Thats great Dani,that you re-seached these folks,because it will save an artist a lot of trouble and time.They can at least cut down the numbers of the legit and scams.Great work and effort by you both,I thank you both for making my work a little bit easier.
#386 Posted Thu 12 Mar, 2015 4:44 pm
Thats great Dani,that you re-seached these folks,because it will save an artist a lot of trouble and time.They can at least cut down the numbers of the legit and scams.Great work and effort by you both,I thank you both for making my work a little bit easier.
Originally posted by morgan102 on Thu 12 Mar, 2015
You're so very welcome, pal. I still have to go through my bookmarks, as there are many other sites that I have joined and had similar experiences with. I'd love to hear if anyone else encountered these sites.
#387 Posted Thu 12 Mar, 2015 4:51 pm
Good topic Dani! I've tried most of the sites you mentioned and have spent a lot of time/money trying to find new opportunities. I should say, I'm very adventures and not scared to put my music almost anywhere(not always great to be like this).
I'll mention only the successful ones,
1. Pump Audio - Now called Getty Images Music. To Dani's point it takes a long time to get in. And even once you are in, it takes even longer to actually see any results. My personal experience was over 2 years after they accepted my songs. They did however get one of my songs licensed in the show Breaking Amish, which resulted in a couple hundred dollar profit between licensing fee and ASCAP royalty collection. I must also mention, that be careful what you say OK in the initial signup. I pretty much said yes anything, ended having my song used in a film I wouldn't have preferred not to(wink, wink, nudge, nudge). After the initial shock wore off, it actually turned out to be one of my most popularly downloaded songs and still garners quite a bit of sales(grow up people :-). If I could go back, I probably wouldn't have agreed to it, but hey(is for horses). Below is the song that was licensed in the 2 mentions above in case you want to hear it for sound quality purposes. I don't consider it my best work at all.
https://derekclegg.bandcamp.com/track/hope
Also consider crucialmusic.com - Even more selective than Getty. I've got a few songs in, most denied. Haven't had any successes with them.
2. CdBaby. It cost $79 to get an album on i-tunes, spotify and all the other musical sites. For the most part, I never recoup the money with sales. But there is a micro-sync licensing deal with "Friendly" music that is worthwhile. This protects your songs on Youtube from other people using them in video and monetizing your music without your permission. They also sell licenses for people to use your music legally and share in any monetization profits. It's still early on for me on this and what it's worth. I've seen a minimal kick back, but I have really enjoyed the added protection on youtube at the very least.
3. Soundreef. This is the real deal. I have a lot of songs up on there(somewhere around 140). The following is my understanding of what they do. They are like an ASCAP/BMI that put your songs out there and collect the money from radio subscriptions music plays. They do it by asking you to assign them as the collector of your royalties in Europe for radio/in-store. This means you have to give up that right from your current(if you have one) royalty collector, in my case ASCAP. They have a large library of music and sell the use of the library to businesses at a fraction of the cost for using a song through ASCAP/BMI. They categorize the channels by genre and assign playlist to the stations. The stores/businesses select their particular taste and at the end of 6 months, they tally your plays and pay you out. Because of the amount of music I have, it ads up to a decent amount.
4. A website and facebook page. http://www.derekclegg.com This is a fake it till you make sort of deal. If people think you're a touring artist they will assign more worth to what you are doing(in theory, no one likes an amateur). I get fan emails and also have sold a few licenses to companies interested in using my music. Not a ton, but enough.
Overall patience and constant searching I believe is key if you want to take your music as far as you can. Mostly dead ends, but every once in a while you get lucky.
I'll mention only the successful ones,
1. Pump Audio - Now called Getty Images Music. To Dani's point it takes a long time to get in. And even once you are in, it takes even longer to actually see any results. My personal experience was over 2 years after they accepted my songs. They did however get one of my songs licensed in the show Breaking Amish, which resulted in a couple hundred dollar profit between licensing fee and ASCAP royalty collection. I must also mention, that be careful what you say OK in the initial signup. I pretty much said yes anything, ended having my song used in a film I wouldn't have preferred not to(wink, wink, nudge, nudge). After the initial shock wore off, it actually turned out to be one of my most popularly downloaded songs and still garners quite a bit of sales(grow up people :-). If I could go back, I probably wouldn't have agreed to it, but hey(is for horses). Below is the song that was licensed in the 2 mentions above in case you want to hear it for sound quality purposes. I don't consider it my best work at all.
https://derekclegg.bandcamp.com/track/hope
Also consider crucialmusic.com - Even more selective than Getty. I've got a few songs in, most denied. Haven't had any successes with them.
