Put yourself in the driving seat

How independent are you when it comes to making music? Do you have to rely on others for studio time, or simply just to release your music?

When I ran a digital label with others it was a frustrating period. Trying to rely on people who may not have the same time, drive, or ambition as you to make something happen is not ideal. Ideally, you want to have your own set up, so you’re able to focus on making your music as much as possible. Think of your music as a plant. The more you feed it, the more it will grow. Plants will keep growing, getting bushier and larger until they flower, and eventually if you’re lucky they will bear fruit.

So it’s incredibly important when you’re not earning from music to keep feeding it. If you want to be a content provider then the most important thing is to keep building your content, even when it’s not earning. It all holds value down the line.

The ability to make music whenever you feel the need and the desire to do so is a big deal. Just like anything in life, if something is important to you, prioritise it! Watch less Netflix, go out less, make excuses to stay in. You have to feed this for it to grow. The universe is reactive. Big things are unlikely to come your way if you’re not putting in the work. But if you love making music, it’s not really work is it?!

Do what you do best

Think about your music style – what are your strengths? What makes your music interesting or unique? Feed these things, practice as much as you can to refine your sound.

You’ll hopefully have begun to realise that music is a highly regarded skill, and that if you have the ability, this should be your focus.

After the music distributor I worked for and had a label with went bust in 2003, I had no home for my music. Many times I thought about quitting. If it’s just going to be a hobby, it’s certainly an expensive and time consuming one! But as soon as you start seeing the value in what you’re doing, it all changes. This applies to everything in life, not just music.

I’ll talk more later in this piece about where my music found a home, and the way it started gaining attention and music licensing work that has continued to thrive for more than 5 years.

But just know, none of my success has come from selling my tracks in the traditional sense. In fact, I give my music away for free. Anyone can download and stream my catalogue for absolutely nothing.

When I got my first licensing gig, I received £25 for a company to use my track in an internal Christmas video. Less than a year later, I received £1500 from a big German engineering firm to edit one of my tracks across 8 videos. I’ve never learnt music production or video editing, but there I was earning from both.

Being in control of your own royalty free music library enables you to take on jobs you would never get by relinquishing control of your tracks to a publisher or label. A huge bonus is also that YOU make the contacts. After all, the only reason publishers take their cut is because of the contacts they have.

Licensing through your copyright

Empowering yourself as an independent artist means being fully in control of your music’s copyright, and not giving control of it to some external company. I’ve made this mistake with publishers before. 7 years ago I gave 25 tracks exclusively to a publisher, who just sat them in his library gathering dust. As I’d given them exclusively, I had no choice but to abandon them to the publisher instead of being able to earn from them myself. Do not make the same mistake as I did. Publishers and labels will promise a lot and deliver nothing.

For the last 7 years I’ve been releasing the vast majority of my music for free on a Creative Commons BY NC ND 4.0 license on the amazing website and resource, the Free Music Archive.

This website transformed my music career and life. How?

There are literally millions of people that use the FMA daily, not just as a free to stream and download catalogue of quality music, but also as an amazing resource of independent Royalty Free music that has the potential to be used in derivative and commercial projects. This is how I know there is currently a huge gap in the market that independent artists can and should be taking advantage of.

Through the FMA, I’ve not only been contacted by and received work from massive global agencies like Grey Advertising, Talk Radio, the BBC, Vice Media and the UN, I’ve also received plenty of work from independent film makers, podcast producers, games developers, universities, museums etc etc. There is such a huge number of people looking for music for all manner of projects that do not want to or can’t go down the traditional expensive route of licensing music, that’s why they are on the FMA looking in the first place. This is the time to make you, your music library and services as visible and clear as possible to take advantage.

Independent music licensing

Having your music available on the FMA means you already have a huge marketing resource for your music. We know there are so many agencies, companies and organisations on there everyday looking for suitable music. The bigger your personal library is, the more chance you have of getting music licensed. If they contact you, then that becomes YOUR contact, not a publishers.

This is why I’ve always said to feed the music ‘plant’ even when you’re not earning from your art. Building up the content you want to provide to people is obviously essential, and when you have your own personal royalty free library to add to, literally no track, riff or loop need go to waste.

This is why I started my own Ecommerce licensing site. I only have two things for sale, a perpetual single track use license and an annual subscription service. It’s so simple, easy to use and attractive as many people need multiple tracks for projects, and no traditional publisher can match the flexibility we independents have with our own royalty free music library that we have full sovereignty over. And this even extends to charity. I’ve let plenty of hospices, cancer wards and children’s charities use my music for free.

The future is independent

Here at IMLC, we truly hope our site becomes a treasured central resource not just for artists making independent royalty free music, but for all content creators, companies and organisations that need an awesome  affordable soundtrack. As we continue to grow, and be able to offer such a clear and attractive service, we truly hope to inspire and evolve a new way of licensing music, one that empowers both sides.

So we’re really happy you’re here. Both One Man Book and myself are easily contactable and here to support you at every stage. Soon we’ll have invaluable resources here too, like legal documents and production tips.

The future is exciting for independent royalty free music creation. Join us on the journey.