Song Placement: Making It to the Movies and on TV

With the music-industry business model in flux as the digital revolution continues to impacts unit sales and radio-play royalties, one of the most effective ways for musicians, bands and composers to generate earnings is by getting a song placement on the soundtrack of a movie or television show. The competition for these limited placements is fierce. Success in this arena requires a mix of talent and luck. The material needs to be strong, as well as professionally executed and recorded. It also needs to be the right song for the right project or situation, and it's got to get the ear of a music supervisor -- one of the pros overseeing the musical aspects of any media platform, from movies and TV to ads, video games and episodic online content.

So how can a fledgling artist get the best shot at a placement without the benefit of a publishing company doing the grunt work? It's difficult, but not impossible. A number of music supervisors agree on a few elements of the process. There are many different types of projects that need the right song or musical fragment, which could be in variety of genres and styles. In order to have any impact at all, you need to know who to approach and what they might be seeking. As a result, it's important to research the marketplace.

If you have a song or songs that might fit the profile of a supervisor's interests, post the tracks online at a dedicated site, and send an inquiry e-mail with a description of your sound and include links to the music where it can be heard with a click as well as downloaded. Don't attach an mp3 to your inquiry e-mail, because it can get lost in the shuffle or sent to a spam file. And rather than mp3s, use .wav files for better clarity.

You can also approach a licensing company or music library that pitches songs to supervisors for a percentage of the fee earned, and see what sort of deal (including exclusive representation) they will arrange with artists. There are services that will charge artists to pitch their music, but there are no guarantees that placements will result by any of these means, so you need to weigh your options.

All of this requires a solid recording or recordings to start, as well as due diligence by the artist on the investigative side. Know your market, learn about the supervisors, and be respectful and patient if you're going to contact anyone with unsolicited material. They may or may not get back to or they may just take their time as per their schedule and needs.

Of course, ISINA's crew of mentors and staff provide the sort of direction that can increase the potential for music placement, in addition to helping to foster talent and develop material that will get a supervisor's attention.