I'm so excited today about the future of music licensing. The power independent musicians have to take their careers into their own hands and move forward and make things happen for themselves is truly amazing. I created this newsletter as a forum for sharing knowledge about the music licensing industry that I've acquired during the last few years of working as a songwriter in the music licensing business. I've had so many exhilarating and rewarding moments over the last few years that it's truly a pleasure

to share what I've learned and, hopefully, inspire a few of you as well.

 

Today I want to share a few things I've learned during the last few years regarding working in the business and share with you some ideas about how you can maximize your success by learning from some of the experiences I've encountered while working in the business.

 

First of all, I really think it's important to not hesitate when trying to get into the licensing business. I think a common tendency that many musicians have is to over analyze and over critique their own work. If you're making music that you're excited about and you want to make a living from your music, then like anything else you should move forward and go for it. 

 

If you're not excited about the music you're making then you might want to reconsider why you're creating it! Your music is never going to be "perfect"

so if you've reached a level of competency my suggestion is to just go for it and get it out there. 

You'll learn as you go what works and what doesn't based on the reaction you get. 

 

Making music is a life long process and you will always be improving, but your career needs to have some sort of an entry point. I started my licensing career with just one song that I mailed to my publisher and I gradually built up my catalog from there.

 

Secondly, you need to also be prepared for opportunities that arise. Looking back, this is one of the biggest lessons I've learned about the industry. Once you start making connections and getting songs placed more opportunities will come your way. 

 

But it's critical that you be ready for them if you're looking to make this a career. If someone is

able to successfully license your music, a publisher for example, then they are going to most likely want to continue to work with you. Why wouldn't they? Be

prepared to work to meet the needs of who you're working with and you will get more and more opportunities presented to you. 

 

One of the best ways to do this is to be able to create things on demand within a short amount of time. When I first got involved in the music licensing business I was eager to take whatever work I could get and so I was pretty persistent in asking my publisher about what projects she was working on at the time. 

 

I would email her, per her request, once a week and she would tell me what she was working on. After a couple weeks without much going on she called me and said she was in need of a rock song in the vein of The Strokes for an upcoming film called "Freaky Friday" starring Jamie Lee Curtis. I excitedly

got to to work, lined up some studio time with a few

friends, and within about 48 hours had written, produced and delivered a complete song. 

 

To make a long story short, the song didn't end up in the movie, but my publisher was so impressed with my work that this led to many more opportunities since then that have worked out.