This article highlights some of the most important keys to music publishing and licensing success. It also shows how LicenseQuote helps music creators, publishers and libraries get the most from their music publishing, sub-publishing and licensing success.

First, some important criteria which are the full responsibility of each publisher and library owner.

Music composition, production and recording quality – these are areas that should be addressed first, and only the best material should be included in your catalog to achieve the highest potential for commercial licensing sales success.

Over time you should also be able to add new material which is complimentary to your existing catalog. LicenseQuote has no control over these criteria, but can help with other important publishing and licensing success factors as outlined below:

Areas LicenseQuote helps publishers succeed

Organizing your catalog – For each song/track it’s important to create proper genres, description, tags, select type, source and associate the tracks with a specific brand or catalog. LicenseQuote makes this easy by have all the tools and options available in the Catalog area of your publisher account. You can set everything up manually and/or by using the Import/Export mechanism on the Songs/Tracks admin page.

Rate cards and license pricing -You have full control over your rate cards and pricing on the Licensing Profiles admin page. Here you can easily add a new profile, or edit your existing (default) one as needed, for example, by disabling any license types you don’t need, or creating new ones and then adjusting the price as needed. On the Collection Settings page you can also select the currency, which is by default set for U.S. dollars, or select from any of 21 common currencies or set checks, wire transfer or a custom collection mode.

Licensing store – You can custom brand your store with publisher or library name, include link to your publisher profile and website, as a header banner and have full control over the store’s colors, fonts and image sets. You can also configure up to 15 custom search filters and names (tempo, arrangement, eras, language, styles, etc.) which you can edit on the Edit Track page and make appear in your store. This gives your buyers more ways to quickly search and find the music.

Sales and promotion – Each publisher is responsible for their own marketing and sales promotion, however LicenseQuote can help by offering publishers the option to have their store appear on the Find Music global store search page. When music supervisors and licensing buyers come to this page, they can search by brands/catalogs, genres and keywords to find exactly the kind of tracks they may need for their upcoming projects.  This helps bring awareness to your tracks, along with the Find Publishers page which offers additional search tools and links to each publisher’s profile page.

Customer service – When a music licensing inquiry is made, it appears on the Licensing Inquiry admin page in your Publisher account. Since buyers will need to have registered to send an inquiry or make a purchase in your store, their name and contact info will also appear on your Store Users console where you can give them additional permissions such as “Permit Blanket License” based on your pricing and terms which you can offer them.

You are also notified by email each time an inquiry is submitted, including further responses in the process of negotiation, and when a license has become final and is marked “Sold”. Regardless of all these handy licensing sales and custom service features, it is each publisher’s responsibility to ensure that prompt and good service is provided, especially for licensing which are sold via the calculator (automated license) option.

Summary
As outlined above, there are a number of keys to music publishing and licensing success which LicenseQuote can help music composers, publishers and library owners with. By addressing each of these critical areas in a proactive way, it’s possible for publishers to dramatically increase their licensing sales and future long-term sales and growth success.