Working with 0decibels

Our goal is to present your music with the intention to sync or license, particularly in new or emerging spaces such as wellness/fitness, social content creation, and spaces such as the metaverse (dare we say it). If a film comes along too, then, of course, we won’t say no.

You probably know me (Ryan) best as ASIP but you may not know I have a long career in brand marketing and digital advertising. I have created adverts and content for global brands and launched digital experiences for household brand names. Within this, I can see an opportunity to provide a better, curated service for our type of music that exists outside of using major labels and expensive licensing and publishing arms. In fact, I have been doing this for ASIP without formalizing it, or putting all my time into it. Now I have decided to create a service that can pull from both my worlds of experience in music + advertising. In the hope to provide more exposure to artists on my label(s), and labels/artists who work with us.

How we work together:

  • We offer a curation and sync service to global companies and we specialize in all types of ambient-leaning music. We spend time working with these companies and developing relationships with content creators, producers and sync managers. (We are doing the hard work to find these opportunities that you might not otherwise uncover)

  • Companies approach us with briefs for specific projects (syncs for film, adverts, social content etc) and we tap into our extensive network of music (i.e you) to source the best options, presenting this music back to the client.

  • To get started, we just simply need your permission to represent your music when these companies come knocking. Within our responses and pitches back, we may include your music knowing that you are open to it being synced or licensed through 0decibels.

  • Further down the line, we can work on how you as a partner, and your music is represented on our website, mailouts, social etc so we can actively promote you as a partner.

A typical process:

  1. 0decibels presents your music as part of response to briefs we receive. You are not involved here unless we need you to be, but we may have checked in with you prior and even brainstormed with you what is best to pitch back. in some instances, we may contact you directly for your own recommendation or to see if you have anything that suits the brief we are not aware of (eg unreleased music).

  2. We then get to a point where a client agrees to license your music, at which point, (and depending on how many tracks across different labels etc - it will differ - but for single track purposes here) we will then connect the licensee with you (the licensor) to execute the contract directly.

  3. 0decibels, and you (the label and/or artist) agree on the 0decibels founders fee based on the amount of the license fee.

  4. You then work directly with the licensee with things like file management, creative execution etc. We can help advise here if needed but typically exist to present you with these opportunities, not to manage the execution.

FAQs:

  • This sounds like a regular licensing process, what’s different here?
    Depending on the brief, we work transparently with you (the label/artist) to negotiate the best deal. You can then work directly with the client to finalize the placement, or we can help facilitate it. We find that lot of people in our community arent equipped with the knowledge to navigate this territory, so we want to help. We simply take a referral/finders fee from the overall budget once successful sync has been agreed. This fee is scaled based on the amount and can be shared with you privately.

  • So you’re essentially a middle-man to connect with me licensing opportunities?
    Basically, yes. If you’ve got loads of inbound requests for licensing already, then you probably don’t need us. But unlike many others doing this, we arent asking to be your exclusive partner, so it’s really a win-win. We can also help to provide some guidance on how best to negotiate a fee, and of course, present your music to potential clients proactively.

  • So, are you a Publisher representing my music?
    No.     Publishers contractually represent a catalog of music and chase down all revenue streams for said music. We are not asking for any contractual obligations, and are only interested in sync and licensing opportunities (not streaming, radio royalties etc). This position also gives us flexibility on who and how we work with artists and labels where many are not published at all.

  • What are the benefits of you representing my music?
    You hopefully know me by now, and my professionalism through ASIP. You’re not putting your music on some random licensing company website where it could turn up in a terrible advert. I like to think I am best suited to represent your music to a wider audience with your best interest at heart - as, after all, I am representing ASIP artists and music too.

  • What are the negatives of you representing my music?
    We don’t ask for any agreement between us. In fact, we don’t need anything from you to offer your music to our clients at first. So we like to think there aren’t any negatives. How (and if you can) work with us, depends on your current publishing/contractual obligations so the only negative may be that your current contractual obligations may not allow anyone else to represent your music for sync or licensing. Continue below for more specifics. We specifically started this venture because we see many artists not represented by publishers, which is massively beneficial to the licensee, as a publisher often doubles the fee and has many hurdles to jump through.

  • My music is registered with a PRO like BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC?
    Technically we can’t represent you as a publisher, but we can still serve you opportunities for licensing which you execute yourself, and we take our finders free.

  • I don’t use a PRO, like BMI, ASCAP, and SESAC, should I?
    You can, and in many instances you should. We are not trying to remove publishers or PROs from the equation as they do great work at scale and exist for a reason. From my own personal experience, it’s very hard to sort the publishing side of things with a label and your own music and see good returns. It’s complex, and you often end up signing over a bunch of things you don’t feel comfortable doing, especially when you look further than the PRO like BMI.. We are simply trying to offer a service to an underserved group of labels and musicians, in a much earlier stage of their career or for those who might not understand the landscape well enough yet.

  • I’m an artist, and my music is not on a label or might be unreleased, can you represent my music?
    If you own all the rights to your music, or do not have a publishing agreement in place with your label (or a separate publishing company such as ASCAP) then you are best suited for us to represent your music. If you do have publishing agreements in place, then it is just a matter of whether they are “exclusive” or not, meaning no-one else can represent your music. If they are not exclusive, then we can still find a way to work together, as essentially I would be passing opportunities to you or your publisher.

  • I’m a label, can you represent my music?
    If you as a label own publishing, or represent artists who do not have any publishing in place, then you are best suited for us to represent your music. Similar to the above however, if artists do have publishing agreements in place at an individual level, we can still find a way to work together as long as they are not exclusive. As I am not licensing your music as 0decibels, someone else would be (i.e company X) and I am a (new) middle man simply facilitating that transaction as a finders fee. I am not going to take ongoing royalties from a transaction.

  • I’m an artist on ASIP already, how does this affect me and my music?
    As your label, it is in our best interest to promote your music and make you money. 0decibels is simply our labels extra arm to do this as part of a greater effort alongside other labels. If you are already on ASIP and we secure a licensing deal with your ASIP music, there is no additional 0decibels ‘fee’, it is simply managed as part of our existing recording contract.