I recently connected with a woman who runs a hip little music house in Santa Monica. She pitches music to various film and tv projects, and frequently contributes tracks to a hugely successful soap opera. I put together a playlist of 7 of my songs I thought would work well for film/tv. The woman got back to me pretty quickly and complimented me on my story telling and my production quality. She also said, however, that most music supervisors (the people that pick the songs for a tv show or a film) are looking for much more current-sounding materials. She said “think Ed Sheeran, Chainsmokers, Shawn Mendez, and Jason Mraz”.
I have a few options here. I can go ahead and completely copy these artists and try to get a placement in one of these shows. Make some money. Even use a different name maybe. That doesn’t sound like that much fun.
I think first, I’ll immerse myself in the music that was suggested above, maybe blog about it like I did the Best of Indie 2017 and Best of Hip Hop 2017 compilations. Analyzing the arrangements of those songs had a dramatic effect on the songs I wrote right after. I’d like to embrace the current pop music, then go ahead and, using my own artistic voice, create my new song in the clothes of the contemporary pop forms (no matter how silly they may seem to me).
So, I’m telling you all this so you can come along for the ride with me as I dive into this project. The most important take-away I got from my conversation with the film/tv woman is that my music has good production quality. It’s ready for sync licensing. I was afraid since I record at home (and not a fancier studio) that the productional level wouldn’t be up to snuff. I told her writing the new songs is the easy part. Or is it?
She’s keeping the door open for me and I told her I would send her more material in a few months. I’ll keep you posted. Next blog on this topic will be an in-depth analysis of 10 or 15 of these popular songs. See ya then!
