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Songwriter Javier Silva was absolutely delighted when his earnings from Soundreef In-Store<\/a> last semester made him 200 times more per play than Bette Midler. We caught up with him to have a chat about music licensing.<\/i><\/p>\n Javier describes his music as \u2018Indie pop-rock flavoured stuff.\u2019 His band, Ten Summersets was formed in 2005.<\/p>\n \u2018That lasted for about maybe a year, a year and a half,\u2019 he explains, \u2018And then we sort of split and drifted.\u2019<\/p>\n How did he get into music licensing?<\/p>\n \u2018The whole time I\u2019ve really been interested in music licensing, and that\u2019s what the whole latest album was about, it\u2019s just writing songs that are music licensable. Something that\u2019s commercial.\u2019<\/p>\n What got him interested in it?<\/p>\n \u2018You hear so much music on the commercials and the TV, things like that, the question always popped up \u2013 \u201cHow do they do that?\u201d, so I looked into that and starting finding out and connecting with certain music libraries and things like that. And of course, being in a band, there is sort of a bottom line. You do<\/i> want to make some money, and sometimes gigging doesn\u2019t quite work, so that\u2019s why we branched into music licensing.\u2019<\/p>\n Does he write and record all your own material at home?<\/p>\n \u2018Yeah\u2026 Back in about 2010 I gathered up the money to get a studio together and it\u2019s basically become kinda like a sketchpad, where if I have an idea I\u2019ll sit here and play the guitar, record it\u2026 come back to it later, add some words and stuff. It\u2019s really convenient, I\u2019m very fortunate to be able two do that, \u2018cause I don\u2019t know if I could remember stuff I write from one day to the next!\u2019<\/p>\n How does he develop these ideas?<\/p>\n \u2018Once I get the sketch of the music, I\u2019ll go back and put some words on it. My process of writing lyrics is probably kind of backwards, in that I usually use lines that fit with the music and then kind of feed the sense together and put a song together. And then afterwards I\u2019ll sit back and think, what\u2019s this song about?\u2019<\/p>\n The next state is making the music ready to upload to music licensing sites.<\/p>\n \u2018With the financial situation the way it is, I really couldn\u2019t afford to send my stuff out to get mixed and mastered so I had to make a decision and go ahead and learn how to do it myself\u2026 I had to do some crash courses in mastering and of course I\u2019m still learning\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n So the whole thing has been a learning process, from mastering to licensing?<\/p>\n \u2018Yeah, and I don\u2019t know if that will ever change! I\u2019m always learning something.\u2019<\/p>\n Was the music he uploaded to Soundreef In-Store written with background music in mind?<\/p>\n \u2018Yeah, more or less. The direction I want to go with the music is I really want to generate some kind of income with the music and then slowly collaborate with musicians and go a step further. It is compiled on an album and the album is available, but that wasn\u2019t necessarily the goal in putting the music together.\u2019<\/p>\n Soundreef In-Store\u2019s contract is non-exclusive, which means our artists can release their music in any other way, anywhere else in the world, and still collect royalties from us. Like most of our artists, Javier releases his material through other channels.<\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019ve got it on CD Baby<\/a> and that\u2019s probably the biggest one. They\u2019ve pretty much handled all the distribution channels, getting it on Spotify<\/a>, iTunes<\/a>\u2026 I\u2019ve found that very convenient for me. I guess I\u2019ve got my own label!\u2019<\/p>\n Would he recommend CD Baby to other artists? Is he pleased with what they\u2019ve done?<\/p>\n \u2018Yes, I really would because they always seem to be coming up with some new way to help the artists put their stuff out there. I really would recommend CD Baby, yes.\u2019<\/p>\n Are there any other distribution sites he\u2019d recommend to other artists?<\/p>\n \u2018Well, let\u2019s see\u2026 There\u2019s a whole lot of music licensing websites that I\u2019ve got music on\u2026 through CD Baby I\u2019ve got stuff on Rumblefish<\/a>. Of course, YouTube<\/a> is a good one to have, it helps you get your music noticed I guess.