More than ever, music is key to the success of effective advertising, how brands are perceived and the ultimate effectiveness of campaigns connecting to and selling product to consumers.

And in today’s music marketplace, the successful creation, licensing and partnering with brands, ad agencies and ad campaigns is essential to the development, growth and promotion of music and artists.

In short, music, advertising and brands are natural partners that, when working in tandem, can exponentially amplify reach, emotion, authenticity, audience and sales.

  • Music and artists lend authenticity and emotion to brands that creates tangible brand love and brand value.
  • And for musicians and the music industry at large, music licensing and brand integration for branded content and ad campaigns both create revenue and greatly expand the potential audience for an artist.

All well and good, but how do you successfully work in the ad music market?

If you’re a musician or a music business executive, how do you make the necessary connections to do business with advertisers and brands?

What is the necessary work that you need to undertake in advance of approaching ad agencies or brands to licensing your music or to build campaigns? And how does this business even work?

What are the industry standards and business practices? Most important, where can I get the understanding to compete and succeed in a crowded, competitive market?

And if you’re a brand manager, aspiring music supervisor or ad creative, how do you determine what music and artists are right for a campaign or brand?

  • How early should you think about music in the ideation process?
  • How does music integrate into the overall brand’s approach to consumers?
  • How do you connect to the music that works best for a campaign – what are the resources that can help you get maximum value out of music for your campaigns and your brand?
  • Finally, how do you efficiently and successfully strike a deal to get the music you need and collaborate with artists efficiently and successfully?

Music and advertising is a complicated, competitive business, and if you want to be successful in it, you’re going to need the right information, tools and roadmap to provide you with a foundation for success.

And that’s where the Music In Advertising course comes in.

The Music In Advertising course is a comprehensive, immersive and interactive, six-week course taught by leading ad industry music executive, music supervisor, composer, musician, producer and founder of the Brooklyn Music Experience Joshua Rabinowitz (former Head of Music at ad agencies Grey Advertising and Young and Rubicam as well as producer of over 10,000 songs for major ads and brands) and music licensing agent/Sync Summit founder and marketing executive (Nielsen, Hachette Filipacchi, News Corp, IDT) Mark Frieser.

In addition to Josh’s extensive credentials in the business of making and licensing music for advertising, he’s also an experienced educator and professor, having taught this class New York’s The New School for 13 years and at New York University for two semesters. This is the first time he’s teaching this course online, and the first time you’ll have an opportunity to learn and connect with Josh outside of a university.

The Music In Advertising course is designed to provide you with the information you need to succeed in the ad music industry whether you’re an artist, a songwriter, an aspiring ad music supervisor, a sync agent, advertising creative or brand executive.

By taking this course, you will benefit from Josh’s decades of successful work on ad campaigns, and his practical insight on how music is created, sourced and integrated into brand messaging and ads. You’ll learn who the key stakeholders are in the ad field, who makes musical decisions, how music is loomed into the creative of brands and ad campaigns and how to effectively connect music with decision makers in the field.

Our Class Approach: Learning By Doing

The Music in Advertising course is more than just a series of two-hour lectures, it’s a comprehensive course that takes you through every step of the process of connecting music and artists to ad campaigns and brands. This includes every step from conception to completion with weekly briefs and assignments based on real-life scenarios and experiences that are designed to give you the ability to practice, to get feedback and to ultimate get the knowledge you need to be successful in leveraging the power of music in ads for your career, your clients, your agency or your brand.

What Kind of Assignments Can You Expect?:
Throughout the class, we will present you with a number of assignments that will include briefs you can write to or provide music for (both written and directly to video), team exercises where you learn how ideas and music are pitched to brands and ad agencies, creation of brand-artist tie-ins and more.

The Music In Advertising Course includes the following elements:

• Six Two-hour classes in an interactive, QA format (live seminars with video archives).

• Five Weeks of Office Hours to get feedback on assignments and classes.

• Five assignments and briefs based on real-life campaigns and scenarios.

• A host of industry documents you can use for reference, business contracts and process.

• Personal tutoring and assistance in all aspects of the course.

The elements and materials of the course will provide you with all the information you need to build a foundation for success in music for advertising and brands.

SUMMARY OF THE LESSON PLAN (SUBJECT TO FINAL REVISION):

Week 1: An introduction to music in advertising. In this first class, we’ll discuss the evolution of music in advertising, meet your fellow students and talk about the unique dynamics of creating and licensing music for advertising, what are the key factors that come into play in looming music with brands and how they come into play in your successfully working with agencies and brands.

Week 2: The creative process from the perspective of ads and brands. What is the process of creating an ad or an integrated brand campaign, and what role does music take throughout the process? Who are the collaborators in an ad campaign? In an ad? How is music integrated into the ideation? How does music create brand value and brand love? What is the role of social media, sales and other data? How is music and how are musicians sourced and worked with in a campaign?

Week 3: The creative process from the perspective of the artist, music executive, rights holder or representative. Who are the key ad and brand creatives and stakeholders, how do you connect with them and how do you collaborate with them? How do you forge the right partnerships with the right brands for your music? How do you become a go-to person for creatives and brands?

Week 4: The business of ads, music and brands. In this class, we’ll discuss the various entry points into the ad industry for music and vice versa (e.g., direct contacts, agencies, brands, sync agents, production libraries, labels, management companies and publishers), how to connect with them and how to partner with them. We’ll also detail the deal process for licensing music, composing music for an ad and creating brand partnerships and all the basic documentation needed to do deals, including agreements, split sheets, work for hire, buy outs and quote requests. At the end of the lesson we’ll provide you with a folder of template documents you can use

Week 5: How to sync up your music with the industry. In this class, we’ll talk about what you need to do on the music side to prepare your music and your communications with brands and agencies, including how to create good emails, how to share your music, how to create good metadata specific to ads and brands, the importance of research and a glossary of industry terms you need to know. And from the agency/brand side, how to create effective briefs, how to work with music partners to get the results you need and for both sides, effective collaboration strategies before, during and after the campaign.

Week 6: Questions and Answers. In this final class, we’ll wrap up the lessons of the previous classes and have a question and answer session where you can ask any questions about process, the industry, previous assignments and get assistance you need in moving forward in music in advertising for your career and business.

The Music In Advertising course will begin On March 18, 2021, with courses taking place Thursdays from 4PM – 6PM Eastern Time.