JPF Home Page Forums General Messages Success Stories Forum Song placed in "Heroes" on NBC primetime

I'll keep it short... a library placed my track "Warhead" from my album Antigravity on the latest episode of NBC's hit series Heroes. I'm a very happy camper tonight.

Excellent! Looking forward to seeing the YouTube clip linked here!

Hopefully it will be during a super-awesome scene! = )

Congrats!

Brian

Andrew! Way Kewl!!!...I don't watch much TV, but the one show that I do watch, NCIS, always mentions a "featured song" and Artist on the credits....Don't know if Heroes does this, but since I don't listen to the radio anymore, most of my exposure to new favorite artists comes through TV placements.

Keep us Posted on when it will be shown if ya know.

Midnite

Hey Andrew, a big congratulations!!!

Best, John

Hey Andrew,

Congrats mate, may you have many more !

cheers, niteshift

Fantastic!

Great news, Andrew! Congrats!

Scott

Way to go man.

woo hoo ! ! ! Just in time for the weddding?

Thanks all! It has been a very good day. If you're curious how I got this gig, I wrote an article about it (well, music licensing in general) -

http://soundtempest.net/how-to-make-money-from-music-licensing/

And here's a clip from the episode:

http://jmr.sitesled.com/TEMP/heroes-clip.avi

That is terrific, a big CONGRATS to you!! Thank you so much for posting the link to your article!

woohoo!!!!!!

I watched that last night... didn't know I was hearing your music. very cool!

Huge! Congrats man!

congrats Andrew!

you sure are getting alot of stuff picked up........good for you fella! its a real validation of your talent....

Tom

Cool Cool Cool! Andrew
This is a great feeling & a great boost, I hope you continue to build on!

Congrats!

Andrew

congrats!!! I just watched this episode 2 days ago where Sylar is looking for the shapeshifter inside the bar. That music of yours is really amazing.

Lynman

Andrew,

Congratulations. Thanks so much for posting your exciting news for us. It gives us hope when we see one of our fellow JPF members succeed.

Much luck for more doors to open with this,

Letha

That's great news Andrew.
Good job. Congrats.

Good score Andrew!

Barry

By the way Andrew, your article on licensing was excellent. Very clear and written so "normal" people could understand it (I guess it depends on your definition of normal...lol )

Just watched that and heard that...dang cool!!

Andrew, congratulations. Well done and well deserved.

Tom

that's supercool, what agency got the deal??
i am trying to get licenses too, but i don't know much how to proceed, about to get a little deal for two indie movies though and excited about it, but rather by chance

Thanks again all! Priscilla, the library which got this deal was PumpAudio who I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone interested in non-exclusive licensing. The sum of all my knowledge on the topic (more or less) can be found in the following guide:

http://soundtempest.net/how-to-make-money-from-music-licensing/

You might find it useful.

Congratulations, Andrew! As good as your music is, I expect to hear about Cleo, Emmy, and Oscars in the future.

Hey Andrew!
Congratulations .. this is wonderful news..
thanks for sharing with the group .. we all need these rays of sunshine & hope from time to time
All the best & Continued success
Joanne

Awesome news! I hope this is a beginning of a success streak for you.

Thanks for sharing good, scratch that, great news about your song or sound recording w/"Heroes"!! Definitely a feather in your cap and a plus for your musical resume going forward. I've not seen the show, but I understand it's very popular. I also want to thank you for sharing that article above, which I did read as well.

Let me see if I have this straight given your link above. If I am correct in my understanding of the article, you had a song or sound recording "Warhead" placed with a "music production library" (Audiosparx?) where a "media producer" of some sort heard your music and now uses it on a non-exclusive type basis for the show "Heroes". You are the "licensor" and someone is the "licensee". Is the "licensee" the media producer or is it under the production company for "Heroes"? Also how do you go about placing or pitching a song to a music library if you would be so kind??

Thanks Andrew for any insight on this. I would like to possibly pursue this avenue myself someday.

Best,
Lynn

Hi Lynn - thank you for the very kind words! Thanks to everyone else as well.

Lynn, your description of what happened is mostly accurate. The music production library was PumpAudio, not AudioSparx, though they are somewhat similar (the difference is that PumpAudio is more selective and has a higher-end clientele.) Technically speaking, there are two sets of licensors and licensees.

Two years ago, I was the licensor and PumpAudio was the licensee, as I was licensing my CD (containing Warhead) to Pump, non-exclusively.

Then, recently, PumpAudio was the licensor and the producer(s) of Heroes were the licensee(s), getting a non-exclusive license to synchronize the song Warhead from that same CD.

In terms of placing or pitching songs, here's what I can tell you. There are a LOT of music libraries out there, and really, they're not much different than music publishers in the traditional sense. The primary difference is that they want sound recordings too, not just songs or demos. 15 years ago it might have been the case that a company would take a song or demo and turn it into a full production, and you'd still get paid. However, now, it's much easier to make "broadcast-quality" recordings, so the libraries expect you to do all the work.

Some libraries work on a track-by-track basis. For example, Crucial Music will license one song at a time. They have an online submission system where you fill out a form and upload an MP3, and they'll tell you whether they accept or reject the submission. They're quite selective. On the other side of the spectrum, AudioSparx will take almost anything you upload to them, but with AudioSparx, the people that are going to be licensing the music are not going to pay nearly as much because they are not the sort of big-budget producers as the people that work with Crucial Music.

So, how do I pitch? Well, several years ago I struck up a relationship with a NYC-based library (UniqueTracks) that I've since done three CDs for. I basically found them through a Google search and then cold-called and emailed them. I did this for a number of companies, but UniqueTracks was the first to respond. I told each company that I was a Philadelphia-based composer and producer of electronic music, and I had a CD that I was looking to license - I listed similar artists as well (The Crystal Method, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim.) Some libraries prefer to buy entire CDs from you, so I think it is good if you can at least offer that. If you only have a single song it might be harder for you, depending on the company.

Does that make any sense? I know it seems a bit nebulous, but in all honesty, simple, direct contact was what got me several deals! Music libraries are often looking for new content all the time, so it's a matter of seeing what they are looking for, or pitching what YOU have as unique and being a great addition to their catalog.

Wow, how very kind of you to go into such detail Andrew. I appreciate it. Also hearing it from a fellow JPF member using your own story makes it closer to home and clearer somehow. All very interesting and you did make sense, you spelled it out nicely.

So when a music library takes on a song or CD they have to do alot of listening which is similar to publishers having to listen. If they hear something they like, I'm guessing they describe/define the piece(s) down to a specific level so that seekers don't have to weed through thousands, i.e. someone sends in a country tune, does the sender in their letter/email say this is a traditional country tune w/a subject matter of blah blah blah or does the music library after listening and accepting write up a summary of what the song is about? In other words even though you may send the CD/song and explain what it is about, (Example: traditional country, female vocal, subject-cheating, uptempo) do they keep your explanation or do they write their own to really narrow down a media producer's search? They obviously listened to some or all of your CD, categorized it under eletronic but I wonder how much further they described it or was that enough for a media producer who was searching??

Best,
Lynn
Also now that PumpAudio is using a track from your CD does that mean that that particular track is now exclusive or can you still pitch it to other libraries or leave it as usuable at other libraries where your CD's currently are??

It depends on the library. All of them have SOME form of categorized search. For example, clients of the library can almost always search using keywords, like "fast", "tense", "dance", or "electronic". Some libraries go very in-depth and provide pages upon pages of potential search terms and categories.

Others, like UniqueTracks, write their own descriptions to help prospective clients pick the right song. In my experience, they will do this for you. For example, here's UniqueTracks' description for a CD of world/electronic music I did in 2007.

"Indian flutes, Japanese koto, Greek bouzouki and assorted world percussion merge with cutting-edge electronic dance music on Sacred Spaces to create an upbeat and unified one-world groove.

These underscores are great for world events like the Olympics and other International festive occassions. They also work well as soundtrack for presentations that need a jolt of fresh energy.
As an added feature on Sacred Spaces, we've included very striking vocal performances on three of the songs. Be sure to listen to Call the Rising Sun, Red July and Shadows. Each song has the usual full-length instrumental mix but we've also provided an alternate vocal mix. The vocalist is Jillian Goldin and she adds an alluring and stirring presence to the album. "

KillerTracks is another library that does this sort of thing. If you go to their front page (killertracks.com) and load the music search, you'll immediately see their new releases. I'll pick one at random... "Chuck D Presents Slam Jamz Records". This one's hip hop, of course, and each song on the CD has its own description:

* Getting Money (a) Feat. Mossberg and Peekaboo - Male vocal southern rap. Fast pizz strings and screeching hip hop synth over insistent rap about gettin' yo money and ballin it big.

So, a site like AudioSparx might have pages and pages of tags, while UniqueTracks, which sells far fewer CDs (but for more $), writes in-depth descriptions. KillerTracks has a large catalog oriented towards big clients, and they cut right to the chase when it comes to describing songs.



Fortunately for me (and everyone else interested in using it), PumpAudio is entirely non-exclusive! That same song, Warhead, is in the CrucialMusic library, as well as Audiosparx, Musync, and at least one other music library I'm probably forgetting. I've gotten multiple placements with it in the past, too.

Andrew,

More impressive than your placement is that you're becoming an outstanding educator! Congrats on that too!

Brian

Yeah really! thanks for the tips, I think I'll be paying these sites a visit!

Thanks again Andrew for that 2nd explanation further describing the way things work in the music libraries concerning genres etc. Unique really got descriptive with your song. This is all very interesting to me and so helpful. You communicated very clearly and I appreciate it. Thanks so much!! I hope you get other bites as well. The more good things you throw out there, the better you increase your odds.

Andrew...congrats on the placement...that show is really popular, i hope it opens more doors for you...life is great...be well...moker

yes I agree
thanks for sharing

EXCELLENT article and follow up posts... You know, If you have good music, that's great. But I believe that you are blessed and will continue to be blessed because of your willingness to help others... It seems to me that whenever you take a step up, you don't forget to look back and help someone else scale that mountain as well and I think that is TRULY outstanding. Kudos to you and may God continue to bless you.

Thanks Andrew for such elaborate information about your process, and thoughts! It is really helpful.

You really deserve every success possible!

My warmest congratulations, Andrew. It's very upligting to know that songs still get placements and it's wonderful when people are so kind to let the others know of their experience. Good luck woth your songs.
Nadia

WOW, Andrew, this is wonderful news Congratulations!!!

AND....Many thanks for taking the time to share your wisdom and practical knowledge. You just helped a lot of people to make sense of this aspect of the music industry!

With gratitude,

Emily

Congratulations, thanks for the info and good luck with the show.
Patti

Terrific - thanks so much for relating this to us. And congratulations.

Tom

Fantastic, best of luck!!

Hello! Namaste! Ciao! Thank you for sharing the good news! We all hear so much complaining and general despair about the music industry that is a real pleasure to hear someone "playing a different tune"! : )

Congratulations! May your talent and your Higher Power continue to take where you are yearning to go! Bon Voyage!

Hare Krsna! Namaste, baby!

Wow- great thread! .... and i just clicked on the link and it looks like i got a lot of studying to do! thank you!

John

Wow, thank you for all the kind words and wishes. Since last year my career has really taken off (I write + produce music full-time, teach on the side and develop virtual instruments in whatever time is left) and I feel very lucky and blessed for that. :-)