My producer, Gary Gray, and I, just hosted our second in a series of live monthly webinars we’re offering to members of the new How To License Your Music Premium site. This recent webinar was on the topic of developing and maintaining relationships in the music licensing business.  It was a great webinar and we covered a ton of points related to both how to get to know people working in the music business and how to maintain working relationships.

Our new live webinar series is a monthly series of live webinars covering different topics related to music licensing and music marketing.  Each month I bring on a different guest, who specializes in a different niche of the music business, and I pick their brain for an hour or more on a specific topic.

Check out How To License Your Music Premium for more information on our webinars, as well as everything else we offer our premium members.

Here are a few key takeaways from our webinar:

Seize Every Opportunity That Comes Your Way -   One of the first things we touched on was the importance of recognizing and seizing opportunities when they present themselves.  When I was in my second year at Berklee College of Music as a songwriting major, my songwriting teacher came into class one day asking if anyone had any blues tracks she could pitch to the TV show ER, a show that she was in the process of pitching music to.   She said that if anyone was interested in learning more that they see her after class.

When the class ended, all but myself and one other person left the class.  Of about 40 or so students, only two stuck around to get more information about this opportunity.  I was shocked at the lack of interest from a class full of aspiring songwriters!  To make a long story short, I submitted a track for this particular opportunity and it wasn’t selected.  However, that one conversation with my songwriting teacher eventually led to my first publishing deal and hundreds of different placements over the years, as this particular teacher went on to form a fairly well-known publishing and licensing company in Los Angeles. 

Had I never made the effort to simply follow up on this initial opportunity, I never would have learned about my professor’s licensing and publishing business, and there’s a good chance I never would have licensed my music at all.  All this, from simply seeing an opportunity and pursuing it.

Look For Opportunities

Another topic we covered, was the importance of looking for opportunities and connecting with people working in the industry, on a regular basis.  Sometimes opportunities present themselves very clearly, but often times, you have to go find and create your own opportunities, especially in the beginning.  One of the key strategies in my programs, like The 90 And 180 Day Music Licensing Challenges, is to reach out to at least one person in the music licensing business, every single day.  Of course, you need to do this in a way that makes sense.  Don’t just randomly email or call people.  But if you haven’t had the success you’d like to have in the music business, there’s a good chance you simply haven’t connected with the right people yet.  Don’t just sit back and wait for things to magically happen.  Get out there and start knocking on doors, emailing people, calling people, interacting with people and so on.  You never know who you’re going to meet that could help you move forward, until you meet them.

Keep In Touch With Your Contacts

One of the other points we touched on during the webinar is the importance of keeping in touch with your contacts and maintaining relationships in the music business.  Just because you connect with someone and sign a few songs to a company, for example, doesn’t mean your work is done.  In my experience, it’s really important to stay in touch with everyone in your network on a regular basis.  Find out what their needs are, check in from time to time and see if there’s anything else you can assist with.  By doing this, you’ll show that you’re serious about your craft and you’ll also simply stay on their mind.

I had an experience recently where my success and activity with one of the companies I signed with in the past and used to get a fair number of placements through, had slowed way, way down.  I made a few efforts over email to try and get things going again and had a little success here and there.  But it wasn’t until I flew out to LA for a face to face meeting and my producer subsequently started working for an organization that my publisher also works for, that things really started to take off.  Over the last nine months, I’ve had a string of new placements from this company and I have no doubt it has a lot to do with the efforts both myself and my producer made that got the ball rolling again.

Express Gratitude

Finally, the last topic we touched on during the webinar, is the importance of expressing your gratitude for every good thing that does happen in your career.  If you get a placement from someone or from a particular company, let them know how grateful you are.  If you know someone is actively pitching your material, let them know you appreciate their efforts.  Go out of your way to show people how appreciative you are of their efforts and I guarantee this will come back to you at some point down the road.  At the end of the day, the music business is simply comprised of people, all of whom are doing the best job they can to fulfill their roles.  Don’t be so focused on your own music and goals that you forget to acknowledge all the hard work of others.

For more information on How To License Your Music Premium and our live monthly webinars and resources like music licensing leads, in depth courses, directories and more, visit

http://www.htlympremium.com/