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TikTok Takes Over Music Discovery

TikTok Takes Over

Wanna know why TikTok is so important to a music career these days? See why music research and analytics guru likes Viberate have shown in their just published annual report shows just how “TikTok Takes Over”.

Viberate analyzed massive amounts of data (more than a trillion data points, thousands of artists and playlists, millions of tracks and videos, and hundreds of festivals) gathered from Instagram and other key social media and music channels, including Spotify, TikTok, Instagram, Beatport and radio. Imagine that?

The TikTok Takes Over report shows which artists performed the best in their respective genres, what got played and liked on different channels in 2021, and which key music trends to look out for in 2022.

Only 1% of artists rule the social media and music channels! That sucks. The lion’s share of engagement and fanbase growth belongs to the top 500 artists, pushing the artists in the long tail of streaming and social media into inventing solid promotional strategies if they wish to break through.

Hip Hop and K-Pop artists are smashing it in streaming but are snubbed on the radio. While online engagement numbers crown Hip Hop and K-Pop as two of the most popular genres, radio is all about Pop and Rock. Multilingual (non-English) tracks thrive online but seem to have trouble getting through radio gatekeepers. Trends suggest that may yet change in 2022.

New Trends are: (1) multilingual music going more mainstream, (2) personalization at the forefront, (3) TikTok acting as a career launchpad, (4) short videos gaining power, and (5) further blending of genres. Here’s a short rundown of each trend (for the full list, see the link below):

Multilingual music is going mainstream. South Korean sensation BTS made it onto Viberate’s top 5 list on almost every channel, while YouTube saw a huge rise in the popularity of Asian Pop and Latin genres (especially Reggaeton). Unlike radio or TV, online music channels have little to no gatekeepers, thus pushing non-English music into the mainstream.

“Personalized everything” will drive an artist’s success. This means that labels, artists and other professionals will benefit from fan-first approaches to their promotion, merch, distribution and licensing. Personalized experiences also go hand-in-hand with securing digital revenue such as tipping, NFTs or paid subscriptions.

TikTok takes over. Not only was TikTok the most visited website in 2021, it also helped artists like Tokischa, Will Paquin or Crawlers break through and boost their streaming numbers. You can use Spotify to “seal the deal” – the artists who transform a TikTok hit into solid streams are the ones with real potential. We can therefore expect more talent discovery and promotional efforts as TikTok Takes Over.

Short videos will rule. Easily digestible formats such as TikTok videos will be the most useful promotional format for artists to stand out and get discovered. As audiences celebrate the DIY approach, content will be more important than production value.

Genre lines will blur further. Rising and breakthrough acts such as PinkPantheress prove genre bending and blending is more popular than ever. Artists and their audiences prefer moods to traditional genre labels, with the trend extending to popular streaming playlists for specific occasions (driving, studying, relaxing, etc.). For example, Spotify’s “Songs to Sing in the Shower” playlist has a hefty 6.4M followers.

See the “TikTok Takes Over” address for the full list of trends, best-performing artists and music tastes of 2021.

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How to License Your Music – What is Music Licensing?

In this short video we explain how to license your music and show you the basics.

How to License Your Music

Music licensing is basically like renting your music to other people. You keep all the copyrights but you allow other people to use your property (i.e. your songs). It’s mainly a pursuit for songwriters and composers so you can license your songs or instrumentals to other recording artists or you can make your songs and instrumentals available for licensing on TV shows, commercials, films and games and that’s what we call sync licensing.

Why would you want to license your music in the first place? Well licensing music is something you can do from home and at your own pace but there’s also another big reason to get into music licensing is that compared to other money making options available to indie musicians, licensing can be extremely lucrative and can generate recurring revenue.

In the video we show you exactly how lucrative music licensing can be, especially compared to music streaming, for example on Spotify or Apple Music.  You can make far more money licensing your music than you ever could by streaming your songs to your fans on Spotify.

Are you an independent musician looking to make more money? Licensing your music is one of the best ways to generate an income from music, even if it’s early in your career. It’s also great for those looking to make music a second career or pursuing music in retirement because it can be done on your own time.

Check out this video to learn:

What is Music Licensing?

• How to create passive income with your music
• Metadata, keywords and tagging
• Strategies to maximize your success

license your music

How to License Your Music

Okay so now that we hopefully have got you excited about music licensing now what do you actually need to get started? One thing you need is the music, but you only need three or four tracks to get started. There’s this big myth around music licensing that you need hundreds or thousands of tracks to license your music and that’s simply not true. One of our students whom you will meet in the video has been able to make significant income from his small catalog of only 37 songs.

The other thing you need to get started is you need to register the songs you are going to license with a P.R.O., or a Performing Rights Organization before you submit your music for licensing to make sure you can collect your royalties. The PRO you choose will depend on which country you live in, but in the U.S. we have ASCAP, BMI and SESAC.

You also need to be able to export high-quality files like WAV files so when a music library asks you for high-quality files you’re able to deliver those. You also need to be able to provide metadata like keywords and other data to identify your tracks and make them stand out in search results – so that people will find your music and that your songs will be appealing to music libraries. We know from experience all different sorts of music gets licensed – so long as the production quality is up to industry standards.

The next thing you need is the right mindset for music licensing and the courage to send your music out to the world, and the determination to keep going even if you get turned down because you will get turned down. You also need the patience to do the boring stuff like emailing and researching but that is really how you stand out from the competition. 

The last thing that you need in order to license your music is a plan so you can take matters into your own hands and make sure people hear your music – and that is where our webinars and online training comes in. We will teach you how to license your music so you will not have to depend on someone else to do it for you. We give you all the tools to get the work done yourself no matter what genre you write in or what your personal situation is –  so even if you have kids and a full-time job we have a system for you and a framework that you can really tailor to your specific situation.

The cool thing about licensing via music libraries is that once you do the prep work and research and get your metadata in place, you will have done the hard work required for sync licensing and you will be set up to start to generate recurring revenue from your music.  Contrast that with all the work you need to do to set up a single gig that you will only play once. That is the beauty and attraction of music licensing.

For more on licensing your music check out this free webinar.

click to get the surefire method to license your music webinar

Get Your Music Licensed Webinar

To learn more about our online course Get Your Music Licensed, click here.

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How to License Your Music – Finding Music Supervisors

In this short video we explain ways of finding music supervisors to help you in licensing your music.

Finding Music Supervisors

Most bands and musicians would love to get your music on TV and in Films. Getting your music placed in a film, TV show, or even video game is great exposure and can be a decent source of revenue. This kind of license is called a sync license and you can learn more about that here. The problem is, many see sync licensing as a game of chance or something that can’t really be pursued without a publisher. That is simply a myth and we’re going to focus on the first step of that problem right now – actually finding music supervisors. 

Check out this video to learn:

How to Get Your Music on TV and in Films

  • How to contact music supervisors
  • 3 tips to break through
  • The #1 thing to know when pricing your music

finding music supervisors

Finding Music Supervisors

Be Aware & Do Your Research

Music supervisors aren’t elusive mystical creatures on the internet – it’s pretty easy to find their direct email addresses with a little digging. The first step is to simply be aware of the music that is used in TV, films, commercials, games, or wherever you are looking to place your music. What shows use music similar to yours? What commercials could you hear your music in? 

Once you have some ideas, take a look at sites like IMDb, dig through the music department, and find the supervisor. TV series are probably the easiest place to start as they usually need an ongoing supply of new music with the same vibe.  You want to get proactive in licensing your music and doing your research is the place to start.

A critical thing to keep in mind is to make sure that the music you are pitching lines up with the music that they’ve used in the past and the overall vibe and mood of the series or brand, both musically and lyrically.  And make sure that the quality of the music you are pitching is where it needs to be to use on that show or that commercial.

If you need help with music production, you may want to consider getting your songs professionally critiqued.  You can also learn how to produce music yourself by checking out this online course called the Lucrative Home Studio.

Get to Know their Assistants

We all know that just finding music supervisors and cold emailing them doesn’t always work. Even if you do your research, write a killer email, and have the perfect song for the production, you could still hear nothing back. The fact of the matter is music supervisors receive a lot of emails – sometimes more than a thousand a day – and when you get that many, you just can’t read them all. 

A lot of times, music supervisors won’t even take unsolicited, or “cold” emails, but their assistants, who probably want to become supervisors themselves one day might be willing to check out your stuff. If you can find their contact information, try to start a relationship by asking for their opinion on your music and if they think it’s good they may hand it off to their boss.

Or even better, try and get someone in the industry to write an introductory email for you, to send to the assistant. Like any word of mouth marketing, a referral from a trusted source can be invaluable, and can be the difference in whether your music gets listened to or not.

Start Small

Getting started in music licensing is easy if you understand the basics. A smart way to help you in finding music supervisors is to prove that your music is licensable by starting small and working your way up. There are a lot of amateur and professional short filmmakers on YouTube, and all of them are looking for great music. Just try searching “short film” and you’ll get a long list of people who you can easily contact via email, social media, or YouTube messages. Make connections with these supervisors, and get started with some small sync deals. Once you start getting some smaller placements, you can move up to more and more professional productions, and when you’re ready for the big screen, you’ll already have a sync resume. 

Be Where They’re Looking

Many times, music supervisors will be sent music from publishing companies, but they’re music fans too and will also do their own research. With that in mind, you’re probably better off getting your music out there than you would be sitting in your room sending hundreds of emails a day to music supervisors. Upload your songs to music libraries, YouTube, get on playlists, and get out there and gig. 

Andrea Von Foerster, who has supervised for movies like Chronicle and 500 Days of Summer, uses YouTube to discover new indie bands and musicians. Ann Kline, supervisor for Shameless, a show set in Chicago, would actually call up local Chicago venues to get a vibe for what kind of indie bands were actually playing there. 

Make it clear that you have music available for licensing

Once you get a license and you want to take it to the next level, you need to figure out how to convert all those impressions into fans. Make it easy to find your name in relation to the show, commercial, or film. Post an article on your website talking about the placement, share the news with any bloggers you have connections with, and maybe even put a video up on YouTube about your experience.

Now that you have some ideas about finding music supervisors, it’s time to learn how to contact them and negotiate a deal.  You can learn more about that in this post on contacting music supervisors.

It is incredibly helpful to have a plan for licensing your music and finding music supervisors, so you can take matters into your own hands and make sure people hear your music – and that is where our webinars and online training comes in. We will teach you how to license your music so you will not have to depend on someone else to do it for you. We give you all the tools to get the work done yourself no matter what genre you write in or what your personal situation is –  so even if you have kids and a full-time job we have a system for you and a framework that you can really tailor to your specific situation.

The cool thing about licensing via music libraries is that once you do the prep work and research and get your metadata in place, you will have done the hard work required for sync licensing and you will be set up to start to generate recurring revenue from your music.  Contrast that with all the work you need to do to set up a single gig that you will only play once. That is the beauty and attraction of music licensing.

For more information check out this free music licensing webinar.

click to get the surefire method to license your music webinar

Get Your Music Licensed Webinar

To learn more about our online course Get Your Music Licensed, click here.

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Music for Gaming: What Indie Musicians Need to Know

Why the massive growth in gaming is great for indie musicians, plus other news from the music industry.

Did you know that thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, video games are a bigger industry than movies, and North American sports, combined? With the massive growth in sales on online games, there’s a huge opportunity for music makers who can create music for gaming.

More than Background Noise

If you’re into gaming (or you live with someone who is) you’ll know that music is much more than just background noise. It’s an integral part of the game experience, and that means opportunities for composers and songwriters to both sell, and get exposure for, their music.

Big name games like Grand Theft Auto feature interactive playlists, real DJs and even virtual gigs. An in-game virtual concert held on Fortnite in February 2020, was attended by over 10.7 million players.

With the growth in the role of music in gaming, platforms are investing more of their cash in developing big catalogs of licensed music, which gamers can enjoy as part of their playing experience. Read more in this article from Hypebot.

A New Challenge

Of course, this opportunity has not gone un-noticed, and some composers who have previously been attracted to writing music for films are now exploring the challenges offered by composing music for gaming.

With players spending many hours on a single game, the music can’t get boring or repetitive.  And of course, the soundtrack must respond to the interactive nature of the game.  Think “ambient” rather than prominent melodies, with the score flowing from theme to theme, almost un-noticed. The aim is to keep the player absorbed – and focussed –  in the game, and unconscious of time passing.  This article from Wired dives deep into this fascinating process.

Get into Gaming

So what are game developers looking for, when they are sourcing music for gaming?  In this article, musicradar.com  explore how the process works with Activision Blizzard Inc, – the name behind huge game titles such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty.

Whilst many big name game developers directly commission their music from composers, others source their soundtracks through music libraries. So, if you’re looking to get in on the growth of gaming, it’s well worth making sure your music is available and easy to find, through music licensing.

Gaming Greats

Even if you don’t call yourself a gamer, chances are you’ve played video games at some point. So which soundtracks stick in your mind? Here’s Pitchfork with their top picks of music for gaming over the last 20 years – see if they match yours.

HERE ARE SOME MORE STORIES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

New Resources from Spotify

Spotify have launched a site especially for songwriters, called Noteable. It will bring together news, product updates, and resources, as well as being a hub for songwriters to connect. Find out more in this article from Musically.com.

UMG Withdraws from Triller

Universal Music Group withdrew its repertoire from TikTok rival Triller after continuing disputes over payments to artists, reported MusicWeek.  Then, In a further twist, UMG expanded its deal with Tiktok. The battle over music in social media platforms looks to continue for some time.

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Vice Watch – How to Take Your Music Career to 11

The Invisible Common Denominator.

I’m known in the music industry for doing thorough research. Some of my research projects have spanned more than a thousand hours each. This particular journey led me to discover something I call vice watch. Let me explain.

A lot of my research began while I myself was being mentored and apprenticed by some of the most admired names in the music industry; Phil Collins, Quincy Jones, Phil Ramone, Steve Lillywhite and more.

There is a definite common denominator that has been practiced by all of my mentors. That common denominator when I tell you may sound wrong, or too trite and simple at first glance to even mention.

So often it seems that the actual power of truth is made invisible by the effective mask called simplicity.

I’ve grown enough wisdom over the years to learn something fascinating. The more simple a truth, the harder it is to see. And yet when discovered and applied it becomes life changing.

The Simple Truth

The common denominator of all my mentors was not just that they NEVER GAVE UP, it was HOW THEY NEVER GAVE UP.

“Don’t give up.” I know, you’ve heard it a million times before. No need to write another article about it. Right?

Maybe. But maybe not. Maybe this article shines a new light on a trite subject that could help save your career.

I took that simple truth, “Don’t give up,” and researched the hell out of it until I could deliver to my students a WAY of never giving up that worked every single time it was applied.

Like most discoveries, I found it when I needed it most (necessity IS the mother of invention after all). Vice watch.

There was a time in my career (actually TIMES) I felt totally overwhelmed. I felt I could NOT keep going with my home studio, that I could not keep going with my music career. Too many challenges and problems all happening at one time. I call these times in my life my “Trial & Terror” days. (Months is more like it).

Click to get the 4 powerful secrets behind a lucrative home studio ebook

Learn the Secrets to Operating a Successful Home Studio

Challenges and Problems

See if you can relate to any of these challenges and problems which can, when added up, create the feeling of overwhelm. Especially when you sit down to work on that one thing that should be giving you complete joy in your home studio: music!

  • Computer Frustrations
  • Financial Stress
  • Lack of Exercise
  • Relationship Drama and Family Stress
  • Certain People in Your Life Pulling You Down
  • Contrary & Confusing Tutorials, Lessons and Courses on Music Production
  • Not Enough Time to Learn Enough About Your DAW
  • Not Enough Time to Make Your Recordings Sound Polished
  • Lack of Confidence In Your Ear
  • Lack of Confidence In Yourself as an Artist, Musician, Producer, Engineer
  • Lack of Confidence in Yourself as a Person
  • Stress from Your Day Job
  • Not Having Enough Good Contacts
  • Not Getting Any Breaks in Your Career
  • Too Much Time Needed for Social Media Promotion and Distribution
  • Too Many Distractions on the Internet and Social Media
  • Health Problems Arising from All of the Above

How & Why I Never Gave Up With My Home Studio

I’m going to save you time by getting straight to the bottom line. One thing I know for sure: If you are still reading this article you don’t have time to waste.

Over the years, I developed a way of mentoring and apprenticing as a Life Coach that always works for my students when followed.

From my direct observation, this approach parallels HOW my mentors kept going. HOW they never gave up.

It has to do with character and responsibility.

Vice Watch – A Step-By-Step Approach to “Self-Serve” Life Coaching

You can do this on your own. If you have trouble mustering up enough discipline to maintain this approach — collaborate with someone and help each other through.

This approach to Life Coaching is called “Vice Watch,” so named by one of my students, Robin Kaye of Australia, after he found success by following it.

STEP ONE:

Make a list of all the conceivable vices in which humans could engage on this planet.

Definition of Vice:

A Vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered wrong, immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, or degrading in the associated society. In more minor usage, a vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, or a bad or unhealthy habit.

This is a very personal step. Everyone’s list will be different.

Divide the list into two categories: ACTION and INACTION.

Important Note: Pay close heed to the definition of Inaction: Lack of action where action is expected or appropriate.

Here are a few of many possible examples:

A List of All Possible Human ACTION VICES
  • Excessive Drinking
  • Taking Drugs
  • Gambling
  • Gambling in Life (Taking Stupid Risks and Knowing It)
  • Putting Oneself Down
  • Stealing
  • Cheating
  • Lying
  • Being Rude to Others
  • Bad Sportsmanship
  • Eating Junk Foods
  • Eating Too Much
  • Releasing Music Knowing It’s Not Done Yet
  • Excessive Time On Social Media
  • Excessive Time Playing Video Games
  • Using Cracked Software and Plug-Ins
  • Etc., etc., etc.
All Possible Human INACTION VICES
  • Ignoring One’s Children, Spouse, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, Family, etc.
  • Neglecting Needed Paperwork (Taxes, Licensing Contracts, etc.)
  • Not Educating Oneself Daily Regarding One’s DAW
  • Not Educating Oneself Daily Regarding Music Theory
  • Not Educating Oneself Daily Regarding (Fill In The Blank)
  • Not Exercising
  • Not Sleeping Enough
  • Procrastinating (List Specific Areas of Life)
  • Giving Up on One’s Dreams
  • Etc., etc., etc.

STEP TWO:

Look over your list of ACTION VICES and INACTION VICES in Step One above.

Place a checkmark next to the vices that you consider apply to you. Be as honest as possible.

STEP THREE:

Rate each vice that you have checked off using the following system:

The lowest Minus 10 up to the highest Plus 11.

Keep your list and your ratings written down and updated on a weekly basis.

How the Rating System Breaks Down

Minus 10 means the particular vice in question is literally ruining your life. Regardless of how things look on the outside to others, you know honestly that that Vice is literally ruining your life. Left unchecked, other areas of your life will get worse.

As you improve each vice that you checked off, the numbers will move closer towards zero. Minus 10, minus 9, minus 8, etc.

Zero = Vice conquered.

A Zero means the vice in question is no longer a problem in your life – at all. Period. Gone. Vanquished. This is a big deal and can take some time to accomplish. The point is to work on this vice watch daily, and to note down your ratings weekly. Some people go so far as to note down their ratings daily.

Collaborations

When collaborating (which is a great way to hold yourself and another accountable) there is no need or pressure to share what your vices are. Simply assign each vice a letter, such as A, B, C, D – and a number. All you have to do is let your collaborator know the letter of your vice and the number rating for the week. Some people are OK with sharing what their vices are, some are not. I found that even if one keeps their vices to themselves and shares only letters, this approach still works just as well.

What the Positive Numbers Mean

During my initial research, I set up this approach to life coaching where conquering one’s vice was the final goal and the end of the game.

And then I discovered something that changed my life.

Once you reach zero (vice conquered), it’s now time to help OTHERS conquer THEIR vices. Therefore, a Plus One means you have conquered your vice and are now actively helping one other person conquer that same vice.

Plus Two means you are actively helping two other people conquer that same vice, and so on (Plus Three, Plus Four, Plus Five, etc.) Once you get to Plus Ten (meaning you are actively helping ten other people conquer that same vice), there is one more level up you can achieve: Plus Eleven.

The Goal

Plus Eleven means you are actively helping more than ten other people conquer that same vice.

What is the goal of this approach to Life Coaching?

The Goal is to improve your “numbers” until you achieve an eleven on each of your vices.

Why does this work so well?

I learned from my Mentors that life is a group activity. One cannot be an island and truly achieve one’s potential. You need a team.

Just improving yourself IS NOT ENOUGH.

However, you can’t just “build a team” either, you’ve got to work on yourself as well. You see the balance here?

In my online course The Lucrative Home Studio, I lay out exactly how to build your team by hiring interns, and how to help them achieve their goals and dreams – by being PART OF A TEAM.

Besides the legendary mentors I listed earlier, I was also very lucky to apprentice under the team that supports 25 Time Grammy Award Winning Legendary Musician Chick Corea (Nominated 51 Times!). For two years I learned an incredible amount of wisdom about how to run a business in the music industry and how to organize your personal life and professional life. One reference shared with me, which has helped me successfully apprentice many musicians around the world, is a common sense guide to morals called The Way To Happiness.

The Results

The results are nothing short of life changing and mind-blowing. What this does to someone’s music career can only be described as miraculous. That is all I can say. Here is one of many testimonials I recently received:

“Gary, as important as everything you have taught me about music and music production truly is, I NEVER thought this seemingly unrelated and counterintuitive approach to shattering the “glass ceiling” of my career would result in achieving not only my goals in the music industry (including making more money!), but going way above and beyond what even I believed my potential for success was! I was ready to GIVE UP FOR GOOD. In fact, I had already started packing up my studio. Thank you is not enough! I’m giving back by working hard on a daily basis to get my Vice Watch “numbers” up to eleven!”

Summary

I found that when people give up on their home studios and/or their music careers, it’s usually the result of not working hard enough at strengthening themselves, followed by not building up a team for real. The secret is to work on both at the same time. That’s how you achieve success you can bank on.

When people work on both at the same time, their lives achieve a much better balance, and they become what I call “magnets for miracles.” And many of those miracles show up in the form of unexpected music career successes.

You can see the results of not addressing your vices show up in the following ways; distractions pulling your focus away from what you are doing, feeling exhausted, repeating the same mistakes over and over, not able to persist on an action until it’s truly done, allowing others to pull you down, and ultimately — giving up.

The Vice Watch approach to Self-Serve Life Coaching is an amazingly simple and effective insurance plan against giving up.

The bottom line is this — give it a try. Do it. And let me know how it goes. You might be pleasantly surprised. And don’t be afraid to reach out for help along the way.

I’m always here to listen and to help.

I do believe this article is the most important article I will probably ever write. I am, in essence, working right now on getting my Vice Watch “numbers” up to eleven by helping you!

My personal mission statement is simple. “To create a Renaissance in the entertainment industry which will then create a Renaissance in the world culture.”

Here’s to a balanced life which leads to a productive and successful music career for you!

That’s what we are trying to do at the New Artist Model.

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Written by Gary Gray creator of The Lucrative Home Studio. Out of his one bedroom home studio, he’s completed major projects for The Disney Music Group and 20th Century Fox, CBS Daytime Television, A&E, Megatrax, EMI Production Music London, and others. 

Check out Gary's free Mastering Music for Licensing and Streaming webinar

Check out Gary’s free “Mastering Music for Licensing and Streaming” Webinar

For more information regarding revolutionary approaches to life and music production for the home studio developed by Gary, check out The Lucrative Home Studio.

If you want to work directly with Gary, sign up to get one of your songs critiqued.

A version of this post was also published on the Tunecore blog.

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Tips for Better Songwriting in 2021

How to make 2021 your best songwriting year yet, plus other news for indie musicians.

With the crazy world we’re living in right now, and so many distractions, finding the focus and inspiration for songwriting can be difficult.

If you’re in a part of the world under a lockdown, you might find yourself with time on your hands. But when we can’t meet up with other musicians, and we can’t get out to gigs, how can we keep our songwriting motivation?

Embrace Virtual Songwriting

The internet offers so many opportunities to find, connect and collaborate with musicians, songwriters and creatives all around the world. Once you get your head around sharing files, working in different time zones, and a bit of back and forth with communications, the creative possibilities are endless. Find out how duo Vin 90 made it work for them during the pandemic in this article from American Songwriter.

Don’t Overthink it

When you’re struggling for inspiration, it’s easy to get frustrated. Staring at a blank page, or sitting at the keyboard for hours, rarely yields a great song. In fact, research shows better songwriting comes from an empty brain. If you find you get your best ideas in the shower, or while you’re driving, then you’ll know what we mean.

Read more on how to harness idleness to boost your songwriting, in this piece from Bandzoogle.

The Story Behind The Legend

Can you believe it’s five years since the death of David Bowie? This article from American Songwriter takes an in-depth look at what inspired Bowie to write the legendary ‘Space Oddity’, and the impact it had on Bowie’s career. From the song’s structure, to it’s mythical hero and sense of loneliness and loss, there’s so much more going on than jumping on the space-race bandwagon.

HERE ARE SOME MORE STORIES YOU MAY BE INTERESTED IN

Podcast Tips

If you get chance to take part in a podcast interview it can be a great way to reach new potential fans. Whether you’re interviewer or interviewee, you’ll want to be prepared before you press “record”. Get some podcast pro tips here, from CD Baby.

