An Indie Streaming Success Story: Secrets In Stereo

NPR recently posted an article about how the tiny royalties coming from music streaming can add up and chose one artist as a great example. Josh Colum and his band Secrets In Stereo signed up with Rumblefish, a company that finds licensing opportunities for artists.

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Initially there wasn't a lot of money, only a few bucks per statement (we've all seen that one), but soon Josh began to see around $10,000 per quarter. Astonished, he explored what happened.

It seems that a song called "Happy" from the band's first album was chosen by a wedding photographer who was looking for music to accompany a wedding video he made, and he chose the song from a site called Animoto after listening to hundreds of songs.

After he gave the couple their video, they posted it on YouTube, where others saw it and also used it for their own wedding videos. Today the song has passed over 250 million views, which ads up to some substantial cash for the artist and songwriter.

Rumblefish takes care of collecting the money from Animoto and tracking the views on YouTube and online video services.

Both Josh Colum and Secrets In Stereo are pretty under the radar in the music business, but they've managed to carve out a living thanks to putting their songs in the right places, a little luck, and a little virality.

Here's the song, in case you're interested.