Licensing

Bebo Sale Spotlights Online Music Licensing Controversy

Mar 23rd, 2008 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing, News and Songwriting

Welcome to spinme.com, where we help working musicians make more money making music. If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed or our weekly newsletter. Thanks for visiting!Two years ago, as Billy Bragg tells it, the founder of British social networking site Bebo came to him for advice about [...]



Getty Images Buys Pump Audio

Jun 20th, 2007 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing

It’s a $42 million price tag for Pump Audio, the little independent music rights clearing house that could. I remember that, when they first launched, Pump Audio looked dangerously like one of the song sharks we often write about here. But they reached out to the independent music community and did a great job building [...]



RIAA to YouTube: You’re Next.

Jun 15th, 2006 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing

I was working in radio, and part of a team that was running what was, at the time, one of the ten most-listened-to live streams in the world, when the RIAA and the PROs steamrolled streaming radio with some pretty hefty licensing fees. I certainly don’t begrudge anyone the right to earn some royalties, but [...]



Hem: Liberty Mutual’s Accomplishing What DreamWorks Couldn’t

Jun 12th, 2006 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing and Television

Hem has been honing their sound — a blend of etherial vocals and Americana — for close to seven years now. DreamWorks signed them in 2003, but couldn’t make their records click at radio. Luckily, they’ve moved on to Rounder, and they’re selling all three of their albums at their site.
“Half Acre,” a song from [...]



Independent Musicians Help Brands Get Established

Dec 8th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing

Bob Mould, Thievery Corporation, and other great folks are profiled in this WaPo profile of musicians that are making more money from licensing works for film and television. Agencies love the friction-free process of getting a deal cut without twelve concentric circles of major label red tape. Artists love getting “in the low five figures” [...]



What If Making Music Was Your Day Job and Reaching Audiences Was Your Hobby?

Nov 28th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Growing Your Audience and Licensing

Scottish band Looper is asking exactly this question.
A snippet of their song wound up in a commercial, earning them enough money to stop worrying about selling records. They’re focusing on composing more music for film and television to pay the bills, and releasing their crowd faves for free as a byproduct of the creative process.

Track [...]



BMI Podcasting And Licensing Podcasters

May 9th, 2005 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing

BMI Podcasting And Licensing Podcasters: BMI has just joined ASCAP to make it a little clearer for podcasters to include BMI songs in their downloads… More on this topic to come…
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Licensing Music for Podcasting

Oct 18th, 2004 | By Joe Taylor Jr. | Category: Licensing

I’m still gearing up to jump into the podcasting game — I think it’s a very clever application, and a way of expanding to the general public what Audible’s been doing with their subscription service for a while now.
The HUGE, 800 pound gorilla on the table is music licensing. As folks are using tools like [...]