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Music Marketing & Distribution Channels Galore

The music industry is not for the fainthearted. A plethora of showcases of up and coming artists, A&Rs, managers, record label executives, music supervisors, ambitious producers/songwriters and many others make up the melting pot of this industry. Further still, hectic fans and more genres that you can count in a lifetime all adds up to a business that is not exactly the safe and balanced life of a public clerk. Competition is fierce on both the supply and the demand sides of the barricade, while the excitement and the well-earned success are more rewarding than ever.

In such an increasingly complex and crowded universe, being the best at what you do just won’t cut it - you need to know how to put yourself on the market, to make yourself noticed and rise above the masses.  In the music world, this translates into shrewd music placement - this is the difference between playing in your parent’s garage and having a gig at Madison Square Garden, between the good and the great.  Of course, gold and platinum records do not fall from the sky overnight; it takes some serious music supervision work and no less than Herculean efforts to get your music onto the pedestal where it belongs.  However, there are some “shortcuts”, some events which single-handily drive a musician’s career from underdog to one of the top searches on youTube.

The Checklist For Big Checks

I. Music Is All Fun And Games

Behold the magic of addicting video games.  Such is the power of these alternate realities that an astonishing number of people spend more time in the virtual world than they do in the real one.  The video game industry, with its role-playing,simulations and brain-teasers, from the simplest Mahjongg to the intricate Sims, ranks in billions of dollars each year, which spells massive music placement opportunities.  The utmost public impact- being featured on Grand Theft Auto, Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Topping the sales at more than 4 million units, Grand Theft Auto’s thrilling and cool urban built-in radio stations have aired  the works of currently popular artists such as Busta Rhymes, John Legend, Akon, Ne-Yo,Fat Joe or Unkle, but also those of everlasting classics like Queen, David Bowie, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Marvin Gaye, Duke Ellington or Bob Marley. With 16 specifically tailored radio stations sporting more than 200 songs, almost making the soundtrack one of its main marketing highlights, the latest edition of the game covers everything from Dancehall to Hardcore Metal, including not only famous figures, but also otherwise anonymous musicians that get to incidentally make an impression on people who aren’t in it for the music and get coaxed into discovering some new bands to like.

In the case of the other two video game music supervision gold mines, the players are very much in it for the music, as this is the core element of the action- make-pretend like you are the rock star,living the rock star life and playing the rock star tunes.  Regardless of your level of fame, extreme guitar riffs and original sound arrangements will definitely book you a spot on their track list.  Mimicking the performances of everything from Jet to Blue Oyster Cult or from Metallica to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Rock Band and Guitar Hero have reached the game sets of more than 30 million avid gamers and music fans and have engrossed more than 2.5 billion dollars combined, meaning widespread exposure and generous licensing deals.Music is actually the strongest motivation for purchasing these products, so your creations will surely be propelled on center stage.

II.  Commercial That Make Music Commercial

We are all very much aware of the fact that about 30 hours of our 24-hour day are spent watching or hearing or reading advertisements.  Advertising is the power tool of modern companies’ market success, which inherently implies that the music supervision business  is expanding and deepening its influence in this particular outlet.  Of all those ads that fly in and out of our attention, two things stand out as the ultimate recipes for publicity: sportswear and Super Bowl.

Nike is widely renowned for its empowering, “outrun, outlast and outstand” ad campaigns - everyone looks forward to the next amazing catchphrase and dynamic sports video.  Showcasing famous athletes like Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Tiger Woods, Rafael Nadal, David Beckham or LaDainian Tomlinson, the commercials spice it up and pump it up with fiery and energetic songs from various artists, such as Saul Williams, Eagles of Death Metal or The Killers. With millions of online views and TV airings and with Nike’s reputation of THE sportswear brand in the world, there is no limit to the marketing potential of having your music licensed for their promotional campaigns.

There is one thing to which, despite their flabbergasting popularity, Nike’s ads pale in comparison: America’s favorite sports event, the SuperBowl.The final game of the NFL season, it has an overwhelming history when it comes to TV broadcasting and views and is still, most likely, the most tuned-in-on TV program of the year.  Averaging at around 100 million viewers and covering approximately 40-60% of all American households throughout the whole match, there is nothing that can outshine the scale of this mammoth, which is why those determined to get their advertisements aired during breaks size down their bank accounts  by up to 3 million dollars for a 30-second spot.  At such heavyweight costs, only the heavyweight can do it: Pepsi, Budweiser, Apple, Hyundai, Bridgestone, to name just a few, but this is how the music of Will.I.Am, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Mick Jagger and many others got made or re-made.  There is nothing average or insignificant about Super Bowl ads-everything is immense, flamboyant and breathtaking, music and ratings included.

III.  The (F)Root Of All Good

Apple may be a reason for discord within the IT and computer market, given its juicy competition with Microsoft, but it is certainly and indisputedly a source of delight when it comes to its marketing and services.  The proud owner of the iPod, the MacBook, iTunes and some seriously impressive commercials to go along with them, this cute tech monster is fostering quite a bunch of promising musicians in its widespread outreach, making it a crafty destination in terms of music marketing for an emerging artist.

With a worldwide usage varying between 10 and 200 million people, the iTunes music purchasing application for quenching your iPod’s thirst for playlists sheds light upon even the most hidden bands; the Free Single of the Week is bound to get your sounds into the headphones of several million music aficionados, like it happened for Jay Rock, The Answer, Gloriana, Las Vegas, Holly Conlan, Damone or Melody Gardot. They don’t sound familiar? That’s just the beauty of it - they’re not supposed to, because the Apple iTunes engine is one of the best examples of how anyone can unearth fresh new talent.

IV.  The Sound Of Television

There cannot be a discussion on the most charming charms of placing music without touching the subject of TV shows.  Music supervision is probably at its most graceful, most remarkable and most effective in this particular media, having within its reach the ability to launch a music career straight into orbit.  TV networks nowadays concentrate a vast amount of reality shows, soap operas, detective, sci-fi and just plain fiction strings of episodes, but, like in all groups, there are some individuals that cannot help standing out from the crowd.

The music placement pinnacles of this industry are, without any hint of a doubt, ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, CW’s Gossip Girl and HBO’s Entourage. Pulling in between 10 and 20 million viewers per episode, these epic TV giants use soundtracks to attain their image and message- related objectives: under the guidance of Alexandra Patsavas’s magic wand, Grey’s Anatomy brings out deep, smooth and mature music like that of The Fray or KT Tunstall, Gossip Girl gets even glossier with samples from Fergie or The Pussycat Dolls, while Entourage’s Elliott Goldkind craftily outlines the wit, the irony and the apparent glamour of its characters’ Hollywood life by bringing forth names such as Franz Ferdinand, Jane’s Addiction, Jay Z or Gorillaz. The music is a helpful instrument and complements the plot, the lines and the staging of the action, while the  rock solid reputation of the shows ensures premium broadcasting for any singer or band that manages being selected and gives them the chance to appeal also to people who may not have initially been part of their target audience.

Of course, it goes without saying that these trends and hotspots are must do’s for any self-respecting music supervisor or artist focused on hitting the jackpot and that they are practically synonymous with fame and wealth, but it is equally as obvious that the music supervision business is a fertile land of possibilities even outside the realm of this group of power players,  especially in our times, when everyone is thinking big and wanting more, when entertainment and the media are getting increasingly diverse every minute.

Yes, it does matter whether the music you are licensing is going into a prime-time program or into your university’s promotional movie, but, in the end, the basic principle of music placement remains unchanged: the perfect soundtrack, at the right place, at the right time.  If it happens to be featured on House MD, for instance, it’s pretty safe to say that no one will complain.

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