I got an email recently from someone who wrote me saying they have been pursuing licensing for ten years, without a single placement or license to show for themselves.  They wanted to know if I had any advice and how long I thought it should take to see success in licensing.

When I get emails like this it’s hard to know exactly what to say, because there is so much information left out of the email and so many variables that I don’t know where to start.  Ten years is a long time, but for example, were they pitching their music every single day?  How many songs did they create during this period?  What is the quality of music they were making? What kind of music are they making? Did they stop and start again several times throughout the ten-year period?  Were they studying and really learning about music used in licensing?  And on and on… 

It can take a good year or two of concentrated effort to really build up momentum in licensing.  It shouldn’t take ten years.  And it certainly shouldn’t take ten years to get a single placement.  I think it’s a good idea every few months to really stop and evaluate where you are on your licensing journey.   Have you signed new deals?  Have you licensed new material?  Are you pitching music daily and weekly?  Are you developing new material regularly?  Are you making new contacts?  Are you keeping in touch with existing contacts?  All these things will factor into your success, or lack thereof.

It’s easy to say you’ve been doing something for x number of years, but conveniently leave out the periods where you were inactive.  I’ve been a musician for over 20 years, but there were long stretches where, looking back, I was pretty inactive.  There were multiple periods where for months at a time, music took a backseat to other priorities in my life.  Sometimes life just gets in the way and we have to focus on other things. 

However, success in music is a result of time and focused effort.  Your potential music success doesn’t care if you have bills to pay or other responsibilities to deal with.  It’s going to simply wait until you get back to focusing on making and marketing your music.  The more you make that a priority, the more often you’ll see success.  The faster you can make music a priority, the faster you’ll see success.  

So how long should success in music licensing take?  There’s no one way to answer this.  Every situation is completely different.  It could take a year, two, four, five or even ten years, depending on your situation, how much effort you’re putting into things and so on.

In the end, I wouldn’t let how much time something is going to take you to achieve success deter you from going for what you want. Just focus on your goals and moving closer to your target.  Ten years from now, you’re going to be ten years older, whether you pursue your dreams or not.