Your success as a singer-songwriter depends a great deal on the strategic way you position yourself as a musician. The artistry of producing fantastic new music—your vision, your mood, your intuitivesense of rhythm and musical figures—is a vastly different beast than the often daunting legal and economic panorama of music in this new generation of electronic distribution. One undertaking is creative and intuitive; the other requires red tape, legality, logistics and variables.
Apart from the creative process, it’s essential to consider strategy when examining where you want your music to take you. Do you create audio as a career? Is music your largest form of income? Do you create music to sell albums and gather a fan base, or do you primarily desire to have your music placed in film, television and video games? Perhaps you create new music for all three reasons.
Yet another important aspect to consider is what distribution approach will actually make you money. Given the present landscape of diminishing download revenue and the high cost of antiquated physical distribution systems it can be a daunting task to find the method that is suitable for you. In 2012, most musicians agree that the main two ways to make money from music are to tour, or to license music for film, television and video games. After examining the effort and cost involved in planning, booking and executing tours licensing certainly emerges as a preferred revenue stream generated by music. If placement in films and television is your main purpose, please keep reading.
The way you retain ownership of your songs is an essential ingredient for prospective music licensing deals in the future. You’ll want to research what makes the most sense for your own sound with a lawyer, but in general, you’ll need to bear in mind:
1) You will want to keep your own publishing.
2) It is easier to contemplate licensing contracts if there is one single
songwriter credit for your music.
3) It is easier to work with licensing agents if you release your own
songs as an independent artist. In general, the less parties there are
in a contract, the better.
4) It is best to evaluate licensing agencies well. Have a lawyer
review any potential contracts. If you choose a licensing agent, they
often prefer to be the exclusive agent—so choose well.
Musician Jennifer Clarke is one such . She creates her music primarily as an emotional pursuit. Her productions are deeply personal and soulful. Yet once the album is mastered and printed, Jennifer becomes all business. She licensed her track, “More Than I Have,” on the FX Series starring Denis Leary, Rescue Me. Her current album, Trinkets in Rubble, is slated for release in March 2012, when she’ll start new efforts to get the album licensed.
What can you do to pursue licensing? Get in touch with Music Nomad, ASCAP, or use your favorite search engine to research companies that specialize in the field. Most importantly, never give up. If you knock on enough doors eventually one of them will open.
Singer Songwriter
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