SONG PROVIDER FAQ

What kind of music are music supervisors looking for?

Who are these music supervisors? What kind of music do they like?

My songs are not being heard or downloaded. Why is that?

I’ve been a member for a while and still haven’t received a placement! Why is that?

My stuff got downloaded and is used in an active project. Can I get an update? How can I increase the likelihood of getting placed?

Why did my track get rejected?

What kind of music are music supervisors looking for? Any music they need at this moment! A production may need your Hip- Hop track for ten seconds in the background of a bar scene — or for the end title track. Or they might want “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, and they have a million dollars to pay for it. Or they just need a great song from an unknown artist’s record, and they “only” have five grand, or five hundred (and aren’t we happy to get it). Or they need something obscure like Russian Bluegrass. Not likely to come up…but when it does, if that is your thing, you have zero competition. Sure certain genres get more placements overall than others: Rock, Top 40, Hip-Hop, Pop, & EDM are at the top. R&B, Country, Classical and Jazz, less so. But keep in mind, we place more songs that aren’t “hits” than those that are. Often a song is needed to be “background” and not distract from the scene and dialog, just add to the mood. Maybe a soft rock vibe fits in nicely as the businessman woos his secretary at an upscale restaurant. Or a loud screaming punk rock track underscores the murderer’s anger. Who are these music supervisors? What kind of music do they like? There are eight types of supervisors. (Don’t hold us to eight! Could change tomorrow.) Type 1: Hipster Supervisor: They work on critically acclaimed shows for HBO, Showtime, Netflix, FX, etc. These supervisors are tastemakers, trendsetters, the new A&R, looking for great and unique artists to support their “hipster” shows. Some actually go to clubs to hear bands and are aware of the “buzz” surrounding certain artists. Music adds to the credibility of their shows. Those bands are “anointed” as the “ones to watch.” Type 2: The Big Studio Film supervisor: They mostly just need a famous artist song or two, a Danny Elfman or James Newton Howard big time composer and, just maybe, a couple of indie tracks. These indie tracks could be any genre or period depending on the scene. They are aided by the music execs at the big studios (Disney, Warner Bros, Dreamworks etc.) The pay can be decent here and the exposure worldwide. Type 3: The Network TV Supervisor: They’re also aided by (and answer to) their network Execs. They’re aware of the show’s audience demographic. If it’s a police procedural that appeals to 30+ audience and there’s a bar scene where the cop meets the mobster at a dive bar, the music they pick will fit the mood of the scene…and the tastes of that viewer. It’s a good opportunity to place music of all genres and periods, and there is often decent money; two to fifteen thousand for song and master plus good backend performance royalties. Type 4: The Working Man/Woman Supervisor: They may be working on a cable reality show and just need easy clearances and good music that works…as cheap and as fast as possible. There’s often little or no money upfront, but it’s a chance to get a credit, and break through plus collect a little backend performance royalties.  Type 5: Indie Film Supervisor: They most likely need instrumental scoring cues because they can’t afford a composer or songs that could work as score. They’re more inclined to use a lot of indie licensed music. If the film breaks out at festivals or sneaks onto cable, you might make a few bucks but there’s not a lot of upfront license money. Type 6: Teen-Demo TV Supervisors: These scripted shows target teens and college kids. They want to catch rising indie rock bands and pop stars before they’re famous. They will read your bio, look at your photo, check out your social media numbers because your band, if placed on the show, will also be streaming on the show’s website. Think “Vampire Diaries”, “Pretty Little Liars”, “The Lying Game”, etc. The upfront money is not super high here because these guys (like our hipster sups) know a placement could be a career breaker for the music artist. Type 7: Advertising Supervisors: They work for ad agencies and must answer to a hundred opinions from the corporate client. On occasion, unknown bands are chosen. But the money is potentially so big here that every major artist wants to be in a commercial. When the budget is lower, especially for regional ads, indie music and artists have a shot. Type 8: Miscellaneous Supervisors: Corporate in-house uses, industrial, internet, wedding videographers, film schools, news feeds, mobile apps, digital doorbell, etc. – these are serviced by our WeGetMusic.com website. Very little license money but it may accumulate over time and gets your music out there. My songs are not being heard or downloaded. Why is that? The tracks at MusicSupervisor.com are only searched by our staff and Music Supervisors who’ve registered at our website. So when you see your “Views”, “Heards”, and “Downloads”, you can’t compare it to Soundcloud or Youtube. The group of people using our website is smaller..but they’re music licensing pros. For licensing purposes, a single “Download” or “Heard” on MusicSupervisor.com is worth more than a “Click” or a “View” on other platforms. When we get a pitch, a music supervisor (or our staff) searches the database and looks for music that fits. Even though our staff checks every track uploaded, if you’re not getting “Heards”, it’s always a good idea to double-check that your metadata is complete and accurate. (Note: If your song doesn’t sound like Coldplay, don’t say it does just to get more searches. Your song won’t get picked.) What do View & Heard really mean? Getting heard is the first step before being placed. When you get a “Heard,” we’ve done our job. Someone looking to license your kind of music heard you! When you get a “Download,” your music has done its job. At this point they’re not listening for fun, they’re sending it to the producer and director. If you don’t get a placement at that point, it doesn’t mean your tune or track is not good. We have to get lucky at this point…they may be making a choice between three tracks that all work great. And you have one of them. When you get a “View”, somebody searched for your kind of music but decided not to click on yours. Maybe the album art or bio up yet. Maybe you titled your song “Track 52” when it should have been titled “Sex on the Beach.” Maybe your band or artist name is not compelling enough. Look in the mirror, and be honest with yourself! How do I know a Music Supervisor will hear my music? You worked hard to upload it, now when will they hear it? The good news is when you have accurately tagged your tracks, if someone is looking for what you’ve got, they have a great chance of finding you. We have the best search engine in the world and it’s easy to get hundreds of thousands of songs down to the ten best. Remember: A rising tide floats all boats. If music supervisors don’t find what they need in a search today, they will come back tomorrow. We have thousands of the best labels, songwriters, producers, and artists from seventy eight countries. We have every well known genre, and crazy niche stuff like Chinese Funeral and Portuguese Fado. We have a reputation for having the right music when there is no more time left. MusicSupervisor.com delivers great music to music supervisors at the moment it’s needed. I’ve been a member for a while and still haven’t received a placement! Why is that? When a music supervisor has a pitch, they will search as many tracks as they can before their deadline. Often our staff searches for the supervisor…that is part of our hands-on service. The best-rated quality songs and tracks rise to the top of our search, and also become recognized by our staff and music supervisors. Uploaders who do the following will eventually get positive results: – Upload artist photos and bios. And high quality music (both production value & composition) that is accurately tagged (genre, sounds-like, vibe words, lyrics etc.) – Upload a selection of at least five or six tracks that are outstanding and therefore get pitched multiple times to multiple music supervisors as the opportunities arise. – Create unique tracks that have high composition quality and production values, and that are authentic to their genre. – Write emotional, personal, yet universal music and lyrics, with high production values that evoke a mood work well with many scenes in films, TV and media. – Become an expert in a style or genre (e.g. Dubstep) and so your tracks are virtuoso representations of that style. (Jacks-of-all-Trades rarely exist.) I heard that one of my tracks got pitched and is in “Active Project.” Can you guys give me an update? Did I get the placement? If you get the placement, we will always contact you immediately. When a supervisor has shown interest in a track by placing it in a project folder, we immediately prevent it from being deleted. Many times the supervisor will love the songs even if not selected, and they will refer back to that folder later. Great music supervisors are like elephants – they don’t forget great music. Supervisors and our staff make hundreds of pitches each month. Once placed in the project folder, we cannot say from moment-to-moment what’s the status is. The decision-making process is usually out of our hands. Most of these pitches have very tight deadlines, so we send the best match for the tracks or songs requested. Sometimes we hear back the next day but sometimes it takes a while. It usually is several weeks until a placement decision has been cleared by all parties including the music supervisor, editor, postproduction supervisor, director, producer, studio execs etc. When your track is in an “Active Project” it means that it is now part of a project folder accessible by the music supervisor. We keep these songs in the folders even after the projects have closed in case the supervisor refers back to them later, hence the message: “You can’t delete this song, since it is in use in an active project”. Remember: If you just want to update the song version or mix, click CHANGE and you can swap out the .wav files. Or you can delete the entire profile and re-upload a .wav. Then use Auto-Fill to re-fill in the metadata. How can I increase the likelihood of getting placed? Numero Uno: broken record (remember those?). Make sure your songs are tagged as accurately and that your profiles and artist photos make an overall professional impression. Also consider a “Pro Account.” If you’re interested in seriously licensing as part of your income, the Pro Account gives you extra analytics. You can hear the hottest songs being heard in each genre. You can hear what the supervisors are picking and reacting to. There are opportunities to get in on Emergency Pitches when you can write music on a quick turnaround. Your songs get priority approval. With a Pro Account, you’ll get monthly tip-sheets with a selection of active pitches, the opportunity to pitch for them directly. You also get special Pro Member Support, where you can contact one of our staff to check out your music personally and give you some advice on how to proceed. Note: Pro Members music is not favored over our free members…the best song gets heard and placed. Period. Pro Members simply have more tools to groom their catalogs for maximum placements. Finally, don’t rely on our site alone (or any film/TV music rep company). Keep building your reputation outside the web. If you’re an artist, keep up your stage performances, festivals, competitions…help develop your brand and sound. Also, very important: Raise the quality of your tracks. Both composition and production value are equally important and both can help get you a film/TV placement. Remember, your music is being played side by side with the best written and produced music in the world! If the mix sucks but your composition is amazing, we won’t be able to pitch you effectively. And the same thing goes for repetitive and dull music that is beautifully recorded and produced. Why did my track get rejected? The primary reason we reject tracks is if there are technical problems, such as our system can’t convert the wav’s to mp3s for some reason or if they contain samples from copyrighted recordings. The most common reasons are these: – Wrong file type. We need all songs in 16 bit, 44.1k .wav format (Our system converts them to .mp3 for quick and easy listening, while the supervisors can get the .wav directly if they need it and send it to the editor)  – Your upload got interrupted (Bad internet connection0 – The song name contains weird symbols: !”§$%&/()=? that the system can’t decode Other possible reasons include: – You used copyrighted material in your tracks and if you’re not the rights holder so we can’t license your music. – Your track is completely silent or greatly distorted – Your track contains audio skips, clips or pops (mixing knockout criteria). We will usually send you an email before we reject your track so you’ll know what’s going on. All the music is graded for quality and the best music rises to the top. You can save yourself some time when you re-upload your tracks by using the auto-fill function in the metadata menu. Simply select the previous track version in the drop down menu and the system will complete the metadata for you (based on the information you entered before).