Have you been hearing a lot about music licensing without really knowing what it means or how to do it?
Would you like to understand how you can get your music working for you while you sleep?
Yep? GREAT!
You’re in the right place!
I’ll tell you exactly what you need to do to get your music licensed.
It’s not complicated. It’s not hard.
7 days is all you need to get started.
I can guarantee if you put the work in for the next 7 days, say 1 hour a day, you’ll start seeing results within the next 30!
You’ll get all the information you need with no boring stuff and legal talk to scramble your mind.
Before we get started, I want to make sure you have at least 3 tracks (songs and/or instrumentals) recorded and exported as mp3 files.
Ok so…
Option 1 – You don’t have 3 tracks ready to go…. stop reading this and go make some music!
Option 2 – You do have 3+ recorded tracks…. read on!
Here’s your challenge.
I’m counting on you working on this for ONE HOUR EVERY DAY FOR SEVEN DAYS.
Step 1: Get Your Tracks Ready
(Day 1 & 2)
To start with, sit down and pick between 3 and 10 tunes you’re going to be focusing on for the next 7 days.
These could be songs and/or instrumentals. It doesn’t matter as long as the production quality is good (friendly reminder: good does not mean perfect).
If you’re not sure about production quality, move forward anyway. You’ll find out soon enough 😉
Here’s what I want you to do for each of those tunes:
- Export an 320kpbs version of the tune;
- Export a WAV version of the tune (24bit; 48kHz if possible, that’ll have you covered for most of the libraries);
- Input the correct metadata (including song title, artist name, album name if applicable, year, genre, contact details in comments section with email address, phone number and website if applicable); and
- Create a spreadsheet where you write down the following information (song name, description, keywords for mood & genre, similar artists’ names). This is not exciting work but it is a REALLY important step. I do not recommend skipping it. The reasons why will become very clear once you start submitting to a lot of music libraries and each one asks you for the same type of information over and over again. Copy/Paste really comes to the rescue then 😉 It could look something like this:
Now this is all you need to do for day 1 and 2.
I’ve got your back if you need a little more hands-on guidance to find keywords for your music and add metadata to your audio files.
A quick note if your monkey mind is getting all worked up and starting to make up a host of weird reasons to give up now.
Try to keep these few things in mind:
1- don’t let the production quality of your tracks stop you (within reason of course: don’t go sending obviously flawed mixes). What I mean is don’t procrastinate with the excuse of being a perfectionist 😉 If you’re not sure, send them anyway.
2- don’t worry if you don’t have a professional looking email address. A gmail address has never stopped anyone from doing business!
3- NO, your music doesn’t need to be on Spotify, Pandora, etc. to be considered for music licensing opportunities.
Basically stop making excuses and working under silly assumptions like you need a website, a strong social media presence, an album, a big catalogue, an agent, a professional mastering engineer, etc.
You don’t need ANY of those things. They might help but you don’t need them.
Focus on the music and you’ll be fine. All the rest is mostly fluff when it comes to music licensing.
Ok, onto step 2
Step 2: Register your songs with a Performance Rights Organization.
(Day 3)
Make sure the tunes you selected are registered with a Performance Rights Organization (PRO).
If you already know what a PRO is and have already registered your songs with yours, move on to day 4 now or take the day off 😉
PROs are the organizations that ensure that you get paid royalties when one of your tunes is performed on radio, TV, etc.
In the US, that could be ASCAP or BMI. In the UK it’s PRS. SACEM is the one in France.
You only need to register with one. For example, I registered with PRS when I was living in London. Now I’m back in Paris and it’s fine: PROs around the world collaborate with each other to collect royalties in their territory and coordinate with other PROs to get the composers paid.
There’s no need to be fancy about it. Just register with the PRO of your choice.
Check out this list of PROs to find out the options in your part of the world.
Now I can hear some of you getting ready to scream WHAT ABOUT COPYRIGHT?!!!!
Well, here’s my take on copyright: you don’t need it right now.
