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Definitive Guide to Reaching Out to Music Supervisors

This week I’ll be covering what I get asked about the most, how to reach out to music supervisors.

While music supervisors may not have the final say of what songs are being used, in most cases, they are the direct conduit to what ends up on screen. Having a direct relationship with music supervisors can help to cut through the noise of the 100,000 daily songs released. Like any fan, they also will go to the ends of the earth to support music they love.

Unfortunately, many artists struggle to connect with music supervisors.

Sales is not most artist’s strong suit.

There are many other hurdles artists face when connecting with music supervisors:

• Artists just want to be artists
• Music Supervisors are notoriously guarded
• Many mediums aren’t credited
• Artists don’t understand supervisors’ needs

But fear not, with a little vulnerability you’ll see it’s not as hard as you may think.

Here’s a definitive step-by-step guide to reaching out to music supervisors.

Step 1: Watch & Listen

Next time you hear a really good song in a show or commercial make note. I suggest focusing on bands that are similar to you. This way you have better odds since the supervisor has already used your style before. Various genres of music are more suitable for specific types of media, so study how often you’re hearing your style of music in ads vs shows vs games (Shortcut: I have a whole section on this in my masterclass).

Step 2: Identify

If you’re watching a TV series or film, your next step is to go to IMDB. There you can search for the name of the series, go to the “Cast & Crew” page, scroll down to music supervisor and voila! you’ve identified your favorite supervisor and hopefully soon to be best friend.

If you’re watching an advertisement, it can be a bit tougher to track down. The big ad agencies used to do all the work for brands but in the digital era they are split up more often than not. A good place to start is to check AdWeek and search for an article mentioning the commercial in question. If you find the ad agency responsible for the spot, I’d next go to Linkedin and look for the music supervisor or music producer on staff at the agency. The ad world is much more fragmented though, so it could be someone from an external music house that worked for the ad agency.

Either way, you’ll be reaching out to someone responsible for music in media which is a great start. A good way to work backwards with this is to check the Clio awards which lists who worked on each spot.

Step 3: Contact Info

Now it’s time to reach-out. If you’re on the TV/Film track, IMDB many times will list a contact email for the music supervisor, but this will require the purchase of an IMDB Pro account. The Ad track will likely have a Linkedin account as these are frequently positions at large companies versus freelancers as in TV/Film. You may also find contact info on the agencies website. For both tracks, you can always reach out through the social channels and shoot them a DM.

Step 4: Reach Out

The rules for cold-reach out aren’t unique to music supervision but there are some specifics to consider.

• Before ever emailing, start to engage with their posts on socials. By the time you email them a week or two later, your name will be fresh in their mind. I wouldn’t suggest following the usual culprits that like 10 of your pictures at once and DM immediately. Common sense always wins.
• Polite persistence. You’re not likely to get a response on the first attempt. So give it 3-7 days and try again. This helps especially if you can add something extra of value in your next email. Of course, this doesn’t mean send 22 emails in 30 days.
• Lead with flattery. Mention their work and something you loved of theirs. If you know there’s another season of their show coming up, it’s good to customize for that. “Here’s a playlist of a few songs of mine that are along the lines of what you used in season 1”. This is different than sending a song that mentions Black Panther in the chorus and saying it should be the theme for the next movie.
• Always include a link to the music in the first email. I get a lot of people asking me if they can send me music. I’d rather not take the time to respond before I get to preview the music, it just takes twice as much of my time. Counter to this, if you’re really playing the long game you can reach out purely with flattery about their work. This is how you start to build long term relationships.
• Give a quick back story of what you do. Include accolades, other syncs you’ve gotten, or notable people or companies you’ve worked with. Keep it short though, the majority of people get scared away when they see a 6 paragraph email.

Step 5: The Fast Track

Right about now, you’re probably thinking how much work this is. And you’d be right. Sync music is a purely human and emotional connection kind of world. The gatekeepers are humans that love music and they have limited time and bandwidth. But there is a way to fast track this process.

Meet the sync agent.

Sync agencies represent music exclusively for sync. It’s their entire job to work with music supervisors for all media, so they spend their time finding the best artists for sync and building long term relationships with music supervisors. As a music supervisor, I can’t possibly have a direct relationship with every artist that I end up licensing so the sync agencies streamline everything so we can focus on the music. They also know sync music as well as music supervisors so they can really help you develop your sound to be more successful in sync. And the majority of their deals are a percentage of the sync fee, so it’s a win/win situation and you likely will keep your copyright.

I highly recommend working with a sync agency, music publisher, record label or music library, all whom have relationships with music supervisors and can fast track your music into the right hands and projects.