Your success as a singer-songwriter depends a good deal on the strategic way you position your self as a musician. The artistry of producing superb music—your vision, your mood, your intuitivesense of rhythm and musical figures—is a vastly different beast than the often daunting legal and financial panorama of music in this new generation of digital distribution. One venture is innovative and intuitive; the other entails red tape, legality, logistics and factors.

Aside from the creative process, it's important to contemplate strategy when considering where you desire your sound to take you. Do you create audio as a career? Is music your primary form of income? Do you create music to market albums and gather a fan base, or do you primarily wish to have your productions placed in film, television and video games? Perhaps you create music for all three purposes.

Yet another crucial factor to consider is what distribution technique will in reality make you money. Given the current landscape of diminishing download earnings and the high cost of antiquated physical distribution systems it generally is a daunting undertaking to discover the course of action that is suitable for you. In 2012, most musicians agree that the top two ways to earn money from music are to tour, or to license productions for film, television and video games. After considering the effort and cost involved in planning, booking and carrying out tours licensing clearly emerges as a preferred revenue stream generated by music. If placement in films and television is your foremost purpose, please keep reading.

The way in which you control ownership of your songs is an essential ingredient for prospective music licensing deals in the future. You'll want to research what makes the most sense for your own productions with a lawyer, but in general, you'll need to keep in mind:

  1) You're going to need to retain your own publishing.
  2) It truly is easier to contemplate licensing contracts if there is one single
  songwriter credit for your productions.
  3) It is less complicated to work with licensing agents if you release your own
  productions as an independent artist. In general, the less parties there are
  in a contract, the better.
  4) It is ideal to evaluate licensing companies well. Have an attorney
  review any possible contracts. Should you choose a licensing agent, they
  often prefer to be the exclusive agent—so choose well.

Musician Jennifer Clarke is one such singer-songwriter. She creates her music primarily as an emotional pursuit. Her songs are deeply personal and soulful. Yet once the album is mastered and printed, Jennifer becomes all business. She licensed her track, “More Than I Have,” on the FX Series starring Denis Leary, Rescue Me. Her current album, Trinkets in Rubble, is scheduled for release in March 2012, when she'll begin new efforts to get the album licensed.

What can you do to pursue licensing? Get in contact with Music Nomad, ASCAP, or use your preferred search engine to research companies that specialize in the field. Most importantly, never give up. If you knock on enough doors at some point one of them will open.