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As I mentioned previously, we're about to release our latest course here at How To License Your Music Premium, created by composer Eddie Grey, called "How To Write Tracks For TV In 60 Minutes Or Less". Being able to create tracks quickly and efficiently is key in terms of success in licensing for two reasons: 1) It allows you to create music for specific projects that often times have a very quick turn around. 2) It allows you to simply create tracks more quickly, in general. The more tracks you have, the more money you can potentially make. This is the third course Eddie has created for How To License Your Music Premium. Eddie has also been a guest on my podcast several times and has done two webinars with me for members of How To License Your Music Premium. Check Out Our Recent Podcasts: The Path To Music Licensing Success With Eddie Grey Six Figure Licensing As A TV Composer With Eddie Grey Eddie has been an amazing asset to our community the last couple years. He has a wealth of knowledge about the industry he's accumulated over the course of 10,000 + placements and has an obvious passion and skill for sharing what he's learned. Eddie started as a student of How To License Your Music.com over five years ago and he's gone on to become a powerful force in the music licensing space. I had the chance to meet Eddie in person in LA in 2017 when Eddie spoke at an event hosted by How To License Your Music.com. I even got to go to his apartment and spend a couple hours with him, discussing his approach to licensing, recording, life as a musician and more. I was so impressed with what I saw in person, that I somehow convinced Eddie to join my team here at How To License Your Music Premium and he's gone on to create three amazing, in depth courses. Today I thought I'd share a replay of a webinar I did with Eddie Grey and my producer, Gary Gray, last year, on the topic of how to write instrumental cues for TV. In this hour and twenty minute video presentation, you'll get a sneak peek inside Eddie's home studio in L.A. and his thought process when it comes to crafting music specifically for TV. You'll get to see, up close and personal, why I'm so excited to have Eddie on board as a part of the team here at How To License Your Music Premium. Stay posted to this blog and my newsletter for more information regarding our upcoming course. In the meantime, check out the webinar with Eddie Grey!
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Today's post is a guest post from TV composer Eddie Grey. Eddie recently created a new course for How To License Your Music Premium that we'll be releasing later this week all about how to write songs for TV (and beyond) quickly. [If you haven't already, be sure to check out my latest podcast with Eddie: https://musicmoneyandlife.podbean.com/e/the-path-to-music-licensing-success-with-eddie-grey/] One of the keys to success in licensing is being able to create music on demand for opportunities that arise. In many cases these opportunities will be last minute and there won't be a lot of time to just wait around until inspiration strikes. You need to be able to act when opportunities present themselves. It's also helpful, generally speaking, to have a large catalog. The larger your catalog, the more opportunities your music will work for and the more money you'll make. It's really that simple. The quicker you can create new tracks, the quicker you'll be able to grow your catalog to a point where it's earning substantial revenue. In Eddie's latest course, he breaks down how to write songs that work for TV in an hour or less. I'm stoked for this new course because it presents a really important piece of the music licensing puzzle that I haven't seen addressed previously. I'll send a separate email about that later this week when the course is released. In the meantime, over to you Eddie... The Fallacy Of Success
By Eddie Grey I wrote a song sometime ago about climbing up the ranks in the world. “I climbed up the ladder of success and now I’m caught up and lost in the process”. - Eddie Grey This was before I had any national placements, before I landed songs on trailers, before landing huge deals with T.V networks, before selling half of my music library for $20K, before I had any clients whatsoever, and before knowing anything about music production. I based those lyrics on every “Adult” I had ever met in my life. It seemed as if they had sacrificed a major part of themselves in order to be comfortable. I always felt that too much comfort was a dangerous things. Comfort can kill you, if not physically, then perhaps spiritually. There is one thing I have always been sure of and that is my keen ear for Music. I knew what I wanted it to sound like. To be specific, I remember attending a seminar and there was a live band playing there.I was dissecting there musical choices as if my life depended on it. The only person that cared about the music was me in that room and I acknowledge that. That is what makes us Creatives, we think differently. We obsess about details that no one else pays any mind to. I have been in the Music Licensing space for 5 years now and I have seen a lot. Prior to that, I had a position in sales. I was very “successful” but not very stoked about my day to day. Everything was a means to an end. I got through the day so I can get home and work on Music. I am actually very grateful that I had a job as it really provided me the income to buy my computer (over $3000), Interface (over $2000), Mic ($1000), an all my other awesome toys. In other words… “YOU HAVE TO HAVE MONEY TO MAKE MONEY”. I am glad I gambled on myself and invested my time, enegy, and money in my business as now I have the opportunity to do it Full-Time. I knew I could do it, I just did not know how long it would take and how it would occur. Every day is different for me. I find myself making income doing all manner of things:
It is I who was the fool as I never saw the “POSSIBILITIES”. Ever since I could remember, I always saw my life through a small scope. I always had these false expectations of what success would be. When I finally got my musical break, I remember the feeling distinctly… “This is NOT going to solve all of my problems”. I had it in my mind that if I broke through this fake ceiling that all of my life would somehow “make sense”. It was a major letdown as I had to re-adapt and re-assess my entire game plan for my family and I. The future did not look bright through these lenses. Once I got over the fact that “SUCCESS” was not real. I got back to the only thing that has ever worked for me and that is “WORK”. Head down, pedal to the metal, grinding it out, singular focus….day in and day out. When I shifted my attention to WHAT I COULD CONTROL, things started moving rapidly. This is when the real shift happened as I now see that our success is determined completely by our efforts. The law of cause in effect is quite real. If you plant a seed, harvest it, water it, and nurture it in the proper environment, it will grow. It does not “self-analyze” and think “When will I grow?” “How much will I grow?”….it merely lets go and things naturally happen. Earl Nightingale says that the definition of success is “the progressive realization of a worthy goal”. If you take this maxim, you and only you, can decide if you are truly a success. Do not let the world dictate your worth, this is your life, and it is up to you to choose happiness and to live the way YOU wish to live. My last piece here is for those of you that are still making the transition. Please read these final words carefully… “Fall in love with your life today and CHOOSE all of your life this very moment. When you truly embrace everything (including your current work) and you aspire to be the very best at everything you do…things will begin to evolve”. How can you receive more if you have not perfected and made the most of the current moment? I wish you the very best in ALL of your endeavors. Happy Music Making. Keep Your Frequency High, Eddie Grey
I’ve been having a blast lately connecting with and interviewing so many different people working in different facets of the licensing business for my podcast, Music, Money And Life. It’s one thing to be able to give you my own anecdotal stories and experiences about licensing my own music. But it’s a whole other thing to be able to bring together and interview dozens of people working successfully in different facets of the licensing industry. I feel like I’m able to provide a much broader perspective by bringing so many different people into the conversation.
[By the way, speaking of my podcast, thanks to everyone who has been leaving me positive feedback. Thanks to you, I made it onto the charts as one of the highest rated podcasts in the music category yesterday! I really appreciate everyone who took the time to leave a review.] 
By interviewing supervisors, publishers and songwriters all working full time in the business, I’ve been able to get a real “bird’s eye” view of how the business works. The big picture, if you will, of the music licensing industry. The life of a musician can be lonely at times, and one of my main goals with my podcast is to bring as many different people as possible working in the business on to share their stories, so that you can learn from a really wide range of people that work in the industry. So that you’ll get a better perspective on your own journey and hopefully feel a little less isolated and alone. One of the best ways to learn, is to hear directly from people who are doing what it you want to do. I have some really great guests lined up for future episodes, so be sure to subscribe to my podcast if you haven’t already here: In today’s post I thought I’d break down 7 key takeaways that I’ve gotten from the last few months of doing my podcast on a weekly basis and networking with a variety of people in the business. These are 7 points that pretty much everyone I’ve interviewed and spoken with has been in agreement on. 1) You can make a full time living, but it’s takes a lot of time and effort – One of the questions I’ve been asking everyone I interview is about the viability of turning music licensing into a career. Is it possible? Feasible? Is it practical to try to make music licensing a full time career? Everyone I’ve spoken with has said more or less the same thing. Yes it’s possible, but it’s going to take a lot of time and effort to get to that point. Music licensing, most of the people I speak with say, should be approached more like a long term investment. Sort of like a 401k plan for musicians. It’s something that you need to build up over time. You need to approach music licensing like you would investing in the stock market. In other words, think long term and diversify. Write a lot of different songs. Place them in different libraries and with different publishers. Go direct to supervisors if you can. You might get lucky and land a huge placement right away. It could happen. But don’t necessarily count on that happening. Keep writing and pitching and over time the money you make will grow. 2) It’s better to write from the heart than to try and write what you think will work for licensing – Although it’s important to be aware of what works and why in the context of licensing, the overwhelming consensus has been that, at the end of the day, you should just write great songs that are inspired and from the heart. This advice that I’ve gotten, over and over, sort of took me by surprise, in a good way. I hate the idea of trying to force my music into some sort of pre-conceived, pre-determined, homogenized mold. The artist in me cringes at this thought. I went into this business to make art! If I wanted to just create cookie cutter widgets, void of substance and meaning I’d work in a factory or something. So the fact that the majority of people I’ve interviewed, from supervisors to publishers to songwriters, all agree that as songwriters we should, first and foremost, strive to write great, inspired music gives me hope. Of course, you should still pay attention to things like lyrics and arrangement and make sure they’re not too far out of the realm of what works for licensing. You still need to consider the way in which your songs will be used, if and when they’re licensed. But don’t do this at the expense of the music you’re creating. Don’t forego writing a great song too simply try and make it fit the music licensing mold. Music supervisors are music fans. They’re drawn to the music business because, for the most part, they love music. Don’t forget this when you’re creating music you plan to pitch for licensing opportunities. 3) It takes a lot of pitching and submitting your music to land placements - The music business is competitive. There is a lot of music being pitched. I spoke with one prominent music supervisor who told me that she gets as many as 1,000 submissions a day! Many supervisors simply don’t have time to listen to everything that is being sent to them. Your job as a songwriter, is to rise above this noise and competition and get your music heard. Going through libraries and publishers is a good way to do this, as they can help you do the job of pitching and finding out about projects. They’ll take a cut of what you make of course, but it’s well worth it in my experience to have the extra help. You can go directly to music supervisors as well and if you catch them at the right time, with the right track they might be open to it. In my experience, supervisors draw from a lot of different sources to meet their music needs and many are open to working directly with artists when it makes sense to do so. Whatever route you go, if you want to do this at serious level, you need to devote considerable time to pitching your music and finding out about projects. Most writers that do this full time, devote at least two to three days to doing nothing but pitching. It really is where the true work comes in when it comes to landing placements. I wish there was an easier way, but the consensus is that to be successful at licensing, you need to keep pitching and networking on a regular basis. 4) You have to approach this like a job if you want to be successful – I think this piece of advice applies to any aspect of the music industry. You have to approach this like a job or business if you want this to be your job. Songwriters that make a full time living doing this, work full time hours! I think what Sam Beam, aka Iron And Wine, said about the music business sums it up, “if you treat music like a job, they’ll pay you like it’s a job”. Apply this mindset to everything you do in terms of being a musician. Set up regular hours to write and record music. Have a set schedule you adhere to when you’re pitching music. Be consistent. There are a lot of musicians out there, but in terms of musicians that are really going for this in a serious way, it’s a much smaller pool. 5) You need to have thick skin for this business – This probably comes as no surprise, but the music business is really hard. It’s competitive. You will be rejected, most likely a lot. Don’t even pay attention to the rejection. Keep making music. Keep improving your music and keep pitching your music. If you’re passionate and motivated, eventually you’ll win other people over. Of course, listen to the feedback you get, if you send your tracks to 20 people and they all say that your vocals are off key, take note and work on improving that. We all have things to improve. But, music isn’t an exact science. What one music supervisors hates, another might love. That’s why I don’t pay too much attention to criticism or rejection in general, unless it points to something specific that I hear over and over. There’s a difference between someone just not feeling a track and someone not liking it for specific reasons. If you know deep down you’re writing and recording great songs, keep pitching them until you find others that agree. 6) There are no guarantees when it comes to licensing, until a track is actually licensed - At the end of the day, there are no guarantees in this business until a song is actually licensed. You might find ten publishers who love your tracks and they all pitch them to no avail. It happens. Until a specific supervisor wants to use your track for a specific project and the song has been synced, it’s all speculation. Don’t let this discourage you, but also don’t forget this reality of the industry. This is why the ongoing pitching of your material is so important if you want to approach this like a career. You never really know if something is going to happen, until it happens. Unless you are on staff for a network or hired by a production company to write music on a salaried basis, you’re always going to be looking for the next project and the next place to license your tracks. Of course, you’ll be building up residual income too, as some of your tracks will likely be used repeatedly and in different projects over time. But for most writers that are doing this on a freelance basis, in other words, most of us, the pitching never really stops. 7) You might decide this isn’t for you, and that’s ok - With all this talk about competition, rejection and how hard licensing is, you might come to the conclusion that this simply isn’t for you and that’s ok too. I feel like the only real reason to go into the music business in general is because you absolutely love making music more than anything else. If you don’t have that sort of intense passion for making music, than it really doesn’t make much sense as a career path. I believe success is possible for all of us, but if you don’t have an innate sense of passion for music, it’s doubtful that you’ll be able to push through the challenges. Music, to me, is a calling. It’s almost a religious like calling. Any money and success I may happen to attain is really just a byproduct of my desire to get my music out into the world and have it heard. That’s really what drives me more than anything. At the end of the day, I don’t really care if my music is played in the background of a soap opera or a reality tv show. It’s nice when it happens, but more than anything I just love playing music and you know, I have to like eat and pay bills. Want to get a totally free, four hour course, on how you can make money licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more? For a limited time, I'm giving away my newest course, The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide, free of charge, no strings attached. This course took me months to create and I normally charge $77.00 for the course, but I've decided to offer it for a limited time absolutely free of charge. I'm so excited about the information and how much it can help you, that I want to give it to you to check out.
