.
J: You should not be paying any royalties. Performance Rights Organizations are meant to pay YOU royalties. I can’t tell you which PRO to choose. You might want to privilege going local and being able to talk to people directly in your community and use their expertise for music licensing in your country. Or you might want to go with a US based PRO because it seems cooler and the music licensing market is huge there. It’s really up to you. What I can say is that music libraries usually don’t care what PRO you use (although a few prefer US based). In addition, PROs are supposed to collaborate internationally but some PROs make it easy for you to become a publishers (ASCAP for example) and others don’t (the SACEM in France for example and PRS in the UK for a long time, although they’ve just changed that). Although it’s a bit of a hassle, it’s never too late to change PROs so again, I would focus on making money with your music. Once you start making money, you can dig into the royalty figures and investigate other PRO options if you feel you’re getting a raw deal.
I really hope that helps Gabriela! The key message here is focus on selling your music. As long as you don’t sign any exclusive deals that lock you into an arrangement with a set company for your music, you’re completely free to make mistakes and you can correct these mistakes later.
thanks so much for the detailed answers Joyce. they really mean a lot!
the only other thing I’d like to ask you about is related to your last sentence “As long as you don’t sign any exclusive deals that lock you into an arrangement with a set company for your music, you’re completely free to make mistakes and you can correct these mistakes later. ” what if I made the account for Audiosparx as an exclusive artist? is this too much of mistake? :( I was thinking that you can gain more money like this, plus I am planning to put only some of my songs there.
Hey Gabriela,
So yeah, it’s not great that you signed some tracks exclusively to AudioSparx but don’t worry, I made similar mistakes when I first started out and I’m doing ok :)
First, it’s probably not too late to get in touch with AudioSparx’ customer support and ask them if you can change to non-exclusive. Not sure how accommodating they will be but they’re usually helpful and friendly for other queries and it doesn’t hurt to try!!
Second, even if they don’t grant you that favor and you’re stuck with a few tracks tied exclusively to AudioSparx, it’s not the end of the world. Just cross your fingers and hope that they make you some money! Also make sure that you optimize your chances of getting in the search results by following AudioSparx’ advice about keywords, descriptions, etc.
Good luck and keep going! :))
You saved me Joyce. It was mentioned there that is 30 days haven’t passed from the upload of my first track, I can change my artist account from exclusive to non-exclusive, which I just did. Thanks a lot for all the help and good luck with everything! :)
That’s great news Gabriela!! Don’t hesitate to reach out and keep me posted on your progress: joyce@creativeandproductive.com
You’re a sweetheart! I definitely will. thanks a lot! :)
With music licensing
Alright :) Well….
The short answer is: write music and submit it to music libraries (you have a few examples and best practises in the post above)
The long, step-by-step answer is over here: http://www.creativeandproductive.com/licensing-in-7-days/
Joyce, help I’m a songwriter
Haha, sure! Mind being more specific? ;)
I would like to do the same thing that you did
TY for writing back!
The company I worked with was Red Arc Music, but they now exist as Angry Mob Music. http://www.angrymobmusic.com I was dealing with Marc Caruso (still onboard as CEO) who is a great, honest person. It appears as thought they are doing “larger” (particularly trailers) work these days.
Thanks for recommending audiojungle; have you worked with them? It appears that they are exclusively RF which I’ve always been told to stay away from. The prices seem to fall the $15 range per piece. This seems kinda low, but I guess if there is enough action it’s worth it? What is your view on the RF thing?
Cool! I’ll check them out! :)
My view on royalty-free is that it’s great for the customer, not so great for the content creator (kinda of like Netflix, Spotify and Fiverr in the sense that it has it has its perks for the content creator but is not super rewarding financially). I see it as a way to make a bit of extra money on the side. Once the track is in there, I don’t need to worry about it anymore. It just sells or it doesn’t.
I have a few tracks with AudioJungle and I’m thinking of growing my catalogue on there because they get a LOT of traffic. However, I don’t put my premium stuff on there because they are royalty-free and tend to price low.
For my best material, my aim is always to get it placed on cool, rewarding projects. It’s much harder and requires a lot more effort though :)
Hello Joyce!
Wow, that article is so amazingly cool! I have currently over 100 pieces of music with Getty, but don’t do the RF thing. I have made a few $$ but nothing significant. Prior to Getty I was with a small, fairly new company but nothing was happening with them so when our 3 yr agreement was up I opted out. Wouldn’t you figure that a few months later I receive a BMI ck for 1k+ from music licensed from them?! Haha…I’m great @ making poor choices! Anyway, I did just send 10 pieces, of totally varied styles, to Railroad Trax and will do the same with the companies listed in your article. TY so much for being a positive influence and not being “selfish” with your ideas!
Yay! You’re welcome :) Might want to try AudioJungle (Envato) as well…. Can you share the name of the small company? I enjoy working with smaller platforms as well.
Thanks for the advice Joyce if you dont mind could you elaborate more on what companies to submit my libraries to in that genres and what are some good keywords or explain the keyword process a little more
Hey Red Ruby,
As I said, hip-hop and R&B are in demand so you can submit to big libraries that are “generalists”.
I don’t know of any specific library just for hip-hop and R&B since that’s not my niche but you could do some research on Google, maybe looking for “where to buy royalty-free beats”, “royalty free r&b instrumentals”, etc.
What would YOU type if you were looking for R&B or hip-hop instrumental tracks?
You’re in luck about the keywords, I just wrote about that ;) https://www.creativeandproductive.com/keywords-to-license-music/
Thanks Joyce now that is some valuable advice I appreciate you
Strange… I was in a private lesson with Neville on some other confusing stuff I made up a couple of years back, but 1,5 years ago I found back to music again, started building a studio and honing my craft. The day before this article came up I made my first money with licensing and have made three sales with one song now in a week. I have a well paying day job, but must admit these are the best dollars I have made in a long time :)
Nice! :)
That’s really great Carl-Henrik.
I’m adding a link to your tunes for others who’d like to have a listen.: https://soundcloud.com/carlhenrikaudio
“Light on the Horizon” is the track that is selling and a perfect example of the kind of uplifting tunes that work really well for corporate inspirational vids.
Thanks! You are too kind :) I was actually surprised that I got 3 sales in a week “without a name” and only one song. A whole heap in the making ;)
Wow Carl, this is awesome timing! Hopefully you use some of the stuff here to make even more of those licensing dollars :-D
Hey Joyce, thank you for info. I come up with a ton of tunes and am interested in getting them out for money.
Hi joyce thanks so much for this valuable info. I have been producing Hip Hop and r&b for the past 12 years and have had websites in the past in the past iv made a couple of sells but i had realised that I Had to learn mixing and mastering my production was a key process I was in the running one time for love and hip hop reality show through moderbeats.com song submission the production was good but my mixing wasnt well at the time. Years have gone by now and I want to try it again with all the tunes I have made over the years is there a recommendation for hip hop and r&b producers thanks so much Red Ruby
Hey Red Ruby, nice name ;)
Can you be more specific with your question?
If you mean a recommendation for a library focused on hip hop and R&B, you’re in luck: it’s a genre that’s very much in demand so pretty much all of the major production music libraries are open to that genre of music.
If the production quality is good, getting into a music library with hip-hop is not the hard part. It’s really standing out once you’re in there because there’s a lot of competition in that field.
My advice then is focus on a sub-genre and spend a lot of time on relevant keywords (to feature in the library’s search results) and compelling track descriptions (to get the potential customer to listen to your track).
That last part is when Neville’s Kopywriting resources can become VERY handy ;)
Hi Red Ruby. Is there any chance I can speak or write to you about what you do…specifically producing R&B music. It is regarding the prototype for the website I am creating.
Hi Joyce
Thank you for sharing this in such an honest and personal way that appeals to everyone. I have a question about quality – not of the songwriting or musical proficiency as such but what level of production you need to have. I have recorded at home with Logic Pro but I have no idea about mastering a song and I wondered if the post production needs to be at a certain acceptable level. I know on platforms like Taxi for example, they will let you know exactly what standard it needs to be. Would be costly to have songs mastered – should this be something that one needs to learn before embarking on what you suggest here? Many thanks
Hey Sharon,
So for the really high-end opportunities, professional mastering is a must BUT…. I’d say you can do it quick and dirty yourself and get away with it most of the time ;)
I’ll tell you how if you send me a link to your music so I can make sure you wouldn’t be putting lipstick on a pig :p
No seriously, the mixing needs to be of a good standard before mastering comes in so it’s very important that you spend time on getting the mix right.
The best way to know if your mix is any good is by comparing it to commercial tunes it would be competing with on the radio.
If you compared your mix to a song on the radio, the radio song would always sound better because it’s been mastered and is louder (louder almost always sounds better). Sooooo….
…. you need a little plugin like Magic A/B that will help you compare a radio song with your mix like for like by adjusting the loudness levels of the radio song.
Once you’re sure your mix is decent, I’d suggest investing in Ozone 7 by iZotope, going through a bunch of presets and slapping one that works for your tune. After a while, you’ll find which preset suits your style and you can play around with it.
Yeah…. as I said…. quick and dirty….
It really isn’t “best practise” but it does the job….
Now Ozone is a little bit expensive so if it’s not urgent and/or you’re on a tight budget, I’d suggest waiting for Black Friday.
And once again, make sure your mix is good before you make it louder ;)
Hey Sharon, try not to get paralyzed by things like “high recording quality” and having tons of fancy equipment.
If Slash picked up even a crappy guitar, he could still shred the hell outta that thing! Similarly, you probably don’t need ultra fancy equipment to output a lot of great songs.
Many of todays artists that got discovered through social media and YouTube started off with basic free software like Garage Band!
Couldn’t agree more with Neville.
I wouldn’t let perceived lack of quality stop you from sending out your tunes to music libraries (emphasis on “perceived”).
Unless you’re 100% sure your music sounds amateurish, go ahead and start submitting your tracks to production music libraries.
In fact, even if you’re sure it sounds nothing like what’s on the radio, go for it but use a pseudonym.
You’ll learn much more by “doing licensing” than reading or learning about it. If your tracks are not up to the required standard, you’ll find out soon enough. Just don’t invest any money in paying submissions.
If you’re unsure on how to proceed, here’s a post that might be helpful: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/licensing-in-7-hours/
Give it a go and report back ;)
Hey Joyce:
Thanks for the absolutely fantastic post; comprehensive AND actionable, a rare combination!
I’m a singer/songwriter with decent production chops and my own studio, but I’ve always shied away from generating music for licensing because I thought that libraries weren’t really interested in my style of music (which lands somewhere in the Counting Crows/Elvis Costello/Wallflowers zone). Have I been wrong about this, and are there relevant licensing opportunities out there for: 1) music of this type and; 2) of this production quality?
If you have a minute and are open to it, you can check my website here: http://radionowhere.net . A good place to hear some of my music would be: https://soundcloud.com/radionowhere/sets/radio-nowhere-2017 (I have instrumental versions of nearly all of these songs).
Thanks so much for your time, and thanks again for the awesome post!
~ Mike Baker
P.S. Reading through the comments again, I see that you recommend Railroad Trax for singer/songwriters – great! Are there any other sites or organizations you might recommend for my type of music?
Mike… I’d suggest you browse through a few royalty-free production music libraries when you have some spare time…. and then NEVER doubt the production quality of your tracks EVER again :)))
Honestly, your music is excellent. Your voice reminds me of Leonard Cohen. There is most definitely room for you in the music licensing world :)
It looks like you have a decent following so I would definitely stay clear of any *race-to-the-bottom* type of library if I were you (unless you want to give them some of your “junk” tunes under a pseudonym).
Focus on high-end opportunities like Jingle Punks and boutique libraries like Railroad Trax, maybe searching for “boutique music library” online.
As for every one else, I’d also recommend taking the time to go through the admin hassle of Audiosparx. It really is a great learning experience. Boring but valuable :)
Joyce, thanks so much for taking the time to check out my tracks and give such a detailed response (and of course, so glad you liked the music ;)!
I really appreciate your recommendations, both to me and to everyone else on this post – you’re creating such a great resource here!
Signed up for your mailing list too, and I’m looking forward to hearing from you again…
~ Mike
Hope this points you in the right direction Mike, and that you eventually license your very first song :)
Wow, I was captivated through the entire article. AND the comments. I don’t produce music (yet. I have dreams of producing some of my own instrumentals someday) but I am a hip-hop/rap songwriter. I am thinking of copywriting some of the songs from the CD I am currently working on, but am not really sure about it. I will definitely be looking into licensing the ones I can, though :) (not all of the beats I use are original, a couple of them already have hits attached). I had never thought of contacting music supervisors of some of my favorite shows for licensing….I will definitely remember that. Thanks for all the info!
Interesting…. You’re thinking of applying Neville’s teachings to songwriting? I never thought of copy that way…. it might be worth investigating.
Actually, now that I think of it, the AIDA formula has all of the elements of a hit song, only the hit song doesn’t necessarily follow the Attention (strong intro), Interest (“ear candy”), Desire (hook) and Action (emotion/physical reaction) order. The Desire and Action elements are usually intertwined throughout the tune…
I might just try to figure out if I can make the AIDA framework into an arrangement template!!
Glad you dug this article Eddie! I wonder if you could start applying your talents to something like music licensing as you build your career?
I’m not a musician but your post taught me so much more than just the ins and outs of making a living from music licensing.
It taught me some invaluable lessons about writing copy.
Even though the subject matter for me, was akin to “How to watch grass grow.”
I finished the whole post, and was looking for more.
Even though the information contained in your charts, in another setting, would have gone from “boring to mildly interesting”, I devoured the information like someone who has not eaten for a week.
I have read and listened to maybe three people in my 72 years, with the ability to make the process of addressing envelopes exciting. You are the fourth.
Your introduction may have stood on the toes of many touring musicians or potentials “fans”, but you chose to present yourself as you, so very refreshing when “fake it till you make it” seems to be the bias of so many presentations.
You differentiated between being confident about your musical ability, which you are and your sureness about the way forward, which you made plain you have mixed feelings about.
It was hard to ignore the relentless stream of figures, by which you proved to yourself and us that the path you were on was not going to lead to either riches or immortality.
You conveyed by tone, understatement and humor just how gut wrenching this realisation was, but without any attempt at starting a pity party.
The direction you chose is laid out precisely with each step explained in no nonsense language, including tips along the way and lots of rhetorical questions that you actually go on to answer, not in the tone of a knowledge base but more the tone of a friend chatting about the situation.
I could go on but I would be boring. Whether it was your intent or not to provide a masterclass in captivating copy, that is what I received thank you Joyce for the content and Nevill for the inspiration.
Wow.
Thank you, Charles. You’ve made my day… possibly my month and year :)
Thank you for taking the time to articulate this and be kind to a stranger on the internet! I truly appreciate it.
Glad you enjoyed this piece Charles! We try to only put out useful stuff, but also make it fun to read. Thank you for the kind words!!
This article made me want to be in the music business. Really well written about an unexpected niche.
Nice! I’m glad you enjoyed it Ginger :)
Pretty interesting little ready eh Ginger? Glad this inspired you!
Hi Nev and Joyce,
Nev, this post has my attention, because it is in the heart of my endeavors. Thanks Neville and Joyce for your heartfelt realistic brand of hope. A few libraries have my music, PMG and Tinderbox. and it took Broadjam.com at 5 bucks a pop and 200/yr to get about 10 songs up on perpetual music group and one on Tinderbox.
Still, not a dime has come in. I’ve made 20 bucks in ad revenue on YouTube from a few videos and literally pennies in all the years I have had a few songs on Spotify. I have the repository bulk of my stuff on Broadjam.com. Here is the link http://www.broadjam.com/artists/songs.php?artistID=71799
– whadayatink? It is soup to nuts.
Again thanks for enlightening me. Your style is engaging and helpful.
Rob Satori
Hey Rob,
Sorry to hear Broadjam hasn’t been very good to you :/
So…. you’ve been a Broadjam member since 2009 but your most popular track only has 722 plays and most tracks have under 100 plays….
That tells me you haven’t spent a lot of time getting your keywords right and your tracks don’t come up at the top of the search results.
I would make that your priority. Audiosparx may be a good place to start for you. It will force you to pay great attention to keywords.
Get friends and family to help you with this if you have trouble finding the right words to describe your music.
** On a side note, why are most of your tracks on Broadjam not available to buy?! Is that Broadjam’s choice or something you need to set up?
Hi Joyce, thanks for the quick response. at the moment I am submitting my bio application to audiosparx. Where can I find the links for all the sites you favor? Did I miss it in the article? Thanks.
Like Hit License, Broadjam doesn’t ask for keyword metadata for each song just BPM and some mood indication words from a drop down list. One only get a work listened to if it is entered (@$5 a pop) in an opportunity that is provided by AR execs, producers, etc. There are friends and fellow artists that also add to listens, but they don’t mean much except that it is a nice gesture on their part. Also, you don’t get on to a publisher unless you win the top prize of being “Selected,” at this point the publisher emails you and you get your work on their site. My most consistent track that has been selected many times but never went anywhere after that was Pianogram Dies Irae. https://www.perpetualmusicgroup.com/#!details?id=10790198 …with the exception of making it to the PMG library…
The Publisher Perpetual Music Group https://www.perpetualmusicgroup.com/#!explorer?s=artist%3A%22rob%20satori%22 has selected some of my works in this way and is on that site. Also on that site you can see eleven of my cues that have metadata that was submitted when I entered into a nonexclusive agreement on each of the songs. please have a look and see if they are ok if you have time? Now that you hooked up with Neville, I bet you are going to be very busy!!!
lastly, I only put my ‘pop songs’ as ‘buy-able’ because I never thought anyone would want the soundtrack stuff. But I see that perhaps I am wrong on that. it’s an easy fix. Thanks again for being so kind.
yours,
Rob
Hey Rob,
I don’t really have a long list of libraries I favor….
– Audiosparx I like and recommend because it forces you to do a lot of admin work up front which
pays off for other opportunities.
– Songtradr I like because they have a great pricing tool and always get back to you. I use the free
plan.
– Railroad Trax I mention because it’s a small enterprise and I think the owner (Randy) is doing a
great job finding opportunities for singer-songwriters. I have zero affiliation to them and they don’t
even know I’ve been talking them up :)
I mainly look for three things in a music library: non-exclusive deal, reasonable split (50/50 is standard) and musician-friendly (so none of the $1/pop stuff).
If you Google “production music library” and “royalty-free music”, you’ll find loads of libraries where you can submit your music for free (check the FAQ page if there isn’t a clear “Submissions” page).
Not all will be a good fit for you and that’s ok :)
***
Your cues are nicely set up. I would just work on getting more keywords in to pop up in the search results.
Not sure how Perpetual Music Group works so it may be you don’t really have that option for this particular website.
In any case, I’ll be publishing a post showing exactly how to come up with the right keywords on Monday morning on creativeandproductive.com so you might want to watch out for that one ;)
Thanks Joyce. I will look for the post. I downloaded the guide and look forward to finding where I saved it so that I can read it. <8^0
Wow, this is like free music licensing consulting! Hope this helps get you on the right path Rob!
Here are some links for different kinds of files that you asked for to advise me on metadata tags
1 http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.php?play_file=71799_640447_1
2 http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.php?play_file=71799_673026_2
3 http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.php?play_file=71799_674529
4 http://www.broadjam.com/player/player.php?play_file=71799_651240_1
You are the best.
Thanks!
Hey Rob,
Thanks for the links but can you be a bit more specific? How can I help? Are you struggling with moods? Sound alike? Have you tried going through the checklist provided on my website? Did you use the keyword listings provided?
Here’s a suggestion: why don’t you add one of those tracks to Soundcloud (you can keep it private if you like), go through the process described in https://www.creativeandproductive.com/keywords-to-license-music/ and add all of the keywords you come up with.
Just focus on one track at a time and when you’re stuck, make a note of it and move on to the next item on the checklist. Little by little you’ll get better at it.
If you notice you always get stuck at the same stage, let me know. We can brainstorm ideas to get past that.
Hi Joyce,
I’m not much more than a hobbyist when it comes to making music, but there is an idea I’ve had been unable to validate. When you record songs, do you collaborate with other performers? Is there already a platform out there for artists to work together on songs, publish/share samples to showcase work, and showcase finished pieces?
Hey Josh,
Yeaaah, there is. It’s called Splice. You can make music online and invite other musicians to participate on your project.
There may be others but Splice.com seems to be the most popular and, to my knowledge, it’s free.
