Licensing Music

The licensing of music for TV, film, and web can be one of the few avenues for a band to get exposure and earn money. Everyone knows radio plays so little new music of which a shockingly even smaller number that can be considered good. Everyone knows that a good placement in an advertisment or the right show or movie can raise your awareness and immediately impact your ticket and album/single sales. And everyone knows that some of these licenses can actually earn the band a decent amount of money, whether they see the money depends on who controls the publishing and master.

Here is the bad part. There are far too many people looking for a gratis (free) license. Their logic in asking usually comes back to 2 reason.

1. We have no money, this is a tiny production that we don't even to expect to make any money, let alone recoup our costs.
2. This will be good exposure for the band. We will give them a chyron or a credit.

It is not absolute, but I feel this is inherently wrong.

1. NO MONEY EXCUSE. Let's think about this for a moment. You spent money on cameras, lenses, film, tape, drives, transfers. You spent money on production, sets, make-up, lighting, space rental, permits, food, water, coffee, gas. Should I continue? Maybe everyone who worked on the production all worked for free, maybe not. The point is your asking for the music, which arguably will be one of the most important elements to quality of your film (yes, ask all the great directors how important the music is to how a piece plays) for free. You are placing a zero value on that music and worse you are telling that artist that their art has no value to you.
2. It is not you to decide what good exposure is. The truth is your piece will be like most others and it will only have a handful of people see it. We hope that your project gets a lot of exposure but that is not a risk that the band should be taking. The artist is not in the business of your film. Their job is to make music and play shows. They should not be asked to take any of the risk or any of the burden in your production.

Don't get me wrong I am not angry at those who ask. I am happy you like the music enough to use it in the piece and I want you to continue to use the music for many years to come. I do however think it is slightly rude or naive, or presumptuous, or some other word that I do not know, for you to ask to use the music for free.

Would you walk into the camera shop and say "Can you give us that lens for free? We will put it in the credits. It will be great exposure for you"

Show the music the respect it deserves. Set aside a budget so you can pay for the music. Even if it is a small amount. It is a lot nicer to say "I really want to use your music but I only have $300 can we please figure out a way to make this work?" then "We want to use your music but we have no money because we spent it on everything else, besides, it will be to your benefit to give it to me for free".

One caveat is Student films. I have found that while most of them are focused on learning which is a noble cause we all support they do often spend money on gear, computers, drives, software, etc. We do not expect students to have a lot of money to spend on music but why are the schools willing to spend all this money on gear and not on music. Aren't they only teaching part of the story of making a film?

One last note. "I am just a broke college student" does usually not fly as a good argument to a band as your life as a broke college student is probably much more opulent then most of the artists working today.

Portugal. The Man and Social Media

It was a little over 5 years ago that I started working with Portugal. The Man. They had just released their debut album a couple months earlier. There was a little awareness but not much outside of their circle of fans. What was obvious was the band’s talent and intelligence, but ultimately what really stood out was their work ethic. We agreed to work together, and we agreed to take the slow, patient path to developing this band. Social media, as we know it, was still in its infancy but we knew it would be integral to our development. What we did not know, was that it would be the key to retrieving nearly $100,000 worth of gear 5 years later

Portugal. The Man was born of a few core beliefs: that this “job” could be really fun, that music after family was the most important thing in their lives, to always treat people fairly until they prove you wrong twice, and that hard work without shortcuts would get them what they wanted.

We made a plan; we talked about a solid 5-year commitment. That commitment had a structure. We would release new music every 8-14 months. We would tour virtually non-stop (more than 800 shows to date). We would create and own as many masters as possible. We would reinvest all of our money into the band. The band would take care of everyone’s needs (living expenses, health care, equipment, etc). We would document as much as possible on video and audio. We would generate all of our own art. We would cultivate our fanbase by developing a relationship with them by treating them like peers and always trying to give them more as often as possible. We held true to the concept of 10,000 hours, though Gladwell had not yet written his book. We knew that it would take time to be a great live band, and the band knew they wanted to progress in their songwriting. They knew they needed to get a few more albums under their belt before they could make the right record.

The relationship we developed with our audience was always paramount. Our belief is not that they were “fans” but rather they were people who just had the same taste in music as we did. The usual approach by bands of staying backstage with a brief appearance before or after their set at the merch table would not work. They hung out in the room, with everyone else, watching the other bands, grabbing a beer. You did not need to complete a transaction to hang with the band. Our records were always reasonably priced; we put a real effort into making great packages, even at the cost of margin. While we did not give away our music for free we did encourage P2P and torrenting. Our merch was unique; rarely did it even have the band’s name on it. We knew our fans by name--they had our cell phone numbers and email addresses. There was no separation.

When the band was starting out social media was still very much in its infancy. MySpace was still king, Facebook was only open to students, Twitter had not even started. We tried to stay on the cutting edge as much as possible. We signed up early with a lot of start-ups many of which did not end up making the cut. Most were more work than actually communicating directly to people, so we continued to cultivate our direct relationships. We never started a street team. We thought it was ridiculous and a waste of time (later a few industrious friends started their own and their help has been amazing). We wrote letters. We made phone calls. We randomly mailed out gifts to people on the mailing list. We gave away music. We never stopped. When we completed a record we invited kids to hang out at our van to hear it on headphones. Some kids put together a gathering at their house. I showed up and played the entire new record. I also showed a 90-minute live movie that 2 years later still has not been seen by anyone but those people who attended. We wanted to treat them special.

Super-serving our core is what endeared Portugal. The Man to those who knew about them. It became a special club. If you saw someone walking down the street wearing a Portugal. The Man shirt it was because you, yourself were a fan because without a name visibly on a shirt you had to be part of the club to recognize another.

It was the morning after another great set at Lollapalooza, 2 weeks early their record debuted at #42 on the Billboard Top 200, everything was feeling great. I got a call from one of the band members so we could meet up before everyone went home--they wanted to give me something. The band had bought me a beautiful vintage watch for my 5-year anniversary with them, but as they were giving it to me they got a call from our tour manager: “The band and trailer are gone. GONE.” SHIT, what do we do?

Without hesitation we jumped on Twitter and Facebook with photos, gear lists and descriptions, tagging everyone we could. Within what seemed like minutes we were trending in Chicago and mass media (TV, newspapers, radio, etc.) were contacting us. Our fans were livid. They would not be stopped because they know how hard this band has worked and how they have poured everything they have into their records and their show, and they’re always trying to give more. This became the public’s mission; we just had to stay on top of things. Respond to Facebook, respond to the tweets, do the interviews. It was a blitzkrieg of media.

Within eight hours the van and trailer had been recovered and the Chicago Police were optimistic. Our story was being covered by every TV channel and every newspaper and many of the radio stations above the huge social media story. This was high-profile and everyone was looking for a quick resolution. Four days later, we got a call from the Chicago Police: they had raided a house and had a lot of our equipment. We are still missing most of our guitars, keyboards, and some amps, but I am confident in their return. The Chicago Police credit the profile of the case in their recovery. The equipment was “too hot” to move.

The takeaway for me over the past few stressful weeks was that we recovered our gear because of what we did five years ago, not what we did the morning of August 8th. Portugal. The Man social numbers might not be the largest (Facebook 120,000 likes, 20,000 Twitter followers) but our percentage of active users is extraordinary. I believe this is the case because we do not view social media as simply a marketing tool. It is our vessel to share who we are at our core, and it is just as much a part of our lives as tuning a guitar. Portugal. The Man still has a long way to go in becoming what they want to be, but rest assured when we get there it will be a direct result of the relationships we fostered through social media.