NO YOU DON’T!
SERIOUSLY! Get over yourself!
With the scores and scores of music being uploaded on Youtube, Spotify, Soundcloud, etc. every single day, what do you think the chances are of YOUR music being exactly what a horrible little thief person needs right about now?!
Second question: what if you registered your song copyright and someone stole it from you and made money with it… what are the chances that they would make bucket loads of cash with it?!
Third question: if they did make bucket loads of cash with it… could you afford to spend years in court (making advance payments to lawyers)?
Now, of course, it’s your call and it’s your responsibility. I’m just spouting of 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. I actually wrote a post and recorded a video walkthrough to show you exactly how to copyright music in a fast, affordable and efficient way.
Just make sure you’re not using this step as an excuse not to move forward, like an entrepreneur who registers an LLC before having a product to sell.
Anyway, now you have 3-10 tunes ready to go, you’re registered with a PRO and you’ve registered the 3-10 tunes with that PRO.
Let’s move on to step 3.
Step 3: Research music libraries
(Day 4-5)
Here’s a list of 7 music libraries.
You can find more on Google. Just be imaginative and search for “stock music”, “production music”, “music library”, etc.
Take a couple of hours to visit their website and do your research. That means:
– analyzing the music they already have and asking yourself if your music is an obvious fit or if there’s a gap in their catalogue you might be able to fill.
– finding out how to submit music to them (you’ll usually find the information on the FAQ or contact pages)
– finding out if they sign tracks on exclusive or non-exclusive deals. If it’s obvious from their website that they’ll want exclusivity of the songs they accept, I would skip it. Unless you’re already experienced in music licensing and know the risks and rewards of exclusive deals.
While you’re doing your research, there are a couple of things I want you do to:
1- Write down on a piece of paper the name of the music libraries that you want to send your music to; and
2- Create a “Music libraries” folder in your browser’s favorites and add the submissions/FAQ page of every library you’ve selected.
IMPORTANT
I’ve deliberately only included libraries that offer non-exclusive deals.
If you’re just starting out with music licensing, I suggest you stick with non-exclusive deals.
Why?
When you sign a song to an exclusive deal, the library you sign the deal with is the only one authorized to license that song. That means if they forget about you or don’t care (which can definitely happen!), you won’t be making any licensing money from that song.
There may come a time when you’re more familiar with the licensing ecosystem when you might want to research and test out exclusive deals but for now, I highly recommend forgetting about them.
If you’re afraid of compromising your artist “brand” by going non-exclusive, use a pseudonym!
Now let’s get SERIOUS!!! Step 4!!
Step 4: Submit, submit, submit!
(Day 6-7)
Just do it!
SUBMIT YOUR MUSIC!
When you submit music to a library, don’t forget to follow the submission guidelines detailed on their website. They took the time to write them, you should take the time to read and stick by them 😛
That means if they ask for a minimum of 4 tracks and you only have 3, wait until you have another tune to offer. If they ask for streaming links of individual tracks, don’t send them attachments or links to a playlist.
I know, I know, that’s just common sense. And yet, scores of musicians don’t put in the time or effort to actually follow the simple guidelines of music libraries. Don’t be that person.
Super great article that I learned a lot from, thank you, thank you , thank you!
You’re very, very welcome 🙂
Hi, I’m just starting out with this business. How often do you ‘sell’ your tracks?
Hey Matt,
It varies a lot from one songwriter/music producer to another.
Some make a career placing a couple of songs a year in big adverts.
Others have a larger catalogue and sell hundreds of licenses through non-exclusive music libraries like AudioJungle.
Others score the music for 4 films one year and make no money the next.
There really are no rules.
Even in the space of production music libraries, some make decent money with a fairly small catalogue of music while others have hundreds of tracks available but struggle to make money on a consistent basis.
Why do you ask?
Are you looking to build up your catalogue specifically with licensing in mind or are you touring with a band and looking for sync placements to supplement your income? Or maybe something else entirely? 🙂
Let me know and I’ll do my best to help you out!
