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Got this spam from music clout. Seems like a good topic for the BM forum.

https://musicclout.com/contents/article ... dium=email




1) Your Songs Aren't Good Enough - If you've been actively trying to license your music without success then this is the first place you need to look. Are your songs good? Are your songs great? I know this is a hard thing to be objective about but you really need to try to distance yourself a little and assess whether your music really is as good as other music that is being successfully picked up. Supervisors listen to a lot of music and they gravitate towards songs that fit the criteria for the scenes they need music for and for the songs that they simply like the best. Write great songs and people will take notice.

2) Your Production Isn't Good Enough - If you write great songs and you've been actively trying to license them without success then there is a good chance that your production is lacking. Your songs needed to be well produced and mixed and mastered in accordance with broadcast quality standards. If you're not sure what this means, simply go listen to 10 or 20 songs that have been successfully licensed and check out the production. How does your music compare? Music licensing doesn't have to be a guessing game. Study others that are successfully doing what you want to do and use that as a barometer for determining where you stand.

3) Your Music Is Too Obscure - Music that is licensed in projects like TV shows, films and advertisements is used to fit a specific need that the music supervisor has for the scene in which your music is potentially being used. Usually supervisors have a particular sound or style in mind when they are searching for music to use and usually they're looking for artists that sound similar to other popular artists. This one is tricky because I don't think in general it's a good idea to try and sound like someone else and I don't want you to feel like your stifled creatively when you're writing music. BUT, with that said, it's really important to be aware of what kind of music gets licensed if you're trying to license your music. Makes sense right?

I made a video about this topic awhile ago that I posted on YouTube and someone commented that great artists like Frank Zappa or Bob Dylan weren't concerned about this when they were writing music and I agree, they probably weren't. But they also probably weren't thinking about trying to license their music in TV shows and films when they were writing songs. I'm assuming you are since you're a reader of my newsletter, so just keep in mind that if you're writing music that is too obscure you're going to limit the number of places your music could be potentially licensed. You can write music that is commercially relevant and still be very creative.

4) You're Not Trying Hard Enough - If you're doing all of the above, writing great music that is well produced and stylistically relevant and you're still not having success in the music licensing business, then there is a good chance you're simply not trying hard enough. I occasionally hear about artists that have success very quickly licensing their music, but this definitely isn't the norm. Usually it takes a fair amount of persistence and effort to get started. You need to connect with the right people, find out about projects that need music and submit your music regularly in order to move forward in the licensing business.

Something I've written a lot about in the past is how success breeds more success. Once you start getting positive feedback in the form of getting accepted into publishing catalogs, music libraries, etc this will generate motivate the energy you need to keep going forward. Positive feedback is addictive, in a healthy way, and the more you get positive feedback from people in the industry, the more you'll want to keep forging ahead. I suggest that you make new contacts and submit your music to new places on a regular basis, every day if you can. Whatever feedback you get will give you information on how to move forward.

5) You Need More Time - Finally, if you're doing all of the above and you haven't been able to license your music, then you probably just need more time. It can take time for the right project to come along that is a good fit for your music. If you know you're writing great music and you know you're doing everything you can to promote your music and connect with the right people, then relax, have patience and keep moving forward. I personally only get frustrated when I know there's something that I'm not doing that is preventing me from having success. There's no sense in worrying about things outside of your control, so if you're doing everything outlined in this email, relax and know that you're on the right path.

To Self Publish Or Not Self Publish.... That Is The Question
A Guest Post by Aaron Davison of How To License Your Music.com

Today, let's look at an issue that comes up frequently for songwriters interested in getting involved in the field of music licensing. It´s the question of self publishing vs. working with an outside publisher. In today's newsletter I´m going to walk you through the pros and cons of both approaches and give you my perspective on what the best approach is in general. First, let`s look at dealing directly with music supervisors...


The upside to placing your music this way is that if you´re successful in placing your music in a project directly through a music supervisor you´ll be keeping all the publishing royalties, as well as the writer´s royalty and all of the licensing fee. By placing your music yourself you´re essentially functioning as your own publisher and instead of sharing all the money that you would normally share with a publisher, you get to keep it.

