Prime Time Tunes

There’s more than one way to jumpstart a career in the music biz, and many artists are taking non-traditional routes these days – using MySpace and blogs to put their music and messages out there for fans and industry types alike.

Even after getting the exposure that would typically lead to a record deal, some have chosen to forgo that route, according to a recent Wall Street Journal report, focusing instead on licensing their music for television and selling it through their own sites.

Ingrid Michaelson is one artist using a non-traditional route to build her career, and it seems to be working thus far.

Michaelson was contacted and signed by Secret Road Music Services, a company that discovers new musical talent for television programs, after a staff member discovered her MySpace page, the WSJ said.

The relationship has proved fruitful for the singer, who’s reportedly been paid as much as $15,000 each time her music has featured on a TV show. So far that list includes "The Bad Girl’s Club," "The Real Word Denver," "One Tree Hill," and the season finale of "Grey’s Anatomy."

And instead of signing to a record label, Michaelson sells music on iTunes and presses and distributes her own CDs, which means she grosses much more from those sales than a signed artist would. But she faces problems getting her albums into music stores without having a label or distributor, the paper said.

Michaelson told the WSJ she does want to sign with a label eventually, but is fine with the way things are progressing at this point.

"I want to make my presence known before that happens, so I can have some clout," she said.