Joyce, what about self-publishing? when you register with a PRO and register your works, that’s one of the big questions. Can you provide some insight on this?
Hi Ryan, not quite sure I understand the question.
Here’s a post about the pros and cons of self-publishing music that you might find insightful.
Hi Joyce and others here,
Joyce, fantastic! The info you’ve given here is exactly what I was looking for. I’m still getting through it all, but it’s already been very helpful.
I’m trying to build up confidence to take the plunge, switch from my “other” job (software development) to full-time music production, this after years, years and years of waiting for the “right” moment.
So, a blatant request for encouragement 🙂 I’ve just set up my SoundCloud account here and posted some of the works that have survived the hard disk failures and such over the years.
I can work in a range of styles, e.g. from piano to electronic and one thing I would love to know: what style might be best to start with in terms of being able to get licensing sales reasonably quickly? Guessing that supply and demand comes into play – if there’s lots of demand but also lots of people producing one type of music, maybe it would be better to focus on some other area where there might be less demand but also less competition?
I’ve recently taken out a subscription at http://www.soundsonline.com so have access to their great libraries. On top, I have a range of synths (hard and soft) and sample libraries. The technology we have available these days is nothing short of amazing compared with 20 years ago! So within the constraints of my own abilities, I can work in many genres.
A personal story: my Dad was a professional concert pianist, composer and music teacher. In the early evening of new year’s eve 1999 (he was retired, aged 78) he said to me: “Now that I have more time, I’m going to start composing again”. That was the last conversation I had with him. Some six hours later he collapsed and died, presumably of a heart attack. So, we never know how much time we have. The only surviving recording of Dad’s work, that I know of, is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grJvVo_Hz20 an orchestral piece which I believe he composed early in his career, possibly while still studying.
Thanks for listening.
Hi Andy, thanks for sharing this, I really enjoyed listening to the recording of your Dad’s work. The links you shared for your own music didn’t seem to work however. Got the dreaded “This track was not found. Maybe it has been removed” message.
Thanks Joyce. I changed my SoundCloud URL, replacing the underscore with hyphen, so now it’s https://soundcloud.com/movingmusic-uk
Great stuff, Andy! Very eclectic! I especially enjoyed “Electric Space”
Re best genre to get quick sales, it kind of depends. Lots of music libraries work mostly with businesses that are looking for music to promote their brand. I’d recommend you check out Audiojungle and Pond5 to see what’s popular there if that’s the road you want to travel.
Having said that, I’m of the school of thought that you’re always better off focusing on writing something you really enjoy, even if it’s a little bit more niche. If you love it and it’s well produced, someone else is bound to love it and want to use it. Of course finding these people is not easy but it’s still easier than trying to figure out what people want and selling music we’re not super proud of or connected to.
Hi, how would you suggest setting up music on my website for licensing? Right now I am mostly set up as an artist. My website is http://www.angelinagargano.com. I just released a 10 song album and I am thinking about getting into licensing. Any suggestions would be really helpful and thanks for all your time.
Hey Angelina,
If you’re just getting started, then I recommend strategy 1 from this post about pricing your songs and negotiating sync fees. It’s just easier and less stressful. Gives you more time to focus on the music and learn about the licensing business.
But if you’re really intent on selling via your website, these 2 options come to mind:
1. Bandzoogle with Airbit integrated or
2. a WordPress theme like Music Maker with an e-commerce plugin like Easy Digital Downloads (included in the Music Maker theme)
Just re-read this page, Joyce, and I appreciate it very much. Via your suggestions, I’m still building my METAdata formats and content, and I have a good handle on it now, and have one MusikXXRay query I’m ready to submit two songs to…. your course has given me a solid handle on the basics. Thank you!