2. CdBaby. It cost $79 to get an album on i-tunes, spotify and all the other musical sites. For the most part, I never recoup the money with sales. But there is a micro-sync licensing deal with "Friendly" music that is worthwhile. This protects your songs on Youtube from other people using them in video and monetizing your music without your permission. They also sell licenses for people to use your music legally and share in any monetization profits. It's still early on for me on this and what it's worth. I've seen a minimal kick back, but I have really enjoyed the added protection on youtube at the very least.
3. Soundreef. This is the real deal. I have a lot of songs up on there(somewhere around 140). The following is my understanding of what they do. They are like an ASCAP/BMI that put your songs out there and collect the money from radio subscriptions music plays. They do it by asking you to assign them as the collector of your royalties in Europe for radio/in-store. This means you have to give up that right from your current(if you have one) royalty collector, in my case ASCAP. They have a large library of music and sell the use of the library to businesses at a fraction of the cost for using a song through ASCAP/BMI. They categorize the channels by genre and assign playlist to the stations. The stores/businesses select their particular taste and at the end of 6 months, they tally your plays and pay you out. Because of the amount of music I have, it ads up to a decent amount.
4. A website and facebook page. http://www.derekclegg.com This is a fake it till you make sort of deal. If people think you're a touring artist they will assign more worth to what you are doing(in theory, no one likes an amateur). I get fan emails and also have sold a few licenses to companies interested in using my music. Not a ton, but enough.
Overall patience and constant searching I believe is key if you want to take your music as far as you can. Mostly dead ends, but every once in a while you get lucky.
#389 Posted Fri 13 Mar, 2015 3:12 pm
The info on this topic is magnificent!Dani,thanks again for initiating it and DC for a wonderful follow up.GREAT INFO!!
#390 Posted Fri 13 Mar, 2015 3:46 pm
Nicely said youz guyz. And thanks for sharing, Derek. Takes patience and persistence, that's for sure.
#391 Posted Fri 13 Mar, 2015 4:35 pm
+1 to all the above, and thank you so much for sharing. Glad to know you guys were paid...even of just a little, that's awesome. Tried broadjam when entering into a songwriting contest for the Dallas songwriters association several years ago, but over time lost interest because I failed to really connect with any other artists...as I spent more time elsewhere ;)
It was pretty informative about contests and opportunities to sell , but it seems if your not part of a pre-existing group or association on that site, you get lost in the crowd very quickly.
Suppose that underscores how important the social aspect of the music can be from both the creative side and the promotional side of things. Great food for thought...thanks again!
It was pretty informative about contests and opportunities to sell , but it seems if your not part of a pre-existing group or association on that site, you get lost in the crowd very quickly.
Suppose that underscores how important the social aspect of the music can be from both the creative side and the promotional side of things. Great food for thought...thanks again!
#392 Posted Fri 13 Mar, 2015 6:35 pm
Great links guys!
I had a few folks contact me via soundcloud to ask to license my music for film and video. I lacked any official way of doing this so I sent them to kompoz and I sold them a license through there. Unfortunately Kompoz took a 20% cut plus a fee on top of it. I still don't have any official looking online way to handle transactions like these in case another one comes along. Be great to have something like Kompoz had except without the big cut.
I had a few folks contact me via soundcloud to ask to license my music for film and video. I lacked any official way of doing this so I sent them to kompoz and I sold them a license through there. Unfortunately Kompoz took a 20% cut plus a fee on top of it. I still don't have any official looking online way to handle transactions like these in case another one comes along. Be great to have something like Kompoz had except without the big cut.
#393 Posted Fri 13 Mar, 2015 10:28 pm
Great links guys!
I had a few folks contact me via soundcloud to ask to license my music for film and video. I lacked any official way of doing this so I sent them to kompoz and I sold them a license through there. Unfortunately Kompoz took a 20% cut plus a fee on top of it. I still don't have any official looking online way to handle transactions like these in case another one comes along. Be great to have something like Kompoz had except without the big cut.
