This is my third post in a series on how to make money licensing your music to film/TV and elsewhere. The first post is here and second post is here. These posts cover several foundational topics, which you might find helpful to building your music licensing business.
As this series continues, I'll be getting deeper and deeper into this, so it will be important for you to keep up. To do so, it will be helpful for you to do two things:
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Here's the third round of questions I received from people. I've gotten hundreds of emails, many with several questions, so expect more posts similar to this one.
1. For music licensing, we have a studio where we could make music, but we don't know how to get business partners to sell them our music?
Good question, but I'm not going to answer it here. :)
However, I do want to make note of the wording in your question... You used the word "sell." I see this happen all the time.
You're not "selling" anything here, although there is a transaction which involves money. What you're doing is actually "licensing." That means, you're letting somebody use your stuff, but retain the copyright on it.
"Selling" isn't a bad thing. There are plenty of "work-for-hire" jobs, where you do sell what you create for a flat fee, without keeping ownership or collecting future royalties. This is fine, totally legal, and ethical. However, it's not always in your best interest. There is often more money on the backend, where you get royalties when used, rather than up front money paid as a flat fee.
As for your question, I'll be going into detail about that as this series continues. Please make sure you're on the email list and the feed.
2. How does one get music into the hands of the music supervisors? Are there others that I should be targeting as well... director, producers, etc?
As I mentioned in the question above, I'm going to give you specifics on how to get your music into the hands of music supervisors and other people who are looking for it as we continue with this series, so stay tuned...
As far as who you should be targeting, directors and producers are fine. You should use all your contacts to get the music where it needs to go. There are plenty of small projects, which could be in the millions, where directors and producers will have something to do with music selection. There are plenty of large projects as well...
Music makes a scene happen. Music sets the mood. Music helps to produce the wanted outcome that directors and producers are looking for. Because of this, they're involved in the process of music selection.
Don't be afraid to approach people. If you approach somebody with your music and he's not the guy handling it, he can point you to the right person.
3. What I'm really looking for is for commercial work. How does one get on the email list of the production companies that email out the video and then has their list of composers respond? I've found it nearly impossible it seems.
It's true that production companies get the word out to composers, probably by email, about new projects they're working on, but from what I've seen, it's not done via a "one-to-many" list. If email is used, it's more or less something personal, much like you'd email a friend that plays guitar about coming to sit in with your band.
With that said, you can build relationships with production companies the same way you'd build any music business relationship. Solve a person's need and they're contact you to solve it again, the next time it comes up.
So how to you meet these people in the first place? See Question #2 above.
4. Assuming the music is solid, what other techniques can I employ to stand out from the pack of schmucks that make the people receiving all the envelopes skeptical of unsolicited material? In short, how do I get the person at the desk to take me more seriously when I'm buried under piles of song-hobbyists like my Uncle Monte?
This is a great question and one we'll be going over in depth on the upcoming (and free) music licensing teleconference, which is part of this series. To make sure you're notified, sign up for the mailing list above and get on the feed.
The quick answer... If you're submitting to a listing or "casting call" where you'll be competing against several other people, if you want to increase response, start with basic "direct mail" techniques such as:
1. Use a colored envelope. Every band and its brother is using a USPS "Priority" mailer, a FedEx package, or a plain manila envelope. Do something different.
2. Write the address by hand. Refrain from using something such as those "red, white, and blue" address stickers which every office in the world seems to have plenty of.
3. Use a "live" stamp. This means you find out what the total postage is, and instead of using something you print via Pitney-Bowes or Stamps.com, you put on a bunch of $.42 stamps, $.03 stamps, or whatever combination you need to pay for the postage.
Using different kinds of stamps works, because it makes your package more interesting. And it works really well when you have something different from the "standard" stamp we see every day on a First Class letter. No flags, no eagles, etc.
I've done a ton of testing on this. "Flower" stamps work better than "American" stamps, which have something like a flag or eagle on them. Why? My theory is that "flower" stamps are more friendly, like something you'd get from your mother, rather than something that you'd get from a business.
We'll talk in more detail about this stuff on the free teleconference. To make sure you're notified, sign up for the mailing list above and get on the feed.
5. What is the best way to present the material and connect with those music supervisors? e.g. a personal phone call asking what the best way to submit music/info, then a follow-up letter with music (CD or otherwise), then a series of follow-up calls over a time period to see if they are interested?
If you can get somebody on the phone, or via email, by all means ask them how they want to receive something and then give it to them in that way. Some people want mp3 files, some people want CDs, etc.
It's for this reason that you have to be ready to go with an offline format, such as a CD, and also online options, such as an mp3 or link to a page which streams your music. And if they ask for something you don't have, such as .aiff or .wav, make it happen.
The important thing here is that you don't try to get them to "work" to receive your music. They don't have to do that...and they won't do that.
For more information on this subject, please read my post called "No, You Can't Email Me a Song..."
More coming, so make sure you subscribe to the feed to keep in top of things. Also, if you want the real life examples and direct contact information of where you can send your music, be sure you sign up for the list below. I can't post that kind of information on a public website. :)
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