I personally want to thank Shazam for making me a better, more well informed
Music Supervisor. See, I am not the kind of Sup that can tell you the name to
every song I hear….I don’t need to, I have Shazam.

I look totally and completely annoying…..anywhere I might be, I keep my Shazam
ready to go so that at a moments notice, I can find out what is playing around me.

Have you ever been in a movie and someone randomly holds up their iPhone above
their head in the dark, blocking your view of the screen? That was most likely me.

Out to a nice dinner with my man……..I hear a good song….I hold my phone up.

The playoffs with a house full of friends…I run up to the TV and hold that phone
up.

I NEED TO KNOW….it’s my job…..right?

It seems silly…but imagine how many people are just as ridiculous as I am? This
is great news for you when you get your song licensed. It is another direct way for
a fan to identify with, connect with and purchase your music. IN LESS THAN 5 SECONDS.

You can also use Spotify to play the song you just tagged. I haven’t figured that out
yet, but guaranteed I will! Shazam has something like 150 million users globally.
BANANAS. And it is only getting bigger.

Twentieth Century Fox announced last month that they will be integrating it into TV
programming, allowing viewers to unlock additional content.

Hold on, did you hear that? CONTENT……you music is CONTENT, valuable content.

I am going to make a prediction right now. In less then 3 years advertisers and
entertainment companies will be giving away MUSIC CONTENT as a reward for engagement
through Shazam.

Know what that means? That on top of the license fee you will get, they will be serving
up a fee for pre-purchased downloads.

I love me some Shazam….so should you.

I, like many of you work from home. I have had the office filled with people, video games, and scooters….it’s fun to be around other people and to feel that collective energy…it can drive you…it can also bring a lot of un-needed drama and overhead into your life.

Working from home on the other hand presents it’s own set of challenges. It’s wonderful because it allows me more actual time at my desk, and I get to throw a load of laundry in here and there….but I also find that it presents as many diversions as a big office full of people without giving back all the great collective creative energy that a work community provides.

And lets face it….it’s a lot easier to get in a rut if you have no one looking over your shoulder. It happens to me ALL the time. Creative sluggishness combined with my phenomenal talent for finding excuses NOT to go the gym and you have a serious case of the “uninspired.”

So what do you do?

As I write this, I am sitting on an airplane with more thoughts moving quicker then my fingers can move…..all because I changed my perspective.

I actually find that I think REALLY well when I am in the car. I LOVE my iPhone for occasions, I use a the voice note in EVERNOTE or iTALK and I record my ideas while I drive, email them to myself and transcribe them later.

So, get out there….a coffee shop, a walk, even invite a friend over to work in your space….but change your perspective and you will find that your ideas for songwriting or organizing or marketing will flow much freer.

I JUST HAVE A LARGE CRUSH ON THIS SONG AND THIS VIDEO…THAT’S ALL

This song hits a couple major notes that make it HIGHLY LICENSABLE.

Young – about youth
Set the World on Fire – inspriation
Carry you home tonite – great way to end a scene
Acoustic performance – simple ande clean to allow for plenty of room for what happens in the film
Duo vocals, male/female – makes for a nice mix

This is a song that breaks boundaries. It is simple. I can see this song being a triple threat. Film – TV Show – Ads.

I just wrapped up a nice little project for Elle Magazine. I was really pumped that I got to use this track on the project. Active Child had me at hello. This is the first of a new weekly series I am going to do called HIGHLY LICENSABLE where I am going to highlight a track that I think has great licensing potential and why.

This track is emotional….but when put to picture……it’s incredible. The vocals are strong without being overpowering and the angelic sound of the music itself is transporting. It’s dreamy without being sleepy and it has this slight touch of Vangelis to it that really rings the memory bell for me (if you never heard the soundtrack to Chariots of Fire…..go listen to it – the link to the YouTube vid is above – it’s classic). I bet we hear this Active Child song in ALOT of feature films. Enjoy.

I would say that I get asked this question (or a version of this question) more then anything else.

The music industry was, not so long ago, exclusive….for the elite. In order to get your music heard, you had to be accepted by one of a small group of tastemakers. The gatekeepers. If they saw promise in you or your music, they would build your career, promote your records and move your career along. Parallel to that, Composers would be hired by Directors to create the scores to films. Sometimes, the Producers of the films would use a song that had been written by a Record Company.

