 I’ve coached a lot of musicians on how to get started in sync licensing over the last decade. I did the math recently and estimated that I’ve probably coached, one on one, somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 students at this point. Even more have gone through my programs and taken my courses. I’ve received hundreds of emails over the years from musicians who have gone on to placements and syncs as a result of going through my training and coaching. It’s been incredibly rewarding to help so many musicians pursue their love of music and figure out how to monetize their passion of making music through music licensing. As you can imagine, as a result of working with so many artists over the years, there has been a lot of overlap in terms of the types of questions I’ve been asked and the types of issues and concerns musicians typically have related to getting started in licensing. In today’s post I thought I’d address a list of frequently asked questions I’ve received related to getting started in licensing. These are the questions that seem to come up again and again. Here we go… How many tracks do I need to get started in licensing? There are no hard and fast rules in terms of how many tracks you need to get started in licensing. You could hypothetically start with one track and license it, if it was the right track for the project being pitched to. But, generally speaking, the more tracks you have the better, as the more tracks you have, the greater number of projects your music will potentially be a good fit for. I’d say somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to twenty tracks is ideal to start with. Often times, if you pitch a few tracks to someone and they like your initial submission, they’ll ask for you to send them more. So it’s good to have more ready to go in the event someone is interested and wants to work with you. How to find places and people to pitch music to? If you’re a member of HTLYM Premium, then you’re probably already aware we post new leads every single day of places to pitch your music. But even when coaching members of our site, I’m surprised how many people don’t seem to take advantage of our leads, or seems confused about where they should be pitching their tracks. I’ve signed with six new places over the last eight months or so using the exact same leads we post in our site. So I know firsthand that pitching to our leads works. With that said, here are some general guidelines in terms of how to find relevant places to pitch your tracks: Using either an industry directory, or a resource like HTLYM Premium, go through and find places that seem related to the kind of music you make. Check out each company’s website, look at their credits, and listen to the artists they work with. Find places that seem to work with artist similar stylistically to the music you make. Pitch your music accordingly. There is of course an element of timing and luck involved. Sometimes you just happen to pitch the right track or tracks to the right person at the right time. Which leads me to the next question… How often should I pitch my music? To be honest, I’m sort of surprised how often I get asked this question as the answer seems fairly obvious. In terms of how often you should pitch your tracks, you should pitch them regularly until you start getting results you’re happy with. If you are licensing enough music and making so much money from licensing your music that you’re content and you don’t want to license any more of your music, then you should stop pitching your material. Until that happens, you should keep pitching your material! Connecting your music with the right people in the industry is really where “the rubber meets the road” so to speak. Nothing happens until you get your music in the right hands. So, the answer to the question is that you should be regularly pitching and promoting your material if your aim is to make money via licensing. There are different ways to approach pitching your music, you can pitch a little every day, or perhaps set aside a day or two a week to focus on the business side of licensing and things like pitching your material, or you can even have concentrated periods of time where all you do is pitch your material, preceded by periods of time focused on making and recording music. How you manage your time is up to you, but the bottom line is that you have to work on getting your music out there if you want to get syncs and generate income from licensing. How long does it take to start generating money from licensing? This question is hard to give a set in stone answer to, as it really depends on a lot of variables. Factors such as how good your music is, how many tracks you have, how determined you are, how hard you work, etc., will all determine how long it takes to generate income from licensing. With that said, licensing is by no means a get rich quick scheme and it takes time to build any sort of stable stream of income from licensing. In my experience, and the experience of many other artists I’ve worked with over the years, it can take several years to build income from licensing up to something substantial. Due to the nature of the industry, how it’s set up, and how artists get paid, it generally takes time to build up a significant revenue stream from licensing. That’s the bad news if you will, the good news is that once you do establish a revenue stream from licensing it’s essentially a passive revenue stream that will keep growing and generating revenue year after year. I get checks and payments all the time for songs I wrote years ago that keep getting placed. I’ve often used the analogy that music licensing is sort of like a 401k plan for musicians. Which is nice to have, because as a self-employed freelance musician, I don’t have a 401k plan! Should I sign my tracks exclusively or non-exclusively? Exclusive or non-exclusive, that’s the question. This is another question that doesn’t really have a one size fits all answer. I’ve had both good and bad experiences with signing tracks exclusively. The advantage to the publisher, if you go this route, is that it gives them a unique catalog of tracks to license. If you can only license certain tracks through publisher X, and you really want to license a specific song they publish, then you have to go through them, and it gives them a competitive edge in the licensing space. The downside as a writer/composer is of course the fact that if you sign your tracks exclusively, there’s really no guarantee that anything will happen. Maybe the tracks you sign exclusively will get licensed, maybe they won’t. At this point, I veer away from signing exclusive deals in general, but I still will under the right circumstance. If I feel that by signing with someone exclusively there’s a strong chance something will happen with the track or tracks and that they’re really excited about pitching the material and believe in it, and have a solid track record of placing music, then I will sometimes sign a few songs exclusively here and there. The rest of my tracks, these days, I have signed with several different non-exclusive libraries and boutique sync agencies. Should I pitch directly to music supervisors? I tend to steer musicians getting started in licensing in the direction of pitching their music to