Have you ever wondered what you can do with that hard drive full of composition that you didn’t use on a show or project? A few years ago, I discovered a fun and easy way to get some of my music published. AudioSparx is a music library and stock audio website where users can license music and sound effects for commercial productions such as film, television, corporate, and more. AudioSparx also operates a commercial music streaming site called RadioSparx which provides background music for businesses such as spas, hotels, and retail shops.
To submit your music as a vendor, there are just a few easy steps which you can read more about at https://www.audiosparx.com/sa/module/alliance/default.cfm. On this page of their website, AudioSparx will post about the styles and genres of music they are currently looking for. At the time of writing this blog, some of these styles included: Pop Vocals, Contemporary Brit Pop, Hip Hop Dance, K-Pop, and Future Soul. If you’re submitting your music for the first time, submitting something within one of these “need now” genres can definitely give you a leg up on getting your music published.
AudioSparx offers two kinds of license agreements: AudioSparx Perpetual, Non-Exclusive, and RadioSparx-Only Non-Perpetual, Non-Exclusive.
With the AudioSparx license, artists can participate in all three of their websites, as well as an option to participate in multiple additional distribution and monetization options. With this type of license, you agree to a perpetual commitment, which means that AudioSparx can license your music forever, but it is a non-exclusive license, which means that you are free to also license the same tracks to third parties at any time. The major benefit of using this license type is that you earn money on any of your music that is used in commercial projects or productions. You can also earn residual performance royalties for the use of your music in broadcast productions, and also for any commercial background music use when your tracks are included on subscription-based playback. Even if your music is used in YouTube videos, you earn residual money.
With the RadioSparx only license, your music is not licensed forever, and you are not bound to license exclusively with RadioSparx. Your music will be added to the RadioSparx website where users can license it as background music for their commercial businesses. Users pay RadioSparx directly, and artists are then paid through direct licensing. Residual income is also possible through subscription-based playback of your music.
You only need a minimum of 3 tracks to submit an artist application, and you can add tracks at any time, but the process becomes a lot more lucrative if you have at least 20 tracks available in your catalog at all times. You can organize your tracks as individuals, or group them together in a mini-library when they share a common factor like style or instrumentation.
Getting paid is also easy to track. You can run reports at any time to see where your music is getting played and how well your tracks are doing. After the end of each calendar quarter, AudioSparx will email you a commission report, and 45 days after each quarter, they send payment via PayPal if you have earned commissions of $25 or more.
Ok, so that all sounds easy enough. Here’s the hard part. If you really want to make money in this way, you really have to stay on top of it, and it’s a lot of work if you want to do it right. With every submission, you are prompted to add lots of details about the music, and the more details you add, the more successful you will be at getting picked up. You also will be more successful if you can keep collections of multiple genres on your profile. The more you have to offer, the more distribution is possible, and the more money you make. In full disclosure, it took me several years to gain $9.64 from the 3 songs I have uploaded, but seeing anything at all gives me hope that if I put a lot more effort into this process, I might see more favorable returns.
Whether you are looking for a good side hustle, or just dabbling in music licensing, AudioSparx is a great and safe way to dip your toe in the water.