Hi! I'm Juan. Let me introduce myself...

[telepathicteddybear]

Am I the first to introduce himself on here?

My name is Juan Padilla, I'm from Mexico. My project is called Telepathic Teddy Bear, an electro pop thing and I also have an upcoming piano project called Amateria. Here are the links if you want to check it out.

Telepathic Teddy Bear (Spotify, electro pop like Postal Service or Passion Pit): https://spoti.fi/2SEeCH2

Amateria (Spotify, piano/orchestra; music like Nils Frahm or Olafur Arnalds coming soon): https://spoti.fi/3iDcRV3

My instagram if you want to DM me: https://www.instagram.com/telepathicteddybear/
----

So, anyways. It's been a whole 10 years of publishing music online but let me give you a brief rundown of some successes so far. It's not so that I can brag or pretend that I've made it in some way. I actually haven't been able to make a living from music this whole time. But I want to tell you some things that have happened just in case anyone has questions and I love talking about these things anyway.
So far:

-I've been featured on two GoPro videos which so far has around 16M views. This from space is pretty rad: https://youtu.be/bDoh8zQDT38
-This fan made video of my Where is my Mind cover has almost 5M views. Someone made without telling me, got me a lot of attention: http://bit.ly/2dVBxLc
-This Mars ad made me the most money I've gotten from a commercial: https://youtu.be/bPm-J1WSCw0
-My album Forgiveness charted in college radio stations up to #4 on the RPM charts and #16 on Radio 200 Add. It charted in 68 radio stations.
-I've collaborated with some grammy nominated artists from Mexico.
-I've worked with brands like Mars, GoPro, Nike, Jaguras, Adidas, Ford, W Hotels, Kickstarter, Sprint, Coca-Cola and others.
-I've opened for bands like The Presets, Phantogram and DNCE. Played a few festivals.
-Had a painting made -that ended up in a museum- for the cover of The Course Of Empire (a conceptual album I made).
-Worked on a documentary that featured a bunch of my tracks.

----

Most things happened because someone actually listened and liked the song and then proceeded to make an edit like the mr robot one or knew someone who was setting up a lineup at a festival or something. Which ties back nicely to why most of us are here: music promotion.

I hope I learn a lot from you guys and, as I said, I'm posting all this so you can feel free to ask me any questions you like. I love helping out so reach out if you want to!

[AndrewSouthworth]

Am I the first to introduce himself on here?

My name is Juan Padilla, I'm from Mexico. My project is called Telepathic Teddy Bear, an electro pop thing and I also have an upcoming piano project called Amateria. Here are the links if you want to check it out.

Telepathic Teddy Bear (Spotify, electro pop like Postal Service or Passion Pit): https://spoti.fi/2SEeCH2

Amateria (Spotify, piano/orchestra; music like Nils Frahm or Olafur Arnalds coming soon): https://spoti.fi/3iDcRV3

My instagram if you want to DM me: https://www.instagram.com/telepathicteddybear/
----

So, anyways. It's been a whole 10 years of publishing music online but let me give you a brief rundown of some successes so far. It's not so that I can brag or pretend that I've made it in some way. I actually haven't been able to make a living from music this whole time. But I want to tell you some things that have happened just in case anyone has questions and I love talking about these things anyway.
So far:

-I've been featured on two GoPro videos which so far has around 16M views. This from space is pretty rad: https://youtu.be/bDoh8zQDT38
-This fan made video of my Where is my Mind cover has almost 5M views. Someone made without telling me, got me a lot of attention: http://bit.ly/2dVBxLc
-This Mars ad made me the most money I've gotten from a commercial: https://youtu.be/bPm-J1WSCw0
-My album Forgiveness charted in college radio stations up to #4 on the RPM charts and #16 on Radio 200 Add. It charted in 68 radio stations.
-I've collaborated with some grammy nominated artists from Mexico.
-I've worked with brands like Mars, GoPro, Nike, Jaguras, Adidas, Ford, W Hotels, Kickstarter, Sprint, Coca-Cola and others.
-I've opened for bands like The Presets, Phantogram and DNCE. Played a few festivals.
-Had a painting made -that ended up in a museum- for the cover of The Course Of Empire (a conceptual album I made).
-Worked on a documentary that featured a bunch of my tracks.

----

Most things happened because someone actually listened and liked the song and then proceeded to make an edit like the mr robot one or knew someone who was setting up a lineup at a festival or something. Which ties back nicely to why most of us are here: music promotion.

I hope I learn a lot from you guys and, as I said, I'm posting all this so you can feel free to ask me any questions you like. I love helping out so reach out if you want to!

Hey Juan! Nice to e-meet you. Thanks for joining.

Checked out your music and its awesome! Congrats on the millions of streams and all the cool opportunities you've had in music.

You mentioned a lot of these things happened because someone listened and liked the song, and then had a connection in some way. How did your first paying opportunity come up? Was it also random like this or did you also pitch your music anywhere? Super interested in this aspect of the music industry.

[telepathicteddybear]

Hey, Andrew! Absolutely loving your vids and just bought your course!

So, yeah. I'm pretty sure I sent my music way back around 2012 or so to the now defunct but once brilliant Music Dealers. It was literally the only music library I sent my music to and also musicsupervisor which got me not one single license. Music Dealers ended up really liking my stuff and started contacting me for different opportunities but mostly they would just get back to me after a financial quarter and pay me a few hundred bucks. But most importantly (glad you asked this question), those big names I got paid for? Some of them never made it on air and some of them I only got a few hundred bucks for. Not bad but their not exactly huge. So, what ends up happening is that I get to showcase these names if I'm pitching my band to anyone and it gets a nice reaction. I mean, if I could get sync licenses through with no payment, I would do it just for the portfolio.

My two big placements (GoPro and Mars) worked out like this: Some random dude from LA liked my album The Course Of Empire, an experimental 5 song EP which was inspired by paintings. They're not pop songs, they're more like film music impressions based on paintings. He thought they were perfect for pitching, something I had no idea how to do, and he spent around a year or maybe even more pitching them to who knows where. After a long time, he said he had two songs placed in gopro and I got about 500 dlls after our agreed upon 50%-50% split. The money was nice but the space video was absolutely epic. I didn't get a huge surge in followers or anything but again, very nice to have these on my resume. Both tracks featured on gopro, experimental film type tracks, are on my top 10 on Spotify to this day. Goes to show how getting eyeballs on your music is as important as the music itself.

The Mars placement, on the other hand, was pretty huge. I already had several non-exclusive agreements signed with some music libraries who had approached me. So, one day, I check my email and someone from the UK was apparently asking for a "schedule." I was like "schedule for what. For when?" I was very confused but it seemed like they were interested in how much money would I charge for a song license for where is my mind. Mind you, I knew even less about licensing covers, I could get in big trouble if I messed up by charging for a cover without knowledge of how things worked. So, I reached out to one of these licensing companies I had just signed with and I had an agreement with one of them which stated that for licenses they got me, we would split 50-50. But for licenses that I brought to the table, it would be 75-25. Well, it's a big chunk but honestly I didn't know how much money I could actually get from this. If it we're up to me, I would've asked for a thousand bucks and be done with it.

What they quoted on my behalf was around 32k or so for the UK and Ireland territories. I was floored. Long story short, the deal went through and I got around 25k, my biggest license to date and my top track for who knows how long. That's how I got so many plays on it. A song I did for fun based on a suggestion by a fan on my facebook page. They even started talking about expanding to the China and India territories, something that would've grossed around 81K! But, alas... it was not meant to be.

Anyway, I guess the moral of the story in my case is that in some cases, you gotta let other people do it for you. Especially things you suck at. I haven't pitched a song once in my life. But, of course, this is just one way to do it and who knows how far I could go if I started sending my music to a lot of music libraries or maybe even brands. It's not a bad idea, I think.

Apologies for the post length, hope it helps.

p.s. Now that I think about it, I think the fan made mr robot edit of the cover, having gotten a lot of views, helped the song to reach someone that worked at Mars. Just thinking out loud, but the timing makes sense.

p.s.s. Oh! Instrumentals! Make sure you master both the vocal version and the instrumental version, or at least have it handy to "master" yourself. Music libraries mostly want instrumental versions of your stuff, it's much easier for them to sell.

[andre]

Wow, great story! Your version of Where Is My Mind is simply amazing, really loved it! No wonder why those brands got interested!

[telepathicteddybear]

Wow, great story! Your version of Where Is My Mind is simply amazing, really loved it! No wonder why those brands got interested!

Hey, Andre! Thanks so much, man! Glad you liked it! 😉

[mpekim]

Hey bud. All of the material you have shown us is outstanding. We are beyond privileged to have someone of your talent among us.

Also, I just want to say that "telepathicteddybear" is one of the coolest names I have ever heard of, hands down.

[telepathicteddybear]

Hahahaha, definitely some controversy over that name which as one blogger once called it: "abysmal." Lol. Thank you so much for the kind words!