What is LicenseQuote?
LicenseQuote is not a music publisher, library or stock music owner, but a service which provides an affordable and easy to manage e-commerce solution that helps independent musicians, publishers and libraries organize and license their music directly from their own websites. LicenseQuote provides various subscription plans which gives publishers full control over their license offerings and pricing from their own branded store.

You can learn more about music publishing and licensing on our Support page which includes various articles and guides.

How much does it cost to use LicenseQuote?
LicenseQuote is completely Free for music supervisors, ad agency creatives and licensing buyers to use!
For music publishers, the LQ 75 plan starts at $100/year which includes storage for 75 songs in both Master and Preview file formats, unlimited brands, genres, subgenres and rate card licensing profiles, plus a banner image or flash file used for your Licensing Store. Our LicenseQuote clients (composers, publishers & library owners) always keep 100% of all their licensing sales revenues regardless if they're using a Free or paid subscription plan.

Can I private-label brand my own Licensing store?
Yes, your Licensing Store is a private label solution that allows you to publish your own brand names including: Licensing Store Name, Publisher name and various artist, album, band and library names, etc.

Can I use my own domain name for my LicenseQuote licensing store?
Yes, you can use a domain CNAME Record (optional) so the URL address will integrate with your own website domain name. You can also point a unique domain name directly to your Licensing Store address or simply embed your store directly on any page on your website.

What kind of music publishers are using LicenseQuote?
All kinds ranging from independent artists, bands, composers, singer/songwriters and record labels to publishers with larger catalogs and production music libraries. There is no limit to how small or large a LicenseQuote member music publisher, catalog or library can be. LicenseQuote makes it easy for publishers and libraries to start at any size and then upgrade their accounts to grow as needed.

Will using LicenseQuote change the look of my website?
You can link to your licensing store or embed it inside one of your pages. You can also customize your store's title, links, header image area, fonts, colors and background, etc.

Usually a music supervisor will call us with their available per-song budget, so how can we “negotiate” if the prices are pre-set?
You can use automated price quotes which you control, but you can also use the Place offer and/or Request quote negotiation options which you can set on your Licensing Profile admin page. You can even disable (hide) the automatic calculated quotes and alternately offer a Custom license type option. Even if you negotiate an inquiry by phone, it’s still better to streamline and formalize the deal using our system which then automatically generates the licensing contract, receipt and sold licenses sales report records.

Is there a way to only license songs in a specific territory?
Yes, when a buyer requests a quote he can be required to select his requested territory. Then the automatic quoting mechanism or you (if you negotiate manually) can take that into account. You can put any terms you want in the License Type description or contract, which the buyer will see and becomes part of the licensing contract.

Does LicenseQuote help market my music to find licensing deals?
Yes! Though LicenseQuote is primarily a do-it-yourself music licensing service for proactive publishers and libraries, all our publishing clients benefit from the global stores Find Music search page which helps their music get discovered and heard. Music supervisors, ad agencies and licensing buyers are able to search for publishers, brands, catalogs and sound recordings by various genres, tags and keyword searches. We also have a Find Publishers directory which lets buyers find and preview our list of active publishing and library clients.

I’m not sure if LicenseQuote will meet my needs, can I get a free trial to check it out?
Sure, you can start with our LQ 15 FREE plan FREE Plan with NO credit card required! This plan lets you "test drive" all the most important catalog and store features plus includes integrated MP3 audio files storage for the master and preview files of up to 15 tracks/songs. Please also read our article about Selecting the right plan to fit your needs.

As a music supervisor or licensing buyer, why should I use LicenseQuote?
LicenseQuote gives you access to the global stores search on the Find Music page. Our store features enable you to do business efficiently and directly with all our active publisher, composer and library members for all your project needs. For more details about licensing music from the source, read this article: License direct and save. 

What happens when music buyers come to LicenseQuote?
We aren’t a bit surprised why music supervisors, ad agencies and various licensing buyers come to LicenseQuote to check out our site and publishers. Besides our name with broad appeal to the music and related media industry, it’s also the service element that most of our member publishers, composers and libraries can offer such as: custom editing and mixing of their tracks, construction packs, making stock music recommendations, custom scoring & arrangements, recordings, royalty-free licensing, buyouts and other kinds of typical or custom music licensing deals. For more details, please read this article: When music buyers come to LicenseQuote.