The downside is that as an unknown songwriter you probably don´t know and have connections with music supervisors like established publishers do. This mean you´re going to need to do a lot of cold calling, emailing, etc to find out about projects and determine who is looking for what. This is certainly do-able, but it takes a lot of hustling and persistence.

I would say on average, when I´m contacting supervisors for the first time, I have about a ten percent success rate. Which means that about ten percent of the time I´ll get the greenlight to move forward and submit music. This isn't bad in my opinion if you consider how many variables are involved in the world of music supervision, but compared to publishers, who I would say I have a closer to fifty percent success rate with, it pales in comparison.

The upside to dealing with publishers, as opposed to music supervisors, is that IF they are established, then they´re going to have established relationships with music supervisors and this will help you get your music heard more easily. Of course you´ll have to share the licensing fees and royalties they generate on your behalf. Usually publishers split revenue generated 50/50 with writers. Sometimes they take less and sometimes they take slightly more. But 50/50 is pretty standard.

I suggest taking a diverse approach to getting your music licensed. Develop a portfolio of songs like you would a portfolio of stocks. Try placing some of them with non exclusive libraries and publishers, place a few more with high quality and credible exclusive publishers and represent some yourself, pitching them directly to supervisors, ad agencies, etc. Since just like with the stock market, you have no way of knowing for sure how different companies you sign with are going to pan out, it´s best not to put all your eggs in one basket and instead diversify and see who performs best. Then move forward with the companies and people who prove to be the best fit for you and your music.

yod wrote:Got this spam from music clout. Seems like a good topic for the BM forum.

https://musicclout.com/contents/article ... dium=email




1) Your Songs Aren't Good Enough - If you've been actively trying to license your music without success then this is the first place you need to look. Are your songs good? Are your songs great? I know this is a hard thing to be objective about but you really need to try to distance yourself a little and assess whether your music really is as good as other music that is being successfully picked up. Supervisors listen to a lot of music and they gravitate towards songs that fit the criteria for the scenes they need music for and for the songs that they simply like the best. Write great songs and people will take notice.

2) Your Production Isn't Good Enough - If you write great songs and you've been actively trying to license them without success then there is a good chance that your production is lacking. Your songs needed to be well produced and mixed and mastered in accordance with broadcast quality standards. If you're not sure what this means, simply go listen to 10 or 20 songs that have been successfully licensed and check out the production. How does your music compare? Music licensing doesn't have to be a guessing game. Study others that are successfully doing what you want to do and use that as a barometer for determining where you stand.

3) Your Music Is Too Obscure - Music that is licensed in projects like TV shows, films and advertisements is used to fit a specific need that the music supervisor has for the scene in which your music is potentially being used. Usually supervisors have a particular sound or style in mind when they are searching for music to use and usually they're looking for artists that sound similar to other popular artists. This one is tricky because I don't think in general it's a good idea to try and sound like someone else and I don't want you to feel like your stifled creatively when you're writing music. BUT, with that said, it's really important to be aware of what kind of music gets licensed if you're trying to license your music. Makes sense right?

I made a video about this topic awhile ago that I posted on YouTube and someone commented that great artists like Frank Zappa or Bob Dylan weren't concerned about this when they were writing music and I agree, they probably weren't. But they also probably weren't thinking about trying to license their music in TV shows and films when they were writing songs. I'm assuming you are since you're a reader of my newsletter, so just keep in mind that if you're writing music that is too obscure you're going to limit the number of places your music could be potentially licensed. You can write music that is commercially relevant and still be very creative.

4) You're Not Trying Hard Enough - If you're doing all of the above, writing great music that is well produced and stylistically relevant and you're still not having success in the music licensing business, then there is a good chance you're simply not trying hard enough. I occasionally hear about artists that have success very quickly licensing their music, but this definitely isn't the norm. Usually it takes a fair amount of persistence and effort to get started. You need to connect with the right people, find out about projects that need music and submit your music regularly in order to move forward in the licensing business.

