In 2007, Detroit-based rock act, Schaeffer, were selected as the winners of Breaking the Band 1, our international band competition. As part of their prize package, they embraced the opportunity to work with We Are Listening’s TV and radio guru, Jon Delange.
Jon, who continues to mentor the band to this day, helped them achieve national awareness, first at radio and then with television networks by scoring placements in their original programming. Annually, they have preformed during Austin’s SXSW event.
Eventually, the group emerged as America’s favorite in the FreeCreditScore.com band search which began with a shortlist of more than 100 hopefuls showcasing nationwide.
Now, The Victorious Secrets, the band’s new alias, are engaged in a $30 million advertising campaign.
As the new face of FreeCreditScore.com, they will be featured in a series of television commercials slated to debut during the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards next month. They will also receive a $10,000 check, a Gibson Guitar prize package and Pearl drum kits, and a studio session with the music industry’s best of breed. They will also walk the red carpet at the 2010 MTV Video Music Awards and have the opportunity to perform on the 2010 VMA Tour.
Here are The Victorious Secrets, in all their glory:
from: Mark Towne
to: Lior Shamir
date: Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 5:50 AM
subject: We Are Listening / Tinderbox Updates
Lior,
I just wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know how much the Breaking the Band contest has helped us out.
Tinderbox has been very very helpful and has exposed our music to a much larger audience than we could have hoped for. Our disc has been getting airplay at CMJ charted stations across the country since April. We even charted in the top 10 slots at several stations! Our web traffic and album sales have definitely increased since we started working with Tinderbox and we’ve connected with many people we wouldn’t have reached if not for Breaking the Band and Tinderbox Music.
Jon has found 8 shows on networks like MTV, E! and even Oxygen that are interested in using our work in their series. That’s still a work in progress but chances are pretty good we’ll land some television placements, reach more potential fans and maybe even make some dough for our next album.
I’ve been very impressed with the staff at Tinderbox and their results. I can’t thank We Are Listening enough for providing us the opportunity!
I hope all is well and you are enjoying the summer thus far!
Not every songwriter and recording artist out there succeeds in licensing his songs for film and television.
And I’d be lying if I told you every music licensing opportunity pays big bucks.
But I can tell you that the music licensing business is the most lucrative and accessible business for independent artists. Songwriters and performing artists make more money by licensing their songs than performing live, signing a record deal and getting commercial radio airplay combined.
Music Supervisors spend all of their time searching for great music to place in film, television shows and advertisements. They have big budgets, and are always willing to open their wallets for fresh material.
These are the people you want to get your music to, hard and fast.
Best of all, unlike record labels and publishers, Music Supervisors love to receive unsolicited submissions from artists. They even advertise for it.
But you need to know where to look.
Fortunately, a bright young mind (and good friend of mine) decided to create a marketplace for Music Supervisors. It’s a single hot spot where industry leaders come together to advertise their projects and access independent music from artists just like you.
Music Licensing Explained
Licensing music for TV and film is the process of music procurement for motion picture, usually handled by a Music Supervisor working on behalf of the television network, film production company, or advertising agency. The project’s Music Supervisor is responsible for identifying the most appropriate music for the motion picture and liaising with the copyright owner/administrator of the recording and publishing of the music, which may not necessarily be the same person: signed artists’ publishing (the music’s intellectual property rights) are usually managed by a publishing company or publishing rights division within a label, and the recording (or “Master”) is usually managed by a record company or master rights division within a label. Learn more…
MTV is leveraging its massively successful Rock Band game to independent artists by introducing Rock Band Network, Rock Band’s own music catalogue and store which budding and established musicians can submit their material for review by Rock Band’s music supervisors. Artists will have total control over the music they submit, from mixing and editing for game related uses to pricing individual tracks for retail. It’s a potentially incredible opportunity to publish and market your music to a very large, loyal and highly-targeted music-loving demographic.