Yey! It sounds like you’re taking action and building momentum. That’s great to hear Buster! 🙂
Hello Joyce. Thank you so much for this valuable info. When someone registers for a PRO, do you think they should wait for approval before submitting music to libraries? ASCAP says they need up to 2 weeks to review my application and I wanna get started! Thanks again for your time!
Hey Timmy,
It’s not an obligation but I would wait. Most libraries will ask you for your PRO number, either upfront or when they approve your music submission (it’s kind of a red flag when they don’t).
While you wait, you can start putting together a music submission spreadsheet with info like:
– a list of libraries you want to get in touch with info about submission guidelines, whether they’re exclusive or non-exclusive, type of music they’re looking for
– a list of the tracks you will submit with info about keywords, moods, tempo, etc.
Further reading: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/tags-keywords-metadata/
And also make sure that you’re all set to get going:
– audio files in MP3 and WAV or AIFF format
– alternative versions available (e.g. instrumental version, 30″ cue, etc.)
– stem files available in WAV or AIFF format
– metadata included in all audio files
Further reading: https://www.creativeandproductive.com/how-to-prepare-audio-files-for-licensing/
Good luck with this! If you have trouble keeping momentum while you wait, give me a shout and I’ll do my best to keep you motivated 😉
Will do! Thanks, you really took the time to go in-depth here. Your point about a library not asking for a PRO being a red flag makes a lot of sense. Much appreciated.
This is awesome and something I’ve been looking for for a while. Thanks.
Glad to hear it Dianna! 🙂
Great and really helpful article Joyce – GOd bless you.
Richard
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for taking the time to share kind words 🙂 If there’s anything else I can help you with, don’t hesitate to ask!
Hey! I am trying to figure out what libraries would be best for my group. We are an Indie Pop band , only problem is we are with tunecore and my bandmate who is no longer in the group signed up for the youtube thing where you receive royalties with youtube, what absolutely sucks about this too is that tune core won’t divide the royalties between us now that he is no longer in the group and he is not even doing anything on youtube, I am in control of everything. :/ not really sure what to do
Ouch!
Here are a few thoughts:
1- check with Tunecore if you can’t remove the music from YouTube Content ID
2- some libraries don’t mind signing music that’s part of the YT Content ID program so it’s not the end of the world if you can’t
3- you could also pull out the albums from Tunecore and distribute the music with someone else. My personal favorite is Distrokid, I believe they make it easy to separate royalty payments per bandmate as well but you may want to double check.
Hey thank you so much for this info. I’ve been in the music industry for a while and hav been doing commercial work for 8 years but mostly local with production groups I’m friends with. Been wanting to do on a larger scale for a while but life kicks you down sometimes. Ha. I have my personal album with my wife on Spotify iTunes and all that. Being on there is it automatically registered to ASCAP and automatically copy written. Or do i still need to do both separately. Sorry if that’s a dumb question ha. I’ve never payed attention to the business side of things like that. Thanks again!
Hey Tim, I know all about life kicking you down and hope all is well with you these days. Re copyright, your music is copyrighted as soon as it’s “fixed in a tangible form of expression” (official lingo in the U.S. Copyright Office’s Circular 1) meaning if you’ve written down the music and lyrics on paper or recorded the track on a CD or digital audio file, you should be fine. HOWEVER, copyright ownership is not the same thing as copyright registration. If the work is of U.S. origin, copyright registration is mandatory before you can file a suit for copyright infringement and stake a claim for statutory damages. If you want to know more about music copyright, I tried to put together the ultimate non-boring music copyright guide! Let me know in the comments if you have any follow up questions and I’ll do my best to answer them.
This was jam packed with useful information. I truly appreciate it.
Awesome! Happy to help 🙂
Hey joyce! how are you doing?… Just wanted to ask… I ve allready put almost 10 song and more on songtradr, audiosparx and pond5 … but dont get any results :c I dont even have views… there are some songs with 0 views
I do have been meticulous with metatagging
I was starting to think that my music is not as good as I thought, but I compare with other top selling tracks and dont find me very far…
Im also thinking If Im too late to catch this industry of stock music, as the market is allready oversaturated.
Do you have any suggestions? What do you think Im doing wrong? thanks for all the info you share! 😀
Hey Obed, thanks for reaching out 🙂
I don’t necessarily think you’re too late but it’s true that the market is very crowded and it takes a lot more to stand out these days compared to say, 7-8 years ago.
Why don’t you post a streaming link to one of your songs with the keywords and description you included in Pond5?
I’ll have a listen and maybe can help you find a few keywords that will help you stand out.
Sure! Thanks for the response 😀
Here´s one link:
https://soundcloud.com/chobed/giving-it-all
ANd I used the keywords:
background, background music, bold, comercial, confidence, confident, corporate, corporate music, corporate presentation, cyberpunk, fast tempo, futuristic, happy, inspiration, inspirational, inspire, inspiring, instrumental, motivating, motivational, no vocals, optimism, optimistic, perseverance, persevere, positive, positivity, radio imaging, retro synth, retrowave, sci-fi, shortfilm, slide show, spot, synth, travel, travel channel, travel music, triumph, triumphal, triumphant, upbeat, upbeat positive, uplift, uplifting, vaporwave, victorious, victory, vlogger, youtube
Hope to hear from you soon! 😀
Thans for the help!
Thanks for sharing, Obed!
Keywords are good as well (watch out for the typo on commercial) because they are relevant, fairly specific and you’ve identified an audience.
Here are a few additional keywords that might help you stand out: advert, advertising, advertisement, podcast, self-improvement, self-help, Tony Robbins, lifestyle, fashion, Avicii, EDM, David Guetta, empowered, nightlife, dance
Hi! So I’m on the part about exporting a 320 version of the tune in the 30 day challenge lol . I use logic , our track was produced by someone else not myself but I wrote the song. Do I put bit rate mono and stereo to 320?
Thank you!
Great! Sounds like you’re making progress 🙂
Stereo (unless someone asked for mono specifically)
This is such a valuable article with a simple message ‘Don’t procrastinate – BUT get the basics right!’
Thanks for writing it.
Exactly! Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This has been so helpful.. I’m an AudioSparx member now because of this.. Thanks so much.
Glad you found it helpful!
Make sure you read their terms carefully before signing up all your music with them…..
I have some tracks with Audiosparx as well but their agreement does include certain restrictions you should be aware of (e.g. perpetual license; restrictions related to certain other non-exclusive libraries)
Thank you for all your fantastic info. Here is one of my tracks
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KUkaKH7ZwvN_5C1GlsNd922YLUsAVmFB/view?usp=drivesdk
You’re welcome! Couldn’t listen to your track without logging in 😉
Do you have another streaming link you can share?
This is great Joyce. Thanks for the really specific day by day action plan. I’ve kind of come at this backwards with 70 songs already represented exclusively by LA based Black Toast Music. That’s been a wonderful 10-year relationship with many placements. And with their blessing, I’m now trying to diversify my licensing relationships with 20 newer songs. This article is just what I needed to find. I’m working on spreadsheet now:)
Best, KP
https://soundcloud.com/kellypardekooper/sets/kelly-pardekooper-music
Hey Kelly, that’s great to hear! Don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s something you need help with down the line. “Bloody Gasoline” sounds bloody awesome! :))
Hello, I have found some libraries claiming “royalty-free music”, rejecting PROs… Even though I am under a PRO, the library asks me to tell my PRO NOT collecting the royalies from this library… What can I do? Skip this library?
On the other hand, because I am living in a country without any PROs, music is free to listen to, free to download, free to use… So I jump out from my country and register the PRO in another country… Can music licensing really earn a living?
Thank you.
Hey Stennis,
There are plenty of musicians who choose to work with libraries that don’t want tracks registered with a PRO. I personally tend to avoid those deals but it’s your choice really. If the deal they offer is appealing to you, go for it. If not, skip them and move on.
