rector had the chance to hear it. He decides it would be the perfect background sound-
scape for a series of radio and t.v spots he’s working on. So, you or your representative
negotiate a series of licenses that will cover the song’s use on the spots (synchronization
and rights) the right to use your recording of the song (master rights) and maybe the cre-
ative director has a need for an instance where your song will require re-recording for
some usage application (mechanical rights). After a while, your mailbox starts to fill up
with royalty checks for the variety of usage applications of that single song. Nice!
Then a film producer hears the song on the t.v. spots and wants to include it in his or
her next movie soundtrack. Yet another opportunity to license both synchronization and
master rights. Plus, your fan base grows when people learn it’s your tune and you playing
it. You’ll have a credit line in the movie credits, providing you negotiated a good deal.
But, people can also learn who wrote and performed the song via a Google search, in
many cases.
Now, consider licensing several of your works. You may need to buy a bigger mail-
box.
For the independent artist, licensing is an effective way to find an entire new audience
and grow their fan base. Plus, licensing is an area where the indie artist has a distinct ad-
vantage of the big names. Why? Because the big names, their label and music publishing
company know they’re a big names and want a load of dough for licensing rights. Unless
there’s a good reason to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to license rights from a
big name artist, many potential licensees will opt for a great tune by a lesser known, and
less expensive, artist. Or, they know they can get several songs for the same fee that the