by Francesca | Jan 25, 2024 | Sync Licensing
We’ve talked about sync licensing and royalties many times on this blog. One thing we haven’t talked about is micro-sync. In this post, we’ll dive into what it is and why it’s important. Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Micro-Sync Licensing?
Let’s break it down…
Sync licensing refers to the synchronization of a song with any form of visual media. Any time your song is featured in a TV show, movie, commercial, etc., that’s called a “sync placement”. That being said, sync and micro-sync are essentially the same thing, but with one major difference.
Scale.
Sync vs. Micro-Sync Licensing
Just as an artist would be paid licensing fees and royalties for a placement in a TV show or film, they would also be owed “micro-sync” fees and royalties for smaller features.
Some examples of the types of common micro sync licensing placements include:
- User generated content, i.e. YouTube
- Social media posts
- Internal company videos
- Video presentations at events and conferences
- Professional wedding videos
- Podcasts
- Video Fitness Classes
- Twitch Livestreams
- Apps
- Mobile Games
Typically, sync licenses are negotiated between the production and content owners for thousands of dollars per license. However, this process can be very time consuming and requires a lot of paperwork.
On the other hand, micro sync licensing is on a much smaller scale, so the business model is quite different. Content owners looking to get into micro sync need to operate in a marketplace that facilitates quick and easy licensing so they can achieve a high volume of small placements. This adds up!
How does this benefit you?
It would be nearly impossible for you to find thousands of people who are willing to pay you a few bucks each to use your music in their video project. However, the demand is out there. If you play your cards right, you could have steady income coming in from all over the world.
- The best way to achieve this is to work with a platform like Musicbed, Songtradr, or Artlist. These prominent platforms aggregate music, attract content creators, and make the licensing process a much simpler, streamlined experience.
In Conclusion…
Micro-sync opens up a lot of opportunities for small content creators to harness the music of real artists. With micro-sync platforms, artists have a whole new way to spread the love and collaborate with ease.
Good luck!
by Francesca | Dec 20, 2023 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
Are you on TikTok and wish you could make some money from your efforts? No problem! There are a couple ways you can make this happen in no time. From their official Creator Fund to independent marketing and more, here’s what you can do…
How To Make Money On TikTok as an Independent Musician
TikTok’s Creator Fund
Many creators complain about how much money, or lack thereof, they’ve made with the TikTok Creator Fund. However, they’re failing to keep in mind that a couple factors influence how much money you can rack in with the Creator Fund. From views to engagement and many other details, adhering to their community guidelines goes a long way.
Typically, users see around 2 to 4 cents per every thousand views. But if you regularly see a million views on your videos, you can expect a pretty penny in your account every year… and as we’ve all seen time and time again, consistency is key. The more you post, the better your videos will continue to perform over time. If you’re creating TikTok videos anyway, why not get paid for it?
To apply for the program, you have to meet a plethora of requirements. Some of which include:
- You must be 18 years or older.
- A legal resident of one of the 50 states, District of Columbia, or the territories and possessions, of the United States.
- Minimum 10K authentic followers.
- At least 100K authentic video views in the last 30 days.
- Post original videos in line with their Community Guidelines.
If these all sound like you, you’re ready to go. — Just open your account settings, click on Creator tools, then TikTok Creator Fund.
Then, just wait to be approved by their team and that’s all there is to it.
Royalties
Making sure you are collecting all the royalties owed to you across all platforms is an essential part of being an artist. On TikTok, it’s no different. However, while most DSPs pay creators based on the number of streams or views, TikTok has a very different model when it comes to royalties. TikTok pays royalties based on the number of videos created using your music (video views do not matter when calculating TikTok royalties).
Live Stream Donations and Gifts
On TikTok Live, your fans can interact with you in real time and gift you virtual gifts or monetary donations. Whether you want to just get on and chat, play a new song, or give a behind the scenes look right before your show, you can go stream for as long as you want (although 30 minutes is the recommended maximum time).
Influencer Marketing
As an artist with a distinct style, you are in a great position for sponsored posts or collaboration opportunities. Consider reaching out to brands who have a similar vibe or mission as you do, and spark up a conversation about how you can mutually benefit one another. This can range from either promoting their product in a video, doing a full review of said product, and more depending on the brand or product in mind.
Alternatively, you can do a version of this with other musicians within your TikTok community. From promoting each others merch to hyping up their upcoming show, this industry thrives of collaboration! And TikTok is no stranger to nurturing community.
Fans = Streams = $
Although many artists go viral on TikTok from sheer luck alone, there are many ways you can improve your chances and work with the algorithm to reach thousands of potential fans. In turn, you can translate those fans into followers and those followers into streams on Spotify, Apple Music, and more.
How? — Well, if your music is available on TikTok for other people to use, you’ll earn royalties ad exposure every time someone uses it in their video. In addition, if your other profiles are linked properly in your TikTok bio, people will be able to discover more of your work whenever they visit your profile. (Linktree is a great tool that gives you one link you can put in your bio that goes to everything you have to offer instead of having a million separate links.)
To wrap it all up…
No matter how good your music is, gaining recognition for your work on TikTok lies within how much effort you put into promoting yourself, making good content, and consistently posting on the platform. These efforts, however, will pay off… literally! In addition, authentically engaging with your audience, being creative, and being confident in what you have to offer will all help you grow your presence on the platform and, in turn, increase your potential to make money along the way.
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Still not sure how to get your music on TikTok? Check this out…
Good luck!
by Francesca | Dec 13, 2023 | Music Industry
Self publishing your music comes with a lot of benefits. You don’t have to share your copyrights with anyone, you aren’t bound to any publishing deals and you get ultimate control over where your work is used and how. Keep in mind, self publishing isn’t for everyone. You need to be able to commit significant time and effort to doing everything a publisher would usually do and more. But if this is something that you’re ready to take on, here’s how to do it right.
How To Self Publish Your Music
Let’s Talk Basics…
Self publishing your songs means you take on the role of both the artist and the publisher. Being a self-published writer ultimately means that you hold all the rights to your Intellectual Property (IP), which means you would be in full control of how your compositions are used and would receive all royalties associated with your share of your compositions.
This is awesome, but these perks come with a little extra work. If you’re still interested, here’s what you’ll need to do to self publish your songs…
Step 1: Make Sure Your Music Hasn’t Been Published Yet
If you’ve worked with a distributor before, you may have opted in for publishing services without even realizing it. For example, our publishing administration services are very popular with our own clients. Before you do anything, definitely make sure this doesn’t apply to you.
Step 2: Register with a PRO
In order for you to receive the royalties you’re rightfully owed, your songs need to be properly registered with a Performing Rights Organization like ASCAP, SESAC or BMI. PRO’s rely on the information you provide to determine who they need to pay and how much.
Start setting up your company by going to either www.ascap.com or www.bmi.com to obtain/fill out an application.
- If you are a songwriter and have not yet affiliated, make sure to only do so with only one of these, not all of them.
- To ensure you do everything right, check out this post to make sure you don’t miss anything.
Step 3: Sign Up with the MLC
The Mechanical Licensing Collective maintains the world’s most thorough database of music composition copyrights and their owners. They collect mechanical royalties from digital music streaming services and transmit those royalties to copyright holders based on the ownership claims.
Signing up with them ensures that you get all the royalties that are rightfully owed to you. You’ll need to “Connect to Collect” and become a Member of the MLC in order to collect the digital audio mechanical royalties owed to you.
Step 4: Time to Promote
Once you’ve completed those steps, you can finally start getting your publisher’s share on top of the writer’s share. Now is the time where the duties of a publisher fall onto you.
Typically, your publisher would be the one networking, seeking out sync deals for TV and film, registering copyrights, negotiating licenses, and more. When you self publish, it’s all on you.
In Conclusion…
Self-publishing typically just entails registering with a PRO to be able to manage and publish your own compositions, but it doesn’t have to end there. If you want to go even further, become a publisher and start your own publishing company! Doing so lets you do everything yourself and also gives you the ability to relay your services onto other artists who need it.
You got this.
by Francesca | Nov 23, 2023 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
After all the blood, sweat and tears it took to finally get your new music out into the world, it’s finally time to get as many people to listen to it as possible! From the technical stuff like registering with PROs to the fun stuff like social media promo, here are some of the most important things every musician should be doing after their release goes live. Let’s dive in…
What To Do After Making Your Music Available Online
Register with a PRO
To make sure you receive the royalties you’re rightfully owed, your songs need to be properly registered with either ASCAP, SESAC or BMI. Sadly, we can’t do this for you. Only you as the writer can affiliate with a PRO.
If your music is being distributed, performed worldwide, and you don’t have a publishing deal, your royalties are sitting in collection societies around the world waiting to be claimed by you. If you don’t register in time to collect your royalties, the collection societies will retain the royalties and you will miss out on that additional revenue. That’s why we created our publishing administration service to help you get through this process as easily as possible.
Register with SoundExchange
SoundExchange has paid out more than $7 BILLION in royalties to date. They are the sole organization designated by the U.S. Congress to collect and distribute digital performance royalties for sound recordings. They’re the ones who collect these digital performance rights from non-interactive music streaming on internet sources like SiriusXM and Pandora.
Sign Up for Lyric Distribution
Some distributors have partnerships for lyrics distribution and submission for example: Apple Music, Musixmatch, and LyricFind. With these partnerships, you’re able to streamline and expedite the submission process for faster turnarounds and less hassle.
