Steve PMHWhether you’re an artist looking for a way to monetize your music and earn through distribution and licensing, or a content creator looking for your next big sample, it is important to know which music licensing service can offer the most value.
Online marketplaces are popping up all over the digital sphere, and as a result, have made it much easier for musicians to earn income. The challenge now becomes, how do you distinguish between the plethora of offerings and join the service that is going to best display your music portfolio and serve your interests.
For those looking for music to feature in your films, tv, YouTube content, etc. or an independent artist looking to earn income from the sale of your material, this list will help you decide which service offers the best library, with the best features, for the most reasonable price.
The following will discuss licensing fees, artist payouts, platform features, and subscription pricing options, and will provide a list of pros and cons for each service to help inform your decision further.
TAXI
Based in Los Angeles and founded all the way back in 1992, Taxi A&R has been helping independent songwriters, artists and composers get their music to record labels, film & tv music supervisors, music publishers, music licensing companies, ad agencies, and video game companies for more than 25 years.
They act as the middleman between companies looking for commercial use content and independent artists by soliciting leads and finding the right fit. As an artist, you can submit your music to the Taxi staff and they will do a submission quality assessment.
If your work passes the screening process they will advertise your music on the Taxi A&R placement service. If your work is rejected, they will still provide you feedback on how to improve and make your work more marketable.
Once your music is on their placement service, the individual or company that wishes to use your product will be able to get in contact with you directly.
They offer a One-Year membership for $299.95 but it is important to understand, as an artist, that you will have to pay an additional $5 for every song that you submit, regardless of whether or not you pass the screening process.
Just something to keep in mind.
Pros
- Experience and Reputation (more than 25 years of networking and expertise)
- Members get access to their annual conference for free, where they can connect with record labels and music supervisors
- Allows individuals and companies to contact artists directly for licensing
- Feedback from industry experts (crucial for improving music marketability)
Cons
- If you are pitching a lot of content, having to pay $5 per submission can add up quickly, especially if you are already paying their annual membership subscription fee
Pond5
New York-based Pond5 is a stock website for music, videos, images, and other types of effects. Founded in 2006, Pond5 is one of the world’s largest collections of content, with over 900,000 music tracks and more than 17 million video clips to choose from.
As an artist, you can set your own prices and collect a higher royalty than other online marketplaces, while retaining your rights over the work. Pond5 simply provides the platform for you to reach buyers worldwide.
Pond5 lets you upload your tracks for free and utilizes a 65/35 royalty split, which means you take home 35% of the revenue for your sales.
While this may not seem like much, Pond5 is one of the most active platforms, supplying content to industry leaders like Vice, Netflix, NBC, and MTV (which means you have a much higher chance of selling your music than with many smaller music licensing networks). In other words, it’s better to own 35% of something, than 100% of nothing.
Pros
- Free uploads, no membership fee for artists and content producers
- A large active marketplace that maximizes the chances of earning revenue
- Brand recognition
Cons
- 65/35 royalty split
Audio Jungle
Audio Jungle is another online marketplace that deals in music and sound effects for films, games, trailers, as well as advertising and broadcasting projects. Audio Jungles gives artists the ability to customize their personal pages, create their own song packs, and experiment with different types of licensing.
On top of that, they boast a huge market of buyers and feature a really attractive, easy to navigate interface.
As a non-exclusive artist (meaning that you are also selling your content through other stock platforms or through other channels), Audio Jungle offers a 36/64 split of the sale price. Now, if you relinquish your rights to sell your tracks on other platforms, Audio Jungle will reward you and boost your payout to 60%.
However, this option ropes you into one platform and significantly limits your exposure as a stock creator and seller.
In addition to below-average payouts (compared to industry-standard 50/50 split), Some users also complain about the long track processing times, that is, the time it takes Audio Jungle to approve your tracks before they are eligible to be displayed on the platform for prospective buyers.
Pros
- Large Active Marketplace
- Lots of customization for artist pages and licensing options
- User-friendly interface
- Non-exclusive/exclusive options
Cons
- Selective curation can be a barrier to track approval
- 36/64 payout split
- Long approval times for tracks
Artlist
Artlist is one of the pioneers of the online music licensing subscription model. They offer three separate subscription plans that give you unlimited access to their entire catalogue of music and sound effects.
Even more appealing for buyers, every piece of content in their library is universally and globally licensed (which means you can use it for just about any project you can think of). Subscription plans include:
Music ($16.60 USD/month – $199 Billed Annually)
- Music license only
- Unlimited downloads
- Universal license
- Lifetime use
- Pre-checked for YouTube
SFX ($12.41 USD/month – $149 Billed Annually)
- SFX license only
- Unlimited downloads
- Universal license
- Lifetime use
Music + SFX ($25 USD/month – $299 Billed Annually)
- Music + SFX license
- All other features included
As an artist, it doesn’t get much better than this. You get to keep all of the rights to your music and are able to distribute/license your music anywhere else if you so choose. They offer a growing sync-licensing market and a platform that greatly expands your reach, helping you grow your following and capitalize on sales earnings.
Pros
- Keep 100% of your ownership rights!
- Allows non-exclusivity
- 1 subscription price gets you unlimited access to their extensive music/SFX library catalog
- Universal and global licensing on all their content! [this one is HUGE!]
Cons
- If you are a casual user of their platform ($199/annually can be quite a lot)
SongTradr
SongTradr is one of the major players in the music licensing and distribution game. They not only license your music into film, tv, advertising, and other media projects, but they get your music on all the top streaming platforms (like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, etc.).
Not to them mention exclusive access to large blanket licensing deals that could result in significant earnings for artists. Their interface is clean and user-friendly and gives artists and content creators the tools to monitor and analyze their growth.
SongTradr has comprehensive analytics that can be viewed right on the dashboard. To date, SongTradr has over 500,000 artists and counting.
SongTradr not only values artists ownership of their own work by offering complete rights to all of your tracks regardless of the subscription plan that you choose, but they give you a variety of subscription plans that allow you to assess your needs as a creator and proceed with the option that best serves your goals.
Subscription plans include:
Starter ($0 USD/year – 60/40 split)
- Unlimited distribution
- Receive 90% Distribution Royalties
- Receive 60% Sync & Licensing Fees
- Basic Statistics
- 2 Submissions/Music Wanted
Lite ($19 USD/year – 60/40 split)
- Unlimited distribution
- Receive 100% of Distribution Royalties
- Receive 60% Sync & Licensing Fees
- Analytics, Trends, and Statistics
- 2 Submissions/Music Wanted
Pro ($49 USD/year – 80/20 split)
- Receive 100% Distribution Royalties
- Receive 80% Sync & Licensing Fees
- Receive 80% Monetization Revenue
- Analytics, Trends, and Statistics
- 5 Submissions/Music Wanted
Pros
- One of the industry leaders in music licensing and distribution
- All in one platform (licensing, distribution, monetization)
- Flexible subscription plans and reasonable royalty split for both distribution and licensing (10% above the industry standard of 50%)
- Analytics
Cons
- Paying for the subscription and giving up a royalty split can be hard to swallow
MusicBed
Music Bed is one of the original giants of music licensing, particularly when it comes to licensing music for the film. They have an extensive library of high-quality music that filmmakers use to feature in their work.
Music Bed offers five separate subscription packages for you to choose from. Personal, Non-Profit, Wedding, Business, and Enterprise, ranging from $9 – $90/month. They also offer per song prices depending on the degree of licensing that you need, ranging anywhere from $49- $199 per song.
Artists who join the library will receive 50% of the revenues from every licensing deal made as a result of their music. Full pricing details can be viewed here: https://www.musicbed.com/pricing
The interface is simple and user-friendly and has a variety of productivity features that make exploring the marketplace that much easier. Music Bed has an integrated browser and smart filters which allow the user to filter by instrument, length, vocals, BPM, etc.
This will make it that much easier to find exactly what you are looking for, especially for filmmakers who have to match the perfect track with the footage.
Pros
- Flexible subscription plans
- Great value for the service, especially considering their previous pricing model
- Useful navigation and design features that make the process seamless, from browsing to purchasing, etc.
- A large, diverse library of content
Cons
- Artists only get to keep 50% of the licensing royalties
Music Gateway
Music Gateway is our next entry on the list. They are, as their names suggest, a gateway for independent musicians to get their music in front of industry decision-makers.
This service can not only help you with Sync Licensing but artist consultancy, song placements, music management, collaboration, as well as facilitating other global opportunities.
Check out what their members have to say here: https://www.musicgateway.com/case-studies-reviews-testimonials-success#sync
They work in partnership with:
- Spotify
- Apple Music
- Deezer
- YouTube
- Amazon Music
- TikTok
- and many more
Promotion
Music Gateway offers a full toolbox of promotional services that will help you extend your reach as an artist, grow your following and get you paid for your content. They work with top music curators and streaming platforms to develop their artists’ brand reputation and optimize their promotional campaigns.
- Branding and social media strategy
- Access to industry connections
- Creative assets, videos & photoshoots
- A&R packages
- Radio & TV promotion
Licensing
All you have to do is create an account, upload your music and submit your songs to Music Gateways creative licensing team. Their in-house team will work directly with music supervisors to place your music with their media projects. For non-exclusive agreements, you receive 75% of the sync fee (Music Gateway collects their 25% cut).
For artists who want to be exclusive, they will reward you with an extra 5% royalty cut (80/20 split). When it comes to master and publishing rights, you retain 100%!
All in all, Music Gateway is an impressive service that succeeds at offering just about everything that an independent artist could want in a platform of this kind. Everything from licensing and management to strategy and promotion, Music Gateway has you covered.
They offer three separate subscription packages depending on the level of features and the amount of cloud storage that you will need. More information about pricing and feature options can be found here: http://www.musicgateway.com/pricing
Pros
- All in one service: Licensing, management, promotion, etc.
- Reasonable price for the services offered
- Artist testimonials and reviews speak for themselves
- Website is well designed and extremely informative
- Reasonable royalty split of sync fees
- 100% master and publishing rights
Cons
- Adventurer price plan limits the vast majority of features
Music Xray
Music Xray is a platform that offers two income opportunities for prospective users:
- you can get paid to listen and review music (10 cents/song)
- As an artist, you can upload your tracks and have producers consider them for potentially lucrative deals
Opportunities will be posted on the member’s dashboard for you to submit your tracks. However, it is important to understand as an artist, that you will have to pay a submission fee for every track that you put forward.
You will be able to view the potential earnings before you submit, and if your track is chosen, you could be looking at a sizeable payout. Again, this all depends on the opportunity and the quality of your work but Music Xray gives you the opportunity for your music to be heard, which is arguably most important.
Pros
- Global network
- Convenient payment method
- Great for independent musicians
Cons
- Not so great for those hoping to make money off music reviews
- Limited earning opportunities
- Fairly high payout threshold (the amount that you have to earn before you can collect a payout)
Review Criteria
When deciding which music licensing platform offered the best value for artists as well as content creators, we tried to prioritize the following criteria:
- Price & pricing options (subscription plans, submission fees, etc.)
- Platform design & functionality
- Services offered (licensing, distribution, promotion, strategy, etc.)
- Features (analytics, integrative search, filters, etc.)
- Earning potential (ownership, royalty splits, sync licensing fees, etc.)
- Music library (amount of content, quality of content)
Verdict
While all of the services discussed will offer value in different individual circumstances, based on the criteria listed above, Pond5, Songtradr, and Music Gateway are your best options when it comes to music licensing platforms.
Pond5 offers the worlds largest library of stock music and footage, with over 900,000 music tracks and more than 17 million video clips. Their platform attracts some of the biggest content creators, all while making sure artists retain 100% ownership over their tracks.
SongTradr will not only handle distribution (getting your music on all of the major streaming platforms) but allow you to take advantage of large licensing deals with highly reputable brands and utilize comprehensive analytics to maximize your reach as an artist.
With a user-friendly interface and industry leading features, SongTradr is a perfect platform to consider if you plan on incorporating your distribution and licensing in one place.
Our last pick, Music Gateway provides an impressively long list of services and features that members are able to capitalize on when they sign up. Any service that you might need as an independent artist, chances are, Music Gateway will be able to help you out.
They not only provide licensing options but provide music management, promotional services (including branding, creative assets, strategy, etc.), and leading industry contacts.
With that being said, It is important to note that the majority of these platforms are valuable resources for any independent artist or content creators to use, and individual preferences will likely be the determining factor in your decision to purchase or sign up for one or the other.
Its a glorious time to be an independent musician. With access to these licensing networks and the exposure that they provide, you can turn your creative work into tangible earnings.
