MONTHLY FEATURE

 

22nd February 2026

 

 

LICENSING YOUR MUSIC

 

Hi and welcome to my first monthly feature on my Music Portal - February 2026. It's been a while since I last wrote a blog for the blog section of my Music Portal due to serious illness and being diagnosed with Crohn's Disease/IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) as well as Diabetes. I decided to scrap the blog section of my Music Portal and do a monthly feature instead discussing various music business topics and post blogs on my patreon account. In fact, my Music Portal is currently undergoing maintenance and a complete revamp and transition to cover everything and get the best of both worlds. I've changed my strategy and incorporated third parties into the mix and equation instead of being completely independent. 

 

In this month's article, I will be discussing "licensing" deals. If you're not licensing your music catalogue to third parties, then you're missing out as this is vital to your survival in the music industry and is the best way to get paid for your music. It is key to your success and survival! Whether that's licensing deals for Music Compilations, TV adverts, Radio Adverts, PC Gaming or Gaming Consoles etc., you need to start doing this immediately. As well as selling your music on Vinyl formats, CD's, USB sticks and Tape Cassettes, and as mp3 downloads and as part of subscription/membership business models, you also need to license your music to individuals, partnerships and corporations that would like to commercially exploit your music. This way you will get paid for your music as well as receiving royalties from sales and public performances of your music. It's vital that you do this in order to avoid being completely exploited and scammed and also to gain complete respect. Otherwise they will trample all over you and take the money and run. The music business is like the wild wild west at the moment and it is a complete and utter mess and shambles. The industry knows that the artists are gaining control and it is going through a transitional phase. There is a lot of resistance to this and major record companies such as Universal Music Group are scrambling to take back some kind of control, but it's fruitless. The game is up for all of them. They've been found out! They will try and rectify this, but it's far too late. The trust in the industry has gone!

 

So, this means creating Third Party Music Content Licensing deals for streaming platforms in order to get paid. Their business model only benefits the streaming platforms and them and the fans/customers subscribe to the platforms as opposed to individual artists and bands and their music releases. This for a start, is totally wrong and does not work in its current format and does not benefit the artists in the slightest! In order to be successful in the music business, you need to be more business like and business minded especially in this day and age of independence. Otherwise you will get completely ripped off!

 

I recommended covering all angles as well as selling and distributing your music via your own Music Portals. This means making it available on streaming platforms and download sites too in order to reach your maximum potential. So, you need to be licensing your music to these platforms and demand licensing fees. Also, because the music industry goes out of its way to prevent you from being successful via means of independence. I know this from personal experience after my Music Portal came under D.D.O.S attacks (read the news section on my Music Portal for further information regarding this!). It also means selling your music on different formats and also selling merchandise and doing gigs. You might also need to diversify in order to become highly successful and increase your chances of a regular income and being able to work part-time or full-time at it. 

 

Artists and bands need to turn the industry on its head and take full control over the distribution and selling of their music. License your music first and foremost before trying to sell it via streaming platforms and download sites. I can't begin to stress this enough, otherwise they will just exploit your music to the max and you'll never get paid. The music industry needs regulating in my opinion and there also needs to be some form of quality control in place to ensure that the quality of music releases are top notch and highly professional otherwise every Tom, Dick and Harry will be jumping on the band wagon just because it's trendy and they've decided too late in life to start a music career. There's so much choice and the market is completely flooded which makes it difficult to stand out sometimes unless you are already an established artist and to get anywhere in the industry nowadays. So, you need to do everything you can in order to achieve great success. I am fortunate in the sense that I started my career back in 1999 and am already established. But for people starting from scratch, it is very difficult to get anywhere unless you've got huge backing. 

 

The key to all of our success lies in licensing deals. It's going to be essential. And if the music industry wants to survive, then they are going to have to tow the line and respect our rights and pay us what we are worth and what we demand. Otherwise, we pull all of our music releases from their platforms and take matters into our own hands. Everyone wants a piece of the pie and by the time the artists and bands get paid, there is nothing left due to severe greed, immorality and complete and utter selfishness. There is a reason why this is happening and it is political. I will not discuss it on here, but it doesn't take a genius to understand what's really going on. Anyway, I will keep this short and sweet. You need to be licensing your music to third parties and this will eventually turn the state of things around and you will be much more successful. So, what are you waiting for? Just do it!