If I have songs that I would like to sell to other artists how do I go about doing this? I already have the songs recorded and have copyrights for those songs.
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tell you the truth, the first thing you should do is a lot of ho
tell you the truth, the first thing you should do is a lot of homework. before you start calling anyone. selling or licensing your music is a lot more complicated than just copyright issues. you hold a lot of different rights to your music, and whoever you are talking to may only want some of them to be able to do what they want to do. master-use, synch, performance rights, etc. like anything else in business, know exactly what you are selling.
electronic music mag put out a good article to get started with.
http://emusician.com/mag/working/emusic_music_licensing_indies/
there's a faq you can find on my companies site http://www.signal-2-noise.com that may be of some help as well.
and its always a little easier to sell your music when you have some kind of portfolio to back it. even if its just having had sold some music to local companies or artists.
Well, in my experience, this is a very, very tough nut to crack.
Well, in my experience, this is a very, very tough nut to crack.
So, how to do it ? Good question. (You don't have an uncle who's an A&R guy do you ?)
#1) Make the calls yourself.
Get a list of publishers and phone every single publisher in the book.
Get yourself ready for a lot of rejection and, sometimes, outright rudeness. The policy of most publishers is that they do not accept unsolicited material as a a matter of policy. Period. Thank-you. Goodbye.
Here is a link to a downloadable catalog that has some listings. I purchased it. $19.
http://www.allmusicindustrycontacts.com
#2) Try and get a music lawyer (that has contacts) to represent you and your songs.
Try and find out what the lawyer has done for other songwriters first. Get references.
#3) Try an organization like Taxi
http://www.taxi.com
I used to be a member for many years. I think it's a fantastic service for songwriters in many, many ways. Not only do you get listings of top A&R, T.V. & Film people looking for songs, you get an entire organization that will help you write songs better and give you the opportunity to meet other songwriters and professionals in the business with Taxi's Road Rally.
I'm mostly an instrumental composer so, at that time, I decided that it wasn't for me. But, I may join again because the "other ways" I outlined above just not doin' it for me.
Good luck.
P.S. Be professional. Know what you're going to say and be as brief and to the point as you can be.
Put on your best flack jacket & charge up your B.S. meter because this road is really tough.