The beauty of music licensing is that you can license your music worldwide, no matter where you’re based. For example, one of your songs could be used on a TV show in the US and you would be able to collect a sync fee and related music royalties from that placement, even if you don’t live in the US. Provided you took care of all the admin stuff of course….
Check out this post on how to collect all your music royalties.
Well, I am e-mailing BMI + POND5, asking whether there is conflict between BMI-composer-agreement and POND5-contributor-agreement. Because BMI and POND5 is so famous in U.S.(just I think), they are also international companies, I believe there is a nice solution out there —— only I not know…
Every licensing platform is appealing to me, because there is nearly no licensing platform in my country. People are free to use music also sounds… Outside is so colorful…
These days I have verified my music through so many people’s ears all over the world, I believe my music can fulfill more.
Even though the process will be so rough, I think at least happier than those days.
If I have some useful information, I will go back here to tell others…
I think our talk will not end now.
Thank you once more.
Talk you later~
Yes! Keep us posted! 🙂
OK, I think the most important thing is, how can a musician balance BMI and Pond5?
This answer is so simple : nothing this musician need to balance.
After this musician giving the license to a buyer, this buyer sends cue sheet to BMI, so BMI will know the messages (The agreement with BMI requires this musician to tell BMI the license has been given).
Pond5 only plays the role of a middleman, the agreement with Pond5 only claims that Pond5 NOT need to tell BMI, in fact the buyer tells BMI…
This is to say, there is no conflict between BMI-composer-agreement and POND5-contributor-agreement.
I think sending cue sheet is the obligation of buyers, even under most cases for free.
Joyce, I cannot tell you how much your wealth of resources means to me. I’ve been writing songs and creating music for about 20 years now, and have made a little money off of it (not much), but have never done much within the industry. You have given me tremendous hope! Thank you!! I’d be honored if you’d check out some of my music and would love any feedback. I’m a hip-hopper, and I’m leaning towards just focusing on licensing instrumentals. My website is http://www.iNFLiKTmusic.com. I’m preparing to submit the instrumentals of tracks 6, 7, and 8 [Keep Risin’, Interlude, and C’est La Vie] from my LP “The Ghetto Abbot” (among other instrumentals) to some music libraries. Thanks again for EVERYTHING you’ve put on here!!! You are such a blessing!!!!
Hey Ian, cool tunes! Definitely worth bouncing instrumental versions to give more options to licensing customers.
Thanks, Joyce. I’m beginning with these beats because they’re mastered. Do you think mastering makes that much of a difference though? I’m not trying to be cheap, but especially with getting the stems mastered (and making differing version of the instrumental) in order to have them ready to offer to potential customers…I feel like it might be unnecessary. I know it is relative to what the unmastered version sounds like, but I feel like I can get the instrumentals pretty close. I’ve only mastered for the sake of vocals really, so I’m just trying to think this through…thanks again!! 🙂
Hi Ian,
Music needs to be of “broadcast quality” for it to be licensed. There’s no question about that.
If you can achieve that without paying to get the stems mastered, good for you! As you say, it’s relative to what the unmastered version sounds like.
Just make sure your version stands up to scrutiny, i.e. if you plant it in a middle of a playlist of commercially released songs, does it blend in seamlessly or does it stick out like a sore thumb?
If you can hear the difference, it’s not good enough for sync licensing purposes.
A plugin like Ozone can be a good investment if you want to take over the mastering process.
Yup, I hear ya 100%…thank you, Joyce!
You’re welcome! By the way, if you’re a bit tight for cash and not in too much of a hurry, iZotope (Ozone) usually has good prices on Black Friday 😉
Thank so much!!! The only thing still rolling around in my mind is this: if I get the track mastered, but not the individual stems, will that potentially be an issue with customers? Paying the extra to master the stems may or may not be worth it…I have some tracks which I’ve done that for, but not for all of them. Do you see this being an issue? Again, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THAAAAAAANK YOOOOOU, JOYCE!!!!