In my latest podcast I speak with TV composer John Delvento about how he's been able to create a six figure income writing music specifically for libraries.
Learn what it takes to build up a solid full time income by writing music for libraries in the latest episode of Music, Money And Life. In this episode you'll learn: -How to get started -How to approach licensing like a business -Why you need "grit" in order to succeed -What styles of music are in demand now -Why your music is being rejected -Pros and cons of starting a publishing company -How location factors into success -and much more! Want to get a totally free, four hour course, on how you can make money licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more? For a limited time, I'm giving away my newest course, The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide, free of charge, no strings attached. This course took me months to create and I normally charge $77.00 for the course, but I've decided to offer it for a limited time absolutely free of charge. I'm so excited about the information and how much it can help you, that I want to give it to you to check out.
Check out this excerpt from a recent webinar I did with Anthony Clint JR. on how to he landed a recent track in a Netflix production.
A lot of you have asked me how to go about getting tracks in Netflix productions and in this video Anthony and I explain how it's done. Check out the video below. GO PREMIUM to access the entire webinar and new ones like it every month, as well as our in depth courses, music licensing leads, up to date directories and more. More info. Want to get a totally free, four hour course, on how you can make money licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more? For a limited time, I'm giving away my newest course, The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide, free of charge, no strings attached. This course took me months to create and I normally charge $77.00 for the course, but I've decided to offer it for a limited time absolutely free of charge. I'm so excited about the information and how much it can help you, that I want to give it to you to check out.
There's a right way and a wrong way to go about trying to get your music heard by music supervisors and music libraries. If you approach music supervisors the "right" way, you'll get your music heard and hopefully licensed. If you approach supervisors the "wrong" way, you'll most likely just have your messages ignored and your music won't even be listened to.
In the following video clip, I speak with TV composer Dario Forzato about the right way to approach music supervisors, publishers and music library owners, so that your music will be heard, and people will want to work with you. Check it out: Want to get a totally free, four hour course, on how you can make money licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more? For a limited time, I'm giving away my newest course, The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide, free of charge, no strings attached. This course took me months to create and I normally charge $77.00 for the course, but I've decided to offer it for a limited time absolutely free of charge. I'm so excited about the information and how much it can help you, that I want to give it to you to check out. 
I was talking to a client a few weeks ago, who was trying to figure out how to make more money from his music via licensing his tracks in tv, films, etc. This particular client informed me that he had made about $2,000.00 from ten of his tracks over the last five years or so. The problem though, was that these particular tracks were signed exclusively to a publisher and for many years he couldn’t get the rights to these tracks back.
He hired an attorney and spent several years fighting to get out of the contract he had signed. Eventually, after what I can only imagine was quite a bit of money, time and frustration, the publisher representing these tracks agreed to give him the ability to sign these tracks to other companies and license them elsewhere. In the end, he was able to make a little extra money with these ten tracks, but he still wasn’t thrilled with his results. This particular client came to me, mainly looking for advice on how to improve his success in music licensing and figure out how to make more money with his music. One of the things I love about working with clients like this, is that I often have epiphanies and realizations as a result of listening to someone else express their challenges and frustrations. I’m sometimes able to express ideas in new ways, that lead to greater clarity for both myself and my clients. I often have “aha” moments that help both myself and my clients better understand this crazy business of ours. With this particular client, I had a realization that I guess you could say was a twist on something I’ve known for quite some time but had never quite been able to articulate as succinctly as I did with this particular client, during this particular coaching session. What was the realization? Well, to put it very simply, your musical output will determine your income. In other words, the more tracks you create, the more money you’ll make. Pretty obvious right? It should be, but I think a lot of us have blind spots and get stuck on our musical journey, getting bogged down in worrying about things like getting out of bad deals we’ve signed, worrying about our rights and how to best monetize our individual tracks. And these are all valid concerns. We should think about these things, at least to a point. We should be careful about signing bad deals and not getting locked into deals we can’t get out of. I’m sure we’ve all probably signed a few contracts along the way that we wish we hadn’t. I know I have. If you’ve been in the licensing game long enough, you’re going to learn along the way, and sometimes we have to learn the hard way, by making mistakes, or by making what seem like mistakes in retrospect. With this particular client I was talking to though, he had spent a lot of money and time trying to undo a deal he had signed. He got sort of stuck on trying to undo this deal he had signed an in his mind, right a wrong. These tracks were his and he wanted them back. In my estimation though, his energy and effort would have been much better spent