Wall Street Gets into Music Licensing

The world’s financial markets have spotted the money-making potential of music catalogs, and they are selling for huge sums. Rolling Stone Magazine investigates this trend, and what it means for the music business, here. 

Find out how you can harness of music licensing for your own songwriting career, here.

Follow us on Facebook for  tips for indie musicians, industry news and more. 

 

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How to Get Your Music on TV and Films

How to License Your Music with Music Libraries

Music libraries are one of the BEST ways to license your music and get your music on TV and films with music libraries and get started in licensing! Any music genre can get licensed in music libraries and music libraries work with musicians from any level and any location. And you don’t need a lot to get started.

So today, I’m going to take you through the steps to get your music in music libraries and making money. We’re going to cover choosing the right libraries for you, how much money you could make licensing your music through music libraries, and tips for submitting your music.

Before you even think about submitting your music, make sure your tracks are prepared and ready for licensing. There’s nothing worse than missing out on a licensing opportunity last minute because you didn’t have your metadata set up or your song registered with your PRO.

Want more licensing tips like this? Click here and get these free licensing lessons.

Step 1: Research Music Libraries

There are many other opportunities in the music licensing world but they require more time, organizational skills and energy. 

For now, let’s focus on production music libraries. 

They have their flaws but are great to start learning how to licensing your music, understanding how much admin work is needed in the background (it’s not all music-making heaven if you want to get paid!) and figuring out what works for you and what doesn’t.

So…. 

What Are Music Libraries?

They are platforms that curate music and make it available to license. 

Their role is not to promote your music to venues or potential fans. They don’t really focus on that, it’s not their business.

The focus of music libraries is to make your tracks available for licensing to potential customers like ad agencies, YouTubers, videographers, indie filmmakers, music supervisors on TV shows (a LOT of reality TV shows out there! :p ), etc.

Here’s an example so you can see how libraries are being used:

An indie filmmaker is looking for a really cool tune for her new western. She can’t really afford to hire someone like Ennio Morricone so she checks out if her favorite music library has anything in a similar vein. 

She’s happy because she finds a really nice, low key tune that will fit her project perfectly. 

She giddily adds that tune to her cart pays her license and gets a link to download the audio files.

When someone licenses a song, they are paying for the right to use that song in their project. 

How Do YOU Get Paid?

  1. Sync Fees – A “synchronization fee” is paid to the music library upfront. Depending on the terms of the license agreement you signed with the library, you’ll get a percentage of that sync fee (the standard is a 50/50 split, some libraries give you 60% or 70% like Audiosparx).
  2. Performance Royalties – If the video that used your music is played on TV (whether it’s terrestrial, cable or online), you receive performance royalties calculated based on the number of plays. That’s where your PRO comes in. They’re in charge of collecting the royalties for you.
  3. Ad revenue – If your music is used in a YouTube video, you could receive a share of the ad revenue. However, this side of the business gets tricky because you need your music to be part of the YouTube ContentID program. That can create a whole host of problems for music libraries you work with. If you’re just starting out, don’t worry about this type of revenue just yet.

How Much Can You Expect to Make Licensing Music?

These are the figures from the Songtradr pricing tool:

Music Libraries

If you’re a little geek who likes playing with figures like me, you can go ahead and register to Songtradr for free and have some fun with their pricing tool!

As you can see, the music licensing fees vary a lot depending on the project the tune will be used in.

For example:

A big-budget film wants to use your song. They had loads of money to pay the cast, film on location and put together a huge promotional tour. It’s only fair that those who contribute to the soundtrack get their share of the pie. 

A teacher would love to use your song in a video she made to tell her classroom about the importance of being polite. If you’ve made your song available for free to non-profit projects, she won’t have to pay a dime. However, if she decides to upload her video on Youtube and starts making money from advertising, you should earn your share of performance royalties.

When you’re just starting out, you should experiment and reach out to as many varied music licensing opportunities as possible.

In time, you’ll learn what you enjoy working on and what is a good fit for you.

For example, I tried to make happy commercial music for a while because advertising pays well. After a while, I realized it didn’t make much sense for me to focus on this because a) I didn’t enjoy it and b) it’s not my style, others are much better at it and I’m much better writing epic orchestral tunes.

How Do You Know Which Music Libraries Are The Right Fit?

Well, you don’t right from the get-go.

It’s important that you research the music libraries you’re thinking of submitting to.

Why?

Because different libraries offer different things: 

  • Opportunities (TV, video games, wedding videos)
  • Licensing deals (exclusive, non-exclusive)
  • Genres of music (happy pop, trailer music, children’s music)

Here are a few examples that are all different that will hopefully give you a better idea of what I’m talking about 😀

  1. Audiosparx.com(a fairly big player that will give you a good idea of all the admin that comes with licensing, i.e. writing a description for your song, finding the right keywords to increase its chance of appearing in the search results, etc.)
  2. Jinglepunks.com(big player, lucrative but selective)
  3. Premiumbeat.com(“race to the bottom” type of library in the sense that they really sell their catalog for cheap… they’re popular BUT they want exclusivity for your songs)

How Do You Research Music Libraries?

Take a couple of hours to identify 6-8 production music libraries, visit their website and do your research. 

That means:

  • Analyze the music they already have. Is your music is an obvious fit? Is there’s a gap in their catalog you might be able to fill?
  • Find out how to submit music to them (you’ll usually find the information on the FAQ or contact pages).
  • Find out if they sign tracks on exclusive or non-exclusive music licensing deals. If it’s obvious from their website that they’ll want the exclusivity of the songs they accept, I would skip it. Unless you’re already experienced in music licensing and know the risks and rewards of exclusive deals.

While you’re doing your research, there are a couple of things I want you to do:

  1. Write down on a piece of paper the name of the music libraries that you want to send your music to; and
  2. Create a “Music libraries” folder in your browser’s favorites and add the submissions/FAQ page of every library you’ve selected.

IMPORTANT

If you’re just starting out with music licensing, I suggest you stick with non-exclusive deals.

Why?

When you sign a song to an exclusive deal, the library you sign the deal with is the only one authorized to license that song. That means if they forget about you or don’t care (which can definitely happen!), you won’t be making any licensing money from that song.

There may come a time when you’re more familiar with the licensing ecosystem when you might want to research and test out exclusive deals but for now, I highly recommend forgetting about them.

Step 2: Submit, Submit, Submit

There’s not much to explain here.

Just PLEASE make sure you follow the submission guidelines detailed on each music library’s website. They took the time to write them, you should take the time to read and follow them.

That means if they ask for a minimum of 4 tracks and you only have 3, wait until you have another tune to offer. If they ask for streaming links of individual tracks, don’t send them attachments or links to a playlist.

I know, I know, that’s just common sense. And yet, scores of musicians don’t put in the time or effort to actually follow the simple guidelines of music libraries. Don’t be that person.

Try to keep these few things in mind:

  • Don’t let the production quality of your tracks stop you (within reason of course: don’t go sending obviously flawed mixes). What I mean is don’t procrastinate with the excuse of being a perfectionist 😉 If you’re not sure, send them anyway.
  • Don’t worry if you don’t have a professional-looking email address. A Gmail address has never stopped anyone from doing business!
  • NO, your music doesn’t need to be on Spotify, Pandora, etc. to be considered for music licensing opportunities.

Basically, stop making excuses and working under silly assumptions like you need a website, a strong social media presence, an album, a big catalog, an agent, a professional mastering engineer, etc.

You don’t need ANY of those things to get your music licensed. They might help but you don’t need them. 

Focus on the music and you’ll be fine. You’ll build those other things up over time.

Conclusion: How to License Your Music with Music Libraries

This super simple roadmap will get you started in no time.

You can easily do it by committing to work on it for 1 hour every day over 7 days.

If you want more to learn how to license your music with more comprehensive licensing guidance, check out our online training program called Get Your Music Licensed.

The class is part of the online music business training offered at New Artist Model.

If you are interested in promoting your music, check out the Music Business Accelerator program (MBA).

Joyce Kettering is a songwriter, composer, music licensing expert, and teacher of the Get Your Music Licensed! program. The music licensing methods she teaches has allowed her to quit her day job at a Fortune 500 company and be successful on licensing alone. 

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Sync Licensing: The ONLY 3 Things You Need to Make Money

Make Money from Music Licensing

A lot of musicians see music licensing and sync licensing as this big, super-intimidating goal.

Maybe you feel like you need to have a publisher before you can start. Or perhaps it seems like you need to have a catalog of at least 50 songs before you can even think about submitting anything to licensing opportunities. Or you may even think that you need to hit a certain level of popularity before your music will be “in demand” enough to get licensed.

Let me tell you right off the bat that those are all just excuses that hold you back.

You only need 3 things to start sync licensing your music successfully:

  1. The music
  2. A strategy
  3. Persistence

That’s it! In the sync licensing industry, you’re going to get a whole lot further if you START.

So start prepping the tracks you already have, start researching music libraries and other placement opportunities, and start actually submitting.

To help you get that initial momentum going, we’re going to go through each of those three things one by one. Use this as a checklist for yourself to start moving towards your licensing goals. When you’re finished here, make sure you click here to get a step-by-step breakdown of what you need to do to find licensing placements and submit your music.

Want more sync licensing tips? Click here to get this free ebook:

1. The Music – Preparing Your Music and Your Catalog for Sync Licensing

When it comes to your musical approach to licensing, you have two options (note that these are not mutually exclusive).

Write a LOT of Music

The more music you have to sell, the more earning potential you have. Seems pretty obvious, right?

The big question is: how do you become a prolific composer?

My tip is simple: embrace imperfection and work under the assumption that quality will come through quantity.

What do I mean by this?

I mean that if you challenge yourself to write songs faster than ever before, you’ll come up with some crappy tunes and some great tunes.

One exercse that has worked wonders for me is working with an artificial deadline.

Here’s how it works. Set a 30 minute timer for yourself and write a new song with a beginning, a middle, and an end. It doesn’t have to be a long song or even a very good song. The only rule is that when the timer goes off, you stop what you’re doing and bounce the MP3.

The goal is not to finish the track in 30 minutes. The goal is to create SOMETHING, whatever that is, in 30 minutes.

This exercise ensures that you always have a lot of raw material to work with. By forcing yourself to just write you’ll stumble upon a lot more ideas. Some may not be that great, but some will be gems that you can come back to and refine.

THIS is how I manage to write dozens of songs in a year.

Write in a Niche

Another approach to building out a sync licensing catalog is to write in a particular niche.

There are many advantages to writing in a niche:

  • It’s easier to brand yourself and your music
  • You know the market better
  • You can position yourself as the go-to person for that genre of music

Now of course, the less crowded the niche is, the more this applies.

The thinking is that if you just jump on the latest trend, you’ll be part of the cattle herd. It will be your song in a sea of thousands. But if you focus in on a particular (less crowded) genre or sub-genre, you’ll be able to shine. 

I think this is a little easier to illustrate with an example:

Let’s say you love reggae and it’s something you’re really good at writing.

In the grand scheme of things, there really aren’t that many people specialized in reggae. And that means the music production libraries are not flooded with reggae music.

If someone types in “reggae” in a music library, you’ll be towards the top! If someone asks a small boutique library for reggae available exclusive, the staff will get in touch with you and ask if you can write something for them.

Of course, there are less licensing opportunities for reggae tracks than there are for EDM or happy quirky corporate tunes, BUT (and this is important) you’ll get a look-in almost every single time there IS a reggae opportunity.

2. Creating Your Music Licensing Strategy

Now that you have the music and know you can write quality new tunes whenever you want, it’s time to put together a strategy.

Musicians don’t always like this part. They think there’s something immoral about “selling out.”

But here’s the simple truth: music is your career, your job, and your business. If you don’t want to make money with your music, stop reading this and go get a job.

If you DO want to make money from music, you need to realize that you’re not the only one. Especially with music licensing, it’s bit of a competition.

Now I don’t want you to freak out. It’s a competition with the potential for a LOT of winners. The demand for great music is SO high today that there’s room for lots of musicians to be very successful.

Here’s a few general tips to help you stay focused, motivated, and ahead of the curve:

  • If you enjoy what you do, your music will be better for it and you’ll have more energy to stay persistent longer (that means DON’T write in a genre you hate just because you think there’s more financial opportunity. That’s how you burn out.)
  • If you strategize and focus on the activities that will yield the highest results (whether that’s exposure or financial gain), you’ll have more energy to stay persistent longer. This will take some time to figure out, but over time you’ll start to realize what your big winners are. Focus on  what works and cut everything else out.

Understand Your Strengths – SWOT Analysis

In order to strategize, you need to know yourself and your music.

