Hey Friend,

The real money made in the music industry is from sync licensing…music that you hear in TV, video games, and movies. 

However, the media companies paying out thousands of dollars in licensing fees to artists like me don’t want Creative Commons music. 

Here’s why:

- Rights Clearance Uncertainty: CC licenses lack exclusive rights, making it difficult to confirm legal permissions and avoid potential copyright disputes.

- Commercial and Platform Restrictions: Many CC licenses prohibit commercial use or have ambiguous terms, creating legal risks.

- Distribution and Monetization Barriers: Sync libraries, distribution platforms, and Content ID systems frequently block or exclude CC music due to non-exclusive licensing, complicating revenue enforcement.

If at any point you ever wonder, “why don’t more artists release Creative Commons,” this is why. It hurts our income, which hurts our ability to put food on the table. 

Even artists who aren’t interested in making a living from their music still have to buy gear. Gear is expensive. Gas money to play shows is expensive. 

I actually do produce music for sync licensing. The pay is usually $3000-$5000 per song. 

Right now I have around 100 songs I’ve released as Creative Commons. 

That’s a potential $300,000-$500,000 I’m leaving on the table. 

To do “what’s right”. 

I will continue to make Creative Commons music. 

Because it’s the right thing to do. 

Art should be in the commons. Especially when it’s essentially free for me to infinitely reproduce a digital file. 

No artificial scarcity here. 

But you gotta understand: this is not really sustainable. 

Streaming pays out, for me, $0.0014 per stream. 

If you want CC to exist you gotta BUY IT. 

So if you’re interested in supporting Creative Commons media, please check out my Bandcamp page: https://megabyteghost.Bandcamp.com. 

I’m currently over $50,000 in debt because I tried to start a CC-exclusive record label not knowing that the way record labels stay in business is by sync licensing music to TV, games, and movies. 

I’m working with an organization and we’re getting my debt down. I’m on a repayment plan that is about $800/month. 

I don’t want to give up on CC media. And I won’t. 

-megabyteGhost//Garrett