had he focused it elsewhere, on more productive things, like writing and creating new music for example and developing new contacts in the business and generating new revenue streams with his music. It's better to look forward, than look behind. I broke it down for this particular client, like this: If you’re able to make $2,000.00 from ten tracks, (which isn’t a bad return in the grand scheme of things) what if you had a catalog of 100 tracks? Assuming the same rate of return, you’d make about $20,000.00. Now extrapolate that even further. What if you had 500 tracks earning the same amount of money? This would net you $100,000. What if you had 1,000 tracks that brought in the same amount of money per tracks? This would earn you about $200,000.00 and so on. I think you can see where I’m going with this. To a large extent, our income in the music business, and in particular for things like music licensing and music streaming, will be determined by how many tracks we have in our catalog. Every single client of mine who has gone on to earn six figures a year licensing music, has a large catalog. I've also interviewed hundreds of songwriters on my podcast, and again, without exception, the songwriters making a substantial living from licensing have large catalogs. Now of course, there are a lot of other variables. The size of your catalog isn’t the only determining factor in licensing. There are other things, like the tracks themselves, how “license-able” and accessible they are, the connections you make and so on. There are a lot of different factors that will contribute to your success. But, the size of your catalog and how many tracks you have available to be licensed is a key factor. One of the things you should be focusing on, at all times, is creating more music, so you have more music to license into more opportunities. It’s also one of the few things in this business, YOU have complete control over. If you’re trying to make more money from your music, a great thought experiment is to simply look at how much money you’re making per year from your music, divided by the number of tracks in your catalog. This way, you can get a per song average of what your tracks earn. Then just extrapolate out. So, for example, if you made $1,000.00 from your tracks last year and you have ten songs in you catalog, each song is earning on average about 100 dollars. Want to increase your income to $10,000? You’d need 100 songs, based on this rate of return. To get to $100,000.00, you’d need 1,000 tracks. Like I said, there are obviously other factors, but one of the easiest and most straightforward ways to grow your revenue from your music, is to simply make and license more of it. I’ve made as much as 5k per placement and if you're lucky, there are placements that earn much more than that. The problem though, with focusing on how much you earn per particular placement, is that you don’t entirely control when and where your tracks are used. You can influence this by more actively pitching your tracks, making new connections and so forth. But you can’t directly control it. What you can control is the music you make. How much of it you make. What you make music about. Where you make it available and so on. Your musical output will ultimately determine the size of your income. Want to get a totally free, four hour course, on how you can make money licensing your music in tv, films, ads and more? For a limited time, I'm giving away my newest course, The Ultimate Music Licensing Guide, free of charge, no strings attached. This course took me months to create and I normally charge $77.00 for the course, but I've decided to offer it for a limited time absolutely free of charge. I'm so excited about the information and how much it can help you, that I want to give it to you. Sign up for my free newsletter below and I'll send you the course to check out, for free! In today’s blog, we catch up with HowToLicenseYourMusic.com’s resident producer, Gary Gray, for Part One of a much-requested Four-Part music production blog and video course, called “How to Get a Killer Vocal Sound.” This course contains detailed video capture footage of an actual vocal production session, with each step clearly and concisely explained by Gary. In conjunction with the new course, Gary and I will be hosting a live webinar, exclusively for members of How To License Your Music Premium this Friday, June 30th at 11 AM PST. If you’re a premium member you’ll get access to both the course and the webinar, as well as dozens of more courses, music licensing leads and much more. Check out this amazing, 15 minute excerpt of the course that Gary put together, to get a taste for what the course will be like: Though you haven’t heard from Gary for a few weeks, he’s been busy behind the scenes helping me with webinars, putting together content for the new HowToLicenseYourMusicPREMIUM website (http://HTLYMPremium.com), and working night and day in the studio on several deadlines for 20th Century Fox (his latest project for 20th Century Fox garnered this response from the Director of Licensing for Fox Music, “Wow! This sounds fantastic Gary! Very Well Done!”). Gary has also been busy at work on my new upcoming EP, as well as mentoring students around the world on music production, music theory and sound design. Coming off a series of music licensing placements with my own music produced by Gary (including a virtual reality video game placement), I’m proud to also announce that Gary recently won a Telly Award as Sound Engineer, Mixer and Mastering Engineer for the soundtrack of “Path of Totality,” composed by award-winning AI Scientist David Fogel!  Over to you, Gary…
Thank you Aaron! To those of you who know me, and to those of you who are brand new to HowToLicenseYourMusic.com and HTLYMPremium.com, I’m honored and humbled to be able to share my experience and expertise with you, and to help you succeed, just as my mentors helped me succeed. I’m especially excited about the new course Aaron & I are releasing called “How to Get a Killer Vocal Sound.” The course will be available to members of the new HTLYMPremium.com website. The course will also be available to purchase as a stand alone course in the near future, if you’re not yet a member of the Premium website. There is such a vast amount of information that goes into creating a killer vocal sound in the studio, that I ended up creating a four-part series, with each part a full course in its own right. Part One Part One covers the Philosophy, Priorities & Initial Steps To Take right now in order to achieve a killer vocal sound in the studio. Parts Two, Three and Four cover additional steps to take, such as basic fundamental workflow steps, the vital practice of A/B’ing as applied to vocal production, reverbs, delays, compression, advanced vocal production techniques that can be heard on commercial recordings, such as “3D Reverb,” side-chaining compression of reverbs and other vocal effects. Philosophy There are two basic hats that every person with a home studio wears (or should be wearing) while recording and/or mixing music. This is especially true of vocal production. The first hat is “producer.” The second hat is “engineer.” In my 30 plus years as a producer, engineer, and mentor, it has become painfully clear that, in most cases, only one of these hats “shows up for work” in the home studio (or pro studio for that matter!). Which hat shows up? The engineer. The engineer seems to be the exclusive hat worn by most home studio owners while they toil away on their tracks. The Difference Between Engineer & Producer The engineer is the person with their nose stuck to the computer screen, continually diving down rabbit holes to solve this, solve that, create this effect, trying to find that brand new sound, etc. The engineer pays attention to the immediate task(s) at hand, and eagerly (or not so eagerly) attacks each one. The producer, on the other hand, is the person who has the “big picture” always in mind. The producer steps back, away from the computer screen, away from any rabbit holes, and makes broad, big decisions regarding the project at hand. When it comes to mixing vocals, the engineer, when hearing a vocal track, is already deciding what needs to be done in order to make that vocal track sound the best it can be, which is the correct viewpoint for an engineer to assume, for sure. However, as stated earlier, the engineer is usually the only hat being worn in the studio, and so, the quality of the final vocal production suffers accordingly. If, on the other hand, you were to wear the hat of producer as well, then you would tap the engineer on the shoulder and say, “Chill. We’re not going to necessarily finish mixing this track just yet. Let me hear this rough mix from beginning to end first.” Mind you, these two “individuals” inside of you – the producer and the engineer, do not listen to tracks with the same purpose in mind. While the engineer is constantly figuring out ways to improve what is there, the producer may put everything on pause and say something like, “This singer is not the right person for this track, let’s find a voice that aligns more with the emotional flow and musical statement of this song.” Or, “Instruments sound great. However, this song is in the wrong key for this singer, it’s out of his range. Get the instruments transposed down two half-steps into the key of B Flat and then let’s re-record these vocals. Chop-chop, let’s do it.” Or, even more boldly, the producer might state something as radical as, “You know what? This song is not cutting it. We’re not going to work on this song anymore, it’s a mess. It doesn’t really live up to the quality of the rest of this album. Let’s hit stop on this track and reconvene and go over the full list of potential songs for this project.” You see the pattern here? Producer = Big picture. Engineer = Small details. And even more importantly: Producer = He or she is in charge. Engineer = Listens to the producer. And so it goes as the project moves forward. The producer is in charge making the big calls. He’s there to facilitate the vision of the artist. The engineer is there to facilitate the vision of the producer. The engineer rolls up his sleeves and gets his hands dirty, puts his nose on the computer screen, and dives feet first into various rabbit holes of technical challenges and sonic puzzles. To get an idea of how in-depth this course goes, I invite you to watch a short excerpt video of the course right now. This course gives you extremely important tools, workflow ideas and techniques that result in you getting a “Killer Vocal Sound” in the studio, every single time.  Do you want to make money with your music? Then you need to start thinking and acting like a business person. I recently did a great podcast with the CEO of DeWolfe Music, Joel Feinberg. It was a great conversation and one of the things Joel really focused on, was how musicians tend to not be good at business and that this is holding them back. Making music is a very right brained, creative act, that doesn’t tend to lend itself to thinking like a business person, which tends to require more left brain thinking. Joel’s point strongly resonated with me, as it did with a lot of you who checked out the podcast. I think as musicians we can all relate to this truth. We’re attracted to making music because of our love for being creative and tapping into this part of ourselves. All too often, we sort of look at the money-making part of the music business as more of a nuisance and an afterthought. Like something we have to do, because, well, we all need money. This point that Joel made was such a good point that I want to expand on this topic a bit more. Let’s think about how this applies to something like licensing your music, which let’s face it, is not really a very creative endeavor. Sure, there are creative elements at play, like the vision of a music supervisor for a specific scene, the creative choices music editors make when cutting music to a scene, and of course the music itself. All these creative elements exist and are a part of licensing music. But, the pursuit of trying to license your music. Well, it’s a much more analytical, left brained endeavor. The problem that many musicians face, and I’ve heard this over and over, from multiple people I’ve interviewed and have worked with, is that most musicians simply don’t put themselves in the shoes of those they are trying to do business with. Most musicians are simply making music they feel like making and then randomly throwing it out into the marketplace, just hoping that it will magically fit somewhere and make them some money. It’s