Tag Archive - Music in Advertising

Shazam I love you

January 10, 2012 in News with 1 Comment

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.

Hip-Hop music for UGG

September 9, 2011 in News with 2 Comments

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.

Target Back to School

August 31, 2011 in Get Your Music Licensed with 0 Comments

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.

Where do Music Supervisors go to find music?

August 30, 2011 in YouTube Q&A with 0 Comments

"When I write for Ads, should I create cues that are :30 and :60 seconds long?"

August 25, 2011 in News with 0 Comments

Knowledge is Protection and POWER in the music licensing world

July 1, 2011 in News with 0 Comments

This has been a great week. I always love product launch weeks because I get to connect with so many of you and hear your questions. I hope that you were able to take advantage of the training videos that I gave away this week, some of my best.

I diligently follow a few forums online that discuss Music Licensing, because as a consultant and educator, it’s my business to know what YOU need to understand in order to succeed.

I have made it my business to help Musicians succeed in the Music Licensing world.

Now that I think about it, this has been my business in different iterations since 1999 when I met Eric Hilton and Rob Garza of Thievery Corporation at a Music Festival in Iceland. They planted a seed inside my head that changed the course of my life forever. You can read my bio if you want to know more about that story.

When I started Ten Music in 2000, it was my job to REPRESENT Record Labels and Publishers to the Advertising community for the potential of licensing tracks. It was a very new model….there was no one else doing what I did, so there was a certain amount of  ”behind the curtain” in my job. My rolodex was mine and that was what my clients paid me for. It was the “agent mentality. I was trained to think that way. “Stand back while I go out and make magic happen for you.”

As time went on, I began to see that the clients of mine who KNEW the most about the music licensing business, TRUSTED me the most, and stayed the CLOSEST to me, were the ones who succeeded the most. Funny right?

It actually makes perfect sense. With KNOWLEDGE of that which you seek, you have a greater chance of success.

Now I am 3 years into my career as an educator, honing my craft and taking in information in a completely different way in order to feed it back to you in a way you can understand, digest and USE for yourselves. But one thing is still stands true.

KNOWLEDGE is the ultimate PROTECTION and POWER that an artist can have if they want to succeed.

Let’s think about that on a purely artistic level, like how you write a song, or how you get inspired to write a piece of music. The more you KNOW about how to play your respective instrument, the better you are. The more you KNOW about other music, the more you have inspiration.

So this theme felt appropriate to point out as I head into the second (and final) Workshop session for this year.

Here is the Question:

“Sarah, if I want to license my music, what should I do.”

LEARN….you need to learn….it will change everything you do and set you on a course that is tangent to what the business is looking for.

If you want to learn more about my workshop, you can do so HERE. Registration is open for a few more days or until the seats are filled (I am over half way filled in just one day).

http://bit.ly/GYMLWkReg

The workshop begins on July 12th and runs for 4 weeks.

Have an incredible holiday weekend!

Best,
Sarah

Music Licensing & YouTube…….and how they are beginning to work together

May 13, 2011 in News with 0 Comments

It’s official folks, we have moved into the era of Sync Licensing 2.0.

Fees are down…competition is up. Right?

Depends on how you look at it. When I look at the business today I see:

- more opportunities for licensing songs on in TV shows and ads with growing cable and online content channels

- more opportunity to connect with your fan (and buyer) by licensing music

It’s a cup half full situation, not half empty.

The big question is not IF music licensing is good for creating fans and reaching potential buyers, but HOW. How many times have you heard a song on a TV Commercial or your favorite TV show and scrambled online to find out who it is? If you are like me; many. And, like me you have probably spent at least a half hour Googling only to land on an obscure forum page that might possibly host the name of the band whose music is in the commercial or show.

So why does it have to be so hard to find that information? It shouldn’t. It is the new frontier of music discovery by fans as a direct outcome of licensing your songs to Tv Shows and ads as the lead by YouTube.

In 2008 YouTube surpassed Yahoo as the #2 search engine in the world. Advertisers and TV networks have finally come on board and begun to use the “channel” as another distribution channel for their content. That makes YouTube the icing on the cake of getting a music license.

How you ask? TAGGING and LINKS.

Most every brand and TV show has a dedicated channel and every time they have a video (like an advertisement or an instructional video) they load it onto their YouTube channel.They also have the opportunity to add notes and TAGS. Tags are the keywords that you assign to the video that allow google to list it when you search for that same word. So if you get your music placed in  A Holiday Inn Express add, you need to make sure that when they add that spot to the YouTube channel that the name of your band is listed in the tags AND in the notes.

YouTube has added some additional features that can make the connection even easier for consumers. It’s called CONTENT ID, check it out – YouTube has provided a video to help explain what this is all about.

Content ID – YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/t/contentid

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2009/01/watch-it-on-youtube-then-click-to-buy.html

Now, I look at this BANNER, or TAG, or LINK (whatever you want to call it) and I see the opportunity for a BAND or and ARTIST to SELL RECORDS if a they license their music to a piece of film, whatever the form (tv commercial, tv show, trailer, or feature film) and get a DIRECT identifier that the music is yours and a link t iTunes to buy it. Now nothing would please me more than to be able to provide a solid example of Content ID in action, but I CAN”T FIND ONE. That’s right. After looking at ALOT of videos, this is the only one I found. Random Ad with a random song in it – but it demonstrates what I am talking about.

WOW – a revelation……..connectivity. Haven’t major labels been whining about how they can’t sell any more records, well here is  chance for anyone whose music is on YouTube to turn viewers into buyers.

I did a little recon on the issue this week and got pinged around from manager to label to digital distributor. I am still not 100% sure who is responsible for filing the music in behalf of the artist if they are signed to a major. I was actually waiting to publish this post until i had all that info until I got a link about a Jeep project today. Click on the image below to read the article.

First off, FINALLY the labels and Agencies understand that if you are going to pay alot of money for some music, then by god, make a lot of noise about it. Honk that publicity horn! Right???? It’s commerce…..right?

So then I decided that we are going to use these forthcoming spots by Chrysler Jeep featuring the music of Lenny Kravitz as an example of the YouTube Content ID program and see when they post these spots on the Jeep YouTube channel if they use the BUY THIS TRACK here tagging. Let’s see if the label is taking advantage of this opportunity.

I LOOOOOOVEEE a good stakeout.

Standby…

Vocals as the narrative in Music Licensing

January 25, 2011 in News with 1 Comment

I just got this email – Creativity highlighting the “Top 20 ads of the Week”

First off, let me just lay out my undying love for the artistry and wackiness of the Norweigans. Traktor (Directing collective), Kings of Convenience (band), Sondra Lerche (musician), Royksopp, Datarock…….the list goes on and on.

But, I have to admit, I don’t get the chance to see a lot of Norweigan ads.

The music on this one is fantastic. Can’t peg who it is though – please comment if you know. The lyrics cast this slightly offbeat narrative to the spot.

For those of you that cannot get the video to work (I have been told it’s touchy) here is the direct link:

http://creativity-online.com/work/nettbus-whoever-you-are/22223

Music Licensing in Commercials is the benchmark for winning a GRAMMY, according to The Colbert Report

January 12, 2011 in News with 0 Comments

Admittedly, I openly defend Musicians who put their music in commercials. I am biased. I think it’s a great source of income as well as an invaluable distribution channel.

The argument has gone mainstream.

Last night on THE COLBERT REPORT, Stephen Colbert went public with his vote for Best Alternative Album.

Funny stuff…take a look. So those of you that think it’s a sell out for Indie Artists to license their music to ads, take a look, cause 3 of arguably the biggest names in Indie music were willing not only to license their music to Zales, Victoria’s Secret, HP, Honda, Tommy Hilfiger, and Sony Ericsson but they were willing to go onto the Colbert Report and make fun of themselves for it.

The Colbert Report Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
MeTunes – Grammy Vote – Dan Auerbach, Patrick Carney & Ezra Koenig<a>
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog</a> Video Archive

How Music Can Effect perception – MPR News Audio Interview

November 8, 2010 in News with 0 Comments

This is a fantastic interview with an Ad Agency Creative and a Music Expert talking about WHY shows and ads use certain types of music from the type of emotional that it emotes.

They explore the “feeling” factor of music and what role it plays in advertising and marketing.

They talk about political ads of late, openings of shows, and of course Apple ads.

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© Sarah Gavigan