libraries, publishers, sync agencies, etc., as opposed to going directly to music supervisors. I give this advice for several different reasons. For starters, music libraries and publishers tend to already have established relationships with music supervisors. Their entire business model is dependent on developing and nurturing these relationships. Music libraries and publishers are also generally more open to hearing music from unknown and unestablished artists. In general, in my experience, it’s simply easier to get started via the route of publishers, libraries and the like. This isn’t to say that you can’t or shouldn’t also try pitching your music directly to supervisors. Some supervisors are open to receiving music directly from artists. However, keep in mind that the music needs of music supervisors will vary depending on what project, if any, they’re currently working on. If you don’t know what projects they’re supervising or what kind of music they’re in need of, submitting your music randomly is a bit like shooting in the dark. You might get lucky and just happen to pitch the right song at the right time, but the chances are pretty slim. When you license your music via libraries, they’ll only pitch music to any given project they feel is the most relevant and has the best chance of getting selected, based on briefs they get about each project they’re pitching to. How much will I get paid? How much you get paid for licensing your tracks varies so widely, depending on the song and the project, that this is another one that’s hard to give a one size fits all answer to. In my own experience, the money you can generate from syncs varies from tens of dollars for an instrumental track used in the background of a cable television show, to tens of thousands of dollars for a song used in a commercial on prime time tv, and everything in between. What you can make from music licensing really runs the gamut. When you’re first getting started, I wouldn’t even worry or focus on how much money you’re earning for the first couple years. Instead, focus on building up your catalog of music and pitching your music and developing connections. If you do this enough, the money will come in a variety of ways and through a variety of different placements that are impossible to predict. If you build it, the money will come. What kind of music should I write? This is another question I get asked a lot. Usually when I get asked this question, what the artists I coach are really getting at is whether it’s better to write whatever kind of music they happen to write, or if it’s better to try and write specific styles of music that have a better chance of getting placed. Again, it’s hard to give a perfect answer, but my take is that it’s better to start by simply writing the music you’re most inspired to write and putting your heart and soul into your tracks. Once you start pitching your material, maybe you’ll be asked to do more music in the vein of one of your specific songs or perhaps you’ll discover, over time, that certain songs you write get placed more than others and you can double down on those types of tracks. But first and fore-most you should write music that you love. That passion will come across in your tracks and improve your odds of supervisors resonating with your material, and ultimately getting more of your tracks placed. For in depth resources related to licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more, be sure to join HTLYM Premium. Your premium membership includes daily licensing leads, one on one coaching, in depth music business courses, a weekly live video mastermind session, up to date industry directories, a music licensing reference library and much more.
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 This week I’ve been doing another massive campaign to license my tracks and score new publishing/licensing deals. As I discussed in a previous blog post, I take an 80/20 approach to music licensing, where I typically spend about 80% of my time focused on writing and recording music, and somewhere around 20% of my time focused on marketing, networking, etc. This usually involves prolonged periods of time in the studio that last 4 to 6 weeks, followed by a couple intense weeks of time spent reaching out to new and existing contacts to sign my new tracks.
This week I started pitching my music aggressively again, hitting up primarily new contacts and new companies in order to expand my reach. I had an interesting experience a couple days ago, I thought would be worth sharing. I sent several emails out to different companies, with a link to several new tracks and a little information about my music and my background. Within a few minutes I received an email back from one of the places I pitched my music indicating they loved my tracks and that I would be a good fit for several projects they have starting in June. What was interesting is that I realized when looking back at my records that I had already sent this exact same company several of my tracks in December of last year, just a few months ago. I had inadvertently pitched to a company I had already pitched to recently. Two of the five tracks I sent links to were actually the exact same. For whatever reason, I didn’t get any response when I contacted them in December. Yet this time I heard back from them within minutes, expressing interest. I’m expecting a new contract from this particular company this weekend and I’m preparing a batch of files to send over to them today. The moral of the story is of course, don’t feel like just because you approach a company and don’t get a response that it’s an indication they’re not interested. It might be. It might not be. The response you get, or if you get a response at all, will depend on a variety of factors. Factors including: what projects they are currently working on, how busy they are, what kind of music they are in need of, what kind of music you make, what tracks you send them, what day of the week you approach them, and on and on. Don’t just pitch your music once to a place and then simply cross them off your list if you don’t hear anything back. Approach them again a few months later. Try sending them different tracks. Try changing up the wording of your email. Don’t stop trying until you get a firm no, and even then, if you pitch different tracks down the road it could lead to an enthusiastic yes. If you want new leads to pitch your music to every single day, as well as in depth courses and webinars on how to succeed at sync licensing, be sure to join our premium site and access all of our great training and resources, including a different lead of place to submit your music every single day throughout your annual membership. We also offer one on one coaching packages where we work with you during monthly coaching sessions in areas including music production, music marketing and writing music for tv and film. Get all the details here: https://www.htlympremium.com/  In this post, I’m going to discuss one simple thing you can do, that if you haven’t already done, could potentially double your licensing income overnight. This is something that is super easy to do and that will only take an hour or two to completely set up, depending on the size of your catalog. What’s that? Creating your own publishing company of course.
