(excerpted from his book, Indie Marketing Power: The Guide for Maximizing Your Music Marketing).

Remember Lisa Loeb? She was an unsigned artist who went to school with the actor Ethan Hawke. When he was doing the movie “Reality bites,” he brought her music in for soundtrack consideration. RCA liked it, put her on the film’s soundtrack, and that track of hers blew up and launched her music career.

Film and TV song placements aren’t just for the big stars. For the past ten years or so there has been a trend to look for something edgier and offbeat, like an underexposed pop tune or a song from an undiscovered band. In turn, the placement can catapult them into hits. Moby, Feist, Band of Horses, Wilco, Of Montreal and numerous others have experienced career accelerations through the visibility created by film and TV music placements.

What follow are some guidelines for approaching these markets with your music. The key is first understanding the context of each market, then forging an approach that makes sense.

Ready? Here we go.

Context: Film

• Music and film (whether in theaters or on TV) have been intertwined since the earliest days of the cinema. Film music is music, primarily instrumental, which works in conjunction with dialog and image to establish the mood and tone of a movie. Classical, jazz, electronic – regardless of genre, any material composed or scored expressly for use in a motion picture can be defined as film music.

• A soundtrack album, on the other hand, is not necessarily film music, as many of the songs which make up the record (as with those for American Graffiti, The Big Chill, Napoleon Dynamite and so forth) were not originally intended for use in the movie, and other times (as in Batman Forever) don’t even appear in the actual feature at all.

• Over the last few years, as entertainment conglomerates have acquired both record labels and film studios, the bond between the film and music industries has tightened. Motion picture soundtracks have become a magnificent cooperative marketing opportunity for movies and music, in which each drives sales of the other.

• It is usually the director of the film who decides on the music used in the production. The director works through a network of music supervisors and music editors to find the music he requires for the production.

Context: Television

• TV production moves at a quicker pace and, while still requiring scoring, more often uses already recorded songs and compositions in its many shows and programs.

• Each year over 5000 individual series episodes are produced for the ABC, CBS, and NBC television networks, the Fox, UPN, and WB networks, first-run syndication, pay television, cable services and PBS.

• In addition, many movies of the week, miniseries, and one-time specials add to the annual total of television production.

• Production costs for an individual television episode can range from $750,000 to $1 million for 1/2 hour network shows and from $1 million to over $2 million for 1-hour shows.

• Since network license fees normally cover only between 60-80% of production costs, production companies must look to future local television syndication, cable and foreign television sales, home video, and in certain cases, foreign theatrical distribution merely to recoup.

• It is usually the producer of the TV production who decides on the music used in the production. The producer’s staff works through a network of music supervisors and music editors to find the music he requires for the production.

Approach

• Understand how music supervisors work. The music supervisor has come to be the person responsible for all the musical elements – technical, creative, and administrative – that are exclusive of the score and its production. As described by music supervisor Mark Roswell, (“Sleeping with the Enemy”, “Wild at Heart” ), “We provide a service to the director to find source songs that are right for the film. To do this we follow the same instinct – creativity – as the composer, but with an entirely different execution.”

Another veteran music supervisor, Barbara Jordan, says there are many more opportunities for beginners writing these generic background songs for movies than in getting songs cut by top recording artists. “For consideration by a Dolly Parton or a Whitney Houston, you need to have a song that is nearly perfect because you’re competing with top-notch songwriters for a limited number of cuts. But there are many more opportunities for placement of songs in film and TV, and it’s not as critical that these songs be ‘perfect.’ They just have to set the right mood.”

• As with jingles, don’t make a move until you understand the publishing intricacies of film/TV music: “synchronization rights”, “performance rights”, “blanket rights”, “public domain rights”, etc..

• As with everything in music, business is driven by relationships. So first, think of all the people you know or know of, even remotely connected to the film and TV industries. Start networking with these people: this means reaching out with polite, purposeful letters, emails, faxes and phone calls. Ask questions, read online and offline, and respond.

• Have your presentation (message, business identity, demo tapes, etc.) ready for the asking. TV and film producers need both songs and instrumental music.

• Network around film schools, find the most talented director and offer to put your music on his movie. The UCLA Graduate Film Students Program approached Warner Bros. Records for someone to score first-time director Jeff Fines’ “No Easy Way,” and ended up with American Music Club Mark Eitzel.

• Take a movie by a director you’d like to work with and create your own score for it. When Robert Rodriguez first asked Los Lobos to do the score for his movie Desperado, he suggested they get a tape of his first film, “El Mariachi,” and put their own music to it as an exercise.

• Find out who the leading film and video editors are and send them your music. Editors often put their own “temp” music track on films they’re working on to liven up the cuts and sometimes they and the directors become so enamored of it, they end up using the music and the final score.

• Learn how to work with music software. We’ve come a long way from the first synthesized movie soundtracks, but now everybody is using a PowerMac, MIDI sequencers and ProTools. Get used to it.

• Let your publisher, ASCAP or BMI know you are interested in film work. Performance Rights agencies are in touch with the film community and know if a movie is coming up that is looking for someone to do a soundtrack.

• Establish a distinct musical identity, but be prepared to abandon it in favor of diverse vocabulary. Sound like yourself. Artists like Hispanic-American Los Lobos and Irish-American Seamus Egan originally broke into films of very specific ethnic genres but have managed to convince directors they can either work outside that style or make the style work apart for its normal connotations.

• Be able to work as part of a team and accept direction. Your typical modern pop artist is used to being his own boss, answering to no one and having absolute creative freedom. In movie, TV or commercial soundtrack work, the musician must answer to a director, a producer or a client.

• You must communicate with people who know nothing about music. Says Lobos’ Steve Berlin, “You have to forge a new language to reach that common ground.”

Peter Spellman is Director of Career Development at Berklee College of Music, and author of numerous music career guides. Find him at mbsolutions.com

Interested in breaking into the Film & TV Music Markets? Check out what’s currently accepting submissions.

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