Let’s start with a SWOT analysis! The acronym stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

The exercise is simple:

  1. Identify your strengths and weaknesses as a music composer and business person (because your music is your business).
  2. Identify opportunities for your music and what threatens to derail your progress in the licensing industry.

Here are a few questions that may help you analyze your strengths and weaknesses and identify threats and opportunities:

  1. What’s my production profile? Can I record a lot of music at little cost or am I limited in the number of tracks I can put out every year?
  2. Is my music catalogue very specific and niche or could I benefit from focusing on a sub-genre for a little while?
  3. Am I good under pressure? Do I like working with really tight deadlines?
  4. Will the last minute cancelation of a project frustrate me?
  5. Am I more productive working alone or with a team?
  6. Who in my network can help me? This is SO often underestimated (by yours truly as well!). Don’t be afraid to ask for help. I’m not suggesting you ask everyone for money all the time but reminding people you’re trying to make a living as a musician and you can help with this and that goes a long way! That’s also how you start getting referrals and more gigs coming in!
  7. Is this strategy going to bring enough money in (in the long term, you can’t expect immediate results)? For example, if you’re a beatmaker competing with $1 beats, you’re in trouble. You’ll burn out in no time.
    Think about how you could sell ONE beat for $20 and you can focus on getting 1 customer instead of 20, 5 customers instead of 100.

You need to be as honest as you possibly can when you answer these questions. There’s no point in the exercise if you’re not!

3. Persistence

Sync licensing and music licensing is a looooooong game and you’ll sometimes be spending months without anything major happening.

You still need to keep going when you’re in that hole.

That’s why you need to take the time to put together a strategy that makes sense for YOU. Then you can trust the process when you’re going through a period that’s not bringing you a lot of obvious results.

If you choose a path that’s not well aligned with your personality and strengths, it’s going to be extra tough to make it.

Follow a Path That Makes Sense for YOU

You don’t enjoy writing happy quirky corporate tunes? Don’t spend 6 months trying to close deals with Apple and Ikea.

You can’t stand classical music? Don’t set out to make orchestral trailer music because you’ve heard it’s lucrative.

I know it sounds obvious, but you couldn’t guess how many musicians nail them down to goals they HATE because they haven’t taken the time to really think about what they want and enjoy doing.

Set and Track Your Sync Licensing Goals 

The only way to persevere is to set goals that you can reach. And here’s the key – set goals around things you actually control. 

So as an artist trying to get your music licensed, you shouldn’t be aiming to get 4 placements in the next 6 months.

It’s not that it’s impossible for you to get 4 placements in that timeframe. It’s that you can’t CONTROL if you do or not.

Here are a few examples of goals that could work:

  • Each year I will to record and release X number of tracks.
  • I want to have X tracks ready for licensing (complete with alternative versions, keywords and attention-grabbing description) by a certain date.
  • I plan to submit to X number of music libraries
  • By next month, I will have contacted X amount of film students / rappers / videographers / fill-in-the-blank (Note you’re not aiming for a number of projects to work on. You’re targeting a number of potential customers you can reach out to to get a project)
  • I’ll attend X amount of TV / film networking events you attend.

From personal experience, and I’m sure it’s the same with you, efforts bring results.

Every time I’ve thrown myself wholeheartedly at something, I’ve made progress.

Be Gentle With Yourself

Don’t set yourself up to fail.

By all means, stretch your comfort zone. You’ll grow and make progress.

But don’t aim too high too fast! That’s the easiest route to burnout!

If you don’t really like networking, don’t spend 1 grand on a large live event. Instead, start online in a small Facebook group.

If you’ve never scored music to video before, don’t try to convince a short-film director featured at Sundance to hire you, get in touch with film school students first.

I’m not saying you should not aim high. If you can and you know you’ll follow through, congratulations, you’re exceptional! Keep doing what you’re doing! 🙂

For the more neurotic reader out there: yes, of course, aim high BUT if after a few weeks you notice you keep putting off the same thing over and over again…. Dial it back a bit 🙂

By all means, if you have the energy and endurance, sprint out of the starting blocks!

Just know that there’s nothing wrong with slow and steady progress to finish the race.

Joyce Kettering is a songwriter, composer, music licensing expert, and teacher of the Get Your Music Licensed! program. The music licensing methods she teaches has allowed her to quit her day job at a Fortune 500 company and be successful on licensing alone. 

 

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Network your way to Success

Who will help you succeed in music? There is really nothing more important to your career than the RELATIONSHIPS you develop over time. It’s all about who you know and who knows you – and how big your network is.

Are people taking you seriously? Do you know how to approach them and get their attention? The next person you meet may be the one who will change your life forever. Are you prepared for that? You want to network your way to success.

In this final video of my Mini Series I reveal the secrets of Power Networking. I show you how to engage with people and get on their radar screen. Plain and simple, the reason that artists and writers get famous and develop huge fan followings is that they get out there and network effectively.

Watch this video to see how it is done

studio

I have helped hundreds of musicians cut through the noise and get themselves into positions where they can be successful. Now let me help you.

In the Mini Series I revealed the proven strategies I have been teaching my members and clients including:

  • How to create Communities of Fans and Super Fans
  • How to develop Experiences that your Fans will Crave and Pay You for
  • How to make Money in Music and Monetize your Audience Again and Again
  • How to uncover Opportunities via Power Networking
  • How to unlock Multiple Revenue Streams to support Your Career
  • How to get your audience to go from “Free” to “Paid”
  • Plus much, much more…

If you have not watched all 4 videos, I urge you to watch them soon – while they are still available.

PLEASE – If you know anyone else who might benefit from this Mini Series on the music business, please share this with them.

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Ring Your Cash Register Again and Again

As an independent artist, it’s frustrating to be stuck and broke. You find yourself wondering why others are successful and where all the money is hidden. Yeah I know, it’s really all about the music, but the reality is you need money to operate your business and invest in your future.

In my continuing Mini Series, I reveal tools and specific strategies you can implement to create multiple revenue streams and cash flow for your music. Discover two crowdfunding platforms you can use to support your art and ring your cash register again and again. 2015 can be your best year ever!

Let’s get to it.

studio guy

You will learn about Patreon and Pledge Music and how to use those platforms to increase your cash flow through fan funding.

Jump into the video as I show you the money.

Thanks for all of your comments and encouragement. I absolutely love hearing what you’re thinking, so please be sure to leave a comment or question below today’s video. Someone will be very happy that they did.

PLEASE – If you know anyone else who might benefit from watching this Mini Series on the music business, please share this post with them. 

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Creating Amazing Fan Experiences

I hope you are enjoying my new Mini Series on the music business. It’s truly amazing how in the first video you saw New Artist Model students Steel Blossoms and Colin Huntley applying my strategies to turn their passions into a career.

These musicians are just like you. They started with a small following and have grown their audience and income by investing in strategies and success one step at a time.

In this second video of the free Mini Series, I reveal ways of creating amazing fan experiences they will crave and actually PAY you for. Discover unforgettable connections you can offer to your fans RIGHT NOW to set yourself apart from the crowd.

Watch this video and get your fans to fall in love and remember you forever:

creating rewarding musical fan experiences

You will meet Shannon Curtis, a recent New Artist Model member who has perfected the art of the house concert and put $25,000 in her bank account in just two months time. See first hand how she did it and exactly how you can do it too.

To get one step closer to your dream, click here.

 

AND PLEASE – If you know anyone else who might benefit from this Mini Series on the music business, please share this post with them.

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Get Licensed: Contacting Music Supervisors

 

Photo credit: Kris Kesiak http://bit.ly/1oUdYvY

Photo credit: Kris Kesiak http://bit.ly/1oUdYvY

There has been a lot of buzz about music licensing in the music industry in recent years, and with good reason! Compared to other revenue streams, like streaming, licensing can have potentially big payouts for indie musicians. It’s also a pretty confusing aspect of the music industry. Just how exactly do songs get on those TV shows? The conductors behind these licenses are music supervisors.

What is a Music Supervisor?

Music supervisors oversee the music-related aspects of TV, films, and video games. It’s actually a much trickier job than you may think. They are in charge of interpreting the producer’s vision (which can be rather abstract), finding the right track, and negotiating the contract with the artists. Of course, there are MILLIONS of songs out there, so finding the right one is no easy task. On top of that, licensing for use in visual mediums is a juggling act, with as many as eight separate deals depending on how many parties are involved (songwriter, recording artist, record label, publishing company, etc.) and how the song will be used.

Despite the potential money involved, licensing is actually a pretty impartial industry in terms of the artists chosen. Music supervisors aren’t usually concerned with your career level. There are lots of instances where completely independent bands have gotten huge placements. Their priority is getting the right song, not plugging big-time artists. In fact, you only need 3 things to get started licensing your music for film and TV.

If you want more guidance on how to license your music, check out this online training program called Get Your Music Licensed.

OR

You can get started for free with this ebook: Everything You Need to Know About Licensing & Publishing Your Music. Click here to download the ebook for free.

Contacting Music Supervisors

Licensing music for film and TV is not a mass email business. That’s a good way to get blocked. It’s about taking the time to research and pin-pointing very specific opportunities. The first step is defining your musical style. What genre does your music best fit in? What mood do your songs tend to portray? Is your music reminiscent of songs from other bands or artists? Next, you’ll want to make a conscious effort to pay attention to the music used in commercials, movies, TV shows, and video games. Take note of any titles in which you think your music would work.

So how do you even know who to contact? The music supervisor is always listed in the credits and you can always find a name and email online with a little research. Luckily, there are also great tools like Musician’s Atlas that have already done the work for you, giving easy access to names and contact information. Email is your best bet, though it wouldn’t hurt following them on Twitter as well. You might get some insights as to what they’re looking for.

Keep it Brief

When emailing music supervisors, be as short and to the point as possible. They are busy people and the less time they have to spend digging for information, the better. Ultimately, you really want them to be able to tell exactly how your music sounds from just the subject line. Listing a few key description terms like genre and mood is a great idea. If you can pinpoint a well-known band your music sounds like, include that too. For example, your subject line could be “Uplifting, rock track, sounds like Foo Fighters.” Just from that short description it’s pretty easy to figure out what the track sounds like and, in turn, what placements it might fit best.

Music Submission Guidelines

It’s best to provide a link to a place where the supervisor can listen to the track instead of attaching an mp3. There’s a couple options here. You could provide a link to a hidden page on your website, which is pretty easy to do with all the website creation tools and services out there. You could also provide a link to an online press kit that is separate from your website. On this page, the supervisor should be able to listen to the track and download a WAV file. You should also include the instrumental version of the track. More times than not, lyrics interfere with the dialog, so an instrumental version of your song is a must!

Do NOT include all your songs, or even a full album on this page. Instead, do your research, know what the supervisor is working on, look at the music they’ve used in the past, and send them 1 song (3 songs tops) you think fits best. You’ll stand out from the crowd if you do your research and be prepared and professional.

Following Up

Do not send them hundreds of emails if you don’t hear back. They are people too, and like most people, they tend to block spam. Remember, just because they don’t have a place for your song now doesn’t mean a spot won’t come up in the future. If it’s the right song, it doesn’t matter if it’s a few years old. Supervisors have also been known to share tracks. If they are sent something that’s perfect for another supervisor’s project, they’ll forward it.

Stay Connected!

Above all, licensing for TV, film, and games is all about forging a relationship. Approach supervisors professionally, treat them like real people, and, if you score a licensing deal, keep the connection alive. Thank them for the placement, keep up on their new projects, and send them tracks if you see an opportunity in the future. Remember, a connection with one music supervisor could open the door to a huge web of networking.

 

 

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Self Publishing on YouTube

self publishing your music on YouTube

Everyone knows how important the YouTube platform is for indie musicians. It’s a great way to get your music out to fans, grow your fanbase, and provide your fans with great content from music videos to vlogs. There are plenty of musicians out there who have become successful mainly because of their YouTube channel, with Karmin and Pomplamoose being two of the most successful examples. They grew their audience by targeting young teens with covers of popular songs. Other musicians, like Alex Day, have based their career entirely on recorded music sales and a YouTube channel featuring music videos and hilarious vlogs.

However, there is another aspect of YouTube that is vastly underutilized by the musician community on the platform – self publishing. You don’t need a publisher to get your music placed in YouTube videos. You just need to be proactive with social media and reach out to YouTubers you think would be interested in using your music with their creative content.

There is a huge community of amateur and professional video makers on YouTube with topics ranging from beauty and fashion to gaming to health and fitness. There is also a big surge of professionalism among these YouTubers and many of the more popular channels act as full-time jobs for their creators. As a result, many YouTubers are investing in better cameras and lenses to make their channels more professional and entertaining for their viewers.