Something I've written a lot about in the past is how success breeds more success. Once you start getting positive feedback in the form of getting accepted into publishing catalogs, music libraries, etc this will generate motivate the energy you need to keep going forward. Positive feedback is addictive, in a healthy way, and the more you get positive feedback from people in the industry, the more you'll want to keep forging ahead. I suggest that you make new contacts and submit your music to new places on a regular basis, every day if you can. Whatever feedback you get will give you information on how to move forward.

5) You Need More Time - Finally, if you're doing all of the above and you haven't been able to license your music, then you probably just need more time. It can take time for the right project to come along that is a good fit for your music. If you know you're writing great music and you know you're doing everything you can to promote your music and connect with the right people, then relax, have patience and keep moving forward. I personally only get frustrated when I know there's something that I'm not doing that is preventing me from having success. There's no sense in worrying about things outside of your control, so if you're doing everything outlined in this email, relax and know that you're on the right path.

Frankly Ted, the explanation above doesn't even scratch the truth. I noticed he aint the next mousetrap in music... so who the fk is he...
The bigger truth is pretty simple. The world simply doesn't deserve greatness anymore. Consequently, it really hasn't been getting any, (lately). We'd rather calculate progress on the next 'goal' we score, rather than the essence of magic in song... We prefer focusing on the discipline of warfare rather than the discipline of real art. Every f u c k i n kid 40 and under in America cant get past the notion of a reset button to handle the consequences of their own decisions. NONE understand consistency. NONE value that, which has been proved to work. None treasure the sentiment of real success. They want to 'know' but they don't want to learn.
Music has been so commercialized in its present form, that audiences are now given to dismissing good composition as 'that which compels us to purchase goods and services. Music delivery has transformed and has been taken over by the 'might makes right ' crowd of athletes.. HOW THE FK DID WE selll out to FCKIN athletes!?
That spammer above wouldnt know a real article of music , if it kicked him in balls and gave him a falsetto in C. He 'Thinks" he describes 'greatness in a song" What a droid!

The article from Music Clout reads like a check list to evaluate yourself and determine what you need to improve on. But also assumes you are trying to get your music on TV, Movies, commercials etc... if it's not your goal it's not your bag. Nothing wrong with that. Bottom line though you can't catch a fish without a good line and most importantly a good hook!

If I ever get any decent recordings done I would try any and all possible approaches.
Anyone using TuneCore? I've noticed more and more on Reverbnation use that site.

All absolutely subjective.

As example . . . 99.9 % of everything on the radio IMO is "not good enough".

So much for informative articles.

All well and good, but who are these 'music supervisors' (second article)? It mentions 'cold calling' - yeah, that works (NOT). It mentions publishers with connections to these music supervisors - who are these publishers and how do you get them to listen to your music?

I would like to qualify my earlier ranting. I come from a perspective that insists all music should be art, and therefore should be advanced and promoted as art. Unfortunately, my view is painfully outdated.

The reality is that the guys in those articles are treating music from the perspective of cattle calling. They assume there are lines of cheap, untalented people, chomping at the bit to land record deals ...(And they are right).

What these articles FAIL to point out, is how important it is for a musician to lead the real 24/7 life of a musician. Its the biggest lesson that we all keep missing.

To succeed in the music business, one absolutely must understand that there is no room for any other line of work... . ( Anybody here happen to know if the Black Keys have a part time job somewhere else?)

You can follow all the steps outlined in these articles... They don't account for variation of environments, which strongly assumes that there is still some sort music Mecca out there, where a pilgrimage of musicians travel to . There simply is no place today (Used to be Nashville, until every toothless mother and their sons got their meat-hooks in on the business end of music.

So here it is in summary, from me, the amatuer:

1) Live Eat and breathe the life of music, 24/7 ...no exceptions
2) Write cutting edge songs that will become hallmarked for RnR history (Must be consistent)
3) Be capable of pulling off 10-15 hour sets , 7 nights a week
4) Hire a very good manager.

