How To Turn One Song Into Five (And Make Five Times The Money)

May 16, 2012

I just finished a brand new course specifically on how to make money from stock production music libraries with a musician from Canada who makes great money specifically from this niche.  I'm really excited! This is the first in a series of new courses I'll be offering on very specific niches within the music licensing business.  This particular course is two hours long and packed with really specific advice and instruction on how to make money specifically with production music. More on that soon....

Today I thought I'd share one of the many great ideas from the course on how you can make money with stock music libraries.  This particular niche works differently than working with music publishers and supervisors do and there are different ways to earn money in this niche that are unique to stock music.

For example, when you're uploading your tracks to stock music libraries, why not create multiple versions of each track you upload to earn even more revenue.  That's what Aaron Saloman does, the musician who I created the "stock music" course with.  For each track Aaron uploads to the different sites he works with, Aaron creates an instrumental version, a 30 second version, a 60 second version and when applicable a "stinger" which is a short, several second part of the track used to transition between scenes.

Aaron says these extra versions almost always end up selling in addition to the regular versions and he multiplies the income he generates from his music as much as five times by this one simple technique!  Awesome! It's so simple yet so powerful!

I'll have more information next week on the course I did with Aaron.  We're still putting on the finishing touches...  More info soon!

 

Video: Example Of A Song I Didn't License

May 10, 2012

In my last couple videos, I shared the story of how I was able to license my first couple songs and I played the actual songs I was able to license.  I thought it would be equally helpful to share an example of a song that  I was able to sign with my publisher but that I didn’t successfully license.  

In this video I share one of the songs I wrote per the request of my publisher, Wait.  This song DIDN'T get licensed and during the video I talk about why I think the song didn't make the cut a...
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Video: How I Got My Second Song On TV

May 8, 2012
After my first placement, there was a pretty long period of time before I was able to get another one of my songs licensed.  

In this video I tell the story of how I was able to figure out what was holding me back from getting my second placement and move forward with placing more songs.

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Video: How I Got My First Song On TV

May 5, 2012
A few weeks ago I received a check for $300.00, for a song I wrote and first licensed ten years ago.  The song, "All The Love", is actually the first song I licensed into television, ten years ago.  I get checks for this song every year.   

In this video I tell the inspiring story of how I was able to license this track and how you can do the same. Watch all the way to the end to hear the song.



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What Can Yo Do Today To Move Your Career Forward?

May 3, 2012

Sometimes musicians are so focused on trying to find their "big break" that they miss many smaller opportunities to move their career forward and make money from their music on a daily basis. I don't think there's ever been more tools available to musicians to promote their music and build their careers than there is now.  

One of the things I've been doing recently is finding at least one thing I can do every day to promote my music and move my career forward, both as it relates to licensing ...


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How To Use Directories To Get New Leads For Your Music

April 28, 2012


If you want to license more of your music in more places you have to get more of your music to more people in the business.  It sounds obvious. It is.  But it's easy to forget to follow through on.  Assuming your music is where it needs to be in terms of production and you're making music that there is a demand for, the next step is to connect your music with the right people.

I suggest using an industry directory, or several, as your main tool for building your contact list.  Of course I am b...


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Why You Should License Your Music

April 20, 2012
 

I've been writing this newsletter for over three years now, and if you've been on my email list that long you'll know that I have dispensed tons of useful advice about the music licensing business.  I've covered a lot of ground and I've given you a lot of useful advice about how to get your music in TV and Films.   But today I want to talk about why you should license your music, as opposed to how. 

You see, I think in many ways we are probably a lot alike.  We have a common bond, which is th...


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"Artist" Music VS "Production" Music

April 15, 2012
There are essentially two different ways to go about pursuing licensing opportunities. On one hand, you can work to establish yourself as an artist.  You can write the songs you're inspired to write, play shows, record and sell CDs and pitch your music to whatever relevant licensing opportunities you come across.  
 
The other path is one where you write music specifically with licensing opportunities in mind.  I consider this type of music for the most part, "stock music" or "production mu...

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How To Stay Inspired

April 6, 2012
Do you sometimes find yourself low on inspiration? Do you struggle with periods where you just aren't "feeling it" with respect to music and your music career. I think it's normal to have periods where your level of inspiration and motivation waxes and wanes. But in my experience there are things you can do that will prolong periods of
inspiration and also make them more frequent. In today's newsletter I thought I'd share a few of these ideas with you.

1) Write music consistently. When I was yo...

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Examples Of Songs Used In TV Part 2 - Navy NCIS

March 27, 2012
Here's another great example of music used in television.  This scene is from an episode of the TV Show Navy NCIS. During this scene the characters are discussing performing an autopsy on a deceased body while Android Lust's song "Stained" plays in the background.  The character Abby even mentions "Android Lust" by name in the beginning of the scene.  I've included the lyrics below the video. Notice how the imagery the lyrics of this song evoke fit perfectly with the nature of the subject mat...
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