Updated July 30th, 2019
Where should I send my music?
What are the best production music libraries for hip-hop/folk/electronic/[fill-in-the-blank]?
How can I find royalty-free libraries that are a good fit for my music?
This post is for you!
I’m going to answer ALL of these questions and tell you exactly WHERE to submit your music.
But let’s keep it simple…. There are THREE steps I want you to focus on…..
#1 – Upload Music To Songtradr
I recommend this to everyone who is starting out in the music licensing business. Why?
Because….
It’s quick and easy
You can upload your songs to a free account and start offering your songs to license right away.
The opportunity listings will also give you an idea of how the music licensing world works.
It gives you options
You can choose to:
- use the platform as a regular search-based library; or
- submit your music to their licensing opportunities; or
- actively promote your Songtradr profile when you reach out to potential customers.
It has all the tools you need to be a professional
- The pricing tool is easy to understand and flexible;
- You can upload alternative versions to each of your tracks so your customers have everything easily available;
- The platform’s backend encourages you to fill out all the important admin info and metadata related to your tracks.
Note – With the free account, you’ll only have enough credits for a couple of music submissions a month. However, that doesn’t mean you should purchase the pro subscription or opt in to the music distribution option.
Opportunity listings and music distribution are just two features of Songtradr and arguably not their strongest.
You can still learn a lot from the Songtradr platform and license your music without upgrading.
#2 Submit To Big Music Libraries With A Broad Catalogue
One question I often get goes along the likes of: I write hip-hop music, can you tell me where to submit my tunes?
Sometimes it’s hip-hop, sometimes it’s folk music, sometimes it’s ambient music. You get the idea ?
Whatever the genre of music, the short answer is:
STOP worrying about where’s the “best” place to send your music
START actually submitting music!
That’s the only way you’ll learn what’s the best place for YOU!
I can’t tell you exactly where you should submit your tunes.
With a bit of research and a LOT more information about you and your projects, I could find out which production music libraries might be a good fit for your music.
But, right off the top of my head and with only a music genre to go on, most of the time I won’t have an answer for you….
I have soooooo many questions!!!!
What's your niche?
Musicians are often incapable of defining what makes them uniqueTake hip-hop for example....
That’s a pretty broad term, what kind of music are you actually making? Does it fit into a sub-genre? Is there a name for it? Is there an artist you obviously sound like?
What's your focus?
What are you trying to accomplish?Are you a composer first and foremost?
Or do you also have aspirations as a performing artists? Your music licensing strategy should vary greatly depending on your ambitions.
Where are you now?
At what stage of your musical journey are you?Does your music sound a bit cheap or like something you’d hear on the radio?
Do you already have a huge brand? Do you have a small or large catalogue of music to choose from?
The point is YOU need to figure out what you’re about, what you want to focus on and YOU need to identify your strengths and weaknesses.
No one else can do that for you.
The good news is that you can start getting your music licensed right away. You don’t have to wait until you’ve figured out everything and fined tuned your vision.
In fact, the more you put yourself out there and try to get your music licensed, the more you’ll learn about what works and what doesn’t work for you.
So again, I’ll repeat it one more time….
STOP worrying about where’s the “best” place to send your music and….
START actually submitting music!
Unless you want to hire me to get one-on-one coaching, that’s the best advice I can give you!
There are MANY, MANY stock music libraries that are generalists and would be happy to take on your music. Stop worrying and start learning!
You’ll hit and miss and that’s absolutely fine!
Ok, ok, enough about the theory!
I know you want some actual leads.
Leads
Ideally, I’d give you a list of the top music licensing companies out there and you’d submit to every single one of them and make money overnight.
Unfortunately, there is no such thing. The truth is that no two people would agree on what the best production music libraries are.
What I’ll do instead is mention 5 music licensing companies that I believe are worth investigating further for a variety of reasons including personal experience, reputation, type of contract, monthly traffic on their website and submission policy.
These 5 music libraries may not all be the right fit for you but they are popular and different enough that you will learn from each.
As with Songtradr, the idea here is to explore these libraries to better understand the music licensing market and submit to as many free opportunities as possible.
Stick with the free options and practice pitching to music supervisors/indie filmmakers/production companies that are accepting submissions.
Little by little, you’ll get a better idea of who you should get in touch with and where you should pitch your music for better results.
Once you have that experience, it will be MUCH easier to successfully…
#3 Pitch Music To Niche Licensing Companies
Ok so you’ve submitted music to Songtradr and got all your track descriptions and keywords up your sleeve.
You’ve submitted tracks to production music libraries and have a few tunes working for you in the background.
You’re starting to understand what these music licensing companies are looking for and how you can cater to their needs.
Now you can start focusing your attention on finding THE perfect music licensing company for YOUR catalogue.
As I’ve mentioned above, for me to make specific recommendations that will work for you, I’d need to know a lot more about your music than just a genre. I’d have to talk with you and find out what your goals are.
That’s one-on-one coaching stuff and I can’t address all of that in one post.
What I CAN do is give you a super simple step-by-step process to help you find that out for yourself ?
Are You Ready?
Royalty-Free + [Music Sub-Genre] + Instrumentals
You can even riff on it and give these arrangements try….
Royalty-Free + [Music Sub-Genre] + Downloads
[Music Sub-Genre] + Stock Music
Licensing Music + [Music Sub-Genre]
[Music Sub-Genre] + Music Library
Production Music + [Music Sub-Genre]
[Music Sub-Genre] + Backing Tracks
For Example….
Let’s say you write instrumental trap music and type in “royalty-free trap instrumentals”….
What would you find out?
Well…. It looks like PremiumBeat might be interested. It might also be worth getting in touch with Allrounda Beats. Their FAQ suggests they could be interested in adding tunes to their catalogue and they’ve done a great job getting to the top of Google search. Pond5 is another royalty-free library that ranks high in Google for that particular search.
Finding Gaps You Can Fill
A couple of alternative ways you could find out about where to find music licensing opportunities for your niche:
1.Get in touch with the record label of an artist you sound like and ask them if they handle licensing requests themselves or use a music placement agency.
2.Research generalist libraries and identify gaps in their catalogues.
Audiosparx are kind enough to give you all the info in one place (“MyAccount” → “Reports”).
But most libraries don’t openly tell you what they need.
That’s when it can help to go the extra mile and browse their catalogue by category.
Let’s take Audio Jungle as an example…
What I see here is that they already have a lot of choice for ambient music BUT perhaps there is an opportunity for the new-age sub-genre.
They have plenty of hip-hop but could probably use some soul, R&B type of tracks.
Even funk seems a bit under-represented when you think of how often it’s used in advertising.
Note that it’s worth digging a bit deeper.
Without clicking on “Ambient”, we’d never see that Audio Jungle might be a little light on New Age music.
Same goes with “Electronica”… 22,531 tracks to compete with?! No way!!!!
And yet…
What if I pitched some techno music?
Would it make sense to add “IDM” or “Glitch” to my keywords for a couple of tunes instead of using the more generic “electronica”?
greta artical
Thanks, Derek! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂 If there’s anything else I can help you with/guidance or information you’re looking for, don’t hesitate to reach out…
Very nice piece of information – you’ve opened up my eyes for sure, I never considered music licensing EVER, and I am professional with 35 years’ professional experience! Geesh, its almost like starting over, but in a good way! Thanks again for the info!
That’s music to my ears 🙂 Glad you’ve found it interesting and hopefully it’s the start of something exciting for you! Feel free to share some of your music here.
I’m glad I came across your article doing a google search for something related.
Very informative and empowering. I will begin implementing your advice, once I sign up with songtradr. Which will be done, NOW.
THANKS AGAIN??
Nice! Glad you’re enjoying the content on here 🙂
Don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s anything I can help you with down the line.
Same here, D-Major.
Thanks Joyce. I will get on this. Samplesnof my music is at https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/billtaylor42. Can I submit mp3’s to the libraries or do they need wav files? I guess they’ll indicate that. My genre is between classical, jazz, and broadway but none of them exactly. Any hints or just submit to all as there is probably little of what I write anywhere.
Hey Bill, it’s a little bit difficult to get a good notion of what you do with 30 second snippets but there seems to be a strong classical influence from what I’ve heard. That’s great and the production quality means it’s definitely something you can place.
Whether it’s through music libraries or a publisher or direct to customer will depend on your preference and what you’re trying to accomplish really. Some prefer working direct to customers, others like to get their music in libraries and move on. If you want to give libraries a chance, Pond5 may be a good one for you to start with.
Re file formats, some libraries will ask MP3s and others streaming links (of full songs though, not excerpts) to audition your tracks but you should have the WAV files ready to go if they accept your submission. MP3 may work fine for sync opportunities on YouTube and such but you’ll need lossless files for advertising, TV and film.
Hi Joyce
Thanks for all your great blogs and support. Quick question. Audiosparx, although non-exclusive, does require you to commit to a perpetual licence, meaning your work can never be taken down. They also don’t let you join if you already have music on audio jungle and several other sites.
What do you make of the perpetual licence, and this limiting? Would I be wise to avoid sites that limit you in this way, or perhaps it doesn’t matter at this early stage?
I’d welcome your thoughts.
Hey John,
I’m always wary of deals that tie you up too tight. If you’re not too sure what you’re doing yet and want to keep your options open, I would avoid the perpetual licence.
Even though everything is negotiable and they might agree to cancel the deal down the line, there’s no guarantee they would agree to do that. Better be safe than sorry.
With regards to the Audiosparx deal specifically, I understand their positioning and restrictions regarding stock music libraries that price music really low. From Audiosparx’ point of view, it makes sense that they want to command higher fees and they can’t really do that if their customers will find the same tracks for a fraction of the cost on other libraries.
However, going for volume and low pricing on low-priced libraries is a valid strategy and if that’s what a composer wants to do, they should ignore Audiosparx and do it. In my book, the low-ball strategy is shooting ourselves in the foot long-term because it drives the value of music down but hey, everybody’s got to figure out a way to make a living and that’s one way that works for some 🙂
If you’d like to learn more about how I think about these things, I’ve written a post about 9 things to watch out for when you’re licensing your music and another one with 7 questions I ask before deciding to work with a library or not.
I love how you write. The information you share makes me want to print each article out. Thanks for sharing these tips. R. Andromeda
Wow, thanks a lot for your kind words, I really appreciate it 🙂
Here’s a print-friendly PDF of the full post. I like to use the “Print Friendly & PDF” Chrome extension. It’s not always perfect but usually gets decent results 🙂
If you’re interested in downloading/printing the checklist from this post, you’ll find it in “Business Stuff” section of the Creative & Productive Library.
Very Informative, A lot of detailed research, Thank You.
You’re welcome, Clinton! Glad you found it informative 🙂
Glad I found such extremely useful information. Many thanks!
You’re welcome 🙂 Thanks for the kind words!
Hey that licensing challeneg didnt work
and My name is Stan Killins, Im a Multi-Genre Instrumentalist from Chesapeake, Virginia. Producing since 09 bornin 89. I was wondering if you would like to collab?? I have had 2 instrumentals on keeping up with kardsshians, real world also monetization with airbit/youtube
heres instrumentals i have done
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwSrbQ14FCoJC1w-fmoVWTw
I have done the videos as well
Sorry about that! Just updated the link. Should work now 🙂
Congrats on your Kardashian placements ! I’m not surprised. Really enjoyed your Whiskey beat 🙂
Hello, just wanted to say I found this article really motivational and helpful with collecting my thoughts on how to approach this type of usage of my music, and I appreciate the tips on how to discover the right libraries/companies and ways to identify their needs. Thanks for taking the time to write it, and the pdf version as well!
