Music Licensing to Tv/Film and Video Games

This past fall was a bit slower than the busy busy pace I'm use to so I decided to put a bit of work into getting my songs licensed to TV, film and video games. I contacted a ton of music supervisors and as you can imagine very few got back to me. Some that got back to me wanted me to submit music either via CD or online with mp3's. Others recommended some music licensing catalogues that they use frequently.

Music licensing catalogues are a double edge sword for a music creator. They do make your music available to people who want it but of course they want a cut (in some cases a hefty cut). Unfortunately with the large swath of musicians wanting to license their music, music supervisors aren't as receptive to listening to submissions directly from music creators and have started using these catalogues more and more.

The thing to be aware of with these catalogues is that most of them are a complete waste of time because they don't have the connections they claim. I, like most, only have so much time in the day and submitting to these sites can take a lot of it. If I do so I want to make sure they can deliver the goods and make it worth my time.

In order to save everyone a bunch of time I figured I'd give you a few music catalogues that are really good.

Here's the list:

www.AudioSocket.com I've been using Audiosocket for years and they're a great company that does a lot of licensing.

www.MusicSupervisor.com These were one of the companies that were recommended to me by one of the music supervisors I contacted in the fall. I gotta say their online tracking/registration system is just incredible.

www.PumpAudio.com This company was recommended to me by an entertainment lawyer and while I submitted some material, I did so reluctantly. Their interface/sign up system was very time consuming and because they required all original signatures it took me forever to get the submission to them because of all the co-writers I write with. The real hitch though is they take a whopping 65% of the up front license money you get. A bit excessive in my book. I finally decided to submit some stuff with them, but only some older stuff that I had.

All of these companies require you to submit music for someone to listen to and approve you for their catalogue. Make sure to submit your best material.

Here's some of my tunes that I've made available to music supervisors:

Catch me on the sites: