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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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    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.

    Link to comment
    Guest Gabriela

    Posted

    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.

    Link to comment

    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! :))

    Link to comment
    Guest Gabriela

    Posted

    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! :)
    Link to comment
    That's great news Gabriela!! Don't hesitate to reach out and keep me posted on your progress: joyce@creativeandproductive.com
    Link to comment
    Guest Gabriela

    Posted

    You're a sweetheart! I definitely will. thanks a lot! :)
    Link to comment

    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.

    Link to comment

    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.

    Link to comment

    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

    Link to comment
    Guest Obed Chavarry

    Posted

    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:

    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!!

    Link to comment

    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 :)

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    Guest Obed Chavarry

    Posted

    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

    Link to comment

    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 ;)

    Link to comment

    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?

    Link to comment
    Guest Joyce

    Posted

    No idea! If memory serves me right, I tried getting my music on Warner's production music platform ages ago but never heard back.
    Link to comment
    Guest Erik Long

    Posted

    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!

    Link to comment
    Guest Joyce

    Posted

    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? ;)

    Link to comment
    Guest Daniel

    Posted

    Do you use midi, especially for drums? Thanks.
    Link to comment
    Guest Chris Emerson

    Posted

    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.

    Link to comment
    Guest André

    Posted

    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?

    Link to comment
    Guest Seb Zi

    Posted

    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

    Link to comment
    Guest Gabriel

    Posted

    Thanks, Such a great article really helped out a lot

    Thanks

    Link to comment
    Guest Rohith

    Posted

    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?

    Link to comment
    Guest Steve McCourt

    Posted

    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.

    Link to comment



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