As a reminder, whenever a performance royalty is generated from a song or composition, the royalty consists of two halves: a writer’s half, and the publisher’s half. If you don’t assign the publishing royalty to someone else, you as the song’s creator, are by default the song’s publisher and entitled to any publishing revenue the song generates. However, in order to collect the publishing share of the revenue that you are owed when one of your songs generates a performance royalty, you need to have a publishing company in place with your PRO (Performing Rights Organization) to collect this revenue. For the sake of this post, I’ll be using ASCAP and BMI as examples. If you’re outside of the US, or belong to a different PRO, like SESAC, check with your PRO for details on how to get set up as a publisher, as they all function slightly differently. To become a publisher with ASCAP, you simply sign up for a publisher membership. I’m with ASCAP and setting up my publisher account took all of about 10 minutes and cost 50 dollars. If you’re completely new to ASCAP, you can join as both a writer and publisher when you sign up initially, or if you’re already a writer member you can join as a publisher too. Here’s more info on why and how to register as a publisher with ASCAP: https://www.ascap.com/help/my-ascap-membership/join-as-publisher With BMI it works slightly differently and if you're only licensing your own tracks, you don't technically need to register as a publisher to collect publishing royalties for tracks you also compose. With BMI, the fee for setting up your own publishing company is higher; $150.00 for individuals and $250.00 for corporations. Here’s more information on joining BMI as a publisher: https://www.bmi.com/faq/category/publishing The Bottom Line The bottom line is that there’s really no good reason to not set up your own publishing company if you’re actively pitching and licensing your music. In fact, even if you’re not licensing your music and only making it available to stream online, you should still set up a publishing entity, as there are additional monies you’ll earn as the publisher of music that is streamed online. You’ll be leaving money on the table, that you’re entitled to, if you don’t, and if you publish your own music, you’ll essentially be doubling the amount of income you make on the back end. It’s important to point out that if you have already registered titles prior to setting up your publishing company and you didn’t assign your publishing rights to anyone, you’ll need to revise your song registrations and list your publishing company as the publisher, otherwise you’ll continue to not earn the income you’re owed as the song’s owner/publisher. So, if you haven’t already set up your own publishing entity, what are you waiting for? 
I have a relationship with my producer, Gary Gray, where I essentially give him carte blanche to make any changes he deems appropriate to the tracks he produces for me, for licensing, with the goal of creating tracks that have the highest chance of being synced. Sometimes that involves subtle changes to the arrangement. Sometimes that involves getting a different vocalist to sing a track that fits the song better. Sometimes that might entail changing the instrumentation. Other times, as in the case of our latest collaboration, it entails completely re-imagining the track, changing the tempo, arrangement, instrumentation and vocalist, to make it a better fit for the needs of our clients.
Let me explain… A few months ago I sent Gary a few new songs I wanted him to produce. Right around the same time, a publisher Gary and I work with, sent us a playlist of reference tracks that were similar to the types of tracks they are in need of. Based on this playlist, Gary took my latest track, called “Things I Left Behind” and created a completely different version more aligned to the needs of my publisher and their clients. Here’s the original demo version of my track that I sent Gary. Here’s the version Gary created based on the reference tracks we were sent. I have to be honest, the first time I heard the new version, I was a little taken aback. It was so different, and so much slower, that it almost felt like a completely different song to me. But after repeated listening, the new version has really grown on me. The production is great, the vocals are powerful and emotive, and most importantly, our publishing company loved it and requested more songs from me in a similar vein. There is a time in place to let go of a portion of creative control over your songs. I don’t always know what the right move is production wise when it comes to the tracks I write, especially when it comes to something like making money in sync licensing, where production plays such a critical role. I do know though that since I’ve started working with Gary, the amount of syncs I’ve gotten has gone up about 200%. A producer is like an extra member of “the band” and the decisions a producer makes can be the difference between getting your songs licensed or not. Choose your producer wisely. If you're self producing, make sure to learn from producers who are actually working in sync licensing and actively licensing tracks.
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For the last couple months my songwriting partner, MJ, and I have been working remotely, once a week, with producer Gary Gray. Gary has been helping us mix and master our tracks remotely using an amazing technology called "Audio Movers" that allows Gary to access our DAW remotely, enabling Gary, in real time, to assist in the mixing and mastering of our tracks.
We recently recorded an entire 90 minute session where Gary masters our latest track, Oh My Love, remotely. The entire 90 minute session is available inside the member's area here. You can watch the first 20 minutes of the session where Gary goes into the basics of mastering music for licensing below. Listen to the track we mastered during our session before and after mastering below. Oh, My Love (Pre-Mastering) Oh, My Love (Post-Mastering) Go premium to access the full mastering session, as well as weekly live masterminds, dozens of music business courses, daily licensing leads and much more. Learn more about working with Gary Gray here.  Whenever a song is licensed for use in television, a performance royalty is generated every time the song airs. Performance royalties consist of two halves, a writer’s share and a publisher’s share. Half of the royalty goes to the writer and the other half goes to the publisher. Unless you assign your publishing to someone else (a publisher or library), by default you are also the songs publisher and are entitled to the publishing royalty as well as the writer’s royalty. However, in order to receive the publishing half of the performance royalty, you need to set up a separate publishing entity, apart from your writer membership, with your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc) in order to receive the publisher’s share of the performance royalty. This is easy to do and anyone can become a publisher. If you’re an ASCAP member it will cost you a one-time fee of $50.00, separate from your writer membership. If you’re with BMI, it will cost you $150.00. It's free to create a publisher account with SESAC. Join ASCAP as a publisher here: https://ome.ascap.com/ Join BMI as a publisher here: https://www.bmi.com/join How to become a publisher with SESAC: https://www.sesac.com/#!/music-creators-faq When To Set Up A Publishing Company If you’re licensing music through a publisher who takes 100% of your publishing income, you don’t necessarily need to register as a publisher. I licensed music for years through one publisher who took all my publishing income. During this period I didn’t have a publishing company to collect my publishing royalties, since 100% of my publishing royalties went to my publisher, since I worked exclusively with one publisher for many years. Since then, I’ve signed with a variety of different libraries and companies, including several other agencies that don’t take any publishing at all, and strictly share in any upfront sync fees my tracks generate. For these placements, I’ve set up a publishing company to make sure I get both the writer and publisher’s share of any royalties my tracks generate. If you’re licensing music through any agencies or libraries that either don’t take any publishing income, or only take a percentage of your publishing income (eg. 50%), than you should set up a separate publishing entity to collect your publishing royalties owed to you. If you don’t do this, your PRO won’t know who to distribute these funds to and you’ll be leaving money on the table. Registering Titles As A Publisher When you function as your own publisher, when you register your titles, you’ll also need to list your publishing company as the designated publisher when you register the titles with your PRO. If you don’t list your publishing company as the publisher and simply leave this field blank, your PRO will have no way of knowing who to send the publishing royalties to, so be sure to list your publishing company as the designated publisher for titles that you are planning to self-publish. Picking A Name When you sign up as a publisher, you’ll have the option of choosing whatever name you want for your “publishing company”. I simply went with “Aaron Davison Music” (ASCAP) for my publishing company. Most of the music I publish is my own, so I decided to keep the name simple and straightforward. You could certainly be more creative than this if you choose, and if you plan on representing a variety of artists and building a brand around your publishing company, than it would make sense to put more thought into your publishing name and choose a name that’s more representative of your brand. You’ll have the ability to check the availability of any name or names you come up with for your publishing company when you’re setting it up with your PRO. Summing Up Anyone can set up a publishing company. It’s easy, painless and the cost is minimal (or free in the case of SESAC). Filling out the application and registering with ASCAP took about five minutes and 50 dollars. I was approved instantly and received my publisher account number and info immediately. If you’re planning on licensing a lot of music through a variety of channels, then setting up your own publishing company is a no brainer. For in depth resources related to licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more, be sure to join HTLYM Premium. Your premium membership includes daily licensing leads, one on one coaching, in depth music business courses, a weekly live video mastermind session, up to date industry directories, a music licensing reference library and much more.
