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    How To Make Money With Music Licensing

    how-to-make-money-licensing-music

    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.

    joyce kettering music licensing

    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:

    joyce-kettering-music-licensing-albums

    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:

    spotify-units-stats

    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):

    music-pays-peanuts

     

    I used the statistics from my distributor (Distrokid) to calculate the average stream earning per platform.

    This is what I got:

    streaming-music-pay-scale

    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

    streaming-music-money-chart

    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:

    spotify-streaming-payout

    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!

    make-money-from-music-chart

    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:

    selling-music-tracks

    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!

    madlassmusic-chart

    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...

    production-music-libraries

    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:

    music-libraries-breakdown

    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.

    music-user-controlled-pricing

    music-licensing-deals

    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

    joyce-madlassmusic

    My Music Website: Madlassmusic.com

    My Teaching Licensing Website: CreativeAndProductive.com

    My SoundCloud Channel: SoundCloud.com/madlassmusic

     

    Download this entire post for your files:

    GGReqC36FEkUuKJTryAt-lAVjIveE6B8FNMh9bEp

    --Download and keep in your own files--

    --Share with musician friends--

    --Download in any format--

    P.S. Joyce shares even more in-depth instructions on licensing music (and her step-by-step process) over at MadLassMusic.com

    P.P.S. Have any questions about music licensing for Joyce? She'll answer any questions about her process, marketing, and music here!


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    Recommended Comments



    Guest Rob Satori

    Posted

    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

    Link to comment
    Guest Charles CM Bannister

    Posted

    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.

    Link to comment
    Guest Eddie Tate (TaterTott)

    Posted

    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!
    Link to comment
    Guest Mike Baker

    Posted

    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?

    Link to comment
    Guest Sharon Wright

    Posted

    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

    Link to comment
    Guest Mike Bass

    Posted

    Great advice, thanks so much again, Joyce! I'll start implementing and get back to you!
    Link to comment

    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 ;)

    Link to comment

    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.

    Link to comment

    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!!

    Link to comment

    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 :)

    Link to comment

    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 ;)

    Link to comment
    Guest Mike Baker

    Posted

    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

    Link to comment
    Guest Rob Satori

    Posted

    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
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Wow, this is like free music licensing consulting! Hope this helps get you on the right path Rob!
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    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!!
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    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?
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Hope this points you in the right direction Mike, and that you eventually license your very first song :)
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    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!

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    Guest Red Ruby

    Posted

    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
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    Guest Carl-Henrik

    Posted

    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 :)
    Link to comment

    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 ;)

    Link to comment

    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 ;)

    Link to comment

    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.

    Link to comment



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