Make a Music Supervisor Happy: Be Clear on Other Uses of Songs
This part of the submission tips series “Make a Music Supervisor Happy” is about being clear on ownership and the use of music that you submit to requests. You can find a list of more helpful tips at the bottom of this post.
Be Open About Other License Deals
When submitting music to a request, it is possible that you might have already licensed a song to another brand before or that you are currently in the process of licensing it to one. While your song may have been used in a previous licensing deal, this does not mean that it is unlikely to be used again.
However, if the brand choosing your song is a competitor to the brand of your previous licensing deal, it’s likely that the new brand will no longer want to license your song, as there is a risk that it will look like they are copying their competitor. This will risk a deal being dropped and be waste of both your time and the brand’s.
It’s best to be up front and say from the start that your music has already been involved in a licensing deal, so that such situations can be avoided.
Don’t Submit Songs If You Don’t Have All the Rights
Make sure that you have all of the rights to your music and that you have already got approval from all of the rights’ holders.
When a client needs to find music for a deadline, there’s only a short time frame in which to do so. If they like your song, but you take too much time trying to get the rights from various other rights holders, it’s likely that they will move onto a different song in order to meet their deadline.
Know Who Owns Your Material and Don’t Use Others’
Just as you should be clear on whether your song has already been licensed, you should also be open about who owns the material and if you are not sure, or cannot find the owner, you should not use the music.
If you have sampled a piece of music from an old YouTube video, but you do not know who the artist or the musician is and cannot contact them, you should not merely ignore that and use the sample any way.
The damage from using music that has not been cleared can end up costing the client even higher than the first cost of licensing a song.
If you do not have all the rights or do not know whose material you sampled, do not use the music and don’t submit it.
Read more tips here:
Pitching with versatility
“Preview” tracks
Masterful mastering
Not using music samples
The question of cover versions
Timing and availability
Choosing relevant tracks
Song titles
Getting unbiased feedback
Choosing suitable lyrics and music
