# Music licensing/library companies for end credit song from indie film?



## Lemmonz (Jan 21, 2013)

I wrote a song with a friend of mine for a low budget indie film and I'm wondering what I can do with it as far as selling it off to a library or licensing company. I've retained all the rights to the song so I feel like I should do _something_ with it. 

From what I understand of music libraries, they aren't interested in songs since their main focus is providing underscore. Or at least that's what I was told by some folks over at APM (which happened before I wrote the song). So, assuming music libraries won't be interested, I was thinking of companies that supply music for retail stores, ect. like muzak.

If interested, here's the song: 
https://soundcloud.com/zachlemmon/a-million-radios

So, anybody ever scored a low budget feature, cranked out a song for the ending/credits and was able to find a life for it outside the film?


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## RiffWraith (Jan 21, 2013)

Lemmonz @ Tue Jan 22 said:


> I've retained all the rights to the song so I feel like I should do _something_ with it.



ALL the rights, as in the writer's AND the publishing?


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## Lemmonz (Jan 21, 2013)

RiffWraith @ Mon Jan 21 said:


> Lemmonz @ Tue Jan 22 said:
> 
> 
> > I've retained all the rights to the song so I feel like I should do _something_ with it.
> ...



Correct. I licensed the track to them on a non-exclusive basis to use only synced with their picture. Currently the song is unregistered and I'm looking into what I can do with it. The film is only playing in festivals. It's a real low budget film. 

The filmakers were supposed to find and license another song but failed to it in the time they had so the song was done as a last minute favor. There was practically nothing left in their budget by the end of things so they were just happy to have something they could use for their film.


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## guydoingmusic (Jan 21, 2013)

You can try management teams, publishing companies... Not sure what your end goal is. It all depends on how you want to market yourself. Artist, producer, composer, writer.


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## RiffWraith (Jan 21, 2013)

Lemmonz @ Tue Jan 22 said:


> Correct. I licensed the track to them on a non-exclusive basis to use only synced with their picture.



Ah, ok. In that case - assuming the contract clearly stipulates this - you can in fact do whatever you want with the song. First thing I would do is register it with my PRO (do you belong to one? If not, you should).

What you need to realize, is prod libs rarely - if ever - will take one song from a composer. Do you have more material you can send to libs, and include this as part of a package? I dont want to discourage you and tell you not to bother, but your chances of getting any interest from a real prod lib with only one track are slim.

You mentioned companies that supply music for retail stores - this is one area I am not sure about. Wouldn't retail stores either hire a composer directly, or get the music from a prod lib? Maybe someone else knows.

Cheers.


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## Lemmonz (Jan 21, 2013)

guydoingmusic @ Mon Jan 21 said:


> You can try management teams, publishing companies... Not sure what your end goal is. It all depends on how you want to market yourself. Artist, producer, composer, writer.



Thanks I'll do some research into music publishing companies. Was thinking about muzak, or whatever company provides retail music as a possible option to look into. I hear mediocre songs at retail stores, groceries, etc. all the time and thought this song could be one of those.

Not looking to produce, be an artist, or anything else with songwriting. I'm just looking to score films.


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## Lemmonz (Jan 21, 2013)

RiffWraith @ Mon Jan 21 said:


> Lemmonz @ Tue Jan 22 said:
> 
> 
> > Ah, ok. In that case - assuming the contract clearly stipulates this - you can in fact do whatever you want with the song. First thing I would do is register it with my PRO (do you belong to one? If not, you should).
> ...



I'm with BMI. I figured if I sold it to a company they would want the publishing rights so that would need to be available for them. Is it possible to only claim writer's share when registering and leave publishing open? I'd imagine all that information would be needed for that. Something to look into I guess.

I do have other tracks laying around for potential library stuff but none of them are songs. So it I thought it would seem odd to pitch trailer'y and commerical'ish tracks along with a song. I wanted to see if there were other routes to go down besides production music libraries.


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## guydoingmusic (Jan 21, 2013)

From my understanding... not saying this absolute... but...

Muzak licenses it's music just like radio stations do. In other words, you would need a publishing company, record label, and or management team in place with contacts to the people who determine the playlist on Muzak. Radio stations in the US are owned by, I think, only two major companies. Some are privately owned of course. But these 2 major companies both have individuals who put songs into rotation on the top 40 playlist. That's why everywhere you go, they are playing the exact same songs. The same is probably true with Muzak. There a couple of other ways too.

Some Labels, management have Radio promoters that go to different markets and try to promote your songs in a region. This can become quite expensive.

Not saying it's completely impossible to do on your own... but it's a steep mountain to climb. Unless you know someone that is willing to do you a favor. 

As far as the publishing goes, you can go ahead and register that under your publishing as 100% for now. If someone picks it up, it can be changed then.

Hope this helps some.


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## Lemmonz (Jan 21, 2013)

guydoingmusic @ Mon Jan 21 said:


> From my understanding... not saying this absolute... but...
> 
> Muzak licenses it's music just like radio stations do. In other words, you would need a publishing company, record label, and or management team in place with contacts to the people who determine the playlist on Muzak. Radio stations in the US are owned by, I think, only two major companies. Some are privately owned of course. But these 2 major companies both have individuals who put songs into rotation on the top 40 playlist. That's why everywhere you go, they are playing the exact same songs. The same is probably true with Muzak. There a couple of other ways too.
> 
> ...



This does shed some light onto how this side of the music industry works. I'll have to do some research into all this and see what I can do with it. Thanks to you and RiffWraith for the help.


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## Cruciform (Jan 24, 2013)

guydoingmusic @ Tue Jan 22 said:


> Muzak licenses it's music just like radio stations do.



You can submit directly to Muzak. http://www.muzak.com/contact/artist-label


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## guydoingmusic (Jan 24, 2013)

Yes... Like I said in the previous post :roll: , the possibility is always there to do it independently and succeed. However, the success rate is very low without a manager/Label doing the submission. ESPECIALLY with radio. I've never dealt with Muzak personally, so I don't know for sure.


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## Cruciform (Jan 25, 2013)

Lemmonz @ Tue Jan 22 said:


> I'll have to do some research into all this and see what I can do with it. Thanks to you and RiffWraith for the help.



I shared the link to Muzak above if you want to submit directly to them. It's true that most production libraries aren't interested in a single song. However, Crucial Music would be worth a try. They don't care if you only have one song with them but they are particular about what they take. They're well regarded among library writers.


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## Cruciform (Jan 25, 2013)

guydoingmusic @ Fri Jan 25 said:


> Yes... Like I said in the previous post :roll: , the possibility is always there to do it independently and succeed. However, the success rate is very low without a manager/Label doing the submission. ESPECIALLY with radio. I've never dealt with Muzak personally, so I don't know for sure.



Was there a valid reason to include rolling eyes? All I did was include a link to where one can submit directly to Muzak.


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## Barrie B (Jan 25, 2013)

Real nice song btw...

B


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## guydoingmusic (Jan 25, 2013)

Cruciform @ Fri Jan 25 said:


> guydoingmusic @ Fri Jan 25 said:
> 
> 
> > Yes... Like I said in the previous post :roll: , the possibility is always there to do it independently and succeed. However, the success rate is very low without a manager/Label doing the submission. ESPECIALLY with radio. I've never dealt with Muzak personally, so I don't know for sure.
> ...



Yes there is. But it's off topic and would rather stick to the OP's original questions. Feel free to PM me.


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## wst3 (Jan 25, 2013)

I spent a few years in the belly of the beast - on the engineering side, but still in the belly. And most of this may have changed since they were purchased by Mood Media... but at one time Muzak actively pursued any and all music that interested them - no matter how it came to light. They had a whole team of what I guess you'd think of as music editors who created the play lists, and these folks had diverse tastes!

It seems to me that if you have material no avenue should be discounted unless it becomes a black hole for time or capital...


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## Lemmonz (Jan 25, 2013)

Thanks for the insight Bill (wst3). I was wondering if anybody on VI had any sort of experience with Mood Media/Muzak. 

I'll check out Crucial Music as well. From the little bit I've seen of it now, it looks like it could a good option. 

Thanks for the help everyone.


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