Visit for more: https://www.htlympremium.com/  So you’ve spent a few months in the studio, meticulously crafting a collection of amazing songs that you’ve poured your heart and soul into. You’ve mixed and mastered your music diligently and you’ve played your songs for friends and family, who all agree you’ve created nothing short of a masterpiece. You’re extremely excited and proud of the music that you’ve spent so much time and energy creating. Now what? Well, if music licensing is your goal, now is the time to embark on a “Music Licensing Campaign”. This is the part of the process where you shift your energy away from the actual writing and production of your music to focusing on the business part of music licensing. In my last blog post I talked about how I shift back and forth between periods of music creation and music marketing, where I’m focused more on the business side of music. A music licensing campaign is a deliberate, well planned and well strategized period of time where you focus on the goal of licensing your music. The focus during this period is connecting your music with the right companies and the right people who can help you move forward. Here are some key things to consider when embarking on a Music Licensing Campaign: Have Clearly Defined Goals – First and foremost, before you do anything else, sit down and clearly define your goals. Are you hoping to get your music placed in tv shows? Films? Ads? Do you know where your music best fits? Are you going after high end placements or “low hanging fruit”? Do you make production music that best works in the background or is your music better suited for “big sync” like films and ads? If you’re new to sync licensing you might not know the answers to all these questions. Spend some time really researching and thinking about what your specific goals are related to music licensing. There is a broad range of music that is licensed in a broad range of different projects and mediums. Figure out what areas you’re most interested in pursuing, based on the kind of music you make and your specific goals, and pitch your music accordingly. Don’t just blindly pitch your music anywhere and everywhere. Research The Types Of Companies You Want To Approach – Once you’ve determined what your specific goals are related to licensing, the next step is to find libraries and agencies that are congruent with your goals. It doesn’t make sense to just throw your music randomly against the wall and see what sticks. This could actually backfire if you end up signing your tracks to music libraries that are actively undercutting other higher end libraries and agencies. There’s a case to be made for both going after a high volume of low paying placements for something like production music and going after higher end, more lucrative placements in films and ads. But it doesn’t really make sense to try and do both simultaneously, with the same tracks. Figure out the kind of placements you are most interested in going after and the kinds of placements your music would work best for and pitch your music accordingly. For example, if you want to pursue high end, lucrative placements in films and ads, then you should narrow your library and agency search criteria to those types of companies. It’s pretty easy to figure out the sorts of placements companies specialize in by looking at their website and their list of credits and placements. Look for places you think you would be a good fit for in terms of your goals as well as the kind of music you make. Make Sure Your Website, Social Media And Tracks Are In Order – Prior to launching your campaign, make sure everything is in order in terms of your tracks, your initial email pitch, your website, bio, social media presence, etc. The more “on point” your entire presentation is, the more receptive people will be. If you know you need to tighten up your online presentation, do this first, before you start reaching out. You only get one chance to make a first impression. Stop And Reflect – After a period of three to four weeks of actively pitching your tracks, stop and reflect on what’s working and what’s not working. Have you been getting a lot of interest? Has the feedback been positive? Mixed? Negative? What areas can you improve upon for your next campaign? Are there certain things that seem to be consistently holding you back? I ended a campaign recently that went really well. I signed with three new companies that specialize in film and advertising placements. One was exclusive for three tracks, and two others were non-exclusive for 15 tracks. There was one other company that was also very promising that expressed interest in my music initially but wanted more links to my social media, Spotify, etc. After sending the requested links I didn’t hear back from them. It could be that they’re simply busy and haven’t had a chance to respond yet. Or it could be that they looked at my social media metrics and didn’t want to move forward based on something they saw. Either way, I have a new goal to work on for my next campaign and I have more clarity around what areas to focus on and I'll plan to improve my social media and online presence going forward. To a certain extent, it is primarily about the music when it comes to licensing. If the music isn’t right, nothing else you do will really matter. But other factors play a role as well. Having strong social media and an overall solid marketing campaign will help “seal the deal” in terms of winning people over and encouraging people to want to work with you. Bottom line: You’re not going to be a good fit for everyone, but the more on point both your music and overall marketing is, the more companies will want to get behind you. Leave no stone unturned. Launch your own Music Licensing Campaign with our updated, 2020 Music Licensing Directory. A directory of over 2,000 listings of contact info for the sync licensing industry. Reach out directly to music supervisors, music libraries, music publishers and more. Save $10.00 until October 10 here: https://www.htlympremium.com/2020-music-licensing-directory.html Or, GO PREMIUM, and access all of our courses, webinars, daily licensing leads, comprehensive directories, private forum and much more: https://www.htlympremium.com/  Over the years, one of the things I’ve struggled with is developing a workflow/rhythm that allows me to fully immerse myself in my creative life, without the business demands of the licensing business creeping in and pulling me out of my creative state for prolonged periods of time. Put another way, I’ve struggled at times to find a really good sense of balance between the business of being a musician and the actual enjoyable, creative part of being a musician. I think this is a struggle