JamLegend is the web-based answer to Guitar Hero and Rock Band, providing a free and social gaming experience that allows users to ‘play along’ with great tracks using their computer key board (which doubles as a guitar if you hold it upright and use the ‘Enter’ key as the plectrum). It’s a fun way to listen to and discover new music, play along with favourite tracks, and compete against like-minded music lovers. JamLegend relies on user-generated music from independent artists. Considering the scope and scale of the video gaming industry, it appears that JamLegend has created are very viable and powerful opportunity for artists and music promoters to garner additional exposure. Here is how to submit your tunes.
TheMusicSnob recently published a post which frowns upon PumpAudio’s changes to its standard licensing agreement, specifically the shift in the 50/50 split to 65/35 in favour of PumpAudio. The post also highlights the practice of ‘Re-Title Publishing’ (also known as ‘Derivative Publishing’) where the song title is registered under an alternate title (e.g. Fields of Gold -> Gold Fields) on the cue sheet so that PumpAudio can collect a portion of the royalties.
PumpAudio was one of the first pre-cleared searchable music libraries that considered submissions from independent artists. The company was acquired by Getty Images in 2007 for $42 million along with a catalogue of 20,000 independent artists. Although the recent shift from 50/50 to 65/35 is bad news for the artist, it is a reflection of deflated upfront synchronization license fees in an increasingly competitive media landscape and down economy.
Re-Title Publishing is an accepted industry practice and serves two principle purposes: It allows the broker to collect backend royalties in addition to frontend fees and protects the songwriter by ensuring that the broker only collects monies for the commercial use(s) he procures. To combat any public confusion that this may cause and benefit the songwriter’s marketing efforts, many films and TV shows offer a “gratis” cue where the original song title is used as opposed to the derivative title in the screen credit roll or music soundtrack release.
Music licensing, a seemingly clandestine industry bisect, is a lucrative business for songwriters and PumpAudio was pivotal to lowering the barrier of entry for upstart and unsigned artists. YouLicense followed suit with an ‘open’ music licensing marketplace and transparent business model.
The Free Music Archive provides a curatorial approach to promoting and discovering music, and allows for the free, legal streaming and downloading of its library’s tracks. Much like an opinion blog, the Free Music Archive acts as a tastemaker with the aid of user generated and suggested content which must first be approved by the site’s curators. Every track on the site is handpicked and pre-cleared for personal use. Users with uploading or editing privileges must be invited. Initial funding for the Free Music Archive came from the New York State Music Fund, a program of the Rockefeller Philanthrophy Advisors.
Sonicbids, the leading online event submission platform, has released a series of plugins for its 14,000+ promoters to better gauge the online presence and reach of the artists they may wish to book through the site. Now, when an artist submits his EPK (Electronic Press Kit) for an event through Sonicbids, the event’s promoter will have access to third-party, public data from Last.fm, Twitter and Google. As such, in addition to reviewing the artist’s content on Sonicbids, a snapshot of number of plays, listeners, mentions, links and posts across other networks should support and streamline the promoter’s selection process.
Sonicbids is home to 150,000 artists and bands, offering an event marketplace for artists to find gigs, and for promoters to secure talent. The site caters to every imaginable music industry sector, with a strong focus on live performances at leading music festivals and conferences, including SXSW, CMJ, Popkomm, Midem, and MusicExpo.
After winning The Singer/Songwriter Awards in the last quarter of 2008, Jesse Terry opted to work with We Are Listening’s accredited music supervisor and founder of Tinderbox Music, Jon Delange, as his prize package. With only ten copies of Jesse’s latest release, “The Runner”, Jon secured no less than nine network-sized television placement licenses on Jesse’s behalf, including MTV (Road Rules, The Real World, Road Rules Challenge, The Hills, The City, Human Giant, My Super Sweet Sixteen, Teen Cribs, Parental Control); E Network (Keeping Up With the Kardashians); and Oxygen Network (Bad Girls Club). The relative ease in which Jon placed “The Runner” is a reflection of Jesse’s adaptive songwriting style and compatibility with today’s leading pop-culture entertainment.
“Just got news that nine TV shows (including The Hills and The City) are interested in using music from my record. I am holding the licenses in my hand!! This is all possible because of We Are Listening and your investment in my career. I’m so grateful. I feel like things are really starting to line-up…” — Jesse
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