Today’s installment of our ongoing look at avenues for licensing music brings us to Music Gorilla. This Austin-based company’s model is to charge an annual fee of $299 and let the artist keep all earnings from any licensing, publishing or other deals that arise.
How it Works
When you sign up and upload your tracks, your music is kept in their database and accessible by music industry reps that have signed up with the company. New relevant song additions are displayed to reps automatically. Music Gorilla also sends out a few opportunities via email each month, where users can respond by submitting specific songs if the project seems appropriate.
Music Gorilla markets its services more as a way to get heard by record labels than a way to have your music licensed. But they do send out regular licensing opportunities, mostly for indie projects.
Showcases
Music Gorilla also puts on about three showcases a year, where bands can perform for major label reps in Austin and NYC.
Click here for a full list of Music Gorilla services.
Particulars:
- The site’s co-founders are very accessible and always willing to talk with artists.
- The graphical design and user interface are not the best, but hopefully this will change soon…
Interview with Co-Founder Alexia Erlichman
We posed some questions for Alexia, one of Music Gorilla’s co-founders, on how to use Music Gorilla to maximize your chances of music licensing success:
How many artist members does Music Gorilla currently have?
Music Gorilla is currently working with about 600 bands and artists. It’s a small enough group that everyone gets opportunities, but a large enough pool for the reps that use our site.
How many songs are in the Music Gorilla database?
There are over 3700 songs in our database.
How many music industry reps currently use MG?
Currently, there are over 200 registered industry members. However, there are hundreds of other reps who use MG who are not registered, but put out submissions to our members, and request music from us for projects that they are working on.
How should an artist tag their songs to optimize visibility to reps?
Artists should make sure their songs are in the proper genre categories. Each rep gets their own page and can select the genres they are interested in listening to. New songs and artists uploaded to MusicGorilla.com are placed directly onto the pages of Industry Members looking for those genres.
Are MG users able to contact reps directly?
If an Industry rep is interested in an artist, they can contact the artist directly, and since Music Gorilla takes no piece of any deals made on the site, the artist and rep can interact directly, however, we respect the privacy of the reps that use our site, so we do not publish their contact info.
How many new song/project listings are typically published each month?
Approximately 30
How can an artist maximize their chances of success with MG, aside from submitting good music?
Being proactive and taking advantage of all appropriate submissions is a great way to take advantage of Music Gorilla. If you’re a band or artist (as oppose to strictly songwriting) there is the possibility of showcasing for a Major Label A&R rep and receiving written feedback on that performance. In the past we’ve had reps from Hollywood, RCA, Sony, Virgin and more. Also, let us know what you’re up to, our members can submit news for our newsletter which goes out to our entire mailing list, including industry reps, fans, press and more.
Do the reps mostly focus on certain genres? If so, what genres typically have the most success at MG?
No, we get requests for all types of music. Everything from Hip Hop to Rock to Electronic to Instrumental.
What does Music Gorilla do better than its competitors?
Our personalized customer service is unmatched and we will have as much interaction with the artists as they want. We also work extremely hard to offer artists more and more opportunities. There is a personal aspect to Music Gorilla that you won’t find other places, we take a very hands on approach, and we are never satisfied, we’re always looking for more things that we can provide our Artist Members with. We want to offer the most value possible.
Who might NOT want to use Music Gorilla?
People who are not interested in getting opportunities for their music, may not fit with Music Gorilla. Also, Artists who do not understand that the music business is actually a business and needs to be treated as such. Artists who do not have quality recordings of their music – though A&R reps can see past production on recordings, music supervisors won’t reproduce, or otherwise improve music for placement, it has to be ready to go. So if the artist is solely focused on getting signed to a label, they may be able to forgo excellent production, however, we believe that placement is a great way for artists to get exposure and make money with their music so, they should go after those opportunities.
How are bands selected to participate in the showcases?
Our music editor accepts submissions for each particular showcase. He then talks to the rep about what they are looking for or where their expertise lies. (If we have a country rep coming in, we don’t want to showcase a heavy metal band to them). If necessary, the booking agent for the venue may also have final say, but generally they leave the decision to our editor.
How often does MG put on showcases? Where?
We put on showcases about 3 times a year. Generally, they are in New York City twice a year and then we do our Live Label Showcase Series in Austin, TX during SXSW. These showcases are generally over 4 days and showcase upwards of 30 artists. We are considering the possibility of offering more showcases in various cities. All of the artists that showcase receive written feedback from the A&R rep in attendance, and the A&R rep in attendance has always been from a Major Label.
Any other suggestions for artists to succeed with Music Gorilla?
I think that pretty much covers it. As I said above, we are happy to have as much interaction with artists as they desire, so if any of your users have questions about what we do, or how we do it, we invite them to give us a call at 512/918-8978 or email me at Alexia@MusicGorilla.com.
———————————————————–
Thanks Alexia for taking the time to answer our questions!