How do I license cover songs?
Licensing recordings of famous songs and popular hits is very common and frequently done in today’s music and related arts, media and advertising industry. There are several approaches to this area of the music publishing and licensing business which we cover in detail on this blog article about Licensing recordings of famous hits and popular standards.  Advise and tips are provided for both the publishers of the cover version recordings and the buyers interested in licensing such recordings.

What is the base price of the LicenseQuote calculator?
The standard (default) base price for all license types in LicenseQuote licensing matrix is the lowest possible value that can be calculated for any specific license type. 
Audio Projects - $260
Composition & Sound Recordings - $75
Corporate, Theater & Competition - $50
Custom License  -  Terms & pricing will vary according to buyer/seller negotiation
Film Sync License - $210
Games and Software - $750
Internet, Website Flash - $55
Mechanical Royalty (up to 5 min.) - $0.091 per copy (based on U.S. statutory rate)
Mechanical Royalty (over 5 min.) - $0.0175 per minute, per copy
Music Compilation (CD, DVD, PC Audio) - $150
Products and Toys - $150
Public Space (Restaurants, Trade shows, Retail spaces) - $120
Radio Ad (or Production) - $175
Sampling, Remixes, Covers and Derivative Works - $90
Single Units (Weddings, video, small quantity for profit) - $110
Slide Show or PowerPoint - $100
Software - Multimedia, All platforms, any use - $150
Telephone or Music On Hold - $12
TV Advertising - $122
TV Show Sync License - $360
Video (Music for Video, DVD or CD ROM) - $130

Can I change the base prices of my LicenseQuote calculator?
Yes, you can easily edit and adjust the pricing for any license type on the Licensing Profiles page.

How is the standard pricing determined for the LicenseQuote calculator?
The license pricing "default" (starting point) is set according to our pricing research which identifies the most common price ranges for non-exclusive use (including both the sync and master rights) of commercial tracks typical of many competing music licensing catalogs and libraries.

Other factors that may increase the licensing price of some songs include: negotiating an exclusive or semi-exclusive license for an agreed market or duration of time, negotiating direct payment for the performance royalties, custom produced recordings, award winning music or famous "hit" songs, etc.  

As a publisher you will have full control to accept or adjust the pricing for each license type according to your catalog's marketing needs. This can be set from the Licensing Profiles settings page which gives you control over every imaginable aspect of your licensing contract, pricing, categories and negotiation rules. The Licensing Profiles interface also lets you create new custom profiles and edit them according to your exact needs. For a complete overview, review this article about Standard and custom pricing FAQs.

How fast does the Licensing Calculator in the Store load?
When the License button for a track is clicked (in your Store), it first opens a Licensing page with the song’s title and related information, description, player, general terms and License type selection options. This is all custom information (from your account) which must be pulled from the database to load a licensing page with all the correct settings for each of your unique music tracks. This Licensing page takes about 2 – 3 seconds to load, but then when the Calculator is used, all license type selections and calculations are instant, because the page has already been pre-loaded with all related information. The exact loading time of the page depends on the server’s connection speed such as DSL, Cable, T1 or FIOS, etc. Page loading times may also vary according to the browser (IE, FireFox, Safari, etc.), its settings and computer speed. Learn more about licensing stores performance for huge catalogs.

When someone pays up front for licensing based on my Store calculations or an offer/negotiation, do they then end up being billed by BMI (my PRO) later for additional costs? Or if they are a filmmaker who lands a documentary on multiple TV networks, do those TV networks pay BMI additional royalties?
Assuming you have your catalog (songs/tracks) registered with your local PRO first, for many license types there is no direct (future or additional) involvement with any of the PROs. However, for some license types there may be additional performance royalty collections which can be handled one of two ways:

1. You could opt to negotiate inclusion of performance royalties with a bundled price, so the sync & master rights in such case would also include any additional royalty fee at time of payment. The advantages are that you will get paid right away and this could save your client some money depending on the negotiated price. The transcription of final price (between you and your client) will be automatically included into the contract terms, so your client can use this (when needed) to get an exemption from any BMI collections for your songs included in your licensing contract. This is fairly new practice, which is legal and gaining popularity among many licensors and broadcasters, etc.

2. In the License Description field you can remind your clients to fill out an appropriate Music Cue Sheet Form which they can then copy & paste into the Project Description field (in the Store) on the License page. This gives you a copy of the info your PRO will use to make the collections for you, but may take about 6 – 12 months (or longer) to collect.

I have other questions which aren't listed here. What do I do?
Please visit our additional FAQs about LicenseQuote blog article for more information or send an email from our contact form. We'll be happy to answer your questions as soon as possible in the order received.