A question I get asked a lot is whether you should pay to have your music pitched to tv and film licensing opportunities.
There are some who take the position that anyone charging money from musicians for promotional/pitching services is automatically a con artist out to take advantage of naive musicians. Then there are other musicians who seem willing to shell out any amount of money with the hopes of getting their music in front of the right people at the right time.
My position is somewhere in the middle. I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with businesses charging money for legitimate services. As far as I know we still live in a society where it takes money to buy goods and services and if someone provides a service that others find valuable then there is certainly nothing wrong with charging money to provide said service. For better or worse, this is how our world works.
For legal reasons, I will not go on record either promoting or speaking negatively of any specific services. You'll need to do your own research. But clearly some services are better values than others. Some charge more, some charge less. Some are able to deliver better than others. And some services are simply outright scams. Again, I won't name names but there was one specific company a year or two ago that was clearly just scamming people left and right.
So it pays to due dilgence when it comes to companies that charge money for marketing your music. How long have they been in business? Who are their clients? Do they work with everyone or is there some sort of screening process? How much do they charge and what exactly do you get for your money? These are all good questions to ask.
I know of many cases where musicians have paid to have their music marketed and it's led to some sort ot tangible success and I know of just as many that have paid for marketing services and it's gone nowhere.
There is no service that can guarantee your success in the music business. None. But a good, connected company should be able to help you move forward in terms of opening new doors, providing valuable feedback and presenting legitmate opportunities to have your music heard and potentially licensed for real money.
If you want to learn how to take your career into your own hands and get your music heard directly by people working in the business then you need to check out my program, The A To Z Of Music Licensing. In this comprehensive program I go into detail about the exact steps I've taken to license my own music and the music of others I've worked with.
The A To Z Of Music Licensing also include the comprehensive 2011 TV And Film Music Business Directory, so after you learn about all the technical aspects of the music licensing business you'll have specific contact information for actual real people working in the licensing business who are looking for music.
The program is very in depth and contains much more info than I have space to go into here. To learn more visit
