If you're serious about getting your music licensed in tv and films, you need to be pitching your music on a regular basis. If you're pitching your music consistently, to a lot of places, it can be difficult to keep track of where
your music has been pitched and when. Which is why I suggest you use a spreadsheet to track all of the places you've pitched your music, so that you know which tracks you've pitched, when you've pitched them and when to follow up on your submissions.
I'm a huge proponent of following up on your submissions, because you won't always get a response right
away when you pitch your music. There are no hard and fast rules in this business and when you pitch your tracks you could hear back right away, or several months later, or perhaps you'll never hear back. You just don't know because every situation is unique and different.
However, just because you don't get a response from someone doesn't mean
they don't like your tracks. It could mean that, or it could mean they haven't listened to your tracks yet. Or it could mean they listened to your tracks, loved them, and then got sidetracked with 20 other things and forgot to get back to you. Or, it could mean they listened to your tracks, liked them, but didn't feel like they had an immediate need for the kind of music you make.
The point is, it could mean a lot of different things, and you won't know until they respond to you, which is why it's important to stay on top of your submissions and follow up when the time is right, if you don't hear back initially. The very first track I licensed, I got licensed as a result of following up on my submission, and I really don't know if I ever would have heard back if I didn't take the initiative of following
up.
It's much easier to follow up with people if you're keeping track of your submissions. I suggest, as a general rule of thumb, to wait three to four weeks before you follow up. Give the recipient of your music enough time to go through your submission and listen to your music. Then, after three or four weeks, if you don't get a response, send
a polite follow up email reminding them that you sent your tracks, and asking if they had a chance to listen to it.
As a free gift, you can download the spreadsheet template that I use to track all my submissions here:
