Okay – so you get the idea now: I point you at a website you might find useful, and you tell us whether it’s any good in the comments.
Today’s site is called My Music Source. Click on the image to visit it. Check it out, see what you think, then come back and write your thoughts here.
If you’re already using the site, we’d love to hear about your experiences of it.
Here’s what they say:
MyMusicSource offers you 3 ways to sell and license your music:
1. The 24/7 Music Catalog Submit your music for placement into our online Music Catalog so you can license it to producers of film, TV & advertising.
2. Producer Music Requests Submit your music directly to a specific Music Request posted by a producer.
3. Sell Music to Fans Sell your music directly to your fans and keep 85ยข on the dollar.
Online music licensing – worth a try? Are these the guys to get your song into a movie or TV show? Is 85% enough of a cut on a track sale? Is a 50/50 split on licensing a good deal? Let’s hear what you think in the comments.
I don’t get these sites which are turning up all over the place. If your music hasn’t been found by people looking for music in all the other places music is available on the internet, why would they be looking here? Or at one of the other of the many new sites offering to ‘place’ your song for a cut?
Unless these sites can generate serious (like thousands) of pitches and placement opportunities then I just don’t see the point of them. So far not one that I’ve been following has – they’ve just collected thousands of downloads and expected the music supervisors of the world to arrive.
Which they haven’t. They’re all just looking for music in places in the same places that the music was originally, before losing 15% on a placement, which is a total deal breaker.
Hi Julian,
I wanted to reply to your comments about music licensing and MyMusicSource in particular. Just a couple of basic points. In the digital age of distribution every artist needs to exploit their music everywhere they can. Sure many of the site popping up have no connections in the industry and no real mechanism to place music ( of which there are some 40,000+ new tracks per day). But as a composer myself I can tell you first hand that I have made a living off of music licensing for many years.
MyMusicSource is a valuable resource to composers artists and bands. We have just completed 2 deals in the past month that will allow our members to have their music available to over 500,000 producers worldwide. Basic members to our system pay nothing unless we sell music for them…sounds like a pretty good deal to us:)MR
Hi there Michael, I too have made a living off music licensing for many years and welcome any new methods of exposure to the people who make licensing decisions.
However, the internet IS the network, and in my experience music supervisors are quite capable of finding the music they like using the huge amount of resources available on the internet and then doing a deal with artists direct.
You say that people who put their music on your network are then available to over 500,000 producers worldwide. What is the difference between this and putting your music on Myspace and being ignored by the whole world? If you are promoting your own network of material, which is in effect a mirror of the stuff that already exists out there, what is the difference between MyMusicSource and a Google search for ‘polyrhythmic atonal dance music project’?
I would also like to know what sets your offering apart from YouLicense, Pump Audio, Ricall and the other various existing services out there.
For me in my experience with music supervisors, music pickers at ad agencies and all kinds of music decision makers is that while they’re often looking to be at the forefront of using some cool new music they’ve never otherwise heard of before, they also need a ‘filter’ to find this stuff as has been discussed on this blog and other blogs too. Trends, other bloggers and internet gossip all help them find music that fits what they’re looking for.
The thing is, when these acts/artists become visible they are then already on the radar – which means they don’t need a third party to be contacted – their web location, url, myspace, whatever is already common knowledge and they can be contacted direct – and that means that a music supervisor is going to be able to keep that 15% saving to himself, which in a world of dwindling percentages, is very important.
Forgetting acts and bands, as a COMPOSER I can understand a service like yours having more relevance but still, as a composer it is usually much more worthwhile going with a major production music catalogue with existing contacts and networks. I’m all up for the internet way of doing things to bypass the old ways, but from a purely practical point of view I just can’t see it happening right now – the QUALITY control just isn’t in place. And I can safely say that currently the quality of music on many of these networks is as dire as anything else you can find on the internet. How do you intend to make music supervisor’s jobs easier, other than bombarding them with lists of music that is mostly half-baked home grown stuff that music production houses would never even consider releasing or promoting?
Please realise I’m not knocking MyMusicSource as I haven’t tried it.
But it is interesting to have someone here who is coming from the other side Michael. I’d like to hear your take on all of this and where you think MyMusicSource has a place. This is obviously a space that many other companies have an eye on, but as far as I can tell, even the newest kid on the block, YouLicense, is nothing more than a bad myspace with the word ‘License’ in the title – and is yet another place for music hopefuls to post their music up and never hear of again.
Hi Again Julian,
Is this you http://www.youlicense.com/Artist/JulianMoore listed on youlicense.com? Interesting music :)
I appreciate your comments and understand your reluctance to “Buy-in” to the internet as a viable source for producers of media to find quality music. The fact is we do very well for our composers who are talented composers, and are distributed in 30 countries. We also open our doors to developing artists, and composers.
You bring up many interesting points in your reply, but it is a changing world and music sups make up about one tenth of one percent of the market for licensing music. You should be selling it everywhere to everybody.. you are now the record company.
The bottom line is that posting your music is a choice that you have to make… a small investment of your time to get your music some PR. Great music will be found and licensed, not so great music will not. In the end it is the media producer that will make the decision, and not the on-line supplier.
As I said in my last comment I have been in this business for 20 years and made a very good living licensing over 2000 tracks, composing for Disney, Universal, Features, and 100’s of commercials… it is a very tough market in the digital distribution world as it really flattens the opportunities… this excites some while unnerving others.
By the way – we have a staff that listens to EVERY track that is submitted, and I know PumpAudio very well. They are a great service to the music community :)
Good luck in the future – and I would encourageyou to at least look at MyMusicSource… BUT …no promises.
Cheers,
Michael Redman
President
MyMusicSource
Hi Michael
You and your partners have all the right credentials. It’s good to know that you listen to everything – there’s the filter I was talking about.
Of course we are ‘all’ the record company nowadays. However, posting up all your music to sites where a huge percentage of them is a waste of time is, erm, a waste of time. Many hopefuls are filling up various licensing sites under the illusions that by doing very little something may come from it – which is similar to the way bands initially uploaded to MySpace thinking they’d be discovered.
In the UK at least, the only way to really make a quid worth having is to get something going on with KPM or Atmospheres – production music (or library music as we call it) has come on a lot since the old days – much of it is getting to be so good the stuff could be released as albums without the ‘library’ monicker.
Like the other composers I know and work with, most sites we have come across like yours get thrown our left-overs – tracks and pitches we had lying around that had a chance of earning an extra quid somewhere, but weren’t enough to create a whole album with. I’m sure as the business progresses this will change. However, each site has to explain to us what differentiates them from the rest – as the marketplace gets more crowded it’s important that yours and other licensing sites all explain what they do differently.
Currently, they all look the same, and apart from differing levels of cut, don’t really go into much detail about the process that goes on behind the scenes. Composers need to know that there is more than a google search going on.
Anyway good luck with it I will certainly check you guys out – hope you understand my cynicism from someone who’s been doing it as long as you have.
Julian
Mr. Redman,
I am interested in upgrading Mymusicsource account. However, I am not in the financial situation to put up $150 for a year’s service (which I would like to upgrade to). Is there way you can give me a free upgrade and when I place a track and make $150, I pay you for that upgrade? Or even pay a premium price of like $200 or something. Up for negotiation. Please let me know. Thanks!….