most musicians working in the licensing business can probably relate to. One thing is clear to me after all the interviews I’ve done with successful songwriters, and my own experience of working in the licensing side of the music business all these years: if you want to succeed at licensing, you have to spent a considerable portion of your time dedicated to the “business” of making and licensing music. The “business” part of music licensing includes things like networking and reaching out to new companies, metadata, getting your files organized, making edits of songs, reviewing and signing contracts, following up with companies, getting your website and social media in order, etc. There is no one right approach when it comes to how you manage your time in terms of what percentage of your time goes towards writing and recording music, and what percentage of your time goes towards the business side of music licensing. I’ve talked to some writers who choose to spend a day or two each week solely devoted to the business side of things and spend the rest of the time working on music. Other writers will work on music during the day and then devote a portion of the afternoon or evening towards answering emails and dealing with the business side of licensing. Neither approach is right or wrong per se, it really depends on your schedule and what works for you. This year, in large part due to the lockdown and quarantine, I stumbled upon an approach to my workflow that has proven really successful so far this year. This isn’t a set-in stone approach and it can be modified to fit your own lifestyle, schedule and what fits your overall situation best. Here’s how it works…. The 80/20 Approach What I’m calling the “80/20 approach” to licensing consists of prolonged periods of time where 80% of my energy is focused on writing and recording music, and 20% of my time is devoted to the business part of licensing. Followed by a prolonged period where I flip this ratio and spend 80% of my time devoted to the business part of licensing and 20% of my time devoted to writing and making new music. By prolonged period, I’m referring to periods of at least several weeks, or even months. Again, there are no hard and fast rules and you can play around with this however you want. But here’s a pattern I seemed to fall into this year that has led to great results: 1)A period of two to three months where my primary focus is making new music (80% music making – 20% business) – I had at least two really great stretches of time this year that lasted two to three months each, where my primary focus was writing, recording and producing music. I find that when I’m able to really focus on music for prolonged periods of time, with minimal distractions, I can get into a really cool, creative space where ideas and songs just keep flowing. If I’m constantly stopping this process to worry about business stuff throughout the day, it can really throw me off and interrupt this process. Of course, there are always at least some “business” things to tend to, whether it’s answering emails, pitching music, etc.. But by making the focus of these periods the music, it allows me to really get into a more creative space, which is the entire reason I was drawn to making music as a profession in the first place. I didn’t become a musician because I was passionate about filling out metadata spreadsheets! 2)A period of time lasting several weeks where I’m spending 80% of my time focused on the business side of music and 20% on the actual music – After a nice long stretch of writing and recording new music, I then shift to a period where I basically flip the equation and focus primarily on the business side of licensing. These periods are shorter than my songwriting/creative periods, but they are equally necessary to move forward in licensing. This balance works out well, because I usually find that after a month or two of focused songwriting, the ideas and inspiration start to slow down a little naturally. It’s almost like I’m priming my creative pump for an extended period of time and then the well starts to naturally run a little dry. When this happens, it’s a good idea to shift back to the business side of things and give your creative side a break. This also feels very natural and logical to me because after an extended period of writing and recording I usually have a batch of new songs that I can turn around and start pitching to new and/or existing contacts. So, after I finish a prolonged creative period, I’ll then spend a couple weeks or more where I’m focusing on pitching the music and reaching out to new companies and people. I’m at the tail end of one of these periods now and I ended up signing with three new companies, all of which I’m really excited about, as a result of this approach. Two of the companies I signed with required considerable administrative work in terms of metadate, file editing, asset delivery, and so forth. When I’m offered new contracts and sign with new companies I want to be in a position where I can really focus on delivering all the necessary assets and files as quickly as possible. By setting aside the majority of my time to focus on business stuff, I’m able to deliver everything quickly, without it distracting from my creative process. Of course, just as in my creative periods I’m still dealing with a small percentage of business tasks, during my periods of focusing on business, I’m still working on a music to a certain extent, picking up the guitar each day, developing new ideas, organizing my existing catalog and so forth. Summing Up Like most things in music and music licensing, there isn’t a one size fits all approach to time management and workflow. You’ll need to experiment and try different approaches to find out what works best for you and your personality. Some writers/composers do really well with simply having different days set aside for the business side of licensing. Part of this will also depend on what types of projects you’re working on. If you’re working on projects with really fast turn around times and deadlines, then you might not have the luxury of putting off the business side of things for long. However, if you’re like me and you’re primarily writing the kind of music you’re inspired to write, to a large extent you can dictate your own workflow. To me, this is one of the great joys of being a freelance musician. For in depth resources related to licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more, be sure to join HTLYM Premium. Your premium membership includes daily licensing leads, one on one coaching, in depth music business courses, a weekly live video mastermind session, up to date industry directories, a music licensing reference library and much more.
