SONG CONTEST BLOG

Not every songwriter and recording artist out there succeeds in licensing his songs for film and television.

And I’d be lying if I told you every music licensing opportunity pays big bucks.

But I can tell you that the music licensing business is the most lucrative and accessible business for independent artists.  Songwriters and performing artists make more money by licensing their songs than performing live, signing a record deal and getting commercial radio airplay combined.

Music Supervisors spend all of their time searching for great music to place in film, television shows and advertisements.  They have big budgets, and are always willing to open their wallets for fresh material.

These are the people you want to get your music to, hard and fast.

Best of all, unlike record labels and publishers, Music Supervisors love to receive unsolicited submissions from artists.  They even advertise for it.

But you need to know where to look.

Fortunately, a bright young mind (and good friend of mine) decided to create a marketplace for Music Supervisors.  It’s a single hot spot where industry leaders come together to advertise their projects and access independent music from artists just like you.

That place is called YouLicense.

$25,000 Licensing Fee For German Luxury Car Company Campaign

$20,000 Licensing Fee For Clean Energy Campaign

$14,000 Licensing Fee For European Food Manufacturer Campaign

$12,000 Licensing Fee For International Travel Agency Campaign

Music Licensing Explained
Licensing music for TV and film is the process of music procurement for motion picture, usually handled by a Music Supervisor working on behalf of the television network, film production company, or advertising agency. The project’s Music Supervisor is responsible for identifying the most appropriate music for the motion picture and liaising with the copyright owner/administrator of the recording and publishing of the music, which may not necessarily be the same person: signed artists’ publishing (the music’s intellectual property rights) are usually managed by a publishing company or publishing rights division within a label, and the recording (or “Master”) is usually managed by a record company or master rights division within a label.  Learn more…

SoundReef, currently in closed beta, has come up with an interesting angle in a very lucrative ‘indie’ music licensing market which YouLicense.com is competing in and PumpAudio ? acquired by Getty Images in 2007 for $42 million ? has already won a tidy share of.  Offering online music licensing solutions for independent artists and small companies, SoundReef hopes to encourage new business by making it possible for clients seeking music for commercial use to license music by compensating the artist (or copyright administrator) with promotional effort.  What a clever idea!  As most commercial use of music is small-scheme with zero-budget, music buyers now have an alternative currency to barter with and it just so happens to be the most valuable commodity of all for bootstrapping artists: Exposure.  Let’s see how this venture kicks off.

Recommended online artist development platforms:

ReverbNation provides marketing and artist development solutions for up and coming musicians that need to “compete, cooperate, and differentiate in an increasingly noisy online environment”.   With a 360-degree approach, ReverbNation offers every tool in the shed for fledgling artists plus social and professional networking solutions in a single hub.

Music Nation, an artist-fan-promoter community, provides an array of music marketing features, as well as song contest and songwriting opportunities.  Perhaps more fan-centric than ReverbNation, Music Nation has also adopted the 360-degree approach to artist development.

OurStage, an artist and fan community that revolves around a “democratic” songwriting contest, has been making a splash as a pull-marketing platform for songwriters and recording artists to receive objective feedback from potential fans.

SellaBand, a vision of the music industry to come, has harnessed the power of niches and created an artist development platform that allows fans to, literally, put their money where their mouth is.  With a low risk and easy to digest financial investment program for music lovers, artists enjoy recording and A&R opportunities if they manage to attract enough “believers”.

YouLicense, the first independent music licensing platform, is where artists and music buyers engage one another and cut out the middle man.  With a host of music licensing opportunities in every imaginable musical genre, YouLicense is an artist development favorite.

MyDrifts is more than just a MySpace music marketing system, it’s an entire suite of music marketing tools for the artist or artist manager that wishes to better target his marketing efforts and learn about his audience.

Sonicbids is an artist development veteran, helping bands get gigs, and promoters book the right bands.  Their community consists of bands, singers, songwriters, and performers of all kinds, and music buyers of all kinds, including singer songwriter competition promoters, music licensors, festival programmers, and more.