Here you will find part 2:
Why bands should consider online music licensing (2)
Ok, so we all know that living off our music as bands is no walk in the woods, unless were speaking about woods infested with blood thirsty grizzlies. So what other options do we have besides making money at the door and selling awesome t-shirst with complementary coffee mugs at shows? For those of you who haven’t thought about licensing your music, here’s a little video that might enlighten you.
So where to find the supervisors and content creators that seek out original tunes for their projects? Well hooray for internet and online music licensing agencies ! These sites are poping out of nowhere these days, probably because the demand for fresh new talent has increased. They attract the media companies and they allow musicians to create profiles exposing the music they submit. Here are 3 websites we discovered that are worth looking into.
This site’s model is simple and intuitive. It allows artists to create a profile and upload their tracks. You describe your tracks with a rather hefty tag system that allows companies to search, find and listen to your music. These companies can either browse the sites musical repertoire or post job offers to musicians called ‘opportunities’. You, as a subscribed member can check out what opportunities are available and submit your work. Anyone can post these opportunities so you’ll find many different types of offers with rates scaling from a couple of bucks to thousands of dollars. The gigs proposed aren’t always explicit as you are generally served a rough description of what you must submit, but the general feel is there. YouLicense is a new comer so you wont find more than 10 simultaneous offers at once, but its growing fast as well as its community. Definitely a site worth following up on.
Pump Audio act as music brokers: you submit you tracks and they run it through their vast list of media contacts. Once they find a company interested in a track you produced, they license it to them. You then perceive 50% of the revenue generated by the deal. You retain the whole copyright for your songs and your agreement with Pump is non-exclusive, meaning you can continue doing what ever you want with your tunes. You only allow them to place your music. If they get results, you get results, and they are connected to major clients such as Nike, Kellog’s, Kodak, MTV, NBC studio, New line cinema etc. Then to say if they will bring you any business is hard to say but they have earned millions of dollars for indie artists, generating over 80 000 placements in TV last year.
Magnatune is a independent record label with a roster of over 200 artists. They sell the music for fans and they sell the licenses for producers, content creators or individuals. The proceeds are also split 50/50. Like Pump your music is pre-cleared and you keep full control over it. Here you can browse the catalog and purchase a license or a song at very affordable rates. It’s like an online music store besides that you can buy the right to use the tracks for commercial use. This goes so against the current ‘iTunes’ philosophy of grasping on to DRM protected songs where the consumer is the one who gets ripped off in the end. Of course this type of music website isn’t for everybody but it just goes to show a different angle to the relationship a record label can have towards its artists.
These aren’t the only websites that deliver pre-cleared musical content, others are out there and they all have their own particular model. Next Wednesday we will cover a couple more. Any feedback is most welcome.
Keep on murffin !
Cool stuff.
I like the youlicense model, I have a profile there. I haven’t licensed any of my songs yet but it is a cool place to publish yourself some more.
Do you know what genre of music is the most licensed one?
Another cool site for online licensing is Hank: http://www.hankmusic.tv/?refer=hankmusic.tv
The owner is already connected with some of the country’s top advertising agencies – check out this spot with some well-known ad people:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=KbD3fImJtQg
Jeff,
I think it all depends on what is asked for. I browse through the opportunities on a regular basis and the demand is different for each project. But rock and electronic genres are often needed.
I have already submitted 2 songs but haven’t got lucky yet :)
I just sent a request for SevenSync’s proposal and am probably going to message them and to see if they answer. Actually im going to do that for different companies posted up there just to see if they take this site seriously and check their inbox. I’ll keep you updated if ever i get some news.
mruff
Thanks for this info. You mentioned Pump Audio charges 50% for a licensing placement and apparently does not accept all music that is submitted. But amazingly YouLicense charges only 9% and all music is accepted.
Your right Daniel.
But the models don’t work the same way either.
On Youlicense you have a profile and you can upload whatever you want. They don’t choose or accept the music you put up there, you do. They don’t choose the projects you could work on, your in control of that as well. Its more about your credibility the theirs on Youlicense. For sites like Pump Audio, its more about them.
And on Pump they do most of the work too passing you through their contact list and arranging the deal etc.
On Youlicense, you send out your stuff and follow up on it, its more transparent.
So all in all, i think using both tools are a good idea. For me it would depend on what tracks Im willing to license. When you get in the business of lending the rights of your tunes to others I thinks its important to have a vision for those tunes. Your naturally more attached to some songs then to others and you dont want to see them get soiled misplacing them in a bad commercial or a cheesy tv series.
thanks for the comment
mruff !
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Both of those models are outdated
Go check out MUSICSUPERVISOR.COM
run by musicians. They deliver your content directly to the decision makers instead of waiting around for them to find it.
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