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Sync Tip: Research, Research, Research

If you want to be successful making and licensing your music for any type of media, it’s essential to know who you’re contacting, what projects they work on and what their needs are. The more you know about someone and their projects and needs, the better you’ll be able to make a successful connection.

And making that successful connection comes down to good research. Here’s some links and tips:

For TV and Film:IMDBPro (https://imdbpro.com): This should be one of your main resources as it is one of the best resources to find out who is working as a music supervisor on what productions, and most music supervisors have their own IMDB listing with their past and current projects listed.

Tunefind (https://tunefind.com): Tunefind is a great resource that lets you find out what songs are used in what shows. This will give you an idea of the musical palate of various shows, and gives you an idea of whether your music may work for a particular show or series.

The Trade Websites (https://deadline.com; https://variety.com; https://thehollywoodreporter.com): Film/TV trade online sites like Variety, Deadline and the Hollywood Reporter are great resources for you to find out what productions are happening in TV and film, nationally and internationally. This will help you to research what projects are in development, and then you can cross reference with IMDB what music supervisors may be working on upcoming projects.

For Advertising and Brands:iSpot.tv (https://ispot.tv): This website details current and past commercials, and allows you to find out what agency worked on the ad, see the video, hear the music as well as some other vital information such as the production company, which can help you to cross reference on Linkedin what people may have worked on the commercial or are in charge of working with the brand.

Google and Websites of Ad agencies. Start off by researching “agency of record” and then the brand name you’re looking for. Then, from there go to linked in and search for the agency plus search terms like music producer, creative director, editor and music supervisor. And for the brand itself, search for the brand + head of music, CMO, SVP Marketing and Brand Manager. These searches will lead you to finding who some of the creative decision makers are around an ad and a brand on the agency and brand level.

Linkedin: In addition to the above, linkedin can also be used directly to find out who works with music at brands and who is working in the marketing departments of the brands and sonic branding companies that you could potentially partner with.

At Trailer Houses My main advice is twofold, go on YouTube and look for trailers of your favorite films and ones featuring music and sound design you like, get what information you can if there is any there, then do a google search for trailer houses, then go to Linkedin and search for music + the trailer house name. You can also search for music producer, music supervisor and music coordinator.

Game Companies.Here, I start with Google. We all should know the big three companies, Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft, but there are a plethora of other companies like Ubisoft, Rockstar, Riot Games and many others – put together a list of the companies you want to contact, then from there, go back to Linkedin and research terms mike music supervisor, music coordinator and music producer – you’ll find that there are people at each company in charge of music at each developer.

TV and Streaming promos. Again, go to Linkedin. Look for terms like music marketing, music supervisor, promotions plus the name of the studio or network. They all have promo departments that specifically make music decisions for promos.

Sports Networks and Leagues:Again, go to linked in, look for the name of the network or league + music, music coordinator, music supervisor, music producer and you’ll have some leads turn up.

Social Media Networks: All major social networks have music teams. Research the social network + music and see what turns up – some have music supervisors, while others have more general heads of music.

Social Media As a Research tool: Most people working in all of the above fields have some level of social media presence. After you know who you want to contact, check and see if they are on Instagram or Facebook – this can give you an idea of their projects and who they are working with – and give you insight as well into what kinds of music they like personally versus what music they use in their projects. And, if you know their social media, you can follow them and send them a very polite note to their DM like “Hi, I love what you are doing in (name of project) especially the usage in (scene or ad or game, etc). I’m dropping a link of my music for you to check out when you have a moment. Have a great day and thanks for all you do.”

Additionally, I suggest everyone get a subscription to a great service called ContactOut that lets you retrieve emails from Linkedin whether you’re connected to the contact or not – https://contactout.com/

Okay, so that is my short list of resources I used for research. Please feel free to suggest any others and we’ll add them to the list.