Is Your Music Ready To Be Placed?
Published: Wed, 08/08/12
Is your music ready to be placed? A lot of people email me asking whether or not I think their music has what it takes to get placed in TV and Films. Although it's true that the production doesn't need to be quite as good as "record quality", it does need to meet certain standards in terms of both production and songwriting.
If you're not sure whether or not your music is up to par in terms of production and writing, a great exercise is to simply listen to other artists that are getting used in TV and Films and then, as objectively as possible, compare your music to see where it stands. If you have a hard time being objective about your own music, maybe get some friends to assist you. Just listen and be as honest with yourself as possible.
A lot of people make the mistake of assuming that if they're not making progress in the music business it's because of a lack of connections or due to bad luck, and sometimes that may be true. But be honest with yourself about your music and whether or not it's where it needs to be in terms of production. I always recommend working with someone who is skilled in production in engineering if this isn't your forte. Or conversely, if you do produce your own tracks, work on improving your production skills. Recording equipment has become infinitely more affordable over the last ten years or so, but you still need to know how to use it!
Production is a really important area and it's critical that if you're serious about licensing your music that you don't dismiss this element of your music. My publisher has often said that the production of your music is as important as the song itself when it comes to getting your music licensed. This has certainly been true in my experience. To put it simply, the songs I've been able to license are almost always stronger production wise than the songs that seem to fall through the cracks.
I recently created a course specifically on how to produce music that is up to industry standards for licensing with a great producer, Gary Gray. Gary has a long list of credits in both licensing and radio, and he's an amazing teacher who is able to take very complex ideas and present them in a way that are really easy to process.
For a limited time Gary is also offering a free 15 minute consultation to everyone who purchases our new course.
More information here:
Also, if you missed the free interview I did with Gary where he discusses the three most common mixing challenges and how to solve them, check that out here:
Happy Songwriting!
Aaron Davison
Aaron Davison