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HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR BAND THROUGH MUSIC LICENSING
Canadian Scooter Johnson of the Psychobilly band The
Deadcats gives some practical advice on promoting a band with particular
reference to licensing music for soundtrack etc. And Scooter has very
successfully promoted his own band by getting this article syndicated
all over the Web!
So you have a band, a CD, a practice space, a so-so van, a couple of
gigs coming up and an internet connection - what next? Convergence. A
dirty word for corporations but a promising term for bands striving to
go that extra mile for exposure and financial independence. The internet
is proving itself to be beneficial to the newest bands and others who
recognize that they have to reach far beyond the city limits to make a
go of music as a career.
Your two immediate online needs are a URL or domain name that is representative
of band, preferably www.yourbandname.com with a main email address of
info@yourbandname.com that is checked regularly (http://www.internic.net
worldwide or http://www.cira.ca in Canada).
With thousands upon thousands of bands online, doing searches for indie
bands who have lost themselves at the end of a very long URL - can consider
themselves truly lost. Don't make people fight to find you! There are
many sites that allow you set-up your presence for free or for a monthly
fee that includes your own domain name, an email service that allows group
emails (i.e. regular newsletter or gig/touring announcements), merchandise
sales with e-commerce capabilities (credit card processing and shipping)
and a walk through of all the steps involved in building your pages (try
http://www.freedomtogroove.com).
After your website our first foray into online money-making was joining
mp3.com. It was relatively easy to upload
our music but we're not making any money off it and haven't for over a
year as the cost to be a 'Premium' member per month exceeded what we were
making off plays. It was enough to put back into the band for expenses,
posters, photocopying press kits, printer cartridges, postage, recording,
gas money, CD dubbing costs etc.
Curious on how to market your site, join mailing lists, book a tour,
contact an A&R rep and get the best deal on pressing CD? Check out
many of the dozens of websites put together by your peers (http://www.indie-music.com
is excellent) that contain many articles, links, resources and directory
listings. What you probably will not find is information on music licensing.
Licensing?
This is the term applied to the process of placing music on visual creative
projects, such as film soundtracks (film, video, digital), television
programs and advertising campaigns. As more and more music is being made
available online for different uses it is natural for production people
to turn to the internet to find music. Why? Because you can buy anything
on the internet! Savvy bands are spending time on film bulletin boards
offering up their music for soundtrack use, indie labels are offering
licensing options on their websites and composers are banding together
and starting their own online write-for-hire agencies. If you or your
bandmates don't have the time, effort or expertise to find soundtrack
opportunities and successfully pitch your music there are avenues for
you.
Whom to trust?
I'm on movie sets a lot and I can tell you how hard it is to approach
the music supervisor or the producer with CD. They may love it or I might
lose my job. Not wanting to jeopardize my finances I've found a few online
companies that specialize in indie music licensing and are non-exclusive
(which means you can join as many as you want - no exclusive memberships).
Before signing with any company remember you are entering into a business
relationship that involves your work and payment for use of that work.
Contracts?
The licensing company should have a legal contract that requires the
signatures of the owners or the authors/composers of the music sent in.
If the company is legit they will want to protect themselves from fraud
artists that will send in other peoples music and profit from it. Also
there is the final license contract with the filmmakers or whomever to
peruse - is it for a Master/Sync license? or just a Sync license? (http://www.ascap.com,
http://www.bmi.com or http://www.socan.com
can define these terms if you are not familiar with the industry jargon).
Fees?
The contract should also state very clearly the fees (monthly? yearly?
by the byte?) involved and how future licensing income will be split between
you and them and how often you will be paid. Pre-Cleared or Restricted?
Also, ask about whether the tracks are required to be pre-cleared or if
you can request restrictions. Some companies have a standard restriction
that reads something like 'this track cannot be used on scenes depicting
racism, pornography, use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs'. Requesting a restriction
will obviously limit the amount of interest your music garners and ultimately
the pay-out. Personally I don't care if a European sausage company wants
to use my music on a television commercial - I'm an indie musician who
can barely pay the rent, who is going to blame me for taking the money?
I'll take that money and invest it in my band's future.
Where to start?
Start where you begin all your other research - on your favorite search
engine (http://www.google.com is huge).
If you want to go the total DIY personal route based on your location,
use your city name and keywords like 'film production', 'indie movies',
'production companies', 'music wanted', etc. Most cities and provinces
have film associations and unions that keep track of local shoots and
list them on their websites with contact information. Be prepared to be
your own sales agent - you will have to send each of the interested parties
a pitch package (some require two - one for the director and one for the
music supervisor), diligently follow-up, negotiate your terms and if needed,
hire a lawyer to proof your contract.
If you are willing to let go of a lot of control, a full-service online
licensing agency like Realia Music Inc. (http://www.realiamusic.com)
may be worth looking into. One of the larger agencies online, their online
catalogue consists of indie music from around the world and it's pre-cleared
and priced by a sliding scale that caps at $5,000/world-wide usage. They
have restrictions available but only a special case basis (pre-existing
contracts between musicians and other parties - I asked) and provide a
one-stop service for people who have limited budgets, tight schedules
and credit cards. They have a one-time $5 membership fee and a $1/song
submission fee, 50/50 license split and a $2/song shipping fee for songs
licensed. Your songs are represented for as long as you wish and if you
get an exclusive deal with a publishing company or label, they promise
they will remove your songs within 24 hours.
If you have a good idea of what your music is worth and prefer to wrangle
your deals yourself try SongCatalog Inc. (http://www.songcatalog.com).
Their system provides a virtual middleman for your negotiations. You submit
as many tracks as you wish for placement in their online 'Active List'
or in the 'Vault' and pay per track. Fees are billed monthly and start
at $4.95 for up to 25 audio files stored in the 'Vault' and $9.95 for
up to 25 songs featured on the 'Exchange' (site search engine) and increase
by smaller increments every 50/100/200 songs registered. There are different
levels of search capabilities that have a separate fee rate but you can
check out there website for more details. People who wish to license music
register at no cost, browse the catalogue and when a suitable track is
located, they send an email - through the website - to the owner who then
responds. Dialogue and negotiations ensue and you are ultimately responsible
for finalizing your deal.
I would advise to check out the smaller companies, they appear to have
more staying power than the large online music companies (http://licensemusic.com
- one of the first and definitely the largest - shut down business abruptly
months ago and is currently being auctioned off on the internet through
a bankruptcy trustee). Many have forayed into licensing but the complicated
traditional licensing system (long protracted negotiations, complicated
territorial and usage structures, clearances, exorbitant fees, favored
nations, and script/scene approval) has not translated well online. There
was no immediacy, no click through satisfaction that everyone has come
to expect from the web. Once the costs of software development, technical
support, hosting fees and high-priced management were factored in the
license fees were unaffordable and potential buyers were back in the nightclubs
chatting up bands after their sets.
Online there is a market for indie music even if the band has broken
up, doesn't tour, is brand new or not commercially friendly, and it requires
hardly any work on behalf of the band. You fill in an application, get
the appropriate signatures, mail it in and wait for the money to arrive.
It is the agency's business to market their catalogue, customer services
and bring the buyers in.
With record labels setting their standards higher and higher for new
signings, showing up with a portfolio of licensed tracks in your package
just might be the wedge you need to get in the door. It really doesn't
matter where the track was used or for what product, the fact that your
music can be sold for hard cash is the attractive quality they are looking
for. Always remember to be realistic with your expectations and tell everybody
that you have a 'licensing agency' (it does sound impressive and looks
even better on your bio). There are hundreds of thousands of bands in
the world with at least one album under their belts. That's a lot of competition
for the same dollar. It's also unlikely that directors Steven Spielberg
or Kevin Smith are cruising these sites for music for their next big project
- they have budgets that afford them just about any song they want. As
an indie musician with an indie agency, your music will be marketed to
projects without a great deal of exposure attached to them. Focus will
usually be on the catalogue not the individual bands, there are fees and
it is a relatively new industry - it may take years for it to take off
and compete with traditional process.
But don't despair, it only takes one new digital filmmaker with a vision
and a few thousand dollars to help pay off the band van or press those
extra 500 CDs. It's a cheap and viable new way to get your music heard
by a larger and potentially lucrative audience - and that's what you want.
Isn't it?
Article by Scooter Johnson (deadcat@shaw.ca)
Photography by Suzanne Goodwin
(all fees referenced are in Canadian dollars)
 Scooter
Johnson started his illustrious career in the entertainment industry
by studying the cello in elementary school, soon dropping the cello in
favour of the far more romantic (and simpler) instrument - the gut-bucket
bass. As the premier "bucket-master" in Canada he spent 5 years
touring the country with his Hillbilly band The Hard Rock Miners and has
created 5 internationally distributed albums with his Psychobilly band
The Deadcats. Living in Vancouver (Hollywood North) also afforded him
the opportunity to engage in the business of acting. A regular (background
performer) on the Chris Isaak show and having worked in films and TV with
such luminaries as "Sly Stallone", Greg "BJ and the Bear"
Evigan, Isabella Rosellini, and musicians Paul Stanley, Thomas Dolby,
Stuart Copeland, and Sheila E (amongst many others); his search for fame
and immortality has almost been concluded and it is time to pass on his
knowledge to the next generation of seekers after the flame.
This article edited and posted to this site 2 August 2002.
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