mistrustmusic's posterous

Zen and art of selling music

Some people have been asking where they can buy my music. Well, the simple answer is: you can't. It's all free to play/download over the internet. You can listen to it and download it, make your own compilation CDs from my tracks. As long as you don't sell it on or pass it on as youre own, I don't mind. I'm trying to get my music into film, tv, adverts, that sort of thing, so the more people who listen to it, maybe the more chance that some music supervisor somewhere will hear the tracks and want to use it. That's the idea.... "mistrust music" can be downloaded here: TV Tunes (10 tracks) at MusicFreedom (including: Dubcrazy, Paul the phone is ringing, All roads) Making Movies (8 tracks) on MusicFreedom (including: Never Alone, Happy Birthday) Making Movies EP on Nishi Netlabel Myspace If you prefer me to send you a physical CD, I can send one out to anywhere in the world for just a small price to cover printing, postage and packing, with either the list of tracks that are on MusicFreedom/Myspace or a "pick and mix" selection of your choice. Click here to contact me if you want a CD.... If anyone wants to use my music for film/tv/advert work etc., please click here to discuss your project with me. Have a look on Youtube for examples of my previous film work. I'm already signed to Candy Cover music library on a non-exclusive deal...

Filed under  //   artists   download   exposure   film music   free download   free mp3   google   independent   label   lastfm   mp3   music   music library   music licencing   music publishing  
Posted July 5, 2007

Zen and the art of music licensing

Since I licensed my tracks out to O'Neill Europe for the Deep Blue Open dvd, I've had a lot of people asking for some advice on how to get their music into film, tv etc. Obviously, I'm no expert, and I had a few people give me some pointers before I signed up with O'Neill, but here are some tips from me from what I've learned so far (but don't blame me if this method doesn't work!!!) I was approached by a licensing company for them to use my tracks on an O'Neill surfing dvd and got some info from them about how to get my stuff into more films, etc and was advised to get a showreel together to prove to film makers and post-production people that my music fits in with the sort of thing they're looking for. One of the best ways to do that is to offer some of your tracks for low/no fee to build up a portfolio. Have a look at some of these for more info: http://www.mandy.com It's a site for film jobs - go to the Production Jobs section and check look through all the locations, eg Europe, then the Post-Production links. There's both paid and lo/no income jobs. http://www.ukscreen.com There's a forum on the site which lists people looking for music for films, mainly lo/no fee http://www.labelsound.com They'll make all your tracks available for film and tv licensing (for a small fee). http://niceup.com/misc/internet_music_licensing An excellent article about how to get into the film music industry. Google for things like music licensing companies, "indie movies", "music wanted" stuff like that. Check out indie movie forums - there's always indie film makers looking for cheap music and it gets you some footage for your showreel. Contact your local college or uni if they have a film or media school. Have a look on the unsigned band web forum - http://www.unsignedbandweb.com/forum-37.html for people advertising for music. There's always ads on there. There's a film makers forum on Myspace.com, too. Music licensing can be a bit of a closed shop to unsigned artists if film producers have got a massive music budget. They get the best composers and pay a fortune to people like Sony and BMG for tracks. If the budget isn't so big they want unsigned people like me and you. Usually for lo/no fee. Oh, and it looks good on your music CV if you've got film credits, whatever they are. It's definitely worth going down the lo/no fee route, just to get known. I'll pm you with a list of some of the other sites I've been on for info. Make sure, though, that you get a proper contract. Well - 2 in fact - a Master Use and a Synchronisation contract. BTW when you're dealing with these sort of people - licensing, post-production, etc., be prepared for a very long wait. The company I dealt with over the dvd was actually liaising with about 5 or 6 other companies, so I was the last to know anything. If the bloke said there's potential, try your music out on the sites I mentioned. Oh, and tell people you're a film composer, and say so on your website. You never know - you might get your music used and get paid a lot of money for it. This article first appeared on my Blogger pages in November 2005. Since the, I've learned a lot more.... I've now discovered music libraries and production music....more information about how to get into this is at the MCPS website, where you can get a list of the 80 or so libraries in the UK. I've had quite a few more opportunities............. - Deep Blue Open has been on TV around world and now on O'Neill TV. Clips of this are doing well on Youtube. Click here to have a look.... - Tracks on another O'Neill DVD and surfer biography film - Requests from various indie/student film makers for use of my music - I was confident enough to say "no" because the deals weren't right. If I hadn't done the O'Neill thing, I wouldn't know about my rights, etc. - Tracks put forward by licensing company for use in Hollyoaks (UK TV show) - Signed non-exclusive deal with major UK music library for licensing my tracks to TV, film, advertisements etc. The tracks are now registered with MCPS-PRS. - Requests from other music libraries to work with them. Oh, and I've actually made some money from all this. Check out some of my film music at my musicfreedom site. Disclaimer: the opinions and advice given are just that: opinion. They do not constitute a contract between you and the companies mentioned, nor are they intended as adverts for those listed. Don't sue me if you don't get signed!

Filed under  //   film music   independent   indie film   legal   library   licence   license   mcps   movie music   music licencing   music licensing   music publishing   oneill   prs   random   record   rights  
Posted June 27, 2007

Everything's gone green again

I'm something of a perfectionist when it comes to something looking right, and usually I get this nagging feeling in the back of my head telling me that something doesn't look as good as it should. That explains why I've changed the look of this blog about 5 times in the last few weeks. I've reused the old "green" header and adopted a more plain-looking body. Hopefully I'll be satisfied now and not want to change it again. I've been trying to work out what to write here because there's just been so much going on at home, work, and with the music. When I've got everything straight in my head, I'll post more info here. Other things: I've been helping Paul with some more tunes. He's finally got back into music-making, so he's been asking for some help. Expect more of his stuff on myspace soon.  Also,  I came across a great Wordpress blog called Svartling.  It's a comprehensive list of loads of new VST plugins and music-making software. Highly recommended!

Filed under  //   band   blog   blogging   family   independent   label   mp3   music   personal   random   unsigned  
Posted May 23, 2007

Odeo, oh dear

I wanted to put some of music on the world of mistrust. I've got tracks hosted on Last.fm and loads of other sites, all with wonderful music players that can be embedded into a webpage. However, due to "security" concerns, Wordpress won't let you embed them because they're all Flash-based. That leaves only a few of alternatives: direct text links to my Last.fm MP3s, which force readers to download or play them with their own music player; use a widget that will go in my sidebar; or use the built in audio player that Wordpress allows. I don't want to build in text links because I want people to be able to listen while they're reading, rather than having to mess around with their own player. The widget option is really Odeo or nothing, because the player looks good and is really a podcast in disguise, so it's streamable. Sonific (the other music widget) won't let you use your own music, so that's out. So, Odeo it is. Or maybe not. It's a useful website and sleek player, but finding the right place to put my music was a PIA, and then having to sort out how to get the tracks into a podcast took ages. Although they have nice little players that you can embed, the one in Wordpress too big. There must be somthing easier. I may look at Odeo another time, but at the moment, I want a flashy music player and I ain't going to get one. As for video, I'm going to look at the vodpod widget to stream my O'Neill videos....... By the way....the I've got a new look to the site. More about this tomorrow.

Filed under  //   PIA   artists   free download   free mp3   independent   ipod   lastfm   mistrust   odeo   oneill   podcast   podcasting   social networking   sonific   stream   video   wordpress  
Posted May 9, 2007

All the world's an MP3 stage

I've been thinking about the number of music hosting sites and MP3 directories that I have my music on. Most of them are free-to-download places where people can just have my tracks for nothing. I started off in late 2004 by choosing just one site - Electromancer.com, which is now no more, just because I lacked confidence about my music and it seemed like a good place to start when I'd never even considered putting my music out to the public. In fact, even though Electromancer closed down last year, a lot of the artists are still active on the forums of another site, Nervejam, and are still as friendly and supportive as ever. I got a bit more confident after getting some great reviews, thinking that more people might give me a listen, so I followed links and recommendations about other hosting sites, signed up to 2 or 3, and waited for the plays to roll in. Then I started chasing more sites and more plays, until I had tracks on about 1o or 15 sites. I've now lost track (and usernames/passwords) of most of those sites, and still get the occasional email from them, saying someone has posted a comment. A quick check on google as to which sites I'm on offers up 94 links for "mistrust music site" and 30 for "never alone mistrust" (my first track from 2004). I still see the same old faces on all these hosting sites,

Read the rest of this post »

Filed under  //   artists   band   big chill   blog   blogging   dj   download   electromancer   exposure   free download   free mp3   google   host   independent   ipod   label   library   licence   license   magazine   mastering   mistrust   mp3   music   music library   musician   nervejam   nervejam   oneill   personal   podcast   podcasting   production   prs   random   record   tracks   unsigned   web2.0   work   writing  
Posted May 3, 2007