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How To Quit Your Day Job & Make Music Full-Time.
I'm Jesse Josefsson, a professional producer & composer for TV shows, movies & commercials and yes I am the "Insider" here.
Licensing my tracks to TV shows, movies & commercials is my full-time job. You've probably never heard of me, but I bet you've
heard my music. If you've ever watched American Idol, The Voice, Keeping Up With The Kardashians, SNL, Parks & Recreation,
CNN, MSNBC or have seen any Jack in The Box, Ford or Nike commercials - you've likely been one of the millions of viewers
who have heard my tracks playing in the background.
Before I turned music licensing into my full-time job, I made A LOT of mistakes. Almost 10 years ago when I first got started, I
made the wrong kind of music, sent my tracks to the wrong kinds of companies and nearly burned out multiple times. I created
this Cheat Sheet so that YOU don't make the same mistakes I did. This industry can provide a very lucrative full-time income for
hard working producers like you, but many end up burning out before they ever see success. So carefully read this Cheat Sheet
(I suggest you print it out and post it on your wall in your studio!). This information could literally SAVE YOUR MUSIC
CAREER…
1) Don't compose 1 more track until you've joined a PRO! I'm always amazed by producers
who are submitting tracks to a music library or music supervisor and they haven't taken the time to join either ASCAP or
BMI. Let me make this clear: if you don't join a PRO, you won't be earning royalties. Personally I recommend BMI if you're
going to get into the TV/Film music licensing industry. I'm a members of theirs (and no I don't get paid to recommend them) and
I feel they offer the best royalty payments per placement. (Just so you're aware, each PRO has different formulas for how they
calculate their payments). As of the time of my creating this Cheat Sheet, joining BMI as a writer is 100% free. So go
to www.bmi.com and join…now!
2) Be honest with yourself about the quality of your music. We all have wives, girlfriends,
moms and friends who tell us our songs are amazing, that they could DEFINITELY hear our songs getting placed on TV. Take a
deep breath because I need to deliver you a somewhat harsh dose of reality - your family and friends probably don't work in the
industry so their positive words of encouragement might not be helping your career. Instead, you should honestly determine
how your tracks stand up the competition out there. The fastest way to do is to simply turn on a TV and listen. The tracks that
are playing on TV right now ARE YOUR competition - reality shows, news & sports programs, commercials and promos - they
are all full of music of every genre. So listen intently to the quality of the music you hear. Then honestly evaluate your tracks
and nail down some specific areas you could improve upon. Perhaps your mixes need to be louder or maybe you need to
modernize your sound;; whatever it is, be brutally honest with yourself and then MAKE THE CHANGES.
3) Invest in high quality samples. As a mentor to hundreds of producers who are getting into this business,
the number one reason most tracks aren't ready to be licensed is that the samples being used just plain SUCK! Nothing will
lower the quality of your tracks faster than using boring, dated & uninspired samples and instruments. It doesn't matter if you
use Logic Pro, Pro Tools, Ableton or Fruity Loops - you must be using modern and dynamic sounding samples. I personally am
a HUGE fan of Native Instruments plugin 'Kontakt'. It works for every DAW and there are hundreds of different libraries you can
install with it. (Again, I don't get paid to recommend it - I just use it on almost all of my tracks!). Whatever you decide to use,
never settle on your sample quality!
4) Partner with solid music libraries that have a track record of getting
placements. Unless you happen to know some music supervisors personally, chances are you'll need to get your start by
partnering with music libraries (I did) which are companies that put together large collections of tracks for music supervisors to
choose from. These libraries are always looking for new producers and songwriters to contribute to their catalogue and unlike
record labels, most of them accept unsolicited submissions. Many of them have a person on staff dedicated solely to reviewing
new music submissions and passing the better ones onto the higher ups. To learn how to find these companies, make sure you
watch my Free 5-Day Music Licensing Course (Link below).
5) Create new tracks every week. The ONLY way you'll have a shot at creating a full-time income by
licensing your music is by creating LOTS and LOTS of tracks. This is hands down a numbers business - the more tracks you
have out into the system the more royalties you can make. One of the mistakes I made early in my career was producing tons
of tracks within the first 3 months and then sat around waiting for the royalties to come in - bad move! It can take a year or more
for your royalties to get paid out so in that time you need to be making new music! You can think of it like a musician's 401K -
the more you contribute, the more you earn down the road!
6) Understand the business of licensing. We're all musicians so we like to spend our time making music
- duh! But you do need to take some time to understand the business of music licensing, especially if you don't want to get
ripped off or sign bad deals. The TV/Film licensing business is unlike any other side of the music biz - the deals & contracts are
very different than the kind record labels offer (thankfully!). You will need to learn how to empower your licensing partners to go
out and shop YOUR songs (while you sleep!). One big obstacle most producers face is their own ego - some literally would
rather take 100% of nothing than grab 50-75% of a $10,000 placement (I've personally seen artists walk away from deals like
this). This side of the industry isn't for everyone so if you're not a team player and willing to serve someone with money to pay
you, don't bother getting started!
7) Surround yourself with positive, motivated producers. It's an unwritten rule of life - people
tend to become like the people they surround themselves with. So take a look at your social circle - do you have a support
group around you? A very common issue with musicians is bitterness -bitterness at the industry, bitterness at their own lack of
success and bitterness towards anyone TRYING to go for it. If you have people like this around you right now, you might need to
limit your exposure to their influence on your subconscious mind (even if you don't agree with them, they WILL influence
you). Instead, try to connect with people with similar goals and attitudes. That way you'll be much more likely to achieve your
long terms goals (especially when you have moments of doubt!)
Thank you for reading and I sincerely you take this information seriously - this Cheat Sheet could literally save you months or
years of doing things the hard way!
If you want to learn exactly how this business of music licensing works as well as what my exact blueprint is for how I
turned it into a full-time gig, then click on the picture below to watch my Free 5-Day Music Licensing Online Course: