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. But in the beginning, chances are it's going
to be slow going. Licensing can be like
that, your music might sit in a library for a year with no activity, and then
all of a sudden you'll get several placements.
So in the meantime, why not keep building your pipeline and increase
your odds of getting even more placements.
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
licensing my tracks. It's an ongoing
process. I'm still seeking out new
opportunities.
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. 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.
Comment on the blog:
http://www.howtolicenseyourmusic.com/blog/how-to-build-a-music-licensing-pipeline
