In the digital age, the song has more avenues for revenue than ever. Whether it be movies or television or the internet, people are listening to music in more ways than ever before. Such a high demand for music warrants a dire need for songwriters, and at the forefront of this songwriter revolution is Jingle Punks. Jingle Punks is a music publishing and composition company that provides original and licensed music to TV, movies, video games, and much more. With impressive credentials and catchy music, Jingle Punks is an industry standard for music licensing.
Jingle Punks founders Dan Demole and Jared Gutstadt.
Just a Couple of Punks
Jingle Punks was founded in 2008 by Jared Gutstadt and Dan Demole, in New York City (Suddath, 2015). The company originally started as a hobby for Gutstadt, who worked as a film editor at the time. Gutstadt would work on music in his spare time, and would sometimes score small films and movies for fun. Gutstadt desired a database of songs grouped by descriptors and adjectives, to make music licensing easier (Roshkow, 2010). After meeting Dan Demole at a Black Keys concert, the two decided to go into business together. Choosing the name Jingle Punks, the duo started making music and working on a business plan. Fast-forward to today, and Jingle Punks has over 70 employees and offices in New York, L.A., Nashville, London, Toronto, and Australia (Robehmed, 2013). Though Jingle Punks makes most of its revenue from reality TV like Real Housewives and Pawn Stars, Gutstadt has said that they’ll make music for “literally anything” (Suddath, 2015).
Jingle Punks is very profitable, and can charge anywhere from $500 to $100,000 for a song (Suddath, 2015). A key reason for its profitability is the Jingle Punks Jingle Player database. The Jingle Player is a database of songs available to license through Jingle Punks, and each song features adjective tags and descriptors to be found easier. Gutstadt and Demole filed a patent for the idea in 2009, and mainly focuses on patenting the adjective search algorithm (Gutstadt, 2009). This asset has proven successful and easy for customers, and at a fraction of the price they’d pay to license a popular song. The database has over 10,000 cues, and soon after its launch partnered with Viacom for music licensing (Post Magazine, 2009). This brand partnership has been very successful, and gave Jingle Punks access to shows on MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, and many others.
A screenshot of Jingle Punks’ Jingle Player.
Play Those Funky Jingles
The Jingle Punks business plan is primarily centered around the Jingle Player. Jingle Punks has a staff of about 70 writers, but the Jingle Player also accepts open submissions from the public. Jingle Punks does a 50-50 split with the songwriters, which it’s maintained for its entire existence (Vaughan, 2009). Jingle Punks also acquired a 25,000-song catalog of pre-cleared songs for licensing, only adding to its massive inventory (Wireless News, 2012). Jingle Punks makes money on both the front end and the back end, a common revenue model for most music licensers. It’ll charge a price up front, then receive royalties from various outlets for its songs. It made $5 million in 2011, and more than $18 million in 2014 (Suddath, 2015). As for competitors, Jingle Punks competes with other music licensers who wish to synch license their songs. Jingle Punks songs cost a fraction of popular recorded songs, and are easier to find because of the innovative Jingle Player. The company has managed to undercut its competitors, yet provide the infrastructure for a solid and maintainable business model.
Jared Gutstadt working on music with Tyra Banks.
Bright Horizons
As it looks to the future, Jingle Punks seeks to create and cultivate new partnerships. Recently, the company partnered with hip-hop producer Timbaland to make music available to license (Rys, 2016). Fashion icon Tyra Banks has also partnered with the company to produce original music for commercials for her new fashion line (Michelle, 2015). In 2015, arts rights management company ole bought Jingle Punks, expanding its library to 350,000-400,000 tracks (Christman, 2015). Since the buyout, not much has changed with the day-to-day operations of Jingle Punks. The company now has a much larger distribution network due to the buyout, as well.
With such amazing statistics for a seven-year-old company, the future looks very bright for Jingle Punks. With an easy-to-use database and a price most can’t beat, Jingle Punks has seen massive success. They’ve perfected the marketing and distribution of intellectual property, and is the benchmark for the modern music licenser. With a catalog of over 500,000 songs and counting, Jingle Punks is a leader for supply of IP. Jingle Punks has shown how to efficiently and creatively market intellectual property, and the founders are now millionaires because of it.
Works Cited
Christman, E. (2015, March 23). Publishing Briefs: Spirit Picks Up StyleSonic Catalog, ole Takes Jingle Punks and John Denver to Kobalt | Billboard. Retrieved February 05, 2016, from http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6509430/publishing-briefs-spirit-stylesonic-ole-jingle-punks-john-denver
Gutstadt, J., & Demole, D. (2009). U.S. Patent No. 8,429,181. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“Jingle Punks Introduces Music Library for Content Creators.” Wireless News 7 Aug. 2012. Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 9 Feb. 2016.
“Jingle Punks Providing Viacom with Pre-licensed Music.” (2009, July 9). Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.postmagazine.com/Press-Center/Daily-News/2009/JINGLE-PUNKS-PROVIDING-VIACOM-WITH-PRE-LICENSED-.aspx
Michelle, S. (2015, October 12). Behind The Theme Music: Supermodel Tyra Banks And Jingle Punks’ Jared Gutstadt. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/sidneedouyon/2015/10/12/behind-the-theme-music-supermodel-tyra-banks-and-jingle-punks-jared-gutstadt/#3b794325211f
Robehmed, N. (2013, August 6). Money Calling: Jingle Punks’ Reality TV Fortune. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/natalierobehmed/2013/08/06/money-calling-jingle-punks-reality-tv-fortune/#57b6b5b3777e
Roshkow, M. (2010, March 2). A fresh (and cheap!) sound for TV soundtracks. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/02/smallbusiness/jingle_punks/index.htm
Rys, D. (2016, January 5). ‘What I’m Building Is an Empire’: Timbaland Launches New Partnership With Jingle Punks | Billboard. Retrieved February 04, 2016, from http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/6835189/timbaland-jingle-punks-marketing-partnership
Suddath, C. (2015, May 20). Jingle Punks’ Commercial Music Biz Is a Spotify-Tin Pan Alley Mix. Retrieved February 02, 2016, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-20/jingle-punks-commercial-music-biz-is-a-spotify-tin-pan-alley-mix
Vaughan, C. (2009, August 24). Jingle Punks Hits Ground Running. Retrieved February 03, 2016, from http://variety.com/2009/music/markets-festivals/jingle-punks-hits-ground-running-1118007641/