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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!


    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments



    Guest Carl-Henrik

    Posted

    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 ;)
    Link to comment
    Guest Red Ruby

    Posted

    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
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Pretty interesting little ready eh Ginger? Glad this inspired you!
    Link to comment
    Guest Neville

    Posted

    Wow Carl, this is awesome timing! Hopefully you use some of the stuff here to make even more of those licensing dollars :-D
    Link to comment

    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.

    Link to comment

    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/

    Link to comment
    Guest Red Ruby

    Posted

    Thanks Joyce now that is some valuable advice I appreciate you
    Link to comment
    Guest barbara

    Posted

    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.
    Link to comment
    Guest SoundVU

    Posted

    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!

    Link to comment
    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.
    Link to comment
    Guest SoundVU

    Posted

    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?

    Link to comment

    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 :)

    Link to comment
    Guest Gabriela

    Posted

    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) :)

    Link to comment

    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!! :))

    Link to comment
    Guest 15 Passive Income Ideas: Make Money While You Sleep - Wealthy Tools

    Posted

    […] This guide will show  How To Make Money With Music Licensing […]
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    Guest Gabriela

    Posted

    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.

    Link to comment
    Guest Alvaro

    Posted

    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

    Link to comment



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