easy to see why this problem exists. As artists, most of us want to make music we feel is inspired and “from the heart”. We don’t want to “sell out” and just make music for the masses. We want to maintain our “artistic integrity” and do something that is “pure” and not simply something that is a product to be bought and sold. That’s a great attitude, if you’re not concerned with making money from your music. And perhaps, for some artists, this attitude actually does lead to unintended commercial success. I’m sure it does in fact. But you want to know where this attitude also sometimes leads? Nowhere. Obscurity. Frustration. Now please don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you should simply focus on money and trying to write only music that will sell, regardless of whether or not it’s artistically satisfying. You could do that if you want. But what I think is a more rewarding path, for most musicians, is to try and integrate the two sides of being a musician, the right brained creative act of making music and the left brained, analytical act of marketing and selling music, into one holistic thing. Instead of looking at business as something you have to do, look at it as something that is part and parcel of being a professional musician. Don’t look it as a drag, just accept it for what it is. All aspects of our lives are like this if you think about it. Let me give you an analogy. I’m single. Again. I actually love the growth that comes during periods of my life when I’m single. I love the process of putting myself out there, meeting women, getting rejected, having success, getting rejected again and so on. I feel like I’ve grown as much during these periods of my life as I have during relationships I’ve been in, albeit in a different way. When you’re single, and here comes the analogy, there are things you can do that will almost universally make you more attractive and more “marketable” to members of the opposite sex. Things like dressing better, working out, being motivated, being confident and so on, will all increase the odds of attracting and connecting with someone. I know, because I’m going through this right now! Things like going out and meeting people, is sort of like submitting your music and making connections. You have to be in it to win it. You can’t just expect opportunities to fall in your lap. Now, as a single person, it’s easy to take the attitude of, “screw it, I don’t need to do any of that. If someone doesn’t see my innate value as a human being, they don’t deserve me! I don’t have to dress well, go out and risk rejection and try to better myself. “ This is a pretty understandable attitude to take on the surface. It almost makes sense. But, if you know certain actions are going to get you closer to your goal, why not take them? Now, if you’re doing something that actually goes against your values, that’s a different story. But most things that make you more attractive in the dating market, are actually positive things that will improve your life overall. Working out, dressing well, interacting confidently with members of the opposite sex and so on, are things that make you more attractive because they are things we all, collectively, value. Let’s get back to music. I see more successfully “marketing” your music in a very similar way. It’s easy to take the attitude of I don’t need to change my music for anyone. You can take it or leave it! But, what if there were changes you could make in either your music, or your approach to marketing your music, that would actually get you closer to your goals? What if there were a few subtle things you could tweak that would open up more doors and more opportunities, without conflicting with your values and sense of integrity? I think for most musicians, there are ways to improve your music and the marketing of your music, that would simply be a net positive and bring you closer to your goals, without compromising your values. Ok, let’s get into specifics. Here’s the thing that Joel mentioned during our podcast, and I’ve heard variations of this same idea, repeatedly. Most musicians, when it comes to trying to license their music are simply taking a shotgun approach to music licensing. They’re sending the same tracks, to multiple places, with very little thought or consideration, to the needs of who they’re sending it to. It’s like being single, and walking into a bar or nightclub after being at the gym, without taking a shower or getting dressed up and shouting “I’m single, who’s interested. Anyone?”. What Joel and others have said, is that instead of taking such a random approach to the business, spend some time studying it. Study what kind of music is being licensed. Get a sense of where you fit into the business. Study the specific needs of those you’re pitching to. Get to know their taste and the types of music they tend to work with. Then, when you approach them, send them a message that demonstrates you’ve put a little thought into your submission and interaction. Taking these steps will empower you and will make you immensely more attractive in the eyes of those you’re trying to start business relationships with. In both business relationships and personal relationships, there are always two people involved, you and the person you’re in a relationship with, or trying to enter into a relationship with. To go blindly into these situations, without reflecting on, or considering the other person’s needs and desires is a bit naïve and foolish. You might have a certain amount of success taking this approach, if you try enough. We all get lucky every once in awhile. But doesn’t it make more sense to put more thought into your interactions and make yourself as attractive as possible to those you’re interacting with? We all have things we want and desire in life. Most of these things involve other people. Whether it’s a relationship, getting your music licensed, selling your music and getting more fans, there are other people involved. Figure out what those people want, and it give it to them! If you want to dramatically increase your business skills related to licensing and marketing your music, go premium today, to access our music business courses, industry leads, live webinars, ebooks, directories and more. Save 33% off your premium membership between now and March 18th. More info.
I'm humbled and proud to be teaming up with Aaron Davison on his launch of How To License Your Music.com premium, a new member’s only, premium site featuring exclusive content about the music licensing business -- and beyond -- for musicians. As you may have heard, Aaron has been working hard for close to two years in creating, as he perfectly describes it, “A Netflix or Amazon Prime for professional musicians.” I’ve been there for Aaron as a sounding board and creating content, but this is his baby all the way. And I must say, it’s brilliant! So, with this, my first blog of 2018, I thought I’d give you a taste of some of the content and services I’ll be providing you as you take full advantage of the many features of HTLYM.comPremium. The Holiday Season that just finished, has typically been a slow time for income. Most of the industry seems to leave Los Angeles and head home. Lots of “automatic vacation emails,” cell phone voicemail messages, and empty desks. So, it was with surprise and relief that I picked up the phone to hear what I first thought was a prank phone call. “Is this Gary Gray?” “Yes.” “I’m calling from 20th Century Fox. I’ve been referred to you by one of your clients, the head of licensing at The Disney Music Group. Can you come to our offices in Burbank to discuss working for us as well?” Thank God I didn’t laugh, or hang up, or say, “C’mon. Who is this?” “Yes. Absolutely. . .“ So, off I went to the 20th Century Fox Backlot in Burbank, California.  Gary Gary at the 20th Century Fox Backlot Among several other sources of income, all from doing music full time, I’ve been able to forge one particularly interesting niche in the music industry: Re-Records. The definition of a Re-Record (pronounced like “record my guitar,” not like “listen to this vinyl record”) is: a Brand-New recording, produced from scratch, which sounds just like an original master recording. Quite a challenge. There are certain laws and regulations governing the publication and licensing of major motion picture soundtracks. To make a long story short, suffice it to say that, in many cases, it can be extremely cost prohibitive for record labels or major film studios who own the master recordings of a music soundtrack, to license those musical recordings. It can be crazy expensive for everyone involved. So, labels and large movie corporations sometimes have a master recording re-recorded. The resulting re-record can then be licensed much more easily. When they own the master and own/control the copyrights, this is something they have every right to do and can do legally. The niche I created, without even knowing it at the time, is being able to take any recording needing a re-record and, without the use of a score or lead sheet or stem files or any other elements - just the original MP3 or WAV file (and my ears) - quickly produce an exact replica of that recording from scratch. The specialized niche within the niche is that I can do it well, do it fast, and do it with extremely low maintenance. (I don’t ask for additional resources, and I turn in my recordings on schedule, without the need for changes). This requires one to be on their A-game consistently, in every single aspect of recording, mixing and mastering. What I realized after producing my first few re-records for major companies such as The Disney Music Group and 20th Century Fox, is that I’m getting paid to thoroughly study the best composers, writers, producers and engineers in the business - hands on, note for note. For my first job, I was given a six-minute full-blown epic orchestral piece to create. They mentioned a quick turn-around was needed. I told them 4 days. They said, “what?” I thought by their reaction that 4 days was going to be too long. “You can do it that fast?” “Yes.” They made funny faces and said, “Ok, wow.” That was November 3rd. I delivered a six minute Master Recording and 30 Stem Files on November 7th. The response?    To make the Holiday’s even brighter, I was immediately asked to produce a second job for 20th Century Fox, a 4:13 Heavy Rock/Orchestral track. Now, I know not everyone’s dream or goal is to create re-records. I love doing them when needed because they keep my production chops very sharp, they help me continually streamline my workflow, and they pay well. And most importantly, they allow me to develop new approaches to teaching high quality music production techniques. I’ve been sharing these techniques with my private students. 1-for-1, each student is doing extremely well with music licensing. Many of these techniques involve music production ear-training exercises that I have developed. Here are some great success stories that occurred in the last week alone: Liz Cirelli, from Italy, is now scoring her first major film. Paul Armendariz, from San Diego, just landed his first major placement for a designer clothing line television commercial. CJ DeLeo, from Los Angeles, just signed a one-album licensing contract with a major player in the licensing world, Alcon Sleeping Giant, for his band Kicking Sunrise. Getting back to Aaron Davison’s new Premium website; I’ll be there with Aaron, giving quarterly coaching sessions (annual members), and continually supplying you with updated content to help you increase your confidence and make more money. Speaking of which, here’s what came in for that second job:   So, that was $5,000 income in two weeks for 10 minutes of music! I guess Santa found out I was nice last year. Aaron and I are looking forward to working closely with every member on the new How To License Your Music.Com Premium website! See you there! Gary Gray, Los Angeles, Jan 31, 2018 p.s. Here’s a sneak preview regarding some of the latest content that will soon be available on the premium website:  I spent a full day with the entire post-production sound & music editing team at CBS for NCIS. Interviews, video footage and more! Amazing content. |
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