Many are also looking to music to differentiate themselves from the masses of other channels on the platform. As you probably know, YouTube has a tough copyright policy and videos illegally featuring copyrighted material can be taken down. As a result, many YouTubers seek out free music they can use without violating copyright. There are plenty of royalty-free music tracks out there, but many sound generic and repetitive. Another popular option is to find remixes or original tracks by amateur and indie musicians and get direct permission to use the music – usually in exchange for a link back to the musician’s website or soundcloud page or a shout out in the video.

So why try to get your music in YouTube videos if you won’t get paid? It’s another form of marketing and a great way to reach a potentially huge subscriber base in a really authentic way. Think about how you find new music. More times than not you get recommendations from your friends or another trusted source, not a big flashy advertisement.

YouTubers are tastemakers. People subscribe to their channels and watch their videos because they trust their opinions. When they recommend a product or brand their viewers will be more inclined to try it out, and the same is true with music. When YouTubers feature really great music in their videos, either by mentioning the band or by syncing the music with their videos, tons of their subscribers will go listen to more or even buy the album.

Let’s take a look at a few examples. Day[9], whose real name is Sean Plott, is an ex-pro-gamer, a game commentator, and a host of an online daily Starcraft show, the Day[9] Daily. While he doesn’t sync music in his videos, he often chats with the audience telling them what bands he’s been listening to lately. During one of his videos he mentioned a Blue Sky Black Death song and as a result, the comment section on that song’s YouTube video was inundated with people saying “Day[9] sent me!” A lot of new Blue Sky Black Death fans were made that day because of Sean Plott.

There is an enormous fashion and beauty community on YouTube and some, like Jenn Im of Clothesencounters, are getting really creative with the music they sync with their videos. Instead of using repetitive royalty-free tracks they seek out remixes on Soundcloud, get permission from the artists, and edit their fashion videos to really fit with the track.

So, how do you approach YouTubers for self publishing? First you need to do your research. Know what kind of videos they upload, their personality and style, and what kind of music they have used in the past. Gaming YouTubers may have completely different musical tastes from the beauty gurus. Next, figure out which track would be best-suited for their purposes and contact them directly. You can do this through Twitter, a YouTube message, or an email. Most YouTubers list their email addresses in the “About” tab. Make sure you keep their audience in mind. Try to target YouTubers whose subscriber base shares traits with your fanbase. The key here is to start small and work your way up. You won’t get much traffic coming to your site from the smaller YouTubers, but it’s just one step on the ladder.

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The New Artist Model is an online music business school for independent musicians, performers, recording artists, producers, managers and songwriters. Our classes teach essential music business and marketing skills that will take you from creativity to commerce while maximizing your chances for success. We’re offering access to free lessons from the New Artist Model online courses to anyone who signs up for our mailing list.

 

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Lessons From Macklemore

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/NI6FMK

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/NI6FMK

It’s the success every musician dreams about – making it big on your own. But you know what? It’s no fairy tale. The career of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis has been a long, hard road – one that a lot of people would have turned away from a long time ago.

The duo brought home four Grammy’s in January and, although Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) is helping them with distribution, they’re still not signed to a major record label. So how did they get here?

Here are some key lessons to learn that helped Macklemore and Ryan Lewis find their success.

1. Say something with your music. Embrace your brand.  Be different.

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis’s “Same Love,” a song with a more than an obvious nod towards the gay community,  is not commonplace in hip hop. By pushing this issue and standing behind a controversial topic, the duo probably got a lot of haters. But you know what, they also got a lot of people behind them. They stood out.  They were different.  Know who you are, know what you believe in, and say something meaningful with your art. Of course, timing is important too.

“I wrote the song in April [2012]. Shortly after Obama came out in support of gay marriage. Then Frank Ocean came out. It seemed like time was of the essence. It was never about being the first rapper to publicly support the issue, but at the same time you don’t want the song’s power to become diluted because all of the sudden it’s a bandwagon issue. 

The fact that there [was] an election coming up in Washington [was] huge. I know that a large portion of my fan base is 18-25, many of whom have never voted. If the song can get people out to the polls to pass same-sex marriage in Washington, that is a very beautiful and exciting thing.” (Source)

In the same way, the smash hit “Thrift Shop” (500 million views and counting on YouTube) is definitely not what you’d expect from hip hop. There’s no gold teeth, big brand names, or flashy bling pointing towards an extravagant lifestyle. Macklemore isn’t trying to fit into the typical hip hop mold. The duo has stayed true to their own ideas and because of that, have stood out. So what do you have to say?

2. It will take time.

There’s no such thing as overnight success. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis met in 2006, released The VS  EP in December 2009, and didn’t get crazy success until The Heist in 2012. Before there was a duo, Ben Haggerty released Open Your Eyes in 2000, The Language of My World in 2005, and The Unplanned Mixtape in September 2009. It was a long road. Do you think you would have continued to press onward?  8 years and still rolling.

Aside from albums, Macklemore and Lewis took years to build a local audience before expanding into a nationwide movement. The first national headlining tour was in 2011. Before that, Macklemore and Lewis focused locally playing at a Colorado College house party in 2010 and Seattle’s Paramount Theatre in 2010. The Agency Group’s Zach Quillen became the booking agent and began testing the duo’s reach by booking small gigs along the West Coast. The duo continued to grow, playing the Seattle Mariners opening day in 2011, and then moving on to festivals like Outside Lands, Sasquatch, and Lollapalooza later that year.

This train is still going. The duo is still operating independently with a relatively small team and being strategic about their plans. As we know so well, a huge hit doesn’t guarantee your future in the music industry.

“We are a small business that’s becoming a medium-sized business. With that, there is a learning curve and there are times when you feel like you don’t quite have the manpower to operate the business to the best of your ability. But we’re growing and we’re adapting to the best of our abilities.” (Source)

3. Keep moving forward.

Even if you feel like you’re further away from your dream than you’ve ever been, keep moving. After some local success with the 2006 EP The Language of my World Macklemore hit a low point, struggling with addiction.

“I was close to giving up. I was broke, unemployed, freshly out of rehab, and living in my parents’ basement. It was a “If this doesn’t work, I gotta get a real job” time in my life.” (Source)

You’re low point may look different. Maybe you feel like you’ll never break out of your home city or state. Maybe you just can’t seem to get to the point where you can quit your day job. The key is to keep moving. Take a small step forward, or even a few steps back. Keep yourself moving instead of lingering in that low point. Everything we perceive or appreciate in the world is based on motion. Stay in motion.

4. Find people who believe in you and build a team.

Having a team behind you is one of the best things you can do for your music. A “team” doesn’t have to be top industry veterans. More times than not, when we’re talking about indie artists, a team of top execs isn’t the best option. You want people who believe in you and your music, not someone looking to make big bucks fast.

Macklemore has shown us time and time again how valuable a team of “amateurs” can be. Ben Haggerty met Ryan Lewis, then 17 and a dedicated producer, guitarist, and photographer, in 2006. He wasn’t an industry veteran. He was another passionate creative out there with the same cause.

“Ryan is one of my best friends in this world. He’s my producer. He’s my business partner. And he’s probably one of my toughest critics, which is an imperative trait of a teammate… Ryan doesn’t make beats, he makes records. I needed that in a producer… I trust Ryan. I trust his ear and his eye. His creative aesthetic. I wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for him. I spend more time with Ryan than anyone else in my life. We’re a team, and I’m extremely blessed because of it.” (Source)

There weren’t any household names on The Heist. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis drew on local talent. Ray Dalton, a Seattle singer-songwriter is featured on “Can’t Hold Us,” Wanz, another Seattle singer was featured on “Thrift Shop,” and Seattle singer-songwriter Mary Lambert is featured on “Same Love.” In addition to that, Macklemore’s finance, Tricia Davis, is their tour and merch manager.

5. Create an authentic connection.

When Macklemore stepped on the stage at the Grammy’s the first thing they talked about was “Wow, we’re on this stage… And we could never have been on this stage without our fans.” Macklemore and Ryan Lewis connect with their fans in a very humble and authentic way. You just have to take a quick trip over to their Twitter and Facebook pages to see just what I mean. The tone isn’t pitchy. It’s kind of funny how we almost have to relearn how to be human when it comes to social media in the music industry.

“For me, being transparent about every aspect of my life is what makes my music relatable and how I’m able to be an individual amongst the mass amounts of other artists.” (Source)

The slogan to remember is that things don’t make things happen – people do. If you want to find your own success in music you need to get people behind you – this means both fans and a team. Create a relationship – and that means two-ways. Give and receive.

Being a musician is a tough gig. You have to be incredibly gifted and ridiculously dedicated all at once.  But that dedication can pay off! It’s been proven time and time again that independent musicians can be successful their own way, and you can continue that trend. The music business was built on that ethos.

Check out the New Artist Model online music business school for more ideas and analysis like this. You can also sign up for the New Artist Model mailing list and get access to free lessons.

Sources:

http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/macklemore-ryan-lewis-the-heist/#_

http://blog.chasejarvis.com/blog/2014/01/7-lessons-anyone-you-can-learn-from-macklemore-ryan-lewis/

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/the-juice/474720/macklemore-reps-talk-the-heist-debut-diy-marketing-plan

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1562815/macklemore-ryan-lewis-billboard-cover-story

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Everything You Need to Know About Copyright

music copyright

Your copyrights are your business! So it makes sense to take the time to understand how it all works. Unfortunately, “copyright” and “law” tend to have pretty scary connotations. Just hearing the words is often enough to make our heads hurt.

This article from Digital Music News pretty much lays out everything you need to know about your copyrights, publishing, royalties, and licenses in a way that’s easy to understand. Here’s the copyright segment of the article.

I know it’s not the most exciting topic out there, but understanding your rights (and more importantly how you can monetize them) will unlock a lot of income opportunities for you in music. After you finish this article, check out this free ebook to learn how to take those rights and score awesome licensing deals.

We’re also hosting a free licensing webinar covering a surefire way to license your music. You’ll learn how to get your music on music libraries and how to make connections directly with music supervisors. Click here to register for free and choose the date and time that works best for you.

Copyright

As a musician you are a creator.  Whether you’re a composer, lyricist or performing artist, you create works.  These works automatically become copyrighted once they are documented; for example through recording or writing.

Copyright is a form of intellectual property.  The creator becomes the copyright owner.  If there are multiple creators, this right is automatically split equally.  Writers are free to deviate from this equal share through mutual agreement.

The duration of this copyright is generally until 70 years after the death of the last surviving author. It differs in some countries.

Copyright ownership rights give control over who can reproduce, distribute, perform publicly, display and create derivatives of a work. These ownership rights can be fully transferred and assigned to others.  Others can also be granted licenses to use your music, typically in exchange for a payment. These payments are called royalties.

There are two types of musical copyright;

Musical Composition Copyright:

A musical composition is a piece of music, in part or in whole.  The authors are typically the composer (writer of music) and the lyricist (writer of text, in case of lyrics). These authors are the owners of the musical composition copyright.  Typically in equal share, as both the composer and lyricist of a track get assigned 50% of the composition’s copyright, unless they agreed on a different split. This can be done when one party contributed more than the other.

The creators have the exclusive right to determine who can produce copies of their song, for example to create records.  This right can be granted to others by giving out a mechanical license, which is done in exchange for a monetary payment (mechanical royalties).

Whenever a record label or performing artist wants to record a song that they do not own, they have to get a mechanical license from the people that do. Always.

All decisions regarding the composition can only be made when agreed upon by all copyright owners.  As mentioned before, the ownership and control of copyright can be transferred to others.  Generally, songwriters get a specialized third party, namely a publisher, to control and manage their songs.  In exchange, they get a cut of the royalty streams which they help generate with the repertoire.

Writer-publisher splits tend to range between 50%-50% and 70%-30%, depending on the clout of the artist and sometimes even on the relevant country’s regulations.

Sound Recording Copyright:

A sound recording is the actual final recording of a song, a fixation of sound.  It often goes by the name of ‘master’ from the old ‘master tape’ expression.  The authors are the performing artist and record producer, who in essence are therefore the owners.  Producers typically get a small share of the master rights (up to 12.5%). However, recordings are typically made in assignment of record labels, whom have negotiated deals with both the artist and producer in which they transfer ownership of their copyright to the label in exchange for royalty payments.

Also, it’s increasingly more common and easy for performing artists to record independently.  In these cases, the master ownership belongs to just them, or them together with the producer.

Royalty payments to performing artists are called artist royalties.  Royalty payments to producers are called producer royalties.

Now that you know about the two different types of musical copyright, it is important that you grasp the difference between the ‘writers’ of a track and the owners of the actual ‘master recording’.  The composition, made by the writers, is typically represented by a publisher.  The sound recording, made by the performing artist and producer, is typically represented by a label.

To learn more about publishers, royalty calculations, and licenses, check out the full article over on Digital Music News.

