Write Jingles and MAKE MONEY

Recent Berklee grad, Tom Harrison, has developed a BRILLIANT way for jingle writers and companies to reach each other. As it says on the website:

"All businesses would benefit from having their own Advertising Jingle to use wherever they want. . .Until now this has been a prohibitively expensive process and the business owner would have to put his faith in just one composer. Equally young upcoming composers face an uphill struggle to get their work noticed by companies large and small and spend too much of their time chasing difficult to achieve business."

The Jingle Works connects businesses and composers to make the process quicker and simpler! Go check it out and sign up, this really is a great opportunity!

Re-Blog: How much money can I make with Songs?

Original at http://blog.startmysong.com/2010/01/02/songwriting-how-much-money-can-i-make/

Songwriting: How Much Money Can I Make?

JANUARY 2, 2010

tags: music supervisors, performance rights payments, song publishing, songwriter profits, Songwriting Help, sync license

by Scott McIntosh

According to Dan Kimpel’s article in Music Connection Magazine, “Songwriting, Where Did All The Money Go?”, the following amounts are the average payments songwriters are receiving for song use:

$45,500 : One song on a million-selling CD. This is based on the 9.1 cents per album sold mechanical license rate with a publisher taking 50%. If the songwriter self-published their music, then they would get the full $91,000 per million albums sold.  This rate can further be reduced if the label or artist has negotiated a reduced mechanical rate.  Standard reduced rate is 3/4  or 6.8 cents per album sold.

$15,000 – $60,000 : Feature film, one song, writers and publishers share sync fee’s.  (Synchronization License - syncing  music to moving images).  This can vary greatly depending on the use of the song in the film.  A song used for the end-credits or trailer would demand much higher fees than a song used in the background.  This is all negotiated between the music supervisor and publisher (or songwriter if he/she has been able to make the film aware of his/her music).  Well known songs can demand more where unknown songs will garner much less from a sync license.  The exposer may be worth the low sync license though as people who see the movie hear the song.  If a soundtrack is released, this will lead to mechanical rates generated from soundtrack album sales (see above).

$20,000 – $100,000 : Non-hit song, national commercial.  Advertising agencies and music supervisors are looking for new music to use with commercials and sometimes prefer unknown songs and independent artists as they are less expensive.

$75,000 – $1,000,000 : Hit song, national commercial.

$60,000 – $70,000 : Unknown song, major film trailer.

$12,000 – $100,000 : Known song, major film trailer.  ”Negotiations will take into consideration whether or not the song that accompanies the visuals is a theatrical trailer for in theater use only, or a television or internet commercial.”

$300,000 + : Hit song, major film trailer.

$2,500 – $20,000 :  Song used in video game.

$1,000 – $3,000 : Indie artist, network television show all-in (master + sync) fee.  All-in meaning the TV show gets all options for use of the song without further payments.  So if the show was later released in a different medium such as an internet channel, home video, or on-demand, the show would not have to pay more monies to the songwriters.

$800,000 : U.S. radio and television performance royalties, hit single.  There are three performing rights societies that make sure the copyright owners of songs are paid performance royalties when those songs are performed in public.  This includes radio, television, restaurants, nightclubs, dance halls, websites, and other venues and broadcasters.  The three societies are ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC and they receive payments from the music venues stated above for the right to perform the songs in their respective catalogs.  The performance rights agencies use their specific systems to determine the amount of times songs are played throughout the different venues and send publishers / songwriters royalties checks based on amount of play.  Published songwriters must choose which agency to register with based on the different pros and cons of each organization.

0.66 cents : iTunes takes .34 cents per download from the standard .99 cent fee charged (although the rate now varies between .66 / .99 / 1.29 cents per song due to new negotiations between Apple and the labels).  If a song is attached to a label, the label will take .46 cents giving the songwriter .10 cents and the artist .10 cents per download.  If two songwriters co-wrote the song then this is now .5 cents per download.  It is also .5 cents per download if a publisher has 50% rights to the song.  Of course, you don’t need a publisher to get your songs onto iTunes or in other music stores, you can pay TuneCore a small fee and then keep the .66 cents per download.  Tunecore special offer below:

Sign Up for a free TuneCore account, save 30% on first distribution

(Note: You can also place your songs for sale right on Start My Song and keep 100% of your revenues from downloads using the Bandbox music widget.)

Again, the above numbers are just an idea of potential income that a great song can make when used through different venues.  Amounts will definitely vary depending on the negotiating power between those looking for music and those providing music.

Disclaimer: This article was not written by a lawyer and the information is the opinion of the author only. This article is not intended as legal advice or counsel. The author does not make warranty or representation as to the accuracy of contained statements.

Want the best secret to getting your videos to go viral?

Want to get your video to go viral?  Here's a quick tip: Have John Mayer blog about it!

Read on, and please re-tweet, re-blog, or re-post this to help Ken get his video going viral!

John came to Berklee to do a songwriting clinic for a few selected students, one of whom is a friend of the club, Ken Yates.  Since then, John has been radio silent on his blog (for over a month), but as of Thursday morning at 1AM, John Mayer posted the following entry, titled:
"Want to hear a great song? (I mean a REALLY great song?)"

Want to hear a great song? (I mean a REALLY great song?)

I taught a songwriting class at Berklee College of Music in Boston in March where I heard so many talented songwriters play some really great songs. Very few of the students have yet to record the songs they played for me, but Ken Yateswrote a tune called “I Don’t Wanna Fall in Love” and posted a live video of it on YouTube. This song moved me when I first heard it in the room and it still does today.

I love teaching at Berklee because I get to meet the artists that are going to keep the music world going strong
before the rest of the world does.

Enjoy, two years early.

(lots of love to everyone else that day who fearlessly played their songs for myself and the rest of the room.)

-JM