10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Ignore Music for Film, Television & Advertising
In the last decade, the music business has really changed. People are getting music for free or for very little and the opportunities to make money through traditional methods are quickly drying up. Record labels are being cannibalized, publishers are closing up shop and songwriters are looking for day jobs. But there are still opportunities to get your music heard and to make money, if you’re willing to grow your mindset and work smart.
Music in film, television and advertising is fast becoming THE way to get exposure and augment income.
Here are 10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Ignore Music for Film, Television & Advertising:
1. You can make money.
Face it, you need to make money to keep making more music. The film and advertising markets are ripe. The television market is exploding and so is the need for music to accompany the original content being produced for them. So, the opportunities for making money are exploding too. When a music supervisor, editor, director or producer uses your song in one of their productions, you get PAID.
2. The traditional opportunities for getting your songs recorded by an artist (if you aren’t the artist yourself) are shrinking fast.
These days, artists are writing their own material or are teaming up with co-writers. It’s quite the exception - not the rule - that an artist might record a song written by an unknown songwriter. In rap music, it never happens. In the pop world, songs are predominantly written by the artist and a posse of writers selected by the producer who jump in and write specifically for the project. That’s why you see so many names in the writing credits for pop, R&B and hip-hop songs, and large groups of people going up to the podium at the Grammys and other award shows. It’s most often a group writing situation, and you need to be in the “situation."
The only genre left that looks for outside songs to any significant degree is country. And things have changed drastically there too. You're still best served to write with the artist or producer or have some sort of inside track. The percentage of outside material being sought out now is probably in the teens. So writers need to look at other ways to get their material recorded or, as the industry puts it, their “copyrights exploited."
3. New artists are being broken on television, movies and ads and NOT from A&R departments at record labels anymore.
This is the new way to get noticed. It’s not waiting around for the labels to promote you to radio. It’s not about getting the big royalty advances and having someone else promote you. It’s about the “D.I.Y.” principle. And part of the new strategy includes getting your music licensed. Case in point: Feist, A Fine Frenzy, Joshua Radin, Black Keys.
4. You can put your back catalog to work for you.
For all of those songs which you have written and recorded, how many sit around doing nothing for you, having surpassed their "shelf life”? You can revive and re-purpose your older material by offering it to film and t.v. It's not doing any good sitting on your computer not being heard.
5. You can double your catalog and placement opportunities by creating TRKS mixes of your songs.
Often, music supervisors and ad execs are looking for more than just songs with vocals. They might want instrumental music to compliment the scene or to go with the commercial. That’s where your tracks-only version of your song comes in handy. Bounce the tracks-only version of the songs you’re recording and voila - you now have 2 songs for the offering, instead of 1. How does 100 songs in your catalog sound, instead of 50?
6. It stretches your creative muscles.
Because you are writing to a visual, you have to think of ways to express emotions and moods, while not including so much detail as to distract the viewer. Themes are timeless; love found, love lost... That sort of thing. You have to engage your senses to describe what’s happening in a way that brings people into the song. This is a different experience than trying to write hit songs for radio, in which the song itself is the only way to draw the listener in. Be even more dangerous, and write songs for both.
7. You can explore other genres.
Absolutely every genre from A to Z is represented on film and t.v., so if you’re writing for that purpose, you have no limitations.Feel like writing a jazz tune? Go for it. Someone might need that samba you just wrote for a scene in an upscale restaurant. Want to to explore rap? No problem. Cue the cop show or maybe a sports event. You can write whole songs, reality show “dramady" or sweeping orchestral scores; they all have a place in the film, t.v. and advertising mediums.
8. It’s where the industry is heading.
This one is a little touchy for the stodgy music execs and publisher holdouts still headstrong and waiting on the one cut “mother lode", but the smarter publishers are investing in new technologies and opportunities. And yes, I mean investing, because the potential to make big money is in the long haul where you have thousands of songs being used at any given stretch. And like any new business, there are start up costs. Just like with the traditional publishing model. There used to be dozens of record labels in Nashville. Now, there are a just a few. That should tell you something.
9. You get to see your song on the film credits.
Who wouldn’t want to be sitting in the theater with their empty cardboard popcorn container and see their name listed during the rolling credits ?
10. You can get a ton of exposure.
People are continuing to watch television, go to movies, and see ads. The market isn’t shrinking, it's blowing up. So, as long as there are people, there will be a need for content. And when people resonate with the content and hear the songs associated with it, they want to know who wrote the song and how they can get their hands on it. There are websites dedicated exclusively to finding the music which has been heard on favorite television shows and ads. Check out this link, which is where I go to find all the latest stuff. When someone hears your song on a show they want to find YOU and YOUR MUSIC. And they probably also want to visit your site, opt-in to your list and get to know more about you. If you develop a relationship with these people by offering them more ways to hear your songs, watch you perform, or buy your merchandise, then you expand your reach and grow your opportunities to create and prosper. And isn’t that a big part of why you write songs anyway?
This list could keep going on, but these are the ten reasons that came to mind instantly. If you’re a songwriter and wondering how to get your stuff out there, this is a MUST DO. And if you’re a publisher or label, the same goes for you.