Visit for more: https://www.htlympremium.com/  These are the essentials that are necessary to start pitching your tracks. I’ve been asked many times, over the years, what is needed to get started in licensing, so I’ve put together a checklist of requisite things you should have ready to go and things you should do, prior to pitching your tracks. Download a free PDF of "The Music Licensing Checklist" here. Ten to twenty, high quality, fully produced, ready to be licensed tracks. There isn’t a hard and fast rule when it comes to how many tracks you need to start licensing your music, but based on my own experience, and hundreds of interviews I’ve done over the last few years, I’d say somewhere between 10 and 20 tracks is ideal to start with. If you only have one or two great tracks, it’s really hard to generate much interest. The chances that you have the perfect song for a specific opportunity with just one or two songs is slim. The more tracks you have and the more diverse your tracks are, the greater the odds are that something will get placed. Also, if you present two or three tracks to a library or supervisor, and they love them, usually they’ll want to hear more. There’s a considerable amount of paperwork and time involved with signing a new artist, so most places, although not all, prefer artists that have an album’s worth of material at least. There are exceptions though, and in fact, I got started in licensing with literally one song that I signed to my first publisher and built my catalog from there. Either way though, you should work towards building a sizeable catalog in order to license more tracks in more places. Instrumental & Vocal Versions – At a minimum you should have both vocal (for vocal tracks) and instrumental versions of all your tracks ready to go when you start pitching your music. These two versions you will almost always be asked for. Often times, depending on the company, you’ll also be asked for alternate mixes as well, such as a “vocal down” version, a version with just bass and drums, and different length mixes, such as 30 seconds, 60 seconds and so on. It really varies a lot from company to company, so I tend to approach this on a case by case basis. But again, at the very least, you should always have a vocal and instrumental version of all your tracks ready to go. You can create alternate mixes and edits when they’re requested. Wav And MP3 Files – It’s a good idea to always have both mp3 and wav files of your tracks on the ready. Often times companies will have you initially submit an mp3 version for them to check out. Then, if they like your tracks, they’ll have you send them a higher quality wav file once you move forward. It’s best to have both formats ready to go at the outset so you don’t have to worry about doing this later. Register Your Titles – Be sure to register your tracks with your PRO prior to pitching them. In order to get paid performance royalties from your PRO, your tracks need to be registered. It’s best to do this before you start shopping them around and submitting to different companies, to make sure nothing falls through the cracks. One word of caution is that keep in mind some companies will register titles on your behalf when you work with them. If they are not changing the title and they register a duplicate title, that you’ve already registered, it will show up as a duplicate entry in your PRO’s database. This creates confusion since there are now two duplicate entries with different information. So, be sure whenever you’re signing with a new library or publisher, to ask them how they handle title registration in order to avoid duplicate title registrations. Add Metadata To Your Tracks - Be sure to add metadata to all your tracks that includes the artist name, song title, album name, composer name, cover art and so on. Although you can't add metadata to wav files directly within Windows (for PC users), you can use third party programs in order to embed the requisite metadata into your tracks. MP3 tag is a good, free program that will allow you to add metadata to both mp3 and wav files. Copyright Your tracks – Although not technically a pre-requisite for licensing your tracks, it’s a good idea to first “copyright” your tracks prior to putting them out into the world. By default, you own the “copyright” to your tracks the moment you compose them. Copyright literally means the write to copy or reproduce. If you wrote a song or composition you automatically have that right, it’s your music after all, but it’s a good idea to “copyright” them by registering with the Library Of Congress, or whatever the equivalent is in your country, if you live outside the U.S. That way, if you’re ever in a situation where someone tries to steal your music, or you need to prove that a song you wrote is yours, you’ll have legal proof that you own the copyright. More info: https://www.copyright.gov/registration/ Do you have a publisher? If you sign your tracks to a publisher, then you don’t need to worry about this step. But, if you’re going the music library route, it’s important to know that not all libraries take your publishing. Some libraries only take a percentage of your sync fee, or a percentage of your publishing in addition to the sync fee. If you work with libraries that don’t take all of your publishing, it’s best to have a publishing company set up so that you can collect the publishing share of your performance royalty, in addition to you writer royalty. Anyone can set up a publishing entity, but it works a little differently depending on which PRO you belong to. Check with your PRO for details on how to establish yourself as a publisher, in addition to a writer member, if you plan to license your tracks through companies that don’t take publishing. This way you’ll be sure to get all the royalties owed to you when your songs are used. Here’s info on how to join as a publisher with ASCAP and BMI: ASCAP - https://ome.ascap.com/ BMI - https://www.bmi.com/creators Music Submission Spreadsheet – This isn’t a pre-requisite per se, but it’s a good idea to have some sort of a spreadsheet that you can use to keep track of the submissions you make and to document which songs are accepted by different libraries and publishers. If you have a lot of tracks and you’re pitching and signing them with a lot of different places, it can get confusing fast. You need to organize which songs are where and whether they’re signed exclusively or non-exclusively and so on. Having a spread-sheet you use to document everything will help you stay organized. (We have a template you can use in the resource section of HTLYM premium) For in depth resources related to licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more, be sure to join HTLYM Premium. Your premium membership includes daily licensing leads, one on one coaching, in depth music business courses, a weekly live video mastermind session, up to date industry directories, a music licensing reference library and much more. Visit for more: https://www.htlympremium.com/  Music licensing is a long-term game. It’s not something that most artists will jump into and see immediate success right out of the gate. There are always exceptions, but the vast majority of artists I’ve spoken to and interviewed over the years have said that it’s taken at least a couple years to really get going in the licensing business and start earning significant money.
