Your success as a singer-songwriter depends a great deal on the strategic way you position yourself as a musician. The artistry of creating good new music—your vision, your mood, your intuitivesense of rhythm and musical figures—is a vastly different beast than the regularly daunting legal and financial landscape of music in this new era of digital distribution. One venture is creative and intuitive; the other entails red tape, legality, logistics and variables.

Apart from the creative process, it’s necessary to consider strategy when considering where you want your sound to take you. Do you create audio as a career? Is music your largest form of income? Do you create music to sell albums and create a fan base, or do you primarily desire to have your music placed in film, television and video games? Perhaps you create music for all three reasons.

Yet another fundamental aspect to contemplate is what distribution method will in reality make you money. Given the current landscape of diminishing download earnings and the excessive cost of antiquated physical distribution systems it generally is a daunting process to find the course of action that is right for you. In 2012, most musicians agree that the main two ways to generate income from music are to tour, or to license music for film, television and video games. After considering the effort and cost involved in planning, booking and executing tours licensing naturally emerges as a preferred revenue stream generated by music. If placement in films and television is your principal purpose, please keep reading.

The way you retain ownership of your productions is an essential ingredient for potential music licensing deals in the future. You’ll want to research what makes the most sense for your own music with a lawyer, but in general, you’ll want to keep in mind:

  1) You're going to need to keep your own publishing.
  2) It is easier to consider licensing contracts if there is one single
  songwriter credit for your music.
  3) It is easier to work with licensing agents if you release your own
  songs as an independent artist. In general, the less parties there are
  in a contract, the better.
  4) It is best to evaluate licensing companies effectively. Have a lawyer
  review any possible contracts. If you choose a licensing agent, they
  often prefer to be the exclusive agent—so choose well.

Musician Jennifer Clarke is one such . She creates her music primarily as an emotional pursuit. Her songs are deeply personal and soulful. Yet once the album is mastered and printed, Jennifer becomes all business. She licensed her song, “More Than I Have,” on the FX Series starring Denis Leary, Rescue Me. Her current album, Trinkets in Rubble, is slated for release in March 2012, when she’ll begin new efforts to get the album licensed.

What can you do to pursue licensing? Get in touch with Music Nomad, ASCAP, or use your preferred search engine to lookup companies that specialize in the field. Most importantly, never give up. If you knock on enough doors eventually one of them will open.
Singer Songwriter