Find Your Niche

Over the years I’ve worked with hundreds of musicians from a variety of backgrounds.  I’ve also had the pleasure of interviewing over 100 different songwriters, producers, publishers and so on for my podcast and website.

I’ve had the chance to see first-hand what goes into creating numerous successful indie music careers in both licensing and beyond, and although there is a lot of common ground in terms of what contributes to a musician becoming successful in 2019, no two stories are exactly alike.  Although hard work, persistence, dedication and an “eye of the tiger”, never give up sort of attitude are shared by all, there are a variety of ways to become successful in a variety of different niches.

One of the keys to success in the modern-day music business is finding your niche.  Finding the particular part of the industry that you best fit into and can thrive in.  I don’t think anyone can really teach you how to find your niche.  It’s something each one of us has to figure out on our own, through trial and error.  My niche might not be your niche and vice versa. 

It’s sort of like dating.  There are lots of different types of people out there, and not everyone fits with everyone else.  I tend to click with Latin and Spanish women.  Almost all of my serious relationships have been with Latin women.  Of course, this doesn’t mean all men are going to click with Latin women.  There’s something about my laid-back musician vibe and the carpe diem (seize the day) sort of approach to life that many Latin women possess that seems to work well together.  But that’s me.  What works for you or someone else is obviously going to be completely different based on personality, tastes, background etc.

I feel like finding your niche in music is similar.  Part of finding your niche will obviously be based on your unique background, skill-set and interests.  My niche is writing singer/songwriter/indie-folk vocal tracks.  That’s what I enjoy doing the most and it’s what I tend to focus on the most.  As a result, I’ve had the most success with these types of songs.  I’ve had a few other styles placed here and there over the years, but my niche, my bread and butter, has been my own blend of singer/songwriter/indie/folk music.

What’s your niche?  Do you know?  Are there one or two styles you really excel in?  Have you figured out one or two niches within the licensing world that you can focus on and dominate in?  Or are you all over the map, not quite sure where you fit in?

If you’re not sure yet, that’s ok too.  Part of the journey to success in music involves trial and error, experimenting and trying different things, until you find what best works for you.  Sometimes we just stumble onto a niche through dumb luck.  For example, when I first got started in music-licensing I stumbled upon the niche of writing music for soap operas by accident.  The first publisher I worked with, and still work with to this day, places a lot of music in soap operas.  For the first few years of my licensing career, I placed music in soaps exclusively.  I wrote music for The Young & The Restless, All My Children and One Life To Live.  Eventually I was able to branch out into other shows and projects, commercials and video games.  But getting music placed in soaps is surprisingly pretty lucrative and I was able to make great money from this niche alone for several years.  I still get music placed in soaps to this day.  The Young & The Restless, in particular, use my music frequently. 
​
Check out this Y &R playlist for the current season that features my track, Be On My Mind, for an example of a recent song of mine I’ve used. Track #7 below.

So, one of my niches has been vocal tracks in soap operas.  But again, this niche might not work for you.  Your music might not work in the context of these shows.  Perhaps your music would best work somewhere else, in a completely different niche.  This is something you’ll need to explore and figure out.

Here are some examples of a few other niches that writers and composers I work with have discovered.

Royalty Free Music Libraries
I worked with a client recently who informed me they were bringing in an average of 5k a month from just two royalty free music libraries.  The libraries are both well known, easy to find royalty free libraries that are both pretty easy to get accepted into.  I won’t tell you the exact libraries and give away my clients source of income, but there are plenty of royalty free music libraries to choose from.  Just Google “royalty free music libraries” and hundreds of sites will come up.

A lot of writers sort of look down on these types of libraries due to the fact that they sell music so cheaply.  I used to have this attitude as well.  But, then again, this is a case where it’s more about quantity than quality and although I’m not big on cranking out mediocre tracks just to pay the bills, I’m all for writers figuring out how to support themselves from their music.  This particular writer came to me because he was looking to branch out and expand his licensing work int other areas.  But, hey, having a consistent 5k a month coming in from royalty free tracks is nothing to scoff at.

Rockabilly
I’ve talked about my buddy Chuck Hughes a lot on my blog over the years, because he’s a great example of an artist who has found a successful niche.  Chuck and his band “The Hillbilly Hellcats” create very well produced and well-crafted Rockabilly music and Chuck has done a great job at getting tons of placements for his and their music over the years.  Over 3,500 placements last time we talked! I think one of the main reasons Chuck has done so well in licensing, apart from the fact that his music is great, is that Chuck’s music addresses a specific niche in terms of genre; rockabilly.  Rockabilly might not be the first style that comes to mind when you think of music licensing, but Chuck’s music has been used thousands of times in TV shows and commercials.  He's a big fish in a relatively small pond you could say.

Check out my recent conversation with Chuck about his success in licensing here:
https://musicmoneyandlife.podbean.com/e/3500-tv-film-placements-and-over-2-million-spotify-streams-with-chuck-hughes-of-the-hillbilly-hellcats/

Re-Records
My producer, Gary Gray, has discovered a lucrative niche within the licensing world, which is doing re-records for companies like Disney and 20th Century Fox.  Gary has been contracted to do multiple re-records of well known, existing songs for use in commercials, tv and films.  I’m not sure if I’m at liberty to say how much Gary earns from these projects, but suffice it to say, it’s a very lucrative niche.

Commercials
I’ve worked with and have created composers with a couple different composer/writers that have specialized in writing music for commercials.  This is a great niche if you can break in.  Commercials tend to pay more than songs used in TV Shows.  In some cases substantially more.
​
To learn more about this niche, check out my podcast with Michael Lande from Orange Music:

Production / Instrumental Music
Another niche I’ve seen multiple writers excel in is music that could broadly be defined as “production music”, or as Joel Feinberg from De Wolfe music described it on my podcast, “functional music”.  Music that serves a function.  I’ve worked with multiple writers/composers who have carved out careers in this specific niche, creating background music for use in TV shows.  Like royalty free music, this is a case where you need a lot of music for the math to make sense, in terms of creating revenue. The good news is these tracks are much easier to create quickly and efficiently than fully produced vocal tracks with real instruments.

Youtube
I created a course with a composer who makes a full time living just from Youtube ad revenue alone. Dhruva Aliman is a composer from California who figured out how to generate enough ad revenue from his Youtube videos alone to support himself.  He teaches you how to do it here.
 
Spotify
I’m sure we’ve all heard about Spotify by now.  Although we all know how little Spotify pays per stream,  if you get enough streams, it adds up. I’ve worked with several different artists now who have figured out how to generate substantial revenue from Spotify by getting millions of streams.

Check out these recent podcasts for two examples of artists getting millions of streams on Spotify and how they did it:

https://musicmoneyandlife.podbean.com/e/16-million-spotify-streams-by-connecting-with-social-media-influencers/

https://musicmoneyandlife.podbean.com/e/how-one-artist-generated-20-million-streams-on-spotify-and-makes-a-full-time-living-from-his-music/
 
These are just a few niches to consider.  There are many more areas you could look into within the niche of music licensing.  Things like creating trailer music, specializing in other specific genres, creating your own music library and so on are all worth exploring.

Ultimately, a big part of success is figuring out what niche or niches you can excel in and doubling down on those.  It’s hard to get any real traction in this business if you’re all over the place.  It’s sort of like life in general I suppose.