Potentially, yes. Ideally, you want to have the highest quality and highest number of options available to your customers. I wouldn’t let that stop you from submitting music though. Perhaps you’ll find that your customers never ask for the stems. Perhaps you’ll miss out on a few opportunities because the stems weren’t mastered. Doesn’t really matter. The most important thing is that you start submitting music and building relationships with libraries or content creators. You’ll figure out the rest and figure out what works for you as you go along.
Hi Joyce! Thanks so much for your blog! It is so very helpful for someone, like me, who is starting out with this whole licensing music thing. I feel like I’m a little late to the party, but I’m still trying it anyway. Ok, here is my issue… I’m doing lots of research about licensing and yet I’m still confused. These are the two areas I am most lost, and maybe you can shed some light:
If I want to license my music on my own (like on my website http://www.bluemorningmusic.com as an e-shop – kind of like yours) how many different license options do I need? How do I write a license?
Should I use Audiam or Adrev if I’m selling licenses for YouTube users?
Thanks again!
Hi Paul,
Since you’re just getting started with licensing, I recommend strategy 1 described in this post. It will save you a lot of time and trouble.
Since you already have a website, I would just add a redirect to an external licensing page and let the library handle all the admin for you. That way you can focus all your energy on building a client acquisition strategy for your website instead of spending time on admin.
If you really want to do it on your own with an e-shop on your website, then you will need to get organized:
– research a bunch of music libraries to see what they offer, how many types of licenses, what kind of contracts, etc.
– draft your own terms & conditions and contracts, have them reviewed by a lawyer, etc.
– embed the metadata in every audio file, put together packages in zip folders, make sure all technical aspects of the website work fine, etc.
– handle customer questions, provide invoices with and without VAT, etc.
All this in addition to designing and implementing a strategy to get people to your website in the first place.
It’s really a lot of work. I highly recommend taking it one step at a time and starting with strategy 1. You can always add the e-shop function to your website in a few months when you have more experience driving traffic there and a better understanding of your customer base.
Sounds good. Thanks for the advice!
My pleasure! 🙂
Hi Joyce, I’ve been reading your blog for a while now, always useful and inspiring.
Anyway, I have a question that I can’t find an answer for, maybe you could help out.
I’ve only been working with an exclusive library until now (one of the majors).
But now I’m also looking at non-exclusive deals and I’ve registered some tracks on Songtradr and others.
How do I deal with the PRO (PRS in my case) in terms of publishing and registering? When working with the exclusive library they are obviously a giant publisher and have take care of all this. However, how does the publishing work when licensing through platforms like the non-exclusive you mostly talk about in this blog?
Do I have to register the songs/tracks on my PRS account?
Thanks a lot!
Hey Fede, great question!
A standard deal is you and the library split the sync fee 50/50, you keep 100% of the writer’s share of performance royalties and the library keeps 100% of the publisher’s share.
There ARE other types of deals, where the percentage varies or the library doesn’t even take any publishing for example, but the above is pretty standard.
With that in mind, you have a couple of options.
1- Work with an admin publishing company.
This is not ideal if you plan on working with music libraries because the admin company takes a 15-20% cut of publishing and you don’t have 115% of publishing to give away so you wouldn’t be able to work with libraries that want 100% of publishing (which is most libraries in my experience).
See the “sidenote” in this post about collecting all your music royalties for more info on this.
2- Handle the admin side of things yourself.
If the library takes a cut of publishing, they’ll usually register your songs with their own PRO and identify you as a writer, provided you shared your PRO information with them.
However, I like to register all my songs with my PRO before I even submit them to music libraries. This is because I see it as a proof of date and also because it reassures me to have all my songs listed in my account with the ISWC number provided by the PRO for each song.
In addition, if I land a placement on my own or work with a music library that doesn’t take a cut of publishing, I still need those songs to be registered with a PRO to collect performance royalties. Since it only takes 2 minutes/song, might as well register all of them, it’s easier to track that way.
