How to Make Money Licensing Your Music

The state of the music industry has changed alot recently. It’s becoming more difficult for artists to make money because consumers have been finding ways to get the music they love for free (e.g. via on-demand music streaming from YouTube, piracy etc.). This has put a hurtin’ on a lot of wallets as this has led to a significant decrease in music sales for many artists (and record labels etc).  So what can you do to increase your music sales now?

You can take your music career into your own hands and start licensing your music.

This may sound a bit intimidating, but this is something you can do successfully with some time, patience and persistence.  The good news is there are a lot of avenues for licensing music.  For example, you can license music via film, TV shows, advertising, and video games.  Soundtracks in videos, on the web and in mobile apps also provide good opportunity.

Here are some ways you can license your music.

1) Get your songs to music publishers.

After you make sure your songs meet industry standards (and the quality is comparable to what you hear in the market), search the databases of organizations like ascap.com or bmi.com.  Look for writers in your genre and song title, and find out how you can submit your songs (this can vary depending on who you contact but you need to confirm exactly what the publisher is looking for, and in what format). You can also find publishers by picking up popular magazines and checking out the list of publishers and contact information.

2) Get music that you completely own into music libraries.

Music libraries are a good resource for many businesses (including reality shows) as they can get music quickly and for a lower price.  The more songs you have in music libraries, the more opportunities you have to license your music.

3) Join a service that posts frequent sync opportunities.

Taxi.com is an example, and this can work out well for you, but it does require you to be able to record new songs and compose quickly.  That is key if you want your music to be the closest fit to what the music director is looking for.

4) Sign up for a media marketplace where you can sell your music at a fair price.

A site like Pond5  is a good option because you can set your own prices, and revenue is split  50/50 between the company and the artist.  Also it is a Royalty Free license, and you don’t have to sell exclusively to them, so that gives you more options to sell your songs.

There are several other ways to license your music that have varying degrees of success and challenges.  For example, you can try to build direct relationship with music directors for film and TV, or combine methods to include your music in the database of a digital music licensing companies that do a lot of the leg work for you (as the Cd Baby and Rumblefish collaboration indicates).

Regardless of the path you choose to take, make sure you own the copyrights and masters to your work before pursuing licensing opportunities so you’re protected.  Also remember, don’t give up…keep moving forward and be persistent.

Music licensing is something that happens constantly, all around us.  Now it’s time for you to get your slice of that pie.