The how to be the first thing to spring to mind when a contact thinks about music.
What is low hanging fruit?
Low Hanging Fruit is a sales concept which means that we need to be sure we’re capitalizing on the opportunities in