\u2019<\/p>\n Javier hadn\u2019t registered his music for use as background music before Soundreef, but he was already a member of ASCAP<\/a>. Did he have any problems with them when he registered with us?<\/p>\n \u2018No. In fact Soundreef was very helpful in giving me the paperwork to sign where I basically just waive the rights and I did find that it\u2019s more beneficial for me to go directly with Soundreef than try to use ASCAP, because I tried to look at how they pay out their royalties, but it\u2019s like studying algorithms and some kind of calculus because of the formula they have. Of course it leans towards the bigger artists and if there\u2019s anything left the little guys get something.\u2019<\/p>\n How did he hear about Soundreef?<\/p>\n \u2018I think I might have just stumbled across it on a Google search\u2026 I think at the time I was working on different ways to get my music out there and generate some income, and I\u2019m sure that\u2019s how I stumbled across it.\u2019<\/p>\n What made him want to try us out?<\/p>\n \u2018You seemed interesting because of course it was really what I wanted to do. I was looking into music licensing and seeing what Soundreef does in getting the music into retail, shops and stuff like that, I said, well, that\u2019s exactly what I want to do so let\u2019s give it a shot!\u2019<\/p>\n How was the registration process?<\/p>\n \u2018It really surprised me how easy it was to get played and it was really very little effort on my part for the music \u2013 I didn\u2019t have to promote anything, push anything, you guys did the rest\u2026 It was very, very easy and it\u2019s kind of surprising! I really liked the idea, the way the data\u2019s collected on there, and available, so I see where our music\u2019s been played, how many times. People have asked me where my music was played, and I could tell them. Most of it\u2019s in Italy, but that was just fine by me. I really like the process.\u2019<\/p>\n Can he recommend any other music licensing websites to artists?<\/p>\n \u2018Well there\u2019s so many music libraries out there. There\u2019s one called musync.com<\/a>, they listen to your music and see if they like it. There\u2019s another one called musicsupervisor.com<\/a>, Music Dealers is another one that\u2019s pretty good and really into the artists \u2013 they\u2019re more into the branding of the artists\u2026 that\u2019s all I can think of right now!\u2019<\/p>\n What are his plans for the future?<\/p>\n \u2018For the future, I definitely will step up my mixing process and mastering to generate some better quality stuff coming out of the studio. And really just to write more music, and push for music licensing \u2013 that\u2019s the first goal. Of course you always want to land a big<\/i> deal, but definitely I\u2019ll put as much as I can into the Soundreef library because that\u2019s proven to be an avenue where it\u2019s just pretty much a no-brainer!\u2019<\/p>\n Does he have any advice for other artists?<\/p>\n \u2018One thing that I\u2019d go for would be music quality. And probably the easiest way to get to music quality would be put together simple music with simple instrumentation, even if it\u2019s just an acoustic and singing track, or maybe just three pieces\u2026 In songwriting for music licensing, lyrically you want to make your stuff as generic as possible so that it opens you up to more opportunities \u2026\u2019<\/p>\n So make it more adaptable to a wider audience?<\/p>\n \u2018In a case of licensing for a commercial or something, they\u2019re looking for something happy and positive\u2026\u2019<\/p>\n Javier also points out that using more general lyrics means it can be used in several different ways \u2018Whereas if you wrote it specifically about one certain day when a certain incident happened to you, you\u2019re limited.\u2019<\/p>\n For more about what kind of music earns the most royalties from Soundreef In-Store, check out our Music Supervisor\u2019s advice in our previous blog post<\/a>.<\/p>\n To find out more about Javier Silva and his music, take a look at his website. He\u2019s also on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Songwriter Javier Silva was absolutely delighted when his earnings from Soundreef In-Store last semester made him 200 times more per play than Bette Midler. We caught up with him to have a chat about music licensing. Javier describes his music as \u2018Indie pop-rock flavoured stuff.\u2019 His band, Ten Summersets was formed in 2005. \u2018That lasted for about maybe a year,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[56],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n