PG Music Home Forums General Discussion Off-Topic Selling music to a record company

I would be interested to know if any of you have tried to sell songs or recordings to a record company. What would you share about your experiences?

Thanks.

2b

I wrote a song 49 years ago.

Recorded it 44 years ago.

Sold it to a record company for a seven year period in 2016.

The record company included it in a documentary released worldwide in 2016 or 2017.

The record company got it placed in a mainstream, major movie soundtrack released in December 2018.

It was also written into a scene in the movie.

I'm still pretty stoked and tell everyone I meet about it.

SCREEN SHOT OF THE CLOSING MOVIE CREDITS:

I'd suggest you go to songtown.com and do some reading. I have no affiliation there but the two guys who own and run the site are bonafide top tier hit songwriters in country and pop. And they have recent enough credits to be up to snuff on what's going on in the industry today. There's also Taxi and Songtradr but they seem to cater more toward tv/film music.

My experience pitching is outdated. The music industry is much different than it was 30 or 40 years ago. So the few modest successes I had were in a different world. I'm proud of my Billboard Recommended Single and my #84 on the Cashbox Hot Country Chart but it was so long ago the way I did it is not going to help today.

I've been writing professionally in Nashville since 1985. With due respect to the above poster, I would forego Songtown and go to NSAI instead. The two guys who run it are peers of mine who I've known a long time (I've written a good deal with Marty Dodson). It's nothing against them personally, but NSAI is a not-for-profit organization, and their website is for-profit.

They absolutely have some good advice, and the above distinction may not matter to you or others, but it would matter (and does) to me, for whatever that's worth. I'm also not trying to slam them behind their backs, as I have expressed the same concerns to them personally.

One last comment, that is purely a semantics correction. You don't "sell" songs. They can be published, recorded, licensed, etc. and that's all good stuff....if you "sell" a song, you relinquish all rights to the song, and any and all future royalties, in perpetuity. You need to be careful as to the language you use, because sometimes songs are in fact "sold", and I would highly, highly advise against EVER doing that.

A book I would highly recommend getting as a source of information on such stuff is "All I Need To Know About The Music Business" by Donald Passman. The current edition (the 10th) came out a few months ago. It is not a "How To" book - think of it like a music business encyclopedia. Passman does a great job of explaining how all this stuff works, in a very conversational way.

Hope that helps.

Good info Roger. FWIW, I've only read their free stuff and blogs.
I thought they had some good advice for beginners especially. I haven't checked out NSAI in ages so just didn't think of them. I also like to watch Taxi tv when somebody I find interesting is a guest. (it's free) And I sometimes read Robin Frederick's free newsletter. Probably others I'm forgetting. And there's a lot of worthless crap online as well.

I'm just in this for the love these days so I don't spend money on profit or non-profit information if I can help it - already been there and done that. Equipment, BIAB, and fun is my primary interest.
(The only current musical non-profit I'm supporting is me.) That's a joke cause I ain't seen no profit after expenses in a real long time. LOL!

So I didn't mean to imply anyone should spend money with anyone for information that's available free - my point is to get good current information from reliable sources. There's always gonna be a sales pitch to join, buy this or that or support this or that regardless. I'd hope most people have learned to ignore those unless it's truly something they need or want and can afford.

Great to see you. Thanks for sharing.

I'm really curious - what documentary is this your music was featured in?

Congrats by the way

Thank you.

The documentary is wayfaring-strangers-cosmic-american-music released by Numerogroup

The URL isn't working today but a link to their site is: http://numerogroup.com/products/wayfaring-strangers-cosmic-american-music

Here's a URL to a Review: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/17/various-artists-wayfaring-strangers-cosmic-american-music-review-beautiful-country-rock-from-the-fringes

Thanks to all of you. I will follow up.

2b

Indeed, Roger nailed it. You don't actually sell the song ( or at least you shouldn't ) .... you license the song and "sell" the rights. You retain the writer's share and collect the royalties.... if any.

I have several songs in movies and TV shows. None of them are "sold", they are signed to music libraries and publishers.

So... my suggestion on how to get started is to get educated first because there are a lot of scumbags in the business who will absolutely take advantage of you if you don't know any better. Start searching for music libraries and publishers that have a track record of placing songs into the hands of the people and companies you are trying to get your music too. Yes, you can do it yourself, but they already have the connections and will save you years of time.
Submit a few songs.... read what they are looking for and follow it exactly. If they say 2 songs max in MP3 320bps ..... don't send them 3 songs in 128bps Wait on them to reply. They will tell you if they want your music or not. If not, look elsewhere because there are a ton of companies out there placing music. Film and TV have high standards. The music has to be "broadcast ready" and professional in all aspects. They don't generally want something that sounds like a bedroom recording or unpolished demo. And it has to be of the genre they deal with or are asking for.

They will sign your music one of two ways. Exclusive or non-exclusive. Exclusive means no one.... not even you, can use it without their permission. Non-exclusive means you can place it with a bunch of publishers and libraries who will "re-title" it. At this point, you are out of the picture with the music unless it's N-E and then you can continue to place it with other companies. I have music that falls into one of both categories.

Google search the internet to find these libraries and publishers as they are all online these days and submitting music to them is also done on line vs sending them cassettes and CDs like the old days.

Doing this puts you into business, so treat it like one and act professional as well. Register, if you have not yet done so, as a writer, with one of the PROs and get your ID numbers as the publishers and libraries will be asking you for those numbers so they can assign the writers share to you and to assure that you get your royalty checks.

Writing for artists.... that's a different area and arguably, a more challenging goal to achieve. It really helps to be in the center of the action and have friends in the places you want to go. It is highly competitive and with limited cuts available on a new CD project by an artist it can be extremely difficult to get into the 10 to 12 slots available. Until you get a hit song under your belt, no one wants to talk to you.

But again..... write the songs, improve your skills, learn more and continue to..... write, submit, repeat....write, submit, repeat.....


and...... there's no guarantees. So, have fun and enjoy the process.