Pump Audio Reveiw

Pump Audio Review

This blog outlines many angles and perspectives in the electronic dance music industry. If an artist needs cash and is just starting out there is always music aggregates. Pump Audio was highly recommended to me so I decided to review the site and look up what others are saying in regards.

What exactly is Pump Audio? Pump licenses your music through BMI, ASCAP and SEASAC and in turn networks you to a stream of others who will pay the royalties out for using the song. They are connecting you to film scores, television shows, commercials, and Internet syndicates to get you paid and help build your resume. The pump system creates a new market that hasn’t been around and creates new revenue opportunities. Pump claims to be owned by musicians who in return are to be for the musicians and their rights. They have the two main ways of getting the music out. One of the ways they do this is through a “Pump Box” which sits on many desktops. This box contains a catalog of numbers and those numbers are given to the song as industries exec's browse and purchase. Its indefinite licensing can be purchased cheap if you decide to grab something from the box. Another is the “Soundtrack Service” online. Recently launched in beta form it allows you to cycle through genre’s and track ID’s and listen and purchase like a store from small snippets.

So are you thinking about using Pump Audio? Now one thing to be known is you don’t’ want to advertise this to anyone. Why do I say this? It’s your music that goes out through Pump but they handle it in bulk with the license so it's sold for cheap. Your track is in a catalog under a Pump Audio ID number, that number is what they title your track when they re-license it. In some cases they make a name for it so people know what they are gonna hear, for instance “rave anthem” or “razor sharp tune”. It’s not the title they want, it’s the ability to find something for their commercial or tv show. Pumps clients want it cheap so we can’t complain, otherwise it wouldn’t get found.

As the writer should register the tune yourself through the same PRO’s such as BMI, ASCAP, and SEASAC. Those PRO’s pay you writer’s royalties at 100% for the original work. Also if you have no publishing company on file with the PRO Pump is a publishing company and will get paid those fees. If you decide to register as one then you save yourself the trouble. Pump does the bulk thing so you get 35%. It was a 50/50 split at one time but I suppose they have a industry name now and can charge a bit more. Actually the reason they did this is it’s no longer the original owners. Pump Audio recently was purchased by Getty Images for 47 million. Getty images is a photo stock licensing company which is a corporate giant. They have the new avenues to push the music with their network through NBC, MTV, BBC, etc and can now be pushing the music on a large scale.

Performance Royalties Owed may be on the smaller side as an artist with Pump Audio but I leave it up to you! It’s another stream of capital and if you wanted to look at what sells and what doesn’t it may be useful. Musicians often wish they had a way to get their music out to the world, now they have great way to do that! It’s a nice resume builder to have your song be on MTV or BBC, so we shouldn’t be complaining about the money when we are just starting off any how. 

http://www.themusicsnob.com/2008/10/06/pump-audios-retitle-publishing-music-licensing/

http://www.pumpaudio.com/artists/index.php