When I initially decided to pursue licensing my music for use in TV I didn't have a large catalog of songs to pitch to publishers.  I was in a jamband at the time and the material we had recorded wasn't  exactly the most conducive to being used in television broadcasts.  I sent some of our "poppier" recordings to the publisher I now work with but she had no need for our avant garde material.  Our songs tended to have lots of guitar soloing and well, jamming.  After all we were a "jamband".

So...  not one to be easily discouraged, I went back to the drawing board.  I actually have a very pop sensibility when it comes to writing songs, despite my affinity for gratituitous guitar soloing  and improvising I tend to write songs with pretty catchy hooks.  I decided to scrape together some money and go into the studio to lay down the tracks for a song I had recently written that I thought would be more appropriate for use in television.  I ended up spending about $400.00 on the recording.  Not a ton of money - but it was a lot to me at the time.  I sent it off to the publisher I had been corresponding with and... nothing!  

I waited for about six weeks and I still had heard nothing back.  I was starting to get discouraged and so one day on a whim I sent an email to the publisher I had sent the song to and said, "Hey, I just wanted to follow up on my submission.  What did you think?", or something to that effect.  To my surprise, within a couple hours I got an email back that said "Aaron, I've been meaning to contact you.  I love your song and I think I know somewhere I can pitch it."  Again, I'm paraphrasing, but you get the point.  I was in ! 

So, a few days later I got a contract in the mail with all the legal jargon that explained how my publisher and I would split any money we made from the song.  All pretty standard stuff - basically a 50/50 split.  I showed it to a friend who is a lawyer, signed it, and mailed it back to my publisher.  And then...  I waited. 

When you work with publishers they don't necessarily tell you where they are submitting your material.  In many cases they may be submitting your songs to various projects they think might be able to use your songs.  There's really no point in getting your hopes up about what could happen so they tend to only communicate about actual deals they make on your behalf.

Well, a couple weeks  later I got an email from my publisher that stated, "Aaron, check out The Young and the Restless this Friday.  They're going to be using about :55 seconds of your song All The Love on this Friday's episode.  Holy Sh^^T!  I was thrilled.  My song was going to be on national television!

So... I didn't have a very important job at the time so I decided to take the day off work to watch the show.  I didn't want to miss my national television debut!  The day came and I eagerly awaited the show starting all morning. Finally it came on after a few hours of my being quite restless, no pun intended.  I watched the first segement and nothing.  Then I watched the next segment .... and nothing.  I was starting to get worried.  Were they really going to play my song?  Then the third segment.... and nothing.  At this point the show only had a few minutes left.  I was getting worried!