How can I make money from singing and music?

You have the talent; now it’s time to make money from singing and music!

One of the most important parts of your music business plan needs to focus on how you can make a profit from your art, let’s break it down in simple terms: If you constructed and wrote the lyrics and paid to record your own music – you are the songwriter, publisher, AND label! This gives you an advantage over most major artists, as they have separate labels and publishers to grant licenses for the Master and Sync rights, which means money going all over the place to the different contributors and a smaller portion for little ol’ you.

You are fully capable and can negotiate a deal granting the Master (your recording) and the Sync (the underlying song) rights, all by yourself!

Hopefully, you have done a bit of research and have heard of CD Baby? 

Let me give you a quick run-down just in case you haven’t; CD Baby is an online music store specializing in the sale of CDs, vinyl records and music downloads from independent musicians to consumers.

Now, with CD Baby’s sync licensing program, your music will be listed in a catalog of “pre-cleared” songs that are available to license for commercials, TV shows, films, games, corporate presentations, and more. So what does “pre-cleared” mean? This means any producer that is interested in using your music doesn’t have to wait around and negotiate with five different people and labels before they can license that piece of music.

Are you opted in for sync licensing?

Suppose you’re already distributing your music through CD Baby. In that case, there’s no additional setup fee for sync licensing, and it’s a non-exclusive deal, so you can work with other licensing agencies AND continue to try to place your music yourself! Win, Win!

Now let’s talk YouTube!

I’m sure you’ve subscribed to your favorite vloggers and artists’ channels and wondered to yourself how they are monetizing their channel?

Well, let’s cover the basics.

Every song you have ever recorded should have at least the following: an album cover video and a lyric video… Now here is the catch, the key here is to have your music available for other content creators. For example, Joe Schmoe needs to produce a puppy video vlog and wants to use your song, with your music being available it’s free for them to use, but you get paid! You read that right. If a complete stranger needs to use music for their video on YouTube and your music IS available, it’s free for them to use, but you get paid!

Through CD Baby’s YouTube Monetization program, you can take and benefit from the YouTube’s Content ID system to make sure you earn your fair share of publicity profits on ANY video in the YouTube universe that uses your music! And there is SERIOUS money to be earned here.

Clean Instrumentals

The lost art of the clean instrumental track is one of the most important contributing factors to the musicians’ profits.

To effectively license music, and make sure you have as many chances as possible for uses, ensure that you have an instrumental version with NO vocals and a “TV-up version” of just background vocals – “oohs” and “ahhs”, as well as a separated vocals ONLY track, in addition to the final master mix of the song. Whew! Seems like a lot of work but in the long run it will benefit you the most. So, you have 4 “songs” now: a Full Mix which is the standard regular song, an Instrumental Only, the TV Up track, and the Separated Vocals a cappella.

Having all these options gives you the most opportunities to license your music to as many different projects and producers as you’d like.

An extra upside to your hard work? By having the separate tracks, you give other musicians and fans a chance to collaborate on a revised version!

Shazam!

Everyone uses Shazam, but not many artists know that CD Baby can make your music available in Shazam’s database! So if someone Shazams your song? BAM! The app will recognize it and link the user to the various outlets to purchase your song!

Sound Exchange

Sound Exchange; now they collect royalties for “non-interactive” plays on web radio like Pandora and satellite radio on behalf of artists, labels, and session musicians to use a particular sound recording. These are NOT publishing royalties; publishing royalties have to do with the underlying composition and are paid to songwriters/publishers, and are thus NOT collected by ASCAP or BMI. So…Sound Exchange!

These are just roughly a few simple ways you can make money from singing and music, and I hope I’ve given you enough tips to take full advantage of these opportunities!