Question about providing music

[bjlMusician]

Greetings,

My name is Brian. I work for a music publishing company that is trying to provide music for independant filmmakers and was hoping someone could provide some enlightenment.

What is the best means of reaching out to independent filmmakers? The company I work for has used various lead sheets, but they seem to be oversaturated with offers and it's hard to stand out. We also try to reach out to studios and film schools, but are being largely ignored.

Our offers are competitive and fair (pre-cleared music that will work within any budget), so I was hoping someone here could offer advice. What can I do to stand out to Indie filmmakers? What is it that you look for when trying to find music for your projects? And what do you feel is an appropriate of being contacted with an offer?

If anyone can offer any advice/help/guidance, please respond in this thread or please send me a direct message.

Thank you.

 

[Alcove Audio]

Indie and film school types rarely have any money at all, and when they generally offer a small fee to an up-and-coming composer looking for exposure. Films with real budgets are going to hire established composers.

The big "consumers" like advertising and TV generally use audio post houses who have already invested in large "needle-drop" libraries - if they don't already have one in-house. Although they update their libraries periodically they are spending less than they used to and web-sites like SoundDogs and Sonomic offer by-the-track auditioning and pricing. Also, with the plethora of composers willing to create material for pennies on the dollar (compared to even ten years ago) getting custom compositions is nowhere near as pricey as it used to be.

Now, if you're looking to place songs from independent musicians in indie films you'll have to hit all of the indie music websites and create accounts with the material available for audition.

 

[bjlMusician]

Thanks for the response. All insight is very helpful for me!

The site we use actually does allow you to audition an entire track and we have it set up so a filmmaker (or student) can get a very affordable price all automatically. They can speak with us to have us select music for them based on a cue, or they can do it all themselves. We feature indie musicians, composers for hire, and hundreds of pre-cleared instrumental pieces in all styles. And we certainly have no delusions of charging high prices to indie filmmakers or schools; our prices are low and competitive with the other libraries.

So having said all that, what would one suggest that would set us apart from the other sources so the filmmakers take a hard honest look at what we're offering? What would make us stand out so we can attempt to get our foot in the door?

Thanks again!