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Top 10 Strategies for Indie Musicians (Part 2)

Top 10 strategies for indie musicians

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/1dCOr9T

One of the best ways to grow is to look at what’s worked for other indie musicians and adapt it to your own career. I’ve compiled 10 great strategies with 10 real examples to get you going. A lot of musicians I’ve talked to think they can’t start making strategies to move their career forward until they’re making money, until they take some business classes, or until they get a manager. The coolest thing about these strategies is that you can start using them TODAY.

To learn more strategies that you can be applying to your music career right now, signup to get our most popular ebook, Hack the Music Business for free. 

Here’s strategies 6-10. (You can find part 1 right here.)

6. Find Your Niche as an Indie Musician

The best way to get a really dedicated fan base is to start small. Start local and move up from there. Just focus on your town or city and build up a strong following. Stay after your gigs to get to know your fans. Give them something really valuable and unique. Once you’ve conquered your local scene, move on to the next city. Its a long process, but in the end you’ll have a lot of people who are very excited about your music.

In the same way, you should really focus in on a niche. This can be anything you want – a genre, a attitude, a belief. Aligning with a niche creates the opportunity for a connection – chances are there’s a lot of other people out there who are just as excited about that niche as you are!

Eileen Quinn, is a songwriter, indie musician, and sailing enthusiast who combines her two passions into one by writing sailing songs. She targeted a market that isn’t already saturated with music – the sailing market – and was able to really be the star. It may seem like she limited themselves in terms of audience, but in the mainstream music industry they would have been just another artist. In their specific niche, however she was able to really stand out!

7. Get Your Fans Talking

As an indie musician today, you’re most likely in charge of your own marketing. Music promotion can seem like a completely daunting task if its just you trying to get the word out, but you actually have a whole team of marketers just waiting to share your music – your fans!

With the constant presence of social media and the internet, most music fans today are bombarded with more information than they can possibly process. As a result, most music fans look to recommendations from trusted sources for new music. These trusted sources could be a good music blog but more times than not it comes from a friend.

The Wild Feathers were a group of indie musicians out of Nashville, TN. In the week leading up to the release of their self-titled debut album, The Wild Feathers made the album available early at their live shows. On top of that, the band gave their concert-goers a little surprize. Every album sold included two CDs – one to keep and one to share with a friend. (Source) By selling the album early they are specifically targeting their superfans – the ones who would travel hours just to get their hands on the album before everyone else. Because they are so passionate about the music, superfans are also most likely to tell their friends about The Wild Feathers. Giving them an extra CD to do just that really empowered their superfans to share.

8. Develop a Brand Strategy

“Branding” and “artist image” aren’t new concepts at all. Since the beginning of music artists have been defined by genre and personality attributes. Especially today, there are so many people out there trying to make it as a musician that you really need to consider why people would buy your album or go to your show instead of someone else’s.

There are two common approaches when it comes to defining a brand. Some indie musicians like to list every single genre they draw influence from. On the other end of the spectrum, some artists are afraid to even approach the task of labeling themselves. No brand is just as bad as a confusing one.

You don’t have to confine your brand to just musical style. Weave in elements of your personality, your beliefs, and your attitudes. Before  Sum 41 made it big, they had a hard time getting a record deal because many labels thought they were just another Blink 182 imitation band. The labels only heard one dimension of the band – their sound. It was their image, personality and attitude that really set them apart and got them the deal in the end. The band took camcorder footage of them goofing around and edited it into an audio-visual EPK. The resulting seven-minute hilarious video showed the labels that they were more than just punk music. They were characters and they were very good at projecting their character through media.

9. Find a Balance Between Free and Paid Content

Your music is valuable, and you can ask people to pay for your music in a variety of ways! Remember that money isn’t the only form of payment that has value. Information can be just as valuable or more than cash in many instances. Free music is one of the most effective ways to grow your fanbase. Even big-time musicians like Radiohead and Trent Reznor have used free music to their advantage. The key is to have a reason for free.

When trying to navigate the realm of paid content don’t let yourself be restricted to the typical music products like the CD and tshirt. Services like BandPage Experiences allow you to sell unique products and experiences to your fans. The sky’s the limit, and the more personal the products and experiences, the better. Rock Camp used a BandPage Experience to host a contest, allowing guitarists to purchase entries to win a spot at the Ultimate Musician’s Camp. Anberlin used a BandPage Experience to sell all access passes to their tours.

10. React to Opportunity

In music, opportunities pop up when you least expect them, and it’s your job to be ready! These opportunities could be anything from a pick up gig, to a publishing deal to a chance to collaborate with a local musician. Either way, the indie musicians that can react quickly are the ones who succeed. While you want to take the time to weigh your options, remember that overthinking an opportunity can be just as bad as under thinking. There comes a point where you need to just decide to take the leap or not!

Amanda Palmer made $11k in two hours by jumping on an opportunity. (Source) Palmer was tweeting with her followers about how she was once again alone on her computer on a Friday night. Fans joined in the conversation and a group was quickly formed – “The Losers of Friday Night on their Computers.” Amanda Palmer created the hashtag #LOFNOTC and thousands joined the conversation. When a fan suggested a t-shirt be made for the group Palmer ran with the idea, sketched out a quick shirt design and threw up a website that night. The shirts were available for $25 and two hours later Palmer had made $11,000!

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Top 10 Strategies for Indie Musicians (Part 1)

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/1dCOr9T

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/1dCOr9T

One of the best ways to grow is to look at what’s worked for other indie musicians and adapt it to your own career. I’ve compiled 10 great strategies for indie musicians with 10 real examples to get you going. A lot of musicians I’ve talked to think they can’t start making strategies to move their career forward until they’re making money, until they take some business classes, or until they get a manager. The coolest thing about these strategies is that you can start using them TODAY.

Here’s strategies 1-5. (You can find part 2 right here).

1. Make a Plan from the Start

Making a great plan is one of the best strategies for indie musicians, and a great way to get to that music success you deserve. Not only do concrete goals give you something to aim for, they also help you decide what your first step should be.

Try to make your goals as specific as possible. Instead of saying “I want to be rich and famous,” try something specific like “I want to be able to be a full time musician with a yearly salary of at least $75,000 and be able to tour outside my home state.” Break down your lofty goal into smaller tasks like “gather contact information for local venues,” “contact 5 venues this week,” and “connect with another band to share a gig.” Suddenly finding a way to reach that goal becomes more manageable.

From the start Karmin knew they wanted to be a pop duo targeting a young teen audience. Manager Nils Gums suggested the duo cover current popular songs to get in front of their target audience. They followed the charts and consistently covered the most popular songs every week. The important takeaway here is that Karmin knew their goal, they made a plan to get there, and they stuck with it. If they had given up on the cover strategy after only a few weeks, they would never have gotten to where they are today.

Want more music business strategies for indie musicians? Download this free ebook and learn how to build a successful career in today’s music industry:

2. Leverage Your Copyrights

Your copyrights are your business. They are your assets and your products, so it makes sense to take some time to understand them. You don’t need to be on the same level as a big-shot entertainment attorney, but it helps to have a general understanding of copyright law.

There are two kinds of copyright: composition and sound recording. Copyright is created when a musical idea is put into tangible form. So when you write that song down (composition) or record it (sound recording) you own the rights!  All those rights are exclusive, meaning you, and only you can leverage your song. Remember that copyrights are power! You own the copyrights, so you have the power. Think about it, without your copyrights would labels or publishers have anything to sell? Lots of musicians have been realizing this and have figured out cool ways to leverage their copyrights.

The Happen Ins were an Austin-based rock band that were featured in a catalog from the clothing company Free People, a corresponding video, many blog posts, and played at the catalog release party. In order to grow their fan base, the Happen Ins offered a free download to Free People’s customers. In many cases this exposure can be far more valuable than money.

3. Focus on Time Management

Today’s indie musician plays the part of the artist, and the business professional, and as a result, many find themselves juggling entirely too many tasks. It’s great that artists today can be 100% in control of their career, the problem comes when you can no longer find enough time for what matters most – your music!

Here’s a great strategy for indie musicians: If there’s anything you are doing that’s not bringing you closer to your goals, stop or take a closer look.  If you’re spending hours each day on tasks that don’t have much benefit, eliminate, simplify, postpone, or delegate to your team members. Try to prioritize the list. More urgent matters and tasks that you keep putting off and putting off should have a high priority. AND REMEMBER, make time for your music!

Michael Shoup is a musician and entrepreneur who turned his career around and started making profit with time management. After graduating college with a Bachelors degree in music, Shoup started his career as a musician and effectively gigged himself into $6,000 of high interest credit card debt. Time management has helped Michael Shoup become debt free. On top of that, he’s managed to self-fund an album, started a music marketing agency, 12SouthMusic, and created a social media app, Visualive.

4. Build a Team that Grows with You

DIY may not be the best strategy for indie musicians. There are a lot of artists out there with excellent business chops, but they’re still not experts. And that’s okay, because you have more important things to do like creating music! The key is to find a team who is motivated and passionate. Instead of DIY, move towards a do-it-with-others (DIWO) strategy.

Your team doesn’t even have to be seasoned pros. If you have a band you’re already way ahead of the game. Everyone has their own unique skills, so take advantage of that!

Pop singer/songwriter Betty Who was able to be really successful with a team made of college classmates. Producer Peter Thomas and manager Ethan Schiff attended Berklee College of Music with Betty Who. With Peter Thomas she was able to find and really latch onto her signature pop sound, and Schiff helped set her up on the business side of things. Betty Who’s “Somebody Loves You” began drawing the attention of the pop music world after the release of her first EP The Movement in spring of 2013. In September 2013 the song was featured in a viral gay marriage proposal video and just a few days later she was signed to RCA Records.

5. Get out There and Network!

Networking is an essential strategy for indie musicians, but it’s easy to get overwhelmed with internal tasks and forget to take the time and introduce yourself. You don’t need a big speech or a prepared pitch. Just get into the habit of introducing yourself to one person at every show you play or at every studio you record in. Talk to the guy in charge of the soundboard, maybe he loved your show and wants to produce your next album.

Remember, networking is a two-way relationship, and collaboration is usually the best way to promote this win-win situation. If you collaborate on a show, a song, or a recording, both of you will be exposed to the other’s fanbase!  Always remember to give before you ask. Do something for someone and they will remember you.

Vinyl Thief used their extended network to find success. The band released their first EP, Control, in 2010 but were disappointed in the results. They called on a former high school classmate, now music marketing graduate, Wes Davenport who started working on improving their marketing efforts. Davenport helped them grow their fanbase through the digital releases of single, White Light, and second EP, Rebel Hill. (Source)

 To learn more strategies for indie musicians that you can be applying to your career RIGHT NOW, sign up to get a free copy of our most popular ebook, Hack the Music Business.

 

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Full Steam Ahead

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/1crjCq1

Photo credit: http://bit.ly/1crjCq1

As the music industry moves forward, revenue streams are expanding into territories we would never have imagined. The live show can now be streamed over the internet, music fans can listen to any song they want with streaming services like Spotify, lifestyle companies like Red Bull and Converse are getting into the record label business, and new publishing opportunities are popping up everyday.

One industry that just keeps growing is the gaming industry, and its presenting more and more opportunities for musicians. Rock Band and Guitar Hero really started the ball going for customizable game music, and since then, many platforms have been integrating in their own streaming or local music players. This definitely presents a great way forward for music. Integration with Spotify could mean more paying customers, and in-game purchases could evolve to include music packages. I really think this segment of the music industry is wide open for innovation.

Last week, Steam announced the beta of Steam Music. Check out the article below from Billboard for more information.

Steam, which passed its tenth birthday last year, operates as both an online marketplace and a media hub for video game players worldwide, keeping their game libraries in a central location and storing game information and their purchases in the cloud. Similar to iTunes with music, Steam makes money the same way, taking a 30% cut of purchases. That structure keeps Steam’s marketplace a click away and Valve’s brand ever-present. While most video games are too complex to be played without having their files stored on a local device, Steam users are able to install the client on a new computer and bring their software with them, along with save game files and similar information. As of last October, Valve put the number of Steam accounts at over 65 million.

As it stands now, Steam Music simply allows its users to listen to tracks from their local digital libraries while simultaneously playing video games — as long as they are in “Big Picture Mode,” a user interface designed to mimic the living room-based functionality of the Xbox and PlayStation’s operating systems. But what if the service integrated a streaming service like Spotify? The result could be a boon for that streaming service as well as music rightsholders; recent revenue gains in Norway’s music industry have been directly attributable to streaming services’ pervasive scale in that country, accounting for 65.3% of recorded music revenues and driving industry-wide growth.

But there are strong indications that Spotify could eventually arrive on Steam. Martin Benjamins, one of two people behind the website SteamDB, a website — unaffiliated with Valve or Steam — dedicated solely to investigating the underlying code of Steam and its attendant programs, found something interesting inside Steam’s guts. “Valve has already done quite a bit of work on Spotify integration in the Steam client, and appear to be using… Spotify’s official API for [placing] Spotify functionality into third party applications.” If you need a translation: Steam is already testing integration with Spotify into Steam Music. Benjamins says that it appears as if Spotify Premium users would be able to utilize the feature.” It’s important to note that, while such digital sleuthing is a worthwhile exercise, unreleased or unactivated code doesn’t mean that a feature will see the light of day.

Valve declined to comment on upcoming or requested features, and Spotify did not respond to a request for comment at press time.

Steam Music’s beta page does state that “we see an opportunity to broaden Steam as an entertainment platform, which includes music alongside games and other forms of media.” The company has taken significant steps to this end recently, developing SteamOS which allows users to all but replace their gaming consoles with a home-built computer intended to be always connected to the living room television, as well as Steam Machines, a prefab console intended to serve the same purpose.

Neither Xbox or the Playstation have a Spotify app available on their platforms, each preferring to push its own products — Sony’s paid Music Unlimited and Microsoft’s Xbox Music., which, like Spotify, offers a free and paid tiers.

As far as their plans to sell music, the company says, alluringly, on its site that “Steam currently offers a number of game soundtracks for sale. Your feedback will help guide where we take things next.” It’s also emblematic of a company well-respected by its customers, largely on how closely it listens to user feedback.

A quick glance at the Steam users online at the time of this writing showed 6.5 million — about 500,000 more than currently pay for a Spotify subscription. If 10% of Steam’s 65 million-strong user base subscribed to Spotify as a result of a trial or bundle deal, it would raise Spotify’s paid subscriber base by over 100%. Playing with games may just mean serious business for music.”

What do you think? Do video games present a huge opportunity for the music industry?

 

We discuss music placement in video games in the New Artist Model online course, but you can also get access to some free lessons by signing up for the mailing list. 

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The Musician Career Plan – Planning for Success in Music

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So we’ve covered the fact that many musicians don’t know the next steps they should be taking in their career and many more don’t have enough time to get everything done. Now, we’re going to address both of those problems with a method commonly used by entrepreneurs – a business plan, or in this case, a musician career plan.

I know, most of you probably didn’t get in to music to write a business plan, but if you’re really serious about making a living off your art, it’s an invaluable resource that will help you succeed. Think about all those choices you face everyday. How long should you spend on social media? Which social media channels should you be on? How much time should you dedicate to touring? Is crowdfunding the right way to fund your album? If you have a plan in place that states where you are, what you’re focusing on, and where you want to be in the future, these choices become a whole lot simpler.

If you need more guidance on setting your goals and putting a plan in place that will set you up for success in music, we have a free workbook that you can download right here. Learn how to create a unique plan for your own music career and start putting it into action today!

1. Business Structure

You probably don’t think of your band as a business, but that’s exactly what you are. A lot of the professional bands and musicians out there even go so far as to organize themselves into a Partnership or even a Corporation. You don’t have to go that far quite yet, but you need to think about what everyone’s roles are within your business and how each moving part works together to make one whole unit. How do you communicate with each other? Is one person responsible for decision making or does the whole group vote? Talking about these things up front will make everything run a lot smoother and more efficiently.

2. Revenue Streams

There’s more revenue streams out there beyond just selling albums and singles. Of course, the revenue streams you draw on depend entirely on your career focus. A songwriter will pull from different revenue streams than a recording artist. The main point here is to be creative with it! The music industry is ripe for innovation. Sponsorships and brand partnerships have grown exponentially lately. Some musicians even make money from exclusive membership sites.

3. Booking Strategies

Playing gigs shouldn’t just be something you do on the side. It should be part of your overall strategy. Depending on your goals, you can use your live show to forge a deeper connection with your fanbase, spread awareness for your music to a new city, or meet new collaboration partners.

What’s your musician career plan?

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10 Musician Mistakes: You Aren’t Leveraging Copyright

leveraging copyright

Your copyrights are your business. They are your assets and your products, so it makes sense to take some time to understand them. You don’t need to be on the same level as a big-shot entertainment attorney, but it helps to have a general understanding of copyright law.

There are two kinds of copyright: composition and sound recording. Copyright is created when a musical idea is put into tangible form. So when you write that song down (composition) or record it (sound recording) you own the rights!  All those rights are exclusive, meaning you, and only you can leverage your song.

So how does all this translate into actually making money? Other people and companies have to get your permission and usually pay you to perform any of the actions protected by copyright. Think of copyright like property – intellectual property. If you owned a large apartment building other people would have to get your permission to live in one of the apartments. They would sign a contract and money would most likely change hands. It’s the same principle for music. A record label or distributor pays you to be able to make copies of your song and distribute it to online and retail stores. A radio station pays you (through a PRO) to perform your song over the radio. A company pays you to sync your music to their promotional videos or advertisements.

One thing a lot of musicians miss is the fact that copyrights are power. You own the copyrights, so you have the power. Think about it, without your copyrights would labels or publishers have anything to sell? Many more musicians have been realizing this and figuring out how to leverage their copyrights.

Licensing is an obvious option, and there are surprisingly a lot of opportunities out there for indie musicians to make money licensing their music. In fact, there’s just 4 easy steps you need to take to START licensing your music.

Music publishing can be a tricky area to navigate when it comes to payment, especially when you’re just starting out. Many companies don’t have a budget for music and rely on small indie bands to license their songs for free. In these cases, don’t cave in or restrict yourself to just monetary payment. Think about what non-monetary things they can offer you in exchange for your music. Does the company run a blog? If so they could write up a quick feature or interview with links back to your site and social media channels. When done correctly, the publicity could be just as valuable as a check!

The Happen Ins are an Austin-based rock band that were featured in a catalog from the clothing company Free People and a corresponding video in July 2011. In this case, Free People had to get permission to sync the Happen Ins music to their video. Free People is a fairly well known clothing line, so the band most likely got some monetary payment, but we’ll focus on the non-monetary publicity, as it is something most companies can offer even the smallest bands. Members of The Happen Ins were in the catalog, were the feature of many blog posts surrounding the catalog release, and played at the catalog release party. In order to grow their fan base, the Happen Ins offered a free download to Free People’s customers.

If you want to make the most of your copyrights, the key is to find business partners that have a similar image or audience to yours or one you want to reach. In this case, Free People, their customers, and the Happen Ins have a vintage rock and roll vibe. Think about your image, personality, and music when you go out looking for publishing deals. But if you have a solid licensing strategy in place, you can make a decent amount of money licensing your music, even as an indie musician or band.

Want more music licensing tips? We’re hosting a free webinar that will take you through a surefire way to license your music. Everything we’re going to cover is tried and tested by our own Joyce Kettering, who has used everything she teaches to make a full time living licensing her music. Click here to register for free and choose the date and time that works best for you.

Want to know the other 9 musician mistakes?

  1. You Don’t Have a Plan
  2. You Skip Time Management
  3. You Don’t Have a Team
  4. You’re Not Out There Networking
  5. You Don’t Focus on a Niche
  6. You Don’t Let Your Fans Market
  7. You Don’t Have a Brand Strategy
  8. You Overuse Free Music
  9. You Don’t React to Opportunity

New-Artist-Model

The New Artist Model online course teaches you specifics of copyright law and creative publishing in detail. By the end of the 8-week course you will fully understand what copyrights you have and can create, what you can do with them, how you get paid, and how to effectively pursue music publishing and licensing.

 

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Get Your Music Licensed

Many musicians dream of their songs appearing on TV or in a film. Just wanting your music on TV isn’t enough! The chance that someone will come out of the blue and hand you money to use your song is very slim. You need to be out there promoting your own music and networking with people involved in the film and TV industries. Start small and work your way up from there! It will be hard to score a place on a hit TV show if you’ve never licensed any of your music before.

Sarah Sharp is one songwriter who has gotten a strong understanding of the publishing industry. Her songs have appeared in ads for Chanel, Dell, Macy’s, and ABC’s “Revenge.” In this article that originally appeared on Hypebot, she shares 7 tips she’s learned about getting licensed.

1. Go to film festivals. Make friends with filmmakers at every level of production & success.

I particularly get excited when I meet editors. Editors will often choose from their personal music library for temp music in their rough edits and often, everyone becomes accustomed to the temp music & it stays. Take a genuine interest in what people are trying to write or get made and help each other on the way up.

I have read my friends’ scripts and given feedback and made them mix tapes of indie artists years before the film finally gets made. The 1st film I music supervised was a Jason Lee, Crispin Glover film called “Drop Dead Sexy”. I probably earned $1/hr by the time it was all said and done for the time I put in, but one of my songs ended up in the film and I have made several thousand dollars in royalties from that one placement. BIG PICTURE.

2. Get a final mix of your entire album with no vocal.

There are a lot of places where the instrumental version of your song can be used. Also, it’s often helpful to be able to comp together both versions around the dialogue. This promo for ABC TV’s “Revenge” used our Kaliyo song “Deep Girl.” It barely resembles the full song, but they made great use of it by weaving both the instrumental and vocal version in and around the voice over.

3. Don’t be a pain in the ass and get out of your own way.

Sometimes people get a little whiff of success and they get so caught up in the idea of what could be or worrying about not “getting screwed”, that they blow the whole thing. If someone wants to use your song and you have never placed anything before, just say “YES & THANK YOU.” Reply immediately. Be the easiest, most reliable person to work with on the planet. Have a lawyer read your contract and then just say yes. A really smart and as yet still accessible/affordable music lawyer is Amy Mitchell. Tell her I sent you.

4. If you have a great cover version of a really well-known song, try to get it to the publisher of that song.

Often their hands are tied because they own the song, but the record label owns the really famous master. Some publishers would love to know about a fantastic version of their song that they can actually clear.

To see the other 3 tips, check out the full article on Hypebot.

Have you ever had your music licensed for TV or film? What are some things you’ve learned from your experiences? Share your own tips and thoughts in the comment section below!

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4 Tips for Sync Licensing

Sync licensing has become a viable revenue stream for indie artists in recent years. In the past, many artists viewed having their music on a commercial as “selling out,” but today, this is what many bands and musicians strive for. The great news is that there is a huge demand for indie music in TV and film. Many TV and film networks and companies cannot afford to pay top dollar for music from the super stars.

Figuring out how to approach music supervisors and make your music appealing for sync licensing is another story. To give you a better understanding of what these music supervisors are really looking for, Mallory Zumbach, the Creative Director at Round Hill Music, shared some tips and insights into the world of sync licensing.

1. Watch and Listen, Listen and Watch

When I was in high school, I had a really great band director, Mr. G., who was constantly imploring us to listen to all sorts of different music. His point was that you can’t become a great musician from practice alone—you have to immerse yourself in music and learn from your contemporaries and predecessors. I really believe that the same thing applies for succeeding in the synch world. When you’re watching TV, don’t just regard the music as wallpaper—pay attention to what’s getting used in the shows you’re watching and the ads playing throughout them. Try to observe the trends in song uses, and then go back to your own catalogue and pinpoint which of your own songs might fit into those trends. It’s such a turnoff to music supervisors when you send them stuff that doesn’t fit the mood of their show or sounds too dated for their commercial campaign.  If you have more awareness of what’s currently working for people, that will help you have the kind of targeted approach that they appreciate. It can also help give you ideas for things to incorporate into new songs when you sit down to write and record.

2. Get Happy

In the ad world in particular, there is a constant need for music with positive lyrics. At the end of the day, agencies are trying to help their clients sell their products, and a depressing or angry song, no matter how great, isn’t typically going to help them accomplish that goal. I don’t think there will ever be a time when agency music producers will stop requesting songs with lyrics about positive, universal themes like togetherness, feeling carefree, things changing for the better, etc. Nothing is more of a bummer for me than having a writer I work with send me a song that is musically uplifting (yay!) with negative lyrics (boo!).  Which is not to say that you should only write cheery tunes—no one can be happy all of the time, and there are still synch needs for sad/mad songs in other areas like film, TV, and video games. It’s just that having one or two big, anthemic songs with positive lyrics will give you something to work with across all synch mediums. Our band American Authors has a fantastic song, “Best Day of My Life”, that’s getting all sorts of synchs, from ads to film trailers to TV shows, because it’s a feel good song with feel good lyrics that’s also really genuine.

To see the other two tips, visit Music Think Tank.

On top of the up front money you could get from a sync license, your music and career will also benefit from the exposure. Try not to view your sync licenses in a vacuum. Instead, try to connect the sync placement to the rest of your career. Let your fans know that your song will be on TV. Perhaps you could start a contest in which the fan who finds your song first wins a prize. Be creative here!

Which tip above do you find most useful?

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James Taylor Suing Warner Bros

Gotta love it.

James Taylor is suing Warner Bros over digital royalties seeking $2m in compensatory damages from his former label for past MP3 sales.

