How I did with my New Years Music Licensing Goals in 2022

Today I'm taking a look back at my year in the music licensing business. At the beginning of the year I set some goals for myself and now I'm going to share whether or not I achieved each of those goals. Overall I am very pleased with this year's results!

Goal 1: Write and Record at least 150 tracks

I did succeed! I was pretty much on par with last year's output. I have about 158 tracks completed for this year. I'm sure I will do a few more too. For newcomers in this business, I think at least 50-75 tracks per year is a reasonable goal to get you started.

Goal 2: Get at least 150 TV Placements

I succeeded here as well! I am estimating that I had 250+ placements this year. For those who don't know, I'm almost 5 years into my music licensing career. I found out about placements via Tunesat (about 15 unique placements/month there), as well as cue sheets that are filed with my PRO (maybe 80 this year). For any placements that I know about, there are usually many more that I don't know about until pay day (especially international).

Goal 3: Land at least 1 Commercial

To my knowledge, I didn't succeed with this goal this year. I had several network promos (which usually last a week or so) but I don't count those. It is possible that I had a commercial and don't know about it yet. My first commercial placement never showed up on Tunesat, despite the fact that they do monitor that channel. This will probably be a goal of mine every year. Better luck next year!

Goal 4: Join at least 4 new libraries

I did succeed with this one. In fact I think it was exactly 4 new libraries. I did also give some music to libraries that I had already been working with. This was a "soft" goal anyway, but I'm glad to make new connections.

Goal 5: Get at least 1 Vocal Placement

It is possible that I did this, but to my knowledge it didn't happen. I did complete a handful of briefs for vocal tracks this year though. And one of my vocal tracks placed late in the year, but they used the instrumental version! I also received some library royalties for a vocal track from around 2019. Perhaps this was a TV placement, or some other use? The PRO statements should shed light on that in the coming year.

So we have a confirmed 3/5 goals completed, with the possibility that the others are also completed. I am happy with my output and quality this year. It has also been my highest earning year to date! I expect that to steadily increase as I reach my half decade career in the business. Some say it takes 1,500 tracks to make a living in this business (which varies wildly of course). I am at approximately 700 now (almost 500 exclusive), so I'm hoping it really ramps up in 2023.

I'd love to know how everyone else did this year. Leave a comment if you'd like to share!

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