Today public figures are brands. As brands they can leverage their assets to create promotional products (apparel, toys, footware, etc.) and generate additional revenue. Musicians are not excluded from this; and, in fact have more to gain from licensing than other celebrities. Not only can musicians sell the rights to photos, logos and interviews (to name a few), but they can also license out the rights to their music.
According to
Rolling Stone, Matthew Weiner, creator of Mad Men, paid $250,000 in licensing fees to obtain the rights for the Beatles song, "Tomorrow Never Knows". The song was purchased to run on one of the shows episodes.
As reported on
investopedia.com, other famous music licensing deals include:
1. Conan O'Brien's use of the Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", in response to being replaced on NBC's "The Tonight Show."
(reportedly rights were bought for $50,000)
2. Conan O'Brien's use of the Beatles' "Lovely Rita" to introduce Tom Hanks on his final NBC showing.
(reportedly rights were bought for $10,000)
3. Nike's use of the Beatles' "Revolution" for their Revolution ad campaign.
(reportedly rights were bought for $250,000)
As you can see, music licensing can bring in a great deal of additional revenue. While commercial licensing (seen with well known artists/songs above) brings in an average of $75,000-$200,000 per deal (
investopedia.com), music licensing in general is a worthwhile endeavor for any musician.
Interested in seeing how you can utilize Mediabox-DAM to store, promote and share your music to licensees? Click
here to schedule a demo.