I am just playing for fun in both my bands - a Dead cover and Psychedelic hard rock band doing originals ....
Play the Fests / hit the studio / make music with my friends / be as good as I can be .... these are the goals I have
Too many times people see musicains as a way to make a quick buck - we have all seen the scams over and over ....
Kudos to the guys who can pay their bills with a guitar though !
A gig last week came with a hamburger and a beer and almost enough cash to cover gas ...

PaperDog wrote:I come from a perspective that insists all music should be art, and therefore should be advanced and promoted as art. Unfortunately, my view is painfully outdated.

I agree PD... and that's a personal view.

To me this is just pointing out how some artists today make $$ by creating art or maybe some contrived formula sounds. It's not all bad. The Walking Dead had some great music of unknown artists on every episode. That was the number 1 rated show on cable and TV this past season. Millions of viewers heard those bands. Nothing I heard sounded contrived.
Nothing I've heard from you sounds contrived but that doesn't mean your songs couldn't be used on a soundtrack for a TV show or a movie.

GuitarMikeB wrote:All well and good, but who are these 'music supervisors' (second article)? It mentions 'cold calling' - yeah, that works (NOT). It mentions publishers with connections to these music supervisors - who are these publishers and how do you get them to listen to your music?

http://www.mpa.org/directory-of-music-publishers/

I have nothing to add to these articles, but to those of you who are bashing them, they speak the truth in regards to the topics they speak about. Maybe it doesn't apply to you specifically, but if you are trying to publish music for tv/film, this is a great set of guidelines and approaches.

Why all the negativity?

I have had music placed in a few dozen Tv shows and films, and my music is about as obscure as obscure can be.

One would rightly hesitate to even call them songs as they are instrumental, with no semblance of verse or chorus, no AABA structures, no chord progressions etc.

All of it home recorded on very modest equipment (many were recorded on a pc using a 16 bit SoundBlaster card).

I never tried very hard. I had posted some music on-line for the first time, someone wrote me to say it might do well as backing tracks in TV & movies, to send them a CD. I sent a CD and filled out some papers, joined BMI and forgot about it for about 7 or 8 years.

After a few hard drive crashes, I had lost contact with the publisher and figured it wouldn't matter much anyway. One day I found out that I had some thousands in royalties owed to me! I found this out at at time when I was unable to find any sort of "day job" and was having to sell off lots my musical instruments and gear to pay rent.

I sent new material in after all these years, but have yet to see anything happen with it. A small amount of royalties still trickle in from the old stuff, thanks to re-runs!

Overall my own experience has very little in common with that article's author.

That's interesting Vinnie - as it happened several years ago, things probably are quite a bit different now.
The directory of publishers that Kramer linked is great - but how do you get them to listen to your music? Blind mailing of CDs to all?

GuitarMikeB wrote:That's interesting Vinnie - as it happened several years ago, things probably are quite a bit different now.
The directory of publishers that Kramer linked is great - but how do you get them to listen to your music? Blind mailing of CDs to all?

Yep, netowrking, blind mailing, calling, emailing, linkedin networking.. anything else you can think of.. a lot of old-schooling with a mix of new-schooling..

Going to music conferences if there's any in your area is strongly advised, if not an outright necessity.. they are huge networking opportunities as well as a direct link to working professionals in all capacities of the industry. They are there to fish talent as much as you are there to fish opportunities.

GuitarMikeB wrote:That's interesting Vinnie - as it happened several years ago, things probably are quite a bit different now.
The directory of publishers that Kramer linked is great - but how do you get them to listen to your music? Blind mailing of CDs to all?

I don't know. I just posted my music on a free music hosting site that was around about 10 years ago. A publisher contacted me. I thought it was probably some sort of scam, but they did not ask me for any money, so I went along with it. They suggested that I join a PRO, so I did.

Things do appear to be different .. there are now a lot of places that ask you for money to submit your tunes for placement consideration ... that's a scam!

I suspect nowadays they do not have to search around for stuff with all that is thrown on their desks. It may be they contacted me because my music was so unlike anything they get sent to them, all day long, everyday.