Your success as a singer-songwriter depends a great deal on the strategic way you position yourself as a musician. The artistry of creating amazing music—your vision, your disposition, your intuitivesense of rhythm and musical figures—is a vastly different beast than the frequently daunting legal and economic landscape of music in this new generation of electronic distribution. One undertaking is innovative and intuitive; the other involves red tape, legality, logistics and factors.

Aside from the creative process, it’s essential to consider strategy when examining where you want your music to take you. Do you produce music as a vocation? Is music your largest type of earning? Do you create music to promote albums and create a fan base, or do you primarily perfect to have your music placed in film, television and video games? Perhaps you create new music for all three purposes.

Yet another fundamental aspect to contemplate is what distribution technique will actually make you money. Given the present landscape of diminishing download earnings and the high cost of antiquated physical distribution systems it is often a daunting task to find the approach that is suitable for you. In 2012, most producers agree that the main two ways to earn money from music are to tour, or to license productions for film, television and video games. After considering the effort and cost involved in planning, booking and executing tours licensing definitely emerges as a preferred revenue stream generated by music. If placement in films and television is your primary purpose, please keep reading.

The way you retain ownership of your songs is an essential ingredient for potential music licensing deals in the future. You’ll want to research what would make the most sense for your own music with a lawyer, but in general, you’ll want to consider:

  1) You'll want to retain your own publishing.
  2) It really is easier to contemplate licensing contracts if there is one sole
  songwriter credit for your music.
  3) It is easier to work with licensing agents if you release your own
  productions as an independent artist. In general, the less parties there are
  in a contract, the better.
  4) It is ideal to evaluate licensing agencies well. Have a lawyer
  examine any possible contracts. If you choose a licensing agent, they
  often prefer to be the exclusive agent—so choose well.

Musician Jennifer Clarke is one such . She creates her music mainly as an emotional pursuit. Her productions are deeply personal and soulful. Yet once the album is mastered and printed, Jennifer becomes all business. She licensed her track, “More Than I Have,” on the FX Series starring Denis Leary, Rescue Me. Her current album, Trinkets in Rubble, is scheduled for release in March 2012, when she’ll begin new efforts to get the album licensed.

What can you do to pursue licensing? Get in contact with Music Nomad, ASCAP, or use your preferred search engine to research companies that specialize in the field. Most importantly, never give up. If you knock on enough doors eventually one of them will open.