Originally posted by Phoephus on Fri 13 Mar, 2015
That's why its so important to get together in this type of forum and exchange ideas and means ,so we come out a head of the game,no matter how big or small.
#396 Posted Fri 13 Mar, 2015 11:59 pm
Thanks for sharing, everyone! Derek, way to go on getting your song licensed for the show Breaking Amish, that is so awesome! My mom used to watch that show, makes me wonder if she heard your song. :)
We are still waiting to hear back from Pump Audio, it's been a long time so I am going to send a follow-up email. We submitted 3 songs to Crucial Music but 2 got rejected, the other one is still pending - it's been months now.
I'll continue to add links to this forum as they become available. I am always looking for opportunities & will certainly share with everyone. :)
We are still waiting to hear back from Pump Audio, it's been a long time so I am going to send a follow-up email. We submitted 3 songs to Crucial Music but 2 got rejected, the other one is still pending - it's been months now.
I'll continue to add links to this forum as they become available. I am always looking for opportunities & will certainly share with everyone. :)
#397 Posted Sat 14 Mar, 2015 9:47 pm
Luckily, over the years, the internet made it possible for musicians to be able to pitch our music to industry folk without actually leaving our living rooms. Pros and Cons? Absolutely, and chances are that you might encounter scam companies who promise they’ll get your music heard by music directors or executives for a “payment”.
I wanted to share a few links & experiences with ya’ll, and please feel free to do the same.
http://www.hitlicense.com
This was one of the first places we found that “seemed” pretty legit. They charge you $5.00 a pop to submit to an opportunity. An opportunity can be anything from a commercial to a movie. Music directors contact Hit License and tell them what they are looking for – can be a ballad, or an instrumental. They have tons of opps, and are very specific when it comes to what they are looking for. They even provide example videos to use as a comparison for the song(s) they are seeking. Hundreds might apply, but only a few get shortlisted. If your song gets shortlisted but not chosen, Hit License gives you back your $5.00 dollars, which is very cool.
However, at $5.00 dollars a pop, it adds up very quickly. By the time you know it, you’ve spent $100.00 bucks with nothing to show for it. I also notice that the same few people get licensed, so that didn’t sit right with me.
http://www.musicclout.com
Huge RED FLAG alert on this company! Upon landing on their site and seeing their hundreds of opportunities, one can easily become blinded. They have 3 different packages varying from free to $14.95 per month. Of course we decided to take the $14.95 package – I mean, they offer unlimited submissions to their hundreds of “music clout exclusive” opportunities. There are music magazines, blogs, movies, and commercial opps – all looking for music. So chances are you are at least going to get chosen for one of these opps, right? Well, not exactly! At least not for Spicy Folk – we never even got a “cool music but not exactly what we’re looking for” response, ever! We must have submitted our songs to at least 200 different opportunities.
Now, the funny thing is – Music Clout states that these opportunities are ‘exclusive’ through Music Clout, so if I were to do a Google search and find the company that are looking for these songs and apply directly, they would refuse me. Well, turns out that - that is bogus! I was indeed able to find the majority of these companies and was able to send my songs in for FREE. So I gave Music Clout my $14.95, when I just could have searched for these opportunities myself.
By the way, when I finally got hip to their little scheme, I did some research on the company. Boy oh boy, they have sooooo many terrible reviews. And they have about 6 different pseudonyms on Twitter – but why? Who knows?
http://www.broadjam.com
A similar site to Music Clout (but much better) is Broad Jam. Their packages range from $19.95 per month to $399.95 for 3 years. You can also pay $15.00 per submission – yeah that adds up rather quickly. They have tons of opportunities available, and allow you to create a profile and upload your songs. You can even sell your songs & keep 100% of the profits, not bad. Another great perk they have are peer to peer reviews. So if you review 10 songs from other members, they will review10 of your songs. I found the critique to be very informative, no smoke blowing up the kazoo if ya know what I mean. Some were even pretty harsh, but we appreciated that.
So, we paid $19.95 for the month & got to submit 4 songs at $5.00 a pop – oh and they give you one free, so we had a total of 5 submissions. Plus we submitted to 2 others at $15.00 a pop. We never even got shortlisted. I think the worst part of it was – a few musicians who were chosen for the opps were not even that great. I was a bit baffled by some of the lousy recordings, geez. They have tons of contests as well, but yes, you have to pay to enter them!
The upside of Broadjam is the community, you don’t have to buy into any packages to stay on board – you can just have your songs up and give & receive reviews of your work, which in itself is pretty cool. Other than that – I wouldn’t waste my money there.
http://www.musicxray.com
This is an interesting site – not sure I’m 100% sold on their claims to have linked thousands of musicians with record labels/companies, etc… I could be wrong, but the site never appealed to me.
You can upload many of your songs to the site, awesome right? Problem is – you have to get ‘music xray diagnostics’ which means you pay $10.00 for each song you want to be able to submit to opps – without doing that, you cannot submit anything. On top of that, you need to pay for each submission, which can range from $5.00 to $25.00, sometimes more!
We submitted to 4 opps on that site, and oddly enough (although completely different companies) they all sent us a very similar rejection letter. It made us wonder if our songs were all going to the same place. Hec, how can we even be sure that our songs were making it to the ears of music directors/executives? Guess that is the chance you take with all these sites.
Every now and again Music Xray sends us a $5.00 voucher via email and tells us that we better use it within 3 days or it will expire. What can $5.00 get ya? A free “evaluation” of one of your songs from a guy named Stuart Epps. Funny enough, we sent him 3 songs (all at different times) and his response was exactly the same all 3 times. More or less said something like, “your song has a lot of potential but can use a better mix/production - if you go to my website and submit your song, I will produce it for you for a good price…” Ah okay, there ya have it! Suffice to say, we unsubscribed to their mailing list.
http://www.youlicense.com
http://www.tracksandfields.com
These 2 are very similar, you must pay for your submissions – and again, we got nothing out of it.
One site that is similar but totally free is http://www.sentricmusic.com
Yes, FREE! You can upload your songs (should be excellent quality) as they stress that when you upload your songs. Then you can go to their synchronization section and submit to as many opps as they have. You can even submit up to 3 songs per opp, cool eh? Once you are registered with them, they send you emails every time they have new opps, which is very convenient. Sentric Music is my favorite licensing site. Yeah, probably because it is free, so I don’t feel like I am losing anything, except my time, but that’s okay!
All in all, for an artist who is just starting to venture into the wonderful world of licensing their music – all of these sites can be very appealing, and it’s so easy to become overly excited by the “potential” that your music might land in a movie or commercial. However, it’s always a good idea to check these sites out before sending them your money. Google them, read what others have experienced, then use your best judgment.
Personally, I would recommend trying to get your music into a Music Library. You have a much better chance at that, although that is not an easy feat either. Most music libraries are extremely picky and cater to a more “modern” sound. But once your music is in a music library, you can leave it there until kingdom come – and just collect royalties, granted that they get used.
Spicy Folk got accepted by Pump Audio, which I was told was very difficult to get in to. We had to submit 2 of our songs for review, and then waited a long time before we got the “green light” which meant we got accepted – we had to mail them our actual CD, sign a huge contract, and then wait…..and wait…..and wait…..and we are still waiting! I wrote to them asking if they forgot about us, but they quickly replied and said that it takes a long time, as they have so many other artists going through the same process. Oh well.
One last site that actually surprised the hec out of us is http://www.soundreef.com
This site is a royalty collecting company based in the UK. You upload your songs & have to sign a contract (literally with your mouse on screen) and give them permission to pitch your songs to shopping malls, stores, bars, etc…and every time your song is played, Sound Reef collects the royalties for you. Sure they make a small percentage out of the deal. Then I believe they send you the payments (if any) 4 times a year – it might be 2 times, not sure.
I uploaded 3 of our Spicy Folk songs. At that point I wasn’t expecting anything from them. As a matter of fact I completely forgot I even joined the site. Then last month I get an email from them saying that they sent our royalty check to our paypal account. I was like, “huh”? As I was signing into my account I figured I’d see like $2.00 dollars in there, haha. Actually they sent us $70.00. I was like, “whoa”! I seriously couldn’t believe it.
It was a total surprise, and all I did was upload 3 songs, for FREE! I could have uploaded all of our songs, but at the time I was so skeptical about these sites. The most exciting part was seeing all the locations around the UK where our songs were being played. It was so cool to think that people might be singing our songs as they shop around the mall. That put a smile on my face, not to mention the extra $70.00 bucks in our paypal account.
Anyway, I've rambled enough – I hope this post shines some light for folk who are interested in licensing their music. If you have any sites or experiences you want to share, please do! :)