| CD Baby DIY Musician Podcast |
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| posted by David Weiss on Wednesday December 05 2007 @ 02:02PM PST |
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A couple of months ago I got a call out of the blue from Kurtis Productions in Chicago saying they were interested in using one of my songs in an A & E documentary. They wanted to know what my licensing fee was. I'm an indie musician with no manager, no record label and no publisher. I had no idea what a "licensing fee" is or how much to ask for but with help from some friends I was able to successfully negotiate a licensing deal and get my song placed. It aired several times on national TV (on A & E) in September.
My biggest question from this experience was "Out of all the millions of songs and artists that exist on this planet how in the world did they pick my song and find me???"
Long story, short: iTunes via CD Baby's Digital Distribution. The documentary dealt with the toxic dust from 9/11 and they were looking for some Middle Eastern-sounding music to use in the opening segment. The music editor went to iTunes and did a search on "Middle Eastern music." My song popped up at the top of the list because the title is "Middle Eastern Dawn". He listened to the iTunes clip and it was exactly what he needed, so he traced the song back to CD Baby and got my contact info.
The title of the song allowed them to find the song, then the song itself happened to be something they wanted.
It was still a one-in-a-million fluke and I feel I got lucky but it's clear that song/album titles are more important in this day and age than ever before.
I've learned that there are music supervisors for movies, TV, production companies who spend hours on the Internet looking for new music. And they search by using words.
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Yes, I recently had a couple of title based searches land my
tunes on TV. One is a track called 'Holy Sh*t' by my improv
troupe, Centralia, which is being used on Showtime to promote
their original series as part of the 'Best Sh*t on Television"
campaign. The other is a cover version of 'Peter and the Wolf'
licensed by Lifetime TV's new series 'State of Mind" with Lily
Taylor, I made for a children's lullaby album called 'Fairy Dust'.
http://cdbaby.com/cd/centralia
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sitron2
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sitron3
http://cdbaby.com/cd/monkeys3
I've written music for TV before, but always on a work-for-hire
basis. These are the first times I had music made on my own
placed on TV, and I'm thrilled. Thanks, CDbaby.
As far as asking for a fee goes, my advice is this: When it is TV
calling, let them make the offer. Even on cable, there is MONEY
involved. Even when they insist on asking what we 'charge',
simply explain it ranges from $0 to $20,000. 9 times out of 10
they will offer way more than you would ever ask.
Peace,
Josh
http://cdbaby.com/cd/sitron3
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David, thanks for posting this. It's refreshing to hear stories like this every once in a while. Keeps the dream of someday making some money back for your efforts and recording costs alive.
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my friends who are also CDBABY artists negotiated the rights to one of their songs for a multi million dollar TV ad campaign for a major u.s. corporation. the song was found when a worker for the advertising company was at a party and one of their songs came up on the IPOD shuffle that was the soundtrack for the party. they found out the name and the rest is history.
I also agree that the title is key for songs.
My song about the WAR of 1812, is called the War of 1812,(yes I know very original) and it is the best selling song from my educational album history rocks because it comes up on searches by teachers and students.
www.professorpresley.com
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I had a 30second track "Planet Theremin" picked up and used on a 15 CD music education package in the USA published thru Sony. I guess they used it to illustrate the theremin.
This can only have come about thru CDBaby & iTunes.
I got a $300 royalty up front - tho tax came off that.
Who'da thunk it?
Thanks CDBaby :-)
Christo
www.chrisconway.org
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| by SK
on Sunday December 23 2007 @ 11:59PM PST [ reply | parent ] |
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I have a question that maybe someone can answer-
I was recently contacted by an ad agency asking me to compose original music to fit the a rough lyrical/storyboard outline for several tv spots for a big company. I assume possibly via the same types of searching (itunes, etc.)
I wrote and recorded two songs for a couple of the spots, submitted them by their (5 day) deadline, and heard back a few days later that they liked 1 of them and requested a few additional alternate mixes (instrumental track, etc.) Then within another week I was written back with a message along the lines of "here's an update to let you know I won't know anything interesting until after the 1st of January, oh, and happy holidays".
Okay...
1st, I assume they actually put some sort of promo together with my song, and have pitched it to the company and are waiting to hear back. Anybody think this might be true?
2nd, does anybody think that regardless of whether my song is chosen or not for use in the ad, should I get paid for having written and recorded material at the request of the agency? Do I just send them a bill? There were no contracts or anything discussed about such prior, only the brief mention in the original contact message about calling for more details and/or budget info. It just so happens that each time I spoke to the rep on the phone, I forgot to bring up the whole budget thing...
So if anyone has any info or could help me out, it would be much appreciated, thanks!
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I wouldn't particularly worry... and I'll tell you why. I've done tons of work this way, and I've never been screwed. Nothing happens in late December in the ad world, except finishing Holiday-oriented timely spots. I'd drop them a line January 2nd, just to say, "Let me know when you get word on the project. I'm excited to get their feedback."
Look, it's a good idea in the future to get a simple contract, and tell them that if they don't end up using the track, you'll just bill them for a few studio hours, at $100/hour or whatever. I've always gotten good response to that.
When you've got several projects like this going, you'll find that you can relax a little knowing that some of them will come through. Spec work is tricky, but I've done very well with it. It took me while to learn to set my price, and conditions, right up front. But you'll find that professionals respect that and you'll feel better about the whole project as you work on it.
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It is extremly important to choose an attractive name for a song or an album!
Happy New Year!
www.cdbaby.com/ramin
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This is a great read. Thanks for the information.
I will definitely consider some new song titles for our 2 upcoming albums.
-w-
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All of this is fascinating. Thank you!
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| by NP
on Wednesday February 13 2008 @ 09:35AM PST [ reply | parent ] |
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Oh! dear. I can now see the error of my ways! My song titles are in Gaelic.................
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DON'T FORGET ABOUT ASCAP! GET YOUR ROYALTIES
SCOLA OF DRU HILL
HTTP://WWW.CDBABY.COM/CD/SCOLAMUSIC
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TV song placement is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. None of my artists can tour and due to demographic our genre attracts, we are forever aquistioning the FREE DOWNLOAD fans ?
So our sales online are crap via any formular
our TV pLacements are huge by rockstar standards.
What I want to share is this,
1st make sure your with ASCAP/BMI/SESAC or what ever !
2nd Don't trip on the sync fee, it's not important for TV, if it's $1 or $1000 don't matter it's about your royalties.
3rd Trivia (can't recall his name) BUT the composer of the intro Music for the Game show Jeopardy has recieved tens of millions in royalties for that 30 second intro.
AFFILIATION w/BMI/ASCAP/SESAC + TV PLACEMENT + SYNDICATION = FREE MONEY forever
No Packaging, No Distro Problems, No Manager or Booking Fees Just a fat pot of gold.
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| by
on Wednesday April 02 2008 @ 11:28PM PDT [ reply | parent ] |
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Lucky royalty recipient - Merv Griffin (wrote Jeopardy's intro music as well as created the show).
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