Hi Kyle, thanks for the kind words. Glad you found it helpful! 🙂
Excuse me but are production music libraries not the same as music licensing companies because you said now you’ve submitted some of your tracks to a bunch of production music libraries and now know how these licensing companies wotk, now it’s time to find the perfect music licensing company for you. Aren’t they the same? If so wouldn’t it be better to do the meticulous search first before you actually start distributing? Thanks, I hope to hear from you.
Hi Dele,
In my approach, you submit to a lot of music libraries and then you see which one(s) work best for you, i.e. which one(s) actually get you paid placements.
It’s difficult to know which libraries will work for you in advance. That’s why I recommend non-exclusive libraries and this wide-ranging approach but it’s just an opinion and plenty of people have been successful with a different approach.
The key thing is to actually start submitting music and not spend years recording demos and doing research without ever putting yourself out there.
Thank you this was very helpful.
I thought royalty free libraries are a no go if someone wants to actually make a living with licensing? Or do you recommend that just for the begining? What about exclusive libraries?
Hi Joanna, I’ve written a lot about the pros and cons of exclusive vs non-exclusive music libraries.
Here’s are a couple of posts and an interview that talk about that:
* https://www.creativeandproductive.com/exclusive-vs-nonexclusive/
* https://www.creativeandproductive.com/licensing-your-music-avoid-mistakes/
* https://www.creativeandproductive.com/stumbling-into-music-licensing-ending-up-in-true-blood/
Bottom line is, exclusive deals tend to be more lucrative but if you don’t know what you’re doing, there’s a good chance you’ll just tie your music down to a library or publisher that gets you no deals and make no money along the way.
You might also want to check out this post about the definition of royalty-free music. There’s a lot of confusion around that term: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/what-is-royalty-free-music/
Hi, I am a musician who is considering diversifying into composing for licensing music. Can you kindly advise on what the average duration is to aim for a piece of music or song. I am used to writing and producing my own songs which are generally 4 mins or so and take me a long time to finish. I am also working on quicker production times and aiming for more output. Would be great to get your thoughts on it.
I’d say between 2 and 4 minutes is the sweet spot but if you browse through music libraries, you’ll see shorter and longer tracks as well.
Dear Joyce,
Thank you so much for creating this invaluable website. It is truly one-of-a-kind and has been incredibly helpful to me.
I have been putting off registering with a PRO because I’m concerned about creating possible complications if later on I, say, come across a music library or customer who doesn’t want me (the artist) to be registered with a PRO already because they prefer to register for the artist…
How common is this, and what would you advise in terms of doing business with these people and places that don’t want artists preregistered with a PRO?
Many thanks.
Hi Ade, I’d stay clear of them but that’s just a personal opinion and I’m sure others have had great success working that way.
An excellent, informative article. I totally agree Joyce, it is very important to just get submitting. As they say…Nothing ventured, nothing gained. My husband has his music on Pond5 and AudioJungle. They both seem to do a good job and have great features for their artists. AudioJungle do tend to reject quite a bit of content but this is probably more to do with controlling the thousands of tracks they receive, more than artists music not being suitable
I would certainly say that going non-exclusive is a great idea if you want to sell license your music of multiple libraries. You can always keep a selection of content exclusive for those libraries that offer this type of agreement. One thing I would never recommend is composers go into perpetuity agreements like AudioSparx. Stay in control of your music and if going exclusive, make sure the agreement is time-limited. 1-2 years is probably sufficient to see if a library is good enough to keep your music exclusively.
I would also thoroughly recommend checking out independent production music libraries like https://www.melodicloud.com, https://www.beatsuite.com and https://mediamusicnow.co.uk. They tend to be more artist-focused and can offer more generous splits on sync licenses. These libraries are often more refined and will normally review and curate all the music they receive which creates a better experience for the potential client. This in my opinion can sometimes increase the chance of an artist getting licensed as all the music is top notch!