It makes sense if you think about it. Even in the best case scenario it’s going to take time to make connections, sign deals, wait for your music to be pitched and successfully synced and then usually wait to get paid anywhere from 6 to 9 months after the fact. This is just the nature of the licensing business and the way it’s structured. Again, this would be the best-case scenario and assuming your music is on point and ready to be licensed. This isn’t the case for most artists that are first starting out and trying to break into the business. There are usually adjustments that need to be made along the way to either the music’s production, the music itself, or both. Most artists that try to break into licensing seem to get burnt out before they succeed because they get frustrated by their lack of initial success. I get it. It can be frustrating when you’re pitching your music over and over and not seeming to get anywhere. But once you understand the nature of the business and the obstacles you need to overcome in order to succeed, it becomes much less frustrating and you can simply focus on doing the work. I’m a big advocate of musicians spending a lot of time networking and marketing. You have to if you want to go anywhere in the business. If you’re spending all your time making great music, but you fail to successfully connect it with the right people in the industry, you’ll probably simply be making great music for yourself and your friends. Conversely, if you spend all your time pitching your music, but the music itself isn’t great or high enough quality for licensing, your marketing efforts will fall flat. The key is to strike a balance between these two necessary sides of the music business; making great music and successfully marketing your music. Over the years, I’ve developed a natural rhythm of shifting back and forth between these two necessary areas. I will often spend two to three months immersed in writing and recording music, where the majority of my time is spent focused on making great music. I’ll then go into music marketing mode, where I will shift my attention to focusing on networking, pitching my new music to companies I work with and also cultivating new relationships and signing new deals. Both making music and marketing music are ongoing parts of sync licensing. You’ll never really stop doing either thing. If your marketing efforts are not fruitful, go back to focusing on the music itself. If your music is great and ready to be pitched, spend time getting it out there and don’t stop until you start to see results. I like to think of pitching music as launching a campaign. A campaign is an organized course of action to achieve a goal and it’s helpful to think in these terms when trying to get your music licensed. I will typically start a new licensing campaign when I have between eight and ten new songs that I’m excited about. When I reach this point, I will set about signing these new songs to either existing companies I work with or finding new companies to work with. A licensing campaign will typically consist of pitching my music to upwards of 50 new companies or more. This will usually result in three to four new deals, often with a mix of exclusive and non-exclusive companies. For example, I recently ended a licensing campaign for ten tracks that resulted in four new contracts, one which was exclusive for three tracks with a highly reputable company, and three other non-exclusive companies, who will all pitch the remaining tracks. As an experiment for this most recent campaign, I used the exact leads that we have listed in our premium site and saw a great return on my efforts. In fact, two of the companies I’ve signed with as a result of this campaign are two of the most established companies I’ve ever worked with and both focus on high end placements in ad campaigns and films. Don’t give up before you get the results you want. Understand that succeeding in licensing is going to take time and that you’ll need to fluctuate between making great music and spending time focusing on getting it out there. Licensing isn’t for the faint of heart, but when you understand how the business works and simply focus on doing the work, success becomes not a matter of if but a matter of when. For in depth training and thousands of music licensing leads, be sure to join our premium site here: https://www.htlympremium.com/ We also offer our comprehensive directory of music libraries, publishers and supervisors by itself here: https://www.htlympremium.com/2020-music-licensing-directory.html |
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