The Guardian reports that singer-songwriter James Taylor has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against his former label, Warner Bros, claiming they have underpaid millions in royalties on downloads of his songs. As in similar cases brought by Eminem and the Temptations, the principal issue is the royalty rate for downloads or ringtones among artists who signed record contracts prior to the advent of digital music sales.

I reported on this situation in the Huffington Post here a while ago with Musicians may be owed billions in unpaid digital music royalties.

All of this stems from a landmark ruling in 2010, when a company representing Eminem’s publishing rights won a case against Aftermath Records. The label was ordered to pay royalties on downloads and ringtones according to the rate for licensing, not sales. Since then, a wide range of acts have pursued their labels for compensation.

Lots more to come.  The leveling of the playing field.

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Internet Trends – Re-Imagining Everything

I was reviewing this fascinating data from Mary Meeker over the weekend again, and thought I would share it. Meeker, a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers describes what she calls “the re-imagination of nearly everything” powered by mobile and social. For example: News outlets are reimagined on Twitter, note-taking is reimagined on Evernote, scrapbooking is reimagined on Pinterest and music purchasing is reimagined as listening.

Meeker also traces out the story of the mismatch between mobile growth and mobile monetization, pulling together numbers and analysis of one of the biggest weaknesses in today’s Internet industry.

And she gives some context to the state of the global economy. Here’s the full slide presentation:

KPCB Internet Trends 2012

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Investing in Media and Tech from Roger McNamee

Roger McNamee is probably the coolest investor I know.  He has called it right so many, many times and just did it again with Facebook.  You have to pay attention to him.  I have been “schooled” by him on more than one occassion and for that I am eternally grateful.

Here are his thoughts on the road ahead, taken from a Mashable keynote presentation he made the other day.  Great stuff if you want to try and make money in web and mobile tech in the years ahead.

 The shift is away from the desktop experience of free undifferentiated content. Mobile users don’t navigate the Internet with Google searches. They use apps, which deliver a better experience. And they spend much more time within those apps than on any web story.

Instead of needing tens of millions of lightly engaged users in order to be considered successful, McNamee hypothesizes that future success will come from smaller numbers of even more engaged — and thus more valuable — users.

It will, he believes, will be built not on the Google-controlled HTML4 web nor within Apple-controlled apps, but using HTML5, which allows for differentiated, engaged experiences without the downsides of the app store.

“The basic success factors going forward are going to be exactly opposite of those we’ve had in recent years,” he said.

You can get his entire presentation here.

Awesome stuff.  I’m definitely paying attention.

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Build a business around your personality.

I am often amazed at how much today’s musicians can learn from the past.  We all think that we are in the age of digital music and the old rules no longer apply and that there are only new models to develop and pursue.  Wrong.  Instead, we can all learn a whole lot by looking backwards and trying to map the successes of the past to the future.  Lets take a look at the late Dick Clark’s career and see what we can learn.

Dick Clark capitalized on the integration of music and television long before “American Idol.” But his legacy extends well beyond the persona of the laid-back host of “American Bandstand” whose influence can still be seen on TV today.

He was the workaholic head of a publicly traded company, a restaurateur, a concert promoter and real estate investor. Clark, who died of a heart attack in April at age 82, left behind a fortune and is the model of entertainment entrepreneurship.  He was ahead of his time, creating a business empire built around his personality and interests that led the way for many other musician/ entrepreneurs to come.

“Work was his hobby,” said Fran La Maina, the longtime president of Dick Clark Productions Inc.

La Maina started as the production company’s financial controller in 1966. He estimates Clark amassed a fortune that reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars. “He had this never-give-up attitude. He was a great salesperson and a task master,” La Maina said.

Clark was one of the early pioneers of the idea that a public company can be formed around an entertainer’s personal appeal. By the time La Maina went to work for him, Clark already had three shows on air: “Swingin’ Country,” “Where the Action Is,” and, of course, “American Bandstand.”

He promoted more than 100 concerts a year back when promoters, not bands, called the shots. His roster included The Rolling Stones and Engelbert Humperdinck. In the 1970s, he launched shows like the “American Music Awards” and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” – shows that are highly valued by advertisers because fans still want to watch them live in an age of digital video recorders.

At one point, he hosted shows on all three major TV networks, including “The $20,000 Pyramid” on ABC, “Live Wednesday” on CBS and “TV’s Bloopers and Practical Jokes” on NBC. All the while, he was hosting shows “Dick Clark’s Countdown” and “Rock, Roll & Remember” on the radio and running a business.

“He had boundless energy and a remarkable ability to do innumerable things at any given time,” La Maina said.

By the time it went public in 1987, Dick Clark Productions had several thousand employees, had launched a restaurant chain with Clark’s name on it, and ran a communications-promotion business. Revenue exceeded $100 million a year and the company was profitable.

His daily schedule was daunting, even when Clark was in his late 50s and 60s, according to longtime board member Enrique Senior, a managing director at Allen & Co. who helped Dick Clark Productions go public. “It frankly was the schedule of a 20-year-old,” Senior said. “This guy was a dynamo. I’ve never seen anybody who would be so personally involved in everything he did.”

What can be learned?  Work hard, diversify, promote, be personally involved, build a great team around yourself, dream, and go for it.

Read more here from Ryan Nakashima at the Associated Press.

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Let’s Add Better Metadata to Our Digital Files

Why are artist, writer, producer, engineer and other credits almost always missing from iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Amazon, Rdio, and almost every other music service, with little exception? That’s the basis for a metadata movement being spearheaded by producer, mixer and engineer Count (aka Mikael Eldridge), whose ‘credits’ include artists like DJ Shadow, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Frank Sinatra, New Order, No Doubt, Galactic, Zoe Keating, and Tycho.

“If Led Zeppelin had only sold albums digitally when they started, it’s very unlikely that many people would know who Jimmy Page or Robert Plant are because the digital music files you purchase for download or streaming can’t show you who played on them.”

If you think performers, producers, and engineers should be credited on interactive music services like iTunes, Pandora, and Spotify, click here to ‘like’ this campaign.

Over the last few years we’ve seen an explosion in interactive music services. iTunes, Pandora, Spotify, Soundcloud, and dozens of other platforms are touted as groundbreaking services, but if you really think about it, it’s all on the backs of the people who actually created the music; the performers, producers, and engineers. These services are nothing without music creators and at the very least they need to finally give music creators credit on screen.

There is no excuse. Its the right thing to do, it would create a much richer user experience, and it would improve these music services by turning people on to new music. That’s why myself and a crew of dedicated folks at the Grammys are tackling this issue once and for all. But we need your help to show there is real demand.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable that I can go online and instantly have access to Roger Federer’s obscure tennis stats but I can’t even see who is singing a song on iTunes or Pandora.”

There are many obvious reasons why credit must be given to music creators including:

(1) Better credits make better user experiences.

(2) This is Marketing 101.

(3) Hollywood does it, so why don’t we?

(4) This is not about egos. It’s about survival.

(5) It’s an easy fix.

Read the whole post from Count and Paul Resnikoff at Digital Music News.

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More Equitable Payouts for Musicians

This came in my bi-annual Sony Music statement last week.   It said “You may be Eligible for Increased iTunes Payments (or other permanent Digital Download or Ringtone royalties) as part of the Settlements of Class Action Lawsuits.  Please see the enclosed notice for details.”

Ka-ching!

Congratulations to “Shropshire” and  the “Youngbloods” (great band) in their pursuit of more fair treatment on how royalties are calculated for digital transactions.  Even though this is a small settlement, it represents a step in the right direction of ending years of unfair accounting and payment practices.

Sources in the know infer that progress was indeed made but  – still it ain’t anywhere near fair.  David did not slay Goliath thus far, nor did David get completely slain.  There is more to come.

I’ve written about this before as have many others.  Lots of musicians are suing the labels over the claim of unfair payments on digital transactions.  Here is the latest article about all of this from Variety.

Weird Al Yankovic

Tower of Power

The Temptations

Pink Floyd

Kenny Rogers 

Rick James

Smashing Pumpkins

Toto

The Motels

And many, many more to come.

We have to be patient, and change will happen.  Lots of people are jumping on this train.

The good news is that the powers that be seem willing, at last, to try new things and to negotiate.  As my friend and co-author Gerd Leonhard has said, “when the pain gets great enough, they will compromise and negotiate.”  We must be getting close.

From Billboard.biz yesterday, an agreement was reached between the music industry trade associations for record labels, music publishers and digital music providers.  The Copyright Royalty Board, will create new rates and terms for five new digital music service categories.

It also creates new rate formulas for five new digital business models:

– For the paid locker services like the one iTunes offers consumers, music publishers will get a mechanical rate of 12% of revenue or 20.65% of total content cost or 17 cents per subscriber, which ever is greater.

– For digital lockers that provide free cloud storage with a download purchase, music publishers will get 12% of revenue or 22% of the total cost of content, which ever is greater.

– For the third category, called a mixed bundle such as when your cell phone services subscription rate comes with a music service, music publishers get 11.35% of revenue or 21% of total content cost, whichever is greater.

– The fourth new category, called limited interactive service such as when a subscription service can offer limited amounts of music to, say, one genre or playlists that the user can access at a lower price, music publishers will get 10.5% of revenue or 21% of total cost or 18 cents per subscriber, whichever is greater.

– Finally, for the fifth category, called a music bundles such as when a CD album comes with a download, music publishers will get 11.35% of revenue or 21% of total content cost.

More on this here from Digital Trends.

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The Boss of SXSW

We waited for a half-hour for him to come on.  Not bad for the Boss.  In nearly an hour-long rant from the stage of the Austin Convention Center at SXSW, Bruce Springsteen spoke about his life as a musician and the artists who influenced his career.

As Ann Powers wrote, “Springsteen identified himself as a Motown-loving, Sex Pistols–fearing fan of country’s Silver Fox — Charlie Rich.  He vehemently argues for the belief in popular music as dynamic and flexible, kept alive through constant redefinition by new players and fans.”

This is great stuff for everyone to learn from.

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Artist Revenue Streams Research Project

Artist Revenue Stream Poster

My friends at the Future of Music Coalition are conducting an online survey from Sept 6 – Oct 28th to determine the variety, depth and complexity of the ways that musicians are making money these days.  Not theoretically, but actually.  We are looking for performers, songwriters, composers, band members, session players, producers, MCs and anyone else making music to join in and take the survey.

A while ago, I posted this from my friend and Berkleemusic student David Sherbow showing a pretty comprehensive list of the different ways that musicians can make money.  This might give you food for thought on taking the survey and planning your career…

The artist music business model has been in flux for years. The record deal dream that most artists sought is no longer the viable alternative that it once was.  The leveling of the music distribution playing field by the Internet is virtually complete.  Terrestrial radio is on a path towards destruction that even the major labels can’t compete with.  People now access and download music from multiple sources, usually for free.  D.I. Y solutions are everywhere, but for many artists hard to integrate into their daily lives.

Where does this leave the average independent artist? At the beginning. Every artist wants to know how they can make music, make money and survive to write and play another day. Here, in no particular order, is a list of possible income streams.

• Publishing
• Mechanical royalties
• Performance Royalties from ASCAP and BMI
• Digital Performance Royalties from Sound Exchange
• Synch rights TV, Commercials, Movies, Video Games
• Digital sales – Individual or by combination
• Music (studio & live) Album – Physical & Digital, Single – Digital, • Ringtone, Ringback, Podcasts
• Instant Post Gig Live Recording via download, mobile streaming or flash drives
• Video – Live, concept, personal,  – Physical & Digital
• Video and Internet Games featuring or about the artist
• Photographs
• Graphics and art work, screen savers, wall paper
• Lyrics
• Sheet music
• Compilations
• Merchandise – Clothes, USB packs, Posters, other things
• Live Performances
• Live Show – Gig
• Live Show – After Party
• Meet and Greet
• Personal Appearance
• Studio Session Work
• Sponsorships, and endorsements
• Advertising
• Artist newsletter emails
• Artist marketing and promotion materials
• Blog/Website
• Videos
• Music Player
• Fan Clubs
• YouTube Subscription channel for more popular artists
• Artist programmed internet radio station or specialty playlist.
• Financial Contributions of Support – Tip Jar or direct donations, Sellaband or Kickstarter
• Patronage Model – Artist Fan Exclusives – e.g. paying to sing on a song in studio or have artist write a song for you
• Mobile Apps
• Artist Specific Revenue Stream –  unique streams customized to the specific artist, e.g Amanda Palmer
• Music Teaching – Lessons and Workshops
• Music Employment – orchestras, etc, choir directors, ministers of music, etc.
• Music Production – Studio and Live
• Any job available to survive and keep making music
• Getting Help From Other Artists and Helping Them –  Whatever goes around come around. – e.g. gig swapping, songwriting, marketing and promotion

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