When it comes to building and licensing a catalog of music, I
like to think in terms of building a pipeline, a musical pipeline if you will, that over time will eventually yield results, in other words, placements and money.
A good analogy is thinking of your catalog of music and the companies that you sign with as a bit like building a portfolio of stocks and bonds. Some stocks go up, some go down, some stay flat and so on. But if you're a wise investor, over time you'll see
gains.
Licensing music and placing your songs with different libraries and publishers is a bit like investing in stocks and bonds. It's hard to know in advance which companies are going to deliver the best results. I could tell you which companies have done the best for me, but that's no guarantee that your music would be a good fit for these
companies and their unique licensing needs.
The mistake I see a lot of musicians make with regards to licensing is that they'll submit to a few places and get accepted into a few catalogs and then they'll get complacent and stop.
If you're being accepted into libraries and publishers' catalogs it's a good
sign, but your work doesn't stop there, unless you're satisfied with the number of placements you're already getting. In the beginning, chances are it's going to be slow going.
It can take time initially to build momentum licensing your tracks. Your music might sit in a library for a year with no activity, and then all of a sudden you'll get several placements. I've signed songs with publishers that have been licensed
within a few weeks after I signed them and I've had other songs that didn't end up getting licensed until 8 years after they were initially picked up by a publisher! You just never know if or when a particular track is going to get synced until it gets synced.
So, given the unpredictable nature of music licensing, while you're waiting for your tracks to get
placed, why not keep building your pipeline and increase your odds of getting even more placements? The only thing you can really control is the music you create and your efforts to connect your music with the right people.
Over time you'll figure out which people and companies you're a good fit for. I get consistent checks from a few different places now,
but I've had to go down a lot of dead end roads to figure out which places my music fits the best with and which companies are able to actively license my tracks. It's an ongoing process. I'm still seeking out new opportunities and writing music on a regular basis.
Making money licensing music isn't like getting a job at a company where when
you get the job you stop seeking out other opportunities. For most indie musicians, it's an ongoing process. The task of writing new music and seeking out opportunities is the job of sync licensing. The effort that it takes to find companies, upload your music, sign agreements and so on... that's the "job" part of licensing. When you start to get placements and get paid, it makes all the effort more than worthwhile.