It was pretty simple.

Now, the music industry is the great democratizer. It’s anyone’s game. Fantastic if you have talent and the smarts to move yourself along….because you no longer need a gatekeeper to get your music heard. Media is (almost) free. Difficult for others who need to be made and not born.

So what has this seismic shift done to the “other” music industry. The industry of creating music for films, tv shows and Advertisements? It used to be 100% mutually exclusive the “record making business”, but now, as we have seen, music placement fees are the ONLY steady steam of revenue left in the music business.

So everybody wants in.

Everyday (literally) I hear about another “Online Music Library” that is announcing itself to the community. The one thing I do find very interesting are the adjectives they use to describe themselves. Here are just a few;

Music Production Library
Online Music Library
Online Music Supervisor
Online Music Catalog
Pre-Cleared Library
Pre-Cleared Music
Catalog Music
Needledrop Music
Stock Music
Stock Music Libraries

….and the list goes on. But you can see the key words here: Library, Catalog, Pre-Cleared, Stock. These words don’t inspire one to think of the potential music as having great value. The words themselves devalue the music before a buyer has even heard it. Those words spell; CHEAP.

So no matter what the business model each of these companies may have; re-titling, taking publishing, etc. – if they use these words to describe their business, they are going to be PERCEIVED as having cheap, low quality music. One thing I can tell you for sure, is that music is all about PERCEPTION. Where is comes from matters. People’s opinion’s matter.

So to circle back to the original question, “Sarah what do you think of music production libraries?” Well, I think they are important and necessary, but I also strongly believe that if the companies want to be seen as trusted resources for finding great music, they are going to have to use different words to describe themselves and bank their success a little bit more on the most important quality that built music industry to begin with; CACHET. Just because you have music that is affordable, doesn’t mean it has to be seen as CHEAP. No body wins in this case, and I fear if the business continues down this trajectory, that the value of Production Music will truly be lost altogether.

So what does all of this mean? It all comes down to a matter of taste. Always has, always will.

So when looking to place your music with a rep or a company that has a “library” or “catalog” of some sort – make sure that you agree with not only their business model, but their taste level.

I found this spot today on ADFREAK. It’s postable for several reason (ahhem), but most of all because it shows a GREAST use of Hip-Hop music in a TV commercial…..something you don’t see too often outside of sports….this is on the line fr sure, but a great use none-the-less. MOS DEF gets the love for his song Twilite Speedball.

I wanted to post this spot because I think it is a great representation of “Happy, Upbeat Music with Vocal Instrumentation.” How many of you have a song like this? What is your STRATEGY for how to get that music to a potential buyer? If your answer is YES I DO HAVE A SONG, and NO I DON”T HAVE A PLAN….then make sure you check out some of my free training vids….lots of good stuff.

Every site you go to this morning is lit up with anecdotes on Steve Jobs. He has changed our culture forever, and it got me thinking…..he changed MY life forever.

In 2000, right after I had started my Music House, Ten Music……I met some very cool people who worked for Apple’s ad agency TBWA/Chiat Day. This chance meeting led to job opportunity (no pun intended) that was simply one of the coolest I may ever have as a Music Supervisor. Steve Jobs was a music fan, but circa 1970 was about where it stopped for him. Apple was on the rise. I lived in the electronic music scene, which meant that when I went to see music live, I stood in a room with a few hundred people and stared at a guy on his apple computer bobbing his head. Mr. Jobs was all but completely unaware of the impact his products had had on music.

Now remember, this is JUST after the birth of iTunes and before Garage Band or millions of Apps that help you to be a DJ.

So, hired by the Agency to introduce Steve Jobs to electronic music, my company a series of CD’s, each dedicated to ONE genre of electronic music. It was amazing. A notebook tour of the electronic music scene from the warehouses of Detroit to the stadium clubs of London and Ibiza and everywhere in between. He loved it.

And he chose a song for his Titanium Laptop commercial from a little known electronic artist from Germany (signed to Compost Records) called MINUS 8. What an amazing experience. What a game changer, for me as a Music Supervisor, for the Artist and for the world of electronic music.

I tip my hat and courtsey to you Mr. Jobs. You changed my life forever.