Radio bumper music - potential revenue stream?

[sabalsounds]

I asked my PRO (Ascap) about revenue potential if I have songs played as bumper music and they essentially said there was no real money unless a syndicated program used my song as their main theme then it would be up to me to get them to negotiate a usage deal, etc.

Anyone got any experience with this or heard of anyone making money from radio ads?

I would imagine in this day and age the radio stations are all coveting every penny their advertisers pay to keep them out of the red so I doubt they would want to part with much money for bumper music when they are probably (I assume) paying a blanket license anyway.

[quietlifemotel]

Hey Steven ~

Many thanks for raising this Q — I'd also be really interested what some of the vets on the Forum have to say.

I've done some of this sort of thing for public radio shows, and from that limited experience it sounds to me like ASCAP is talking sense here — seems to me that even a regular theme placement on national radio would likely pay less than a single decent TV placement. I've had some of my violin-based tracks used as interstitial music on the NPR national shows (on about 600 stations) and those uses generated about $50 a use via my PRO. So it seems it MIGHT be worth pursuing this sort of thing if you've got a relationship with a show that goes out to 200+stations, and can make a deal where they pay you to tailor some of your music for themes. buttons and beds — but that you actually maintain the ownership rights, which should mean a modest additional stream of $$ coming back via your PRO (I tried this once, but the show was cancelled the day I delivered the set of music! ).

But I'd be very interested if other approaches here seem promising … or if the advice is really, keep you r focus on the TV placements.

And by the way — really enjoyed your tracks on Soundcloud!

David Schulman

[Paulie]

I used to be heavily involved with an internet radio stating and I learned that the fees charged to license music for radio stations are absurd. We ended up buying royalty free music from a library (MusicBakery.com) and using that. IMHO creating music for radio bumpers is a good way to get your brand out there for marketing purposes ("yeah, my music is being used as intro/outro for the KROC traffic reports during rush hour."). If you have small local radio stations I bet the station managers would welcome the chance to add your stuff to the library if you offered some content up for free. I don't see it as a revenue opportunity unless you can find a station willing to pay a one-time fee to purchase content.

[sabalsounds]

Thx Paulie! That's great food for thought. As you say a branding opportunity would be better than a song sitting on the hard drive doing nothing