Today's post is part two in a three part
series of guest posts all about how to pitch your music directly to music supervisors
from Joseph Miller. Joseph is a music coordinator for CBS sports and an
independent music supervisor and licensing agent.
Joseph and I recently created
a course together all about how to pitch your music directly to
supervisors. I'll have more details about our course soon. In the meantime let's take a look at more ways you can start preparing for submitting your music directly to music supervisors.
Over to you Joseph....
PRE-PITCH THOUGHTS - YOUR NEW MINDSET:
1) Because music licensing is so
cut-throat (and you've been told a million times already it is relationship
based) stop making your pitch about you and what you want that person to do for
you. Instead, DO SOMETHING FOR
THEM. Develop a relationship and offer
them some kind of service or benefit.
Are they a filmmaker... okay, so maybe you don't know how to rent camera
gear or transfer digital film to a DVD but maybe you have a friend (whom you
met at a recent networking event) does.
Get in that way and once you establish a trusting professional
relationship I can practically guarantee that person will reach out to you and
ask: "Do you have any songs a la ____?" Something as simple as wishing someone luck
if they're speaking at an event or congratulating an award or recognition will
do the trick if you approach it correctly.
2) Cold pitching is virtually a waste of
time. In the rare case your music spoke
for itself, you should have already been a star. Think about the last time you received e-mail
from an "Unknown Sender". Did
you read every word? What key points
were you looking for to determine if you would respond or even continue
reading? Build your e-mail so that it
will be READ.
3) Avoid concentrating on big placements or accomplishments, instead
identify goals and concentrate on the small steps required to reach them.
4) Work on your craft every single
day whether it's 10 minutes or 10 hours and track your progress to see what
garners success. Write your plan on
paper and look at it every day. Stop trying to pitch to everyone and
focus on doing more with fewer people.
5) If you're not getting e-mails back
it's time to step back and re-access your strategy. Setbacks allow for evaluation and
analysis. Practice makes perfect and
getting better will lead to success.
6)Attend every networking opportunity you can. Make sure you are known because it's not
about who you know... but who knows you.
7)Once you land a placement, make sure you use that success and have it
create more placements. A similar
concept to "if you want to be rich, you must make sure your excess money
creates more excess money" (from Ten Decisions You Need to Make to Get
Rich by Robert Kiyosaki). Invest in a
better website, better quality recordings or hire an intern or agent to pitch
your material while you focus on writing.
---
WHAT YOU NEED TO PROVIDE IN A PITCH TO MUSIC
SUPERVISORS:
Your
approach should be short and sweet. Get
in our heads and craft your letter so as to not waste our time (and yours.) As a professional, grammar and proofreading are not required - they're
expected. Will you be a hobbyist or a
dedicated music placement professional?
When first reaching out to someone new make it
personalized and never send more than two short and sweet emails: the first with links and the second being a
follow-up. If nothing in response, move
on. Try to develop loyal
"customers" instead - customers that genuinely care about new artists
and want to help prime your catalog for placement. One
of the first lessons you learn should be based on the amount and type of
responses you get.
Web
presence is critical to your success.
Many music supervisors (aka music supes, supers or MXSup) will always crack
through your sugar coating and get to the meat of your content. Sure you may look cute or trendy and have a
great website but we want to listen to your progressions and musicality and
find out if you're successful when it comes to touring, fan based marketing,
YouTube hits and any form of sponsorships.
Your
Myspace or Facebook page is not your website. This is an automatic red flag for
many and shows you are not committed or dedicated. Your website should contain the basics
including press, news, embedded players, videos, reels, testimonials, social
media links, opt-in boxes and newsletter sign-ups. If you choose to operate a newsletter PLEASE
make it consistent and send it out when you say you will. If you skip one because of whatever reason,
there's no need to apologize. Stop
feeling sorry for yourself and just get on with what you have to say... or do you
have nothing good to say anyway?
Autoresponders
and autobots will send out these messages on a regular basis. Send them to your CLOSE network of friends
and industry folk on top of anyone that "opts-in" to receive. Compiling a mass contact list is the wrong
idea. Utilize social media to entertain
new audiences.
While
I can't tell you what to write because it should be something based on the
relationship you have with this person you are trying to sell your music to, it
should always be personal and friendly.
People like to work with people they feel comfortable around and have a
connection with. If someone in your
network recently won an award, picked up a new project or even made a new
transition with a job or had a child... acknowledge their success and make them
feel good while appreciating everything they have done for you. Their success through your form of appreciation
will help out tremendously down the road.
Nitty
gritty you've heard over-and-over:
1)Master your recordings. Make it
sound like what you hear on the TV and radio.
Maximize your output level - people are always looking for what sounds the
loudest. Plus, it ultimately gets
compressed anyway when broadcasted so it should be at its highest dB level to
start. Sending demos or un-mastered
tracks are a waste of everyone's time.
2) Tag your
tracks with a contact and proper info.
Title, artist, album, etc ALWAYS.
Any tracks that show up in iTunes as "unknown" or "track
1" automatically get deleted. If
your track is part of a library be sure it has the pre-text.
3) Include all
splits (totaling 100%) for writer, publisher and master ownerships. Yep - you really do need this.
4) Register
your songs with the US Copyright office.
Register your songs with a PRO.
Register with SoundExchange.
Register a publishing entity.
Just do it!
5) Make your
instrumental tracks the same length as your full mix tracks. If we want to pin point a song from the full
mix by noting the time and then request an instrumental to find out you clipped
the first :10 because in the original it was only vocals, we'll have to do more
work to find the spot we were seeking.
6) Links vs.
e-mail MP3s? If you don't know which
they accept or prefer... it's safest to go with neither. Instead, try an embedded playlist. A lot of libraries use these and it's
basically an internal player but the music streams from an outside link. If you can't pull that off, a link to your
website is next best thing. This varies
greatly from supes so keep track of whom you are dealing with. Check out some forums or the supervisors'
website and maybe you'll find your answer.
Not doing what they ask or indicate will limit your chances of inking a
deal.
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http://www.howtolicenseyourmusic.com/blog/how-to-launch-a-successful-sync-campaign-part-2
