FAQS

General

Part of Just Another Label Ltd (JAL), The Dance Music Library (DML) is an Ivor Novello award-winning company, awarded “Best Music For Television” in 2002. The DML has had global recognition for Library Production Music (LPM) through over 25 years of licensing music for some of the leading names in this field; namely Sonoton GMBH, Lemoncake, APM, Extreme, Carlin, Fable, Sony EMI, Warner Chappell, and BMG, amongst others. Through these companies our brand is well established with end users across the globe.

The DML aims to become a one stop shop in the world of LPM for Electronic Dance; Urban – Hip-Hop, Soul, Grime, Rap and other styles associated with black music; and Quirky electronic music. Dance, Urban & Quirk!

We are a collaboration of JAL and it’s longstanding composers, passionate about providing a service that represents talent that is otherwise missed in the sync side of the music industry. Our backgrounds are all firmly rooted in Electronic Dance & Urban music.

Library music (sometimes described as mood music / production music or “muzak”) is music that has been specially produced or edited to accompany media productions, and held in a Music Library for easy access by media companies. It is often used in TV and radio adverts, radio soundbeds, computer games, films, audio guides and corporate videos.

Simply visit any library company’s website to preview all their available songs.

As with record companies, the larger a library is, the harder it is for individual artists to get their music heard. Generally, they do not take the time to listen to hundreds of tracks, as they already have extensive catalogues. Instead, they often only commission or license music from existing contacts, and only approach others that already have a high profile in the industry.

So… what if you’re not a major artist yet? Well, there are several small independent music libraries in the UK, all willing to enlarge their catalogues. They don’t usually offer advances, as they only make their money when they license your music, but they’re often friendlier than record companies and easier to work with.

Here is an up to date list of current libraries in the UK. If your music is licensed by a client, you’ll receive a statement every six months from the library, showing any royalties earned in that period. It could be anything from a few pounds to a few thousand pounds, depending on the usage type – every track in the catalogue can be licensed an unlimited amount of times, earning royalties each time (minus the library’s fee of course)!

Key Tip – it’s a numbers game! The more pieces you have in a library, the more chance you have of getting your music licensed, and ultimately the more royalties you will collect.

What’s in it for me?

What shares of the income do I get?

The usual royalty shares between composers and the company is 50/50 for both the mechanicals and performance of the net income. 

There are two types of income: Mechanicals, which are paid and distributed to the composer from the library; and Performance income, which is paid to the Performing Rights Organisations and distributed directly to the composer.

Yes – otherwise you may miss out of royalties.

Generally mechanical royalties from the library company are distributed twice yearly, and performance income quarterly from the PROs’.

Contractual

Once you sign on the dotted line, all songs assigned will be owned by the library company, normally in-perpetuity and for the world.

Once you sign along the dotted lines, the license will be for in-perpetuity – ie forever.

No, all licenses must go through the library company and the partners they sub publish to.

The rights will be owned by the company for in-perpetuity, which means forever.

Music Submission

Yes you can.

Please send no more than 5 examples of your best work that MUST be available and ready for license. Please send in MP3 format using wetransfer.com to theharvester@thedml.co.uk

You will get a reply within 5 working days after the download confirmation from wetransfer.com.

We are interested in Urban, Electronic Dance & Quirky music only.

Please bring it on, music has no boundaries.

Useful links for other FAQs on library music: