How To License Music In 2024

I work with a lot of musicians, one on one, coaching them on how to successfully navigate sync licensing in 2024.  I love working with musicians, and by working with them one on one, I’m able to really give musicians very specific advice, tailored to their specific situations.

I’ve been helping musicians license their music in tv and films for 15 years now.  I’ve worked with a lot of musicians, from all over the world.  A lot of musicians I work with seem to have very similar challenges and similar obstacles, when it comes to figuring out how to successfully get started in sync licensing.

Paralysis By Analysis
One of the things I’ve noticed over the years, from working with so many different musicians, is that a lot of musicians seem to suffer from what I call “paralysis by analysis”.  Which is to say, a lot of musicians seem to have a pretty good overall idea of how the music licensing business works, but they’re often not quite sure how to get started and the exact steps to take. This is where I come in.

Whenever possible, I like to break things down to their simplest components.  Although there are a lot of micro steps involved in successfully licensing music, the overall process of getting your music licensed can be broken down into three main steps.  Whenever you’re not moving forward as fast as you’d like to, look at where you are in terms of the following three areas, in order to figure out what to do next.

Three Pillars Of Music Licensing
I’ve discussed this concept before, in previous blog posts and videos, but it’s good to review this concept from time to time. 

Music Licensing really isn’t that complicated.  There are essentially three different things you need to do, or three different “pillars”, as I call them, that you need to be aware of, when it comes to getting your music licensed.

They are:

1. The Music You Make
2. The Production Of Your Music
3. The Marketing Of Your Music

Let’s break each pillar down a bit more:

The music you make:   It obviously all starts with your music.  First and foremost, you need to have “great” marketable music.  This obviously is somewhat subjective and there’s an extremely wide range of music that gets licensed in tv and films, in terms of genres.  There’s a market for pretty much everything when it comes to sync licensing.

To see how wide of a range there is when it comes to sync licensing, start paying attention to the music used in the background of tv shows, ads, films and so on.  You’ll see that there’s a bit of everything that gets licensed.  It depends on the scene, the premise of the show or film, and the taste of the music supervisor selecting the music.  This is why it’s a little hard to teach people how to write for sync, it’s by no means an exact science.

There are of course, some types of songs that get used more frequently than others, in terms of both subject matter and genre, but it’s really all over the map and is very dependent on the specifics of the particular project licensing music. Which is why if you’re trying to write for sync licensing, it’s best to stick to themes that are universal (love, relationships, overcoming obstacles, etc).

The Production Of Your Music:   Music production is obviously a huge topic.  We have multiple courses in our premium site, from two hours to eight hours each, that dive into the nuances of music production in the context of music licensing.  But for the sake of this article, suffice it to say your music needs to be well produced. 

Once you have a catalog of around ten solid tracks or so (the more the better), your next step is to fully produce, mix and master them.  In the context of sync licensing, your tracks need to be fully produced and ready to be licensed.  Like with songwriting and composition, this isn’t an exact science either.  There are many different styles of music production and different producers have different production techniques and different approaches to music production.  But again, simply listen to the type of music that is being licensed, to get a sense for the production quality required to license music into various projects.

The Marketing Of Your Music:   This is where the rubber really meets the road.  Nothing will ever happen if you don’t get your music to the right people.  This seems to be where most artists I work with really get hung up.  Artists are often simply not sure where to start when it comes to getting their music into the hands of industry decision makers.

There isn’t really one right way to go about pitching your music and connecting with people in the industry.  But you do have to start somewhere.   This is an area I tend to help artists with the most. 

Here are a few things to consider before pitching your tracks blindly:

1. What kind of music do you make – Just as there are a lot of different styles of music that get licensed, there are a lot of different types of companies that license music.  There are production music libraries, music publishers, boutique licensing agencies that specialize in very specific genres and so on.  Be sure to do your due diligence when it comes to pitching your tracks.  Make sure you are pitching your tracks to relevant companies that actually work with the kind of music you make and license music in the types of projects you envision your music being licensed into, which leads to the next point…
   
   
2. Where do you see your music being licensed?  Where do you want to license your music?  Where do you actually envision your tracks being licensed?  What are your specific goals in the context of sync licensing?  There is an extremely wide variety of types of sync licensing placements.  From “blanket licensing” deals that pay as little as a few cents per stream, to music that is licensed in commercials that can make as much as 50k per placement. 
   
   It really pays to do your due diligence and actually know what market you are pursuing.  Are you making “production music” and trying to generate revenue by creating a lot of tracks, that collectively add up to a significant revenue stream?  Or are you aspiring to do something like “trailer music”, a niche within the music licensing niche that is much more specialized, but also much more lucrative.  Be sure to submit your music to the types of companies that actually sync music in the types of projects you are interested in.

 
A few thoughts on pitching.  Finally, here are a few thoughts on actually pitching your music. 

-Don’t just blindly pitch your tracks.  This much should already be clear.  Research places to pitch your tracks that make sense, based on the kind of music you make and the types of placements you’re pursuing.

When you reach out, be concise and clear in your message.  I usually limit my initial message to new companies to one or two paragraphs.  Don’t inundate people with a wall of text they have to sort through when reaching out.  Let them know who you are, any relevant credits you have, and why you’re reaching out.

If they work with artists that are similar stylistically to you, let them know that.  If they place music in a tv show you think your music would be a good fit for, let them know that.  Try to make some sort of connection with them beyond simply saying “Hi, I make great music.  Please listen and let me know if you’re interested in working together”.

Put yourself in their shoes.  They’re most likely busy and getting a lot of submissions.  Let them know why they should listen to your and why you think you might be a good fit.

To sum up.  I’ve been working in this business a long time and although different aspects of music licensing have changed, the basics of music licensing have stayed the same:  Make great music, produce it well, and market it well.  Wash.  Rinse. Repeat.