JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Musician Message Forum Thought Music Doesn't Sell

It seems like the holy grail for most songwriters here (and elsewhere) is placing music with a big name artist. MAB already pointed this out, it's tough, close to impossible (nothing is impossible of course, but it is really hard), unless you get in on the ground floor with an emerging artist and help in his/her development. At that point, you'd be more than just a songwriter though, you'd be an investor, mentor and business partner for that artist. Something very few have the experience for or the the desire and $$$ to do.

But, one thing that has only been mentioned briefly here are sync license deals. Placing music in film, TV, ads, corporate videos, and whatever else needs music. The "outside song" does still work for those deals. How do I know? I work them and I work them hard and we're starting to see success with it. You can make your songs available in stock music libraries. These deals tend to be small and you're competing with a lot of other songs. Then there are premium sync libraries. Not everyone can simply upload their songs in those. Usually there is a vetting process. Deals tend to be a bit bigger and once you get in, you're competing with less songwriters and songs for placements. And then there are music publishers who specialize in sync placements. I would consider my company to be in that category. Obviously, those are the hardest to get into and even if you do, there is no guarantee that you will get anything out of it.

Here is why (all numbers based on what I see - this might be different for bigger/smaller establishments): These companies get 100s of submissions every week. More than they can actually even listen to. They maybe accept 1 out of 10 submissions (if that) and offer a publishing deal. Again, speaking just for me, our deal is straight forward, split 75/25 in favor of the writer and no money is exchanged upfront - we don't charge anything and we don't pay an "advance" (those days are over). Some songwriters back out because they don't get why they would give up 25% and the publishing rights of their million dollar creation - fair enough if you can do it yourself, don't bother giving up anything.

Most do accept though because it's time consuming and expensive to find placements (more on that below). So, you signed the deal, everyone's happy and it's just a matter of time before the $$$ roll in. Well, not exactly. Most publishers sign way more songs than they can place. Why? Because they want to be prepared for every type of brief and opportunity. These briefs and opportunities are usually rather specific and only a handful of songs in a publisher's catalog fit the bill for a given opportunity. Chances are that your song sits in a publisher's catalog for a year and never makes it to a supervisor. Again, just speaking for us, if we don't find a placement within a year, the songwriter has the right to opt out of the contract. I wouldn't want to tie up anyone's song for extended periods of time.

So, why not go out and do it yourself? You sure could. Here is what you'd have to do. Network a lot. I'm not talking about sending emails to some list of supervisors, I mean go to events (which usually cost money), go to the places where decision makers are (which usually means being in NY or LA or Chicago). Build trust, help out, do stuff for free, and then maybe you can start thinking about pitching one of your songs (make sure it's up to scratch. If not, all that hard work was for nothing.). How do publishers get around this? Well, they don't. But, they hire people who already did the ground work. They hire song pluggers. They hire people who have worked in executive roles at major music publishers and therefore have contacts with film, TV and ad production houses. Obviously, you could do that too. It's just expensive unless you have a vast catalog of professionally recorded, well written, ready to go songs. Look at MAB just as an example. He has written over 3,000 songs throughout his career. Only 500 of them are full band recordings. That's how most songwriters operate. You write 5 songs and maybe one of the 5 is worth spending money on for a full production. And some of the ones you spend money on end up not being suitable after you recorded the song. So, as you can see, it takes a lot of time and $$$ to build a large enough portfolio to excuse the expense of spending even more $$$ on a plugger and industry insiders to push your catalog. So, you're stuck with either get a publisher or move to LA/NY and network hard (all while working a couple of jobs to pay for rent and food).

Long story short: The "outside song" is not dead. It is on life support if your only goal is to place your music with well known, established artists. You would have to catch a really lucky break or, as mentioned, try to get in on the ground floor with a developing artist. On the other hand, the "outside song" is well and alive in the sync space. Sure, it's highly competitive but so is Pro Golf ;-)