Glad you got some ideas from this Josh!
Really, really, great and interesting post. Sent to brother who is an accomplished musician, writer and live performer.
Maybe we could have some links to JK’s work so we can license it? I am always looking for YT music for my talking-head/cycling/running vids.
Timbo
Hey hey Timbooo!
Thanks for asking ;)
You can listen to (and license) my work on http://www.madlassmusic.com
If there’s anything specific you need that’s not on there, I’m always looking for inspiration so don’t hesitate to use the contact form and let me know!
PS: I’m based in Paris. When are you coming back for the Tour de France?!
Thanks for sharing Tim! Based on the feedback I’ve been getting for Joyce’s post, it seems pretty life changing and eye opening for a lot of musicians!
Joyce – that was quite possibly a life-changing post for me! Thanks so much for sharing it. I don’t know exactly how it came across Neville’s email list (since I signed up for that for copy writing stuff), but it was PERFECT for me. My wife and I are songwriters and produce music (with vocals:)) mostly for our niche audience in the medieval re-creation society (SCA). But like you say, streaming income – even CD sales, equates to MAYBE $1K per year, sometimes $2K. But that requires at least 2 gigs a year where we travel to these big festivals across the country. I’ve thought, for some time, that there was a way we could get our music out to libraries, but I didn’t really have a clue how. But NOW I DO, thanks to you! My wife suggested we start by taking all our songs (right now that probably is only about 60-70 songs) and just removing the vocals. After that, I’m going to try what you said about writing instrumentals and going for some volume. I already do music production and teach others to do home recording with Home Brew Audio. That’s actually the site/business I work on the most and signed up for Neville’s Kopywriting Korse for:-P. Anyway, I’m taking this as a sign to finally start looking into licensing our songs with libraries. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!
Ken Theriot
(some of our music is on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/user/RavenBoyMusic)
Medieval Re-creation Society? Very cool! :)
Having instrumental versions of your songs always helps. Your songs are very niche though, I would also try to shop them around with vocals. The market may be tiny but there probably won’t be much competition either….
Historians and documentary makers might be a good avenue to explore… Video games might be another…
I see on your website you also have a Christmas album available. Leverage that! You MUST have those songs up with a library by the end of October! :))) No pressure :p
For example, you could submit your music to Audio Sparx and tag it as “Christmas”, “Knights of Old”, “History”, “Renaissance” and “Medieval” then watch what happens….
You could also search for “royalty-free medieval music” and submit to all the production libraries that pop up at the top of the search results.
Go for it Ken! And don’t hesitate to get in touch if you get stuck at some point: joyce@creativeandproductive.com
Wow, thanks for that reply Joyce! I very much appreciate the advice. I’ll get that Christmas album stuff going as a top priority. Interestingly, the songs do not necessarily SOUND medieval – not in the way that one might expect. The SCA has that, of course. But most of the folks who are not early music enthusiasts are more likely to want to hear a bit more modern sounding music, but where the stories/lyrics are about stuff from the period. So our top-selling songs, like “Agincourt,” “Band of Brothers,” and “William Tell,” are actually more folk-pop (acoustic guitar, bass, percussion and lots of vocal harmonies) than “early music” in sound. But like you say – I’ll go for it with and without lyrics and see what sticks. Thanks again!! And I very well may be in touch:).
So glad you found this Ken!
I know music licensing is kind of departure from what I normally write about, but I figured this would actually help a bunch of people in the music industry which is notoriously difficult.
Best of luck Ken!
Thanks Neville!
I love it when my two worlds (trying to figure out how to make money with my website and being a musician) collide like this!
I’m in San Antonio. I’m sure our paths will cross in real life at some point:).
If I am able to make this work for me – on any scale at all – I’ll report back here.
Cheers!
Awesome, can’t wait to hear if you have any results :)
Registered for AudioSparx yesterday as an artist and got my acceptance this morning! Going to start in earnest today!
Love this post!
I’ve done the punk/hardcore band thing for years out of fun. Its not ‘punk’ to get paid. The most I ever got for a gig was 100 cash playing at a sketchy skinhead football club were we played for 20 minutes, then ran outta there.
But this is great! Doing something you love, and getting rewarded for it is fantastic.
Looking at those stats, I never knew google play was so up there in payments-makes me feel a bit guilty for using Spotify!
Well done, and cheers Nev for sharing this with us!
Hey Aaron,
Yeah, I love this quote attributed to Walt Disney: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.”
Obviously he became filthy rich and the cynic in me doesn’t believe a word of it but I still think it’s a great way to think of the music industry :)
Re Spotify, it may be more complex than Google Play being “nicer” to artists and paying them more because Spotify do offer a free plan (with advertisers) to its users and that may impact the royalties they pay out when the stream is coming from a free account (although again, that should be paid by advertising…).
One thing’s for sure, the royalties per stream on Spotify have dropped in the past couple of years despite the platform growing its gross revenue in that same period.
I always thought it was kinda stupid to think it’s not “Punk” to make money. What’s more punk than having an ass-ton of money and being able to do whatever you want!?? :-)
Thanks Joyce for this great info. I don’t currently create music, but I would love to for my meditations so it would be my original music. One thing at a time. I like that you don’t have to copyright everything. Much appreciated and I requested the ebook. Cheers!
