If your goal is to make a living licensing your music in tv, films, ads and so on, then one of the main things you should focus on is creating a catalog of your music. A "catalog" is simply a collection of songs that you'll be able to pitch to music licensing opportunities. The more songs you have, and the more
diverse your catalog, the more licensing opportunities your music will be a good fit for.
Many artists are trying to break into licensing with just a few songs, or one album's worth of songs and then wondering why they're not having more success. If you only have a handful of songs, you're going to be extremely limited in terms of potential licensing opportunities your music will be a good fit for. But as you focus on creating more music, about a variety of topics, in a variety of styles and moods, you'll begin to expand the scope of
opportunities your music will work for and you'll greatly increase the odds of being successful.
How many songs do you need? Great question. I don’t have a precise answer, but think about it this way, the income you make will more than likely, be directly proportionate to the size of your catalog. The more songs you make, the more songs you’ll be able to license. The more topics and moods your songs address, the more potential scenes and uses your music will be a good fit for. The more songs you license, the more money you’ll
make.
Your ongoing mission should be to create a diverse, vibrant catalog of amazing music that will meet the needs of the licensing community you’ll be serving. Of course, you don’t need hundreds of songs to get started, but your goal should always be to create more songs that will work for more productions, shows, films, ads and so on. At the end of the day, this is what it’s all about; making music.