Does that answer your question?
Hi Joyce!
Thank you so much for this article! I’ve been wanting to start sync licencing my music for a long time now, but really didnt know where to start. I will for sure follow the steps you described and let you know when I have results.
Just few doubts. I am an indie singer songwriter and i have an EP and couple of singles released already on Spotify and other platforms (the music i am performing). I also planning to do some guitar instrumentals (as i started as guitarist initially) and i do already have some old instrumental tracks (but just as recordings, not to perform). They are under my name, but they are not on Spotify, just SoundCloud. The purpose for me to start sync licencing is 1) to gain exposure for my music that i am performing 2) to improve my income as a musician and leave my office job that really takes all the energy and time from making music.
So my doubt is, it makes sense to submit all kind of music? whether its my song on Spotify that i want to be featured in TV for more exposure or its an instrumental track i recorded out of my performing set? and if yes, than shall i use different names for both? Or it doesnt really matter? Its all more or less in the same style and I like improvising on my shows on just guitar and looper. So it is in a way a part of my STAGE performance. Please let me know if you have an advise. I would really appreciate it.
PS: hope my messy message makes sense hahaha
All the best
Pavel
Hi Pavel, thanks for writing in!
Your message makes complete sense :))
Here are my thoughts on your situation:
1- submit as much music as possible, including full songs that are on Spotify, Soundcloud or whatever and short instrumental tracks that are not. Why? More songs = more assets = more opportunities to find placements and earn money
2- love the idea of guitar instrumentals! Why? Because guitar is not an easy instrument to emulate by virtual instruments and your guitar skills can help you stand out from the crowd
3- if the music is similar, sometimes even part of the same song, then I’m not sure it makes a lot of sense using different names. The plus side of using a pseudonym for licensing is that it allows you to experiment with different things without taking the risk of hurting your good name as an artist and/or live performer.
Hope that helps!
Sincerely,
Joyce
Hi Joyce,
Thank you very much for your reply! You answered to all my doubts! I will do exactly what you are suggesting and will see where it brings me.
P.S.: i got hooked to your blog. you are putting out a really helpful content, very clear and detailed. And reaaaaally inspiring!
Great!
I’m glad you’re enjoying the website 🙂
Don’t hesitate to reach out if there’s something you’d like me to research / clarify / look into in the future.
Hi Joyce, I’m a rapper and hiphop producer. I’ve had one of my instrumentals used on various BBC and ITV etc programmes through a music library in Bristol called Lucky G. They only offer exclusive deals though. I’d love to get sync deals for my tracks with my vocals on. Where do you think I should go?
All the best
Alex
That’s great Alex, congrats!
A few thoughts:
1- Don’t know where you should go. Maybe try to find a music publisher? Music libraries are often more focused on instrumentals.
2- It sounds like Lucky G is working well for you. Assuming the exclusivity is on individual tracks and not your entire catalogue, I’d make sure I keep making more music and keep working with them if I were you 🙂
3- Since you already have a good relationship with Lucky G, you could ask them if they’d consider tracks with vocals on and, if not, ask them why. Their answer could provide some useful insight.
When do your courses open up for enrollment again? And how much more does one get out of enrolling in the “Get Your Music Licensed” from the New Artist Model website? Because that is much more expensive.
Hi Josh! Apologies for the late reply. I’m currently investigating why the courses are closed for enrollment with Teachable, the platform I use to host the Creative & Productive courses.
The GYML course on New Artist Model is an in-depth, step-by-step course focused on placing music in libraries and designed for 6 months (although it is self-paced with lifetime access so you can go through and revisit the content as fast or as slow as you’d like).
The C&P courses usually take the form of short 30 day challenges that address a specific subject like copyrighting, songwriting or sync licensing.
Just a question
Is there an industry standard acceptable song length required for a library or are they set by the library itself?
Hi James!
Not really. If you visit a few music libraries, you’ll notice there are a bunch of different lengths tracks.
More on the subject over here.