Rumblefish | The Music Snob

Music Licensing and Re-Title Publishing, Pump Audio…

Who is this man?! Why is he on this site?!

Read below to find out…

We’ve been having a very interesting and informative dialog in the comments section regarding re-title publishing.

Re-title publishing is when a company re-registers your songs under a different name with a performing rights organization (ASCAP, BMI, etc), so they can license your music and collect a percentage of the publishing royalties, and track these royalties separately from any other licenses you may have given out for these particular songs.

Check out the comments section of a previous post on Re-Title Publishing, where you can read the opinions of someone who claims to own a re-title music publishing company. He argues that re-titling is a decent option for bands that don’t have endless hours of time to spend promoting their songs to online music libraries and music supervisors. His particular company seems to promote their catalog actively, spending money to create promo CDs, edit tracks, etc., which you certainly aren’t going to get from a fully-automated web service.

It’s an option.

Continue reading “Music Licensing and Re-Title Publishing, Pump Audio…”

Review of Online Music Licensing Services

To date we’ve reviewed several web-based services that help artists make a few bucks licensing music. To review the articles and interviews we’ve done, go ahead and browse the Licensing Category.

Below is a table that compares several basic features of each service examined so far…

	Rumblefish	MusicSupervisor.com	Pump Audio	Music Gorilla	Song Catalog
Annual Fee	0	0	0	$299	$199
Licensing Split	50%	50%	50%	0	flat fee
Back-End Publishing	0	0	50% of publisher share	0	0
Re-Title Publishing	no	no	YES	no	no

To help you understand it, here are a few definitions:

Licensing Split: When someone buys a license to your music, they pay an upfront fee to the middleman service. The split determines how this money is divided between you and the middleman.

Back-End Publishing: Another source of income from licensing are the royalties generated when your music is used in certain situations, such as on TV or in a movie. These are generated every time your music is “performed”. In most cases, you the artist will receive 100% of the back-end publishing, because you probably don’t have a separate publisher. But in the case of Pump Audio, they re-register your songs with ASCAP, BMI, etc. under new names so that they can “administer” the royalties “more effectively”, and gain access to 50% of your publishing royalties. Sketchy.

See here for an explanation of this practice, known as Re-Title Publishing.

If you are interested in having us review your service, let me know: brian@themusicsnob.com
———————————————

In related news, Rumblefish put a post on their blog about our two part Rumblefish article…

Music Licensing Success with Rumblefish

Welcome to Day Two of our look at Rumblefish, the music licensing and sonic branding company.

Yesterday we reviewed the essential details of their licensing procedures, contracts, and some great things about their model. Today we look at some ways that the Rumblefish CEO, Paul Anthony, suggests artists approach music licensing.

What Licensing Pros Are Looking For

Rumblefish sells emotions, not music. Clients are looking for themes and moods to mirror or inspire what they want people to experience.

Pros look for three things:

Does the song convey an emotion? (happy, sad, tired, bored…)
Does the song convey a situation? (Breakup, arrest, party…)
Does the song portray a specific character? (girl in love, rejected lover…)

Up-tempo and happy songs are harder to find. There are many more sad songs written than happy songs. So, if you write great happy songs, push those. You have an advantage. (In my experience, this is true; it’s taken me years to learn to write a good happy song. I think they are much harder to write.)

Continue reading “Music Licensing Success with Rumblefish”

Music Licensing and Brand Marketing: Rumblefish

Rumblefish is a web-based company that connects artists and labels to companies looking to license music. Last week I had a great conversation with Paul Anthony, CEO of Rumblefish. Today and tomorrow we are covering the company and sharing Paul’s tips for licensing success.

Rumblefish Licensing Contract Details

All licenses are non-exclusive
By submitting music you are agreeing to a 1-year term
There are no submission or membership fees
You retain 100% ownership of your rights
You retain 100% of back-end performance royalties
You receive 50% of net licensing fees
They pay out quarterly

How Artists License Music with Rumblefish

You submit music to Rumblefish with a completed application and tax forms
Your music is approved (hopefully)
Your music is added to the Rumblefish catalog
People and companies that need music find your tracks on Rumblefish and pay a licensing fee based on what they’re going to use it for
Rumblefish splits the licensing fee with you
You move out of your cardboard box and onto a friend’s couch
Repeat these steps, until you own your own couch

Continue reading “Music Licensing and Brand Marketing: Rumblefish”

Marketing is an Illness – So Cheer Up!

The deeper I wade into the nuts and bolts of music marketing, the sicker I feel. Are all industries as over saturated and horrifying?

Of all things, music has been the closest to my heart forever. And so I can’t imagine how I would feel, marketing something I didn’t even like. Oh, wait. Actually I can. Last year I worked in marketing at a hi-tech company here in NYC. My job in a nutshell was to sell software that didn’t exist with features and benefits that the company could never produce, to non-existent customers. What a shithole. Try feeling confident when pitching imaginary products based on technology you couldn’t produce or even talk about intelligently, to Fortune 500 companies. Good luck!

Anyway. I just came across a really cool hip-hop biz blog. Justin Boland has a style that I can really identify with. As the Bobs would say, this guy is a “real straight shooter”.
Continue reading “Marketing is an Illness – So Cheer Up!”