Update your ‘Artist Pick’ on Spotify
Artist Pick is a great way to highlight what’s important to you right now, whether it be your latest release, playlist, show announcement, or even a Fan Support link. Check out the video below to learn how to do it…
Promote It On Socials
Social media offers an easy and effective method for promoting your latest track. To do so, start by creating a strategy tailored to your goals and target audience. Next, you can engage with your followers by posting your song in Reels, Stories, TikTok’s, and wherever else your fans frequent. You can also collaborate with fellow artists to expand your reach even further. Remember to utilize relevant hashtags, create visually appealing content, and consider running targeted ads for wider exposure. Lastly, always encourage user-generated content from your fans! Ask them to tag you in their own posts featuring your song, and get permission to re-post it on your own profile.
Pitch for Sync
When we talk about sync licensing in the music business, we’re referring to the act of synchronizing a piece of music with any form of visual media. That means getting your music featured in movies, TV episodes, commercials, video games, etc.
Get Some Press
After releasing new music, it’s always a good idea to send your music to music journalists, bloggers, and magazines for potential reviews and features. You can even share it in Facebook Groups, Reddit threads, or anywhere else where people can see your new song and share it with their communities.
In Conclusion…
You worked hard on your new track. Don’t let it get lost in the shuffle of thousands of songs trying to break through this crazy industry. Practicing things like consistently hyping yourself up on socials, optimizing your Spotify, SoundCloud, Apple Music, etc. profiles, and everything else we covered above, can make or break the performance of your work.
In the meantime, be proud of all your hard work! Keep going, be consistent, and believe in your talents as an artist.
Good luck!
by Francesca | Nov 16, 2023 | Music Industry, Music Marketing
This year, holiday marketing has been starting earlier than ever. If you’re looking to sharpen your holiday marketing skills on Instagram, this post will give you everything you need to know to make the most of your efforts. No problem. From tips and tricks to help you expand your reach to making more sales this holiday season, here’s what we know…
7 Tips For Holiday Marketing On Instagram
Run a Seasonal Giveaway
Instagram accounts that do contests or giveaways grow 70% faster than those that don’t. Not only that, giveaways entice both current followers and potential new ones to engage. This increased engagement signals to Instagram’s algorithm that it should feature you more regularly in your audience’s feed.
What better way to engage your audience for the holidays than with a giveaway! Consider giving away things like:
- Limited edition merch
- Early download access to your new EP
- Signed vinyl
- A holiday care package (merch, vinyl, CD’s, a holiday card, candy, etc., all in one)
The holidays are about giving back and showing you care. Let your marketing reflect that, too.
Shoppable Instagram Posts
50% of US consumers do their holiday shopping at the last minute. Want to drive sales to your site? Make shopping for those last minute holiday gifts as easy as possible with Shoppable Instagram posts. This feature lets you to tag your products in your posts and link them to your website for your fans to purchase with ease.
(To be approved for Instagram Shopping, you’ll need to meet these requirements. Click here to learn how.)
Collaborate with Similar Artists
You’re not the only one looking to generate leads on Instagram during the holiday season. What better way to combine your efforts and get twice the reach by collaborating with another artist?
Just like brands partner with influencers to tap into their audiences, you can do the same.
Do you have connections with an artist who’s got a similar fanbase to yours? — Go on Instagram Live together or do your own respective posts within your feeds to promote each others merch, that limited edition vinyl that would make a perfect gift, a new single that just dropped, etc.. This extends both your views’ into both audiences.
Everybody wins! 🙏
Instagram Ads
Instagram ads are a secret weapon for gaining potential customers with ease. Instagram targets the exact audiences with the most potential for engagement, helping you gain exposure in all the right places.
Affiliate Marketing
The holidays are a great time for people to buy tickets to shows for their loved ones. A great way for you to use this to your advantage is to sign up for affiliate programs. With these, you can share their affiliate links in your Instagram posts or stories to promote tickets to you or your fellow musician friends’ shows. When your followers make a purchase through your link, you earn a commission.
For example, brands like StubHub, Vivid Seats and Ticketmaster all have pretty good affiliate programs. So whether your fans are buying tickets to your shows or other artists’, as long as they use your code, you get a cut. Doesn’t get much easier than that.
Run Exclusive Offers
I mean… who doesn’t like exclusive stuff? The holiday season means everyone is looking for the perfect, unique gift for that special music lover in their lives. What’s better than some limited edition merch from their favorite artist?
Consider offering limited time discounts on select products or drop a limited run of holiday themed merch. Get into the holiday spirit and offer something special to your audience that they just can’t pass up.
Engage with Holiday User Generated Content
You’re not the only one posting your holiday joy on Instagram. Tons of other artists (and fans) are doing their part and adding to the plethora of festive content coming out at this time of the year. Encourage your community to interact with one another by posting Instagram Stories asking about their favorite holiday songs, artists, snacks, activities, or whatever else comes to mind.
You can repost this content onto your own page and encourage a conversation. Don’t forget to get everyone to use a common hashtag so we can all get in on the action. This is community at it’s finest!
In Conclusion…
The holiday season brings in more sales than any other time of the year. With these tips and tricks, you’re on the right track to perfecting your marketing game on Instagram in no time.
Happy Holidays!
🎁✨