Ooooh… I love writing meditation music! It’s so relaxing, I don’t even notice I’m working on a deadline! haha
Good luck with it :)
Good luck licensing it out Tammy!
If you not earning FREE money from your work (music) while you’re alive someone else will do it while you gone (dead). Music licensing is like eating your money while you alive. Been a TAXI member over a year.
Hahah, thanks Ola!
Joyce
Hah! I’ve been following Nev for years and I always wondered what he’d do with a business like this given his copy writing genius! I write music for a living as well and have not been able to break into writing my own style for licensing but I do have a deal with a major radio production company to write 5-8 genres of music worth of music every week( which amounts to about 10-12 tracks a week). Last year I got a deal to write a large amount of music for Viacom and ended up writing 75 songs between October and March. I do, indeed, agree that quantity is so important as it fine tunes your capabilities and enables you to work very quickly. I’d gladly trade writing “commercial” music in large quantity for writing my own style in lesser amounts any day but it seems like making that switch is very hard. I already spend so much time writing music that I’m pretty tapped out when I should be writing my own stuff. Thanks for the article you confirmed a lot of what I understand about this industry!
Wow!!! That’s like 500 tracks every year!!! That’s seriously impressive Jason! :)
What does your writing schedule look like?
I used to write music at 5:30 am before going to the office and working as a financial auditor. Just didn’t have the energy to do it consistently in the evenings….
Maybe you could experiment with something like this for your own stuff?
Basically treat YOUR music as a side hussle even though your full-time job is also music…
Do you have a catalogue of your own music I could have a listen to? Maybe I can help you figure out what opportunities would be a right fit?
In any case, if you’d like to do a video interview to talk about your work with Viacom and the radio production company, I’d love to chat some more with you and share your experience on my website!
Geez Jason that IS a lot of tracks!
Not sure about what your contract is, but what if just 10% or 20% of the time you wrote some songs for yourself to license out?
Over time that could amount to a good side (or full-time) income!
As a YouTuber myself this is such an eye opener, I’m always purchasing music from those music library websites and I was wondering how I can upload my own tracks. Appreciate this post 1000x.
Hey Priscilla,
Do you write music already? Why are you using music libraries and not your own music on your videos?!
If you search for *production music library* in Google, you’ll find loads of such libraries. They usually have their submission guidelines in the FAQ section or in the footer menu of their website.
Alternatively, you could let me know what kind of music you need and/or check out what’s already ready to license on my website madlassmusic.com ;)
I use both my own and buy as well. I have a few tracks, but it never really occurred to me to upload them and license them. Thank you!
Good luck maybe getting some of your content licensed Priscilla!
Thanks Neville, you always add a ton of value!!
Loved Joyce’s article! How does she record? Home studio? Or what? Thanks, Ed Hamill
Hey Ed,
I record in a home studio, using Logic Pro X on a Mac Book Pro.
If you’re interested in gear, some of the tools I use are:
– an Akai MPK mini controller;
– East/West instruments for lots of orchestral samples;
– Yamaha HS7 studio monitors;
– Komplete Ultimate 10 by Native Instrument;
– an old school audio interface by M-Audio;
– Native Instruments’ Komplete Kontrol 49; aaaaannnnnd
– lots and lots of notebooks! :)
Aside from real acoustic instruments that I love to collect, I’ve not purchased any new gear since December 2015 when I realized I was using only 10% of my plugins and was just making excuses along the lines of “if I don’t have this shiny thingy, my tracks won’t be good”.
Basically I am a reformed *Gear Slut* :p
And yes, it’s a real thing in the music world…. Google it!
Bahahhaha….I once hear Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) talk about how when a band first gets some money, they just start buying up gear like crazy, and most it goes to waste.
Sounds like you know what you do (and don’t) need now Joyce!
Hey Nev & Joyce,
Awesome post. I’m a professional musician as well, but going down the “traditional” band route, slogging gear across the continent and slowly building a fan base.
We (my band) have almost 4 million spins on Spotify, 95% of those coming from just two songs, and I can also confirm the $3,000 per million benchmark… actually even less, since once you start getting more spins, your payout per spin is lower. You’ll get $3,000 on your first million, but closer to $2,000 on each of your next two million streams. I’d imagine it continues to go down from there.
We’ve also had a bunch of great licensing placements, including spots in Monday Night Football, Parks & Recreation, Suits, and a few others I’m forgetting at the moment. All of those pay in the $1,500 – $5,000 range… which is great for material that you’re making whether or not you get a placement.
What Joyce is doing is super intriguing to me; I’ve been so ingrained in the route I’ve been pursuing that I was totally blind to these little licensing things where quantity reigns supreme. Banging out three or four $50 “songs” in a day could be pretty easy once you’re used to the method of production.
For anyone interested, we’re called The Blue Stones. If you have any questions send us a message on Facebook and mention this article, I’d love to help you out.
Joyce, if you do a podcast or anything and want to have someone from the “traditional” side talk about licensing, or anything in particular from my side of the fence, let me know, would love to do that.
Hey Justin,
I’m listening to your music as I type…. seriously cool :)
Your Spotify numbers are VERY impressive! Well done!
I’m curious… Is there an obvious reason those two have way more plays than the others? Were they featured in a playlist?
Yeah it becomes pretty easy and always fun to write a lot of music really fast. The trick is to always invent new constraints to work with ;)
I like using Brian Eno’s “Oblique Strategies” which is a deck of cards with creative constraints.
You can purchase on Eno’s website: http://www.enoshop.co.uk/product/oblique-strategies.html
Or use an online generator like this one: http://stoney.sb.org/eno/oblique.html
Don’t have a podcast (yet!) but would love to talk to you and maybe do a video interview for my website.
Feel free to get in touch at joyce@creativeandproductive.com
The song Black Holes (Solid Ground) is on a bunch of Spotify official playlists, yeah. The other song is one that’s been featured in a bunch of TV shows so those spins came from people hearing the song after hearing it on air.
Cool, with definitely send an email! Cheers and thanks again
Hey Justin. You guys are pretty spectacular!
Agreed! I’ve been listening to them for a couple of hours now I think!!!
Whoa this is super cool to hear that number is so accurate….and I had no idea it even goes DOWN away you get more plays!
Thanks for chiming in and letting us know Justin, possibly a shirt-worthy post :)
Sooo – this has to be the most informative, well crafted post I’ve ever read to from start to finish, shared with musicians and left a comment. I’ve never left a comment anywhere. Ever. Well done!
Aaaaah that’s awesome! Love it Roxy and thanks for sharing! It means a lot :D
Dang Joyce, seems you did a pretty good job!
And thanks for sharing with your musician friends Roxy, really appreciate it!
This is exactly the kind of thing that more people could do but have no idea about. Everyone spends so much time trying to be a really big fish in a crowded ocean that they don’t even realize they can be a medium sized fish in a fishbowl and do really well. Not only that but it sounds like you actually enjoy what you’re doing and can do more than just support yourself. Isn’t that what we all want?
While I love music and licensing has no bearing on me personally, this really opened my eyes and showed me that I can look at my market obliquely to figure out what works for me personally.
Thanks to you both!
Joe
Yeah… and sometimes the life of a medium sized fish is less taxing than that of a big fish :D
On a side note, licensing is a pretty elegant profit-making machine in a lot of industries, are you sure your market couldn’t use a bit of it? ;)
Hey Joe, it’s super cool when you find out something like this which never even occurred to you. That’s why despite this being a primarily copywriting blog, I thought THIS was still a perfect fit!
Hi Joyce,
My wife, Sue Horowitz http://www.suehorowitz.com/folk-singer/ has been doing Jewish spiritual music for many years but recently did a folk/singer-songwriter album that might have wider appeal. Could you suggest a library to her with whom to work?
Thanks,
Rob
Hey Rob,
First off, what a name for a musician! Vladimir Horowitz is my favorite pianist of all time! :)
Railroad Trax is a library I love for singer/songwriters. The license agreement is a 50/50 split, non-exclusive.
Audiosparx is always helpful for people starting out because it forces you to find relevant keywords and track descriptions. It’s very admin heavy but worth the effort in my opinion.
Looking at your wife’s website, I have a couple of questions and suggestions:
1. suggestion: I’d like to hear more. Maybe she could embed her Spotify playlist….
2. suggestion: for licensing purposes, I think focusing on the Jewish spiritual music could be GREAT! Not as common as folk/singer-songwriter…
3. question: is she getting a lot of traffic on her website? Would it make sense to have the music available for licensing on there? (The answer can absolutely be NO and NO ;)
4. question: are there any niche Youtube channels she could get in touch with to provide music?
Joyce
Thanks for the great suggestions. You are fantastic!
Best of luck Robert to your wife on trying to license her music!
That market I didnt know. Joyce is killing it!
Joyce, you’re a legend, thank you for this! (and thanks, Neville!) This is exactly what I’ve been thinking about for the past year with my music, but wasn’t confident in which step to take first with licensing. I’m going to implement and get back to you.
That’s music to my ears Mike ;)
What’s the first step you’re going to take? Maybe I can help.
Glad to hear it! I was initially considering starting with what you ended the post with — selling directly through my website — but I think you’re right, just getting about 100 underscore tracks down and using the established music libraries first sounds like a better way to gain confidence with personal producing without using studio time.
One thing that has always held me back is that I’m an acoustic guitarist with very little keyboard experience, so I’ve questioned whether to go super niche and only cater to people looking for acoustic tracks or get a keyboard to broaden the genres I can write for. What instruments did you start with?
Hey Mike,
I’m a classically-trained trumpet and piano player. That means I read music easily but freak out when I’m asked to improvise ;)
It’s hard for me to point you in the right direction without knowing a little more about you :)
Soooo….
1. How many songs and/or instrumentals do you have ready (i.e. there’s an MP3 that exists and I can listen to it)?
2. Where can I go listen to them?
Just a general piece of advice: go super niche :)
Whatever you’re really good at, someone will be into it.
It’s your job to find those people (figuring out who they are and getting in touch with them directly) and/or help them find you (by placing your music in libraries).
Music licensing is a very crowded and competitive space. When your music gets into a library, it will be competing with thousands of other tracks. That’s when the battle to get to the top of the search results begins…
As with Google rankings, keywords help. If you go super niche, you’ll be competing with less people and it’ll be MUCH easier for you to get to the top of the results pages.
Thanks for the info!
24 songs (two albums) on iTunes and couple on SoundCloud, with more singles on the way this year. Haven’t done the Spotify/Pandora thing. But the albums on iTunes are full songs rather than underscore. Here are the links if you’d like to listen (I can email you this stuff if that’s easier):
https://soundcloud.com/michael-david-88624854/mike-bass-tabi-no-sora/s-MgIkH (this is the most recent, and I’ll be uploading to iTunes soon. It’s in Japanese, and my goal of goals is to license it to a Netflix Japanese TV drama :) )
https://soundcloud.com/michael-david-88624854/mike-bass-melt
iTunes albums:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/only-a-moment/id193328303
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-moon-through-my-window-level-1/id351270429 (this is an album I wrote to help teach kids English as a second language. I have the class activity for this one on YouTube as well)
Much agreed on going super niche and keywords. Thanks again!
Nice Mike, hope you take your music game up a notch after this post, hopefully this year you license or sell your first song :-)
Thanks, Neville! See you at SumoCon :)
OK!
#1 – 24 songs is plenty to get started Mike ;) Get those instrumental versions out and start submitting to music libraries.
#2 – Next time you watch a Japanese show on Netflix, look for the name of the music supervisor on the show (that’s the person who picks which tracks are featured in each episode) and figure out how you can get in touch with them. If possible, watch interviews with them on Youtube and write down how they like and don’t like to be approached.
Great advice, thanks so much again, Joyce! I’ll start implementing and get back to you!
I have a few friends who are professional musicians who have been riding the how-am-I-gonna-pay-rent / it’s-not-champagne-if-not-from-france roller coaster. It’s a tough / happy life, looking closely from the outside.
I’m forwarding this link to them because I want them to buy more drums if they want, or opt out of Macaroni & Cheese dinners, and me just playing their songs in my car while I’m driving people via rideshare ain’t gunna do it. Maybe this will.
Thanks Betty! What kind of music do your friends write? Maybe I can point them to a music library that’s specialized in their genre?
I thought this article would be super helpful to musicians, so they can enjoy the early and crazy years of their careers, but ALSO make money in the later stages when touring 24/7/365 will be more difficult.
Thanks for sharing this Betty!
Joyce, you did a great job. Neville knows how to do this and he’s not been doing it as long as I have but I’m always learning from him, and that’s the power of the internet and finding the right people to help convey your thoughts and ideas. When I read this I thought, “How in the heck can I use what they’ve told me to make more money and help more people at the same time. There’s something very special about people who can take a few words and create something that connects with a certain group of people. Emotional at first, then logical after they buy. Good stuff. You guys rock. Doc Carney P.S. The format is particularly good.
Why thank you Doc :)
It’s not easy as it looks to take a complex subject and make it easy, but we try our best. Fortunately I’m kinda dumb, and have to break down things into little chunks all the time, which in turn makes it easier to understand.
This is really interesting. I never thought that you can make ‘good’ money making and selling music (or anything else you create) without building up a following and audience first or knowing anyone in the industry (which can take years of trial and error). A nice reminder that just because something has been done a certain way, doesn’t mean you have to follow the same path.
Hey Emils, it’s pretty surprising when you learn a totally different way of doing things like this. A good podcast similar to this post is a bout Haim Saban and how he realized you could make more money from CHILDREN SHOW music than any other type! http://one.npr.org/?sharedMediaId=521261582:521412232
Hey Joyce.
Great post!
Awesome to see, that it’s possible to make money on your music, without having to sell yourself in the traditional sense.
I know, super cool to see right! I had no idea this entire industry existed till Joyce shed some light (and numbers) on it.
Hi Joyce. Very well written article. I will be sure to forward it to my songwriter / composer friends. As what Vino mentioned, I read the entire article which is extremely rare. I am trying to do an indie music website myself and I think ALL Indie Artists should become aware of your stats! Thank you Neville and Joyce for sharing. Very inspirational from a Kopy example sense but I think ALL songwriters/composers will feel a lot better reading what you have to say…ie. there ARE ways to still earn income from your music.
Barbara
P.S. I am a true believer in T-shirts. I hope I can win or purchase one. There is no better way than showing your appreciation from a product or course or band than to endorse it with a t-shirt!
Thanks Barbara! I’m glad you enjoyed the article and thanks for sharing with your songwriter/composer friends!! I really appreciate it :)
I don’t have any merch on offer at the moment. I might look into it in the future though. It could be fun!
I think the merchandising aspect of music is HUGE! Don’t most bands make like 1/3rd or more of their rev from merch?
Don’t know the exact figures but that wouldn’t surprise me. I thought of getting cool t-shirts made at one point but it didn’t really seem to make sense for me at the time. Might reconsider and investigate drop shipping :)
Again, thanks for sharing this post, Joyce! I actually read every word where I typically drift off somewhere after the third sentence. Your writing style is conversational and held my short attention span. It’s inspiring to hear you found your ‘voice’ and developed a process to create and distribute your work. I’ll mos def be following…
Thanks Vino, I’m glad I didn’t bore you to death! :)))
Glad you liked this Vino! I personally thought it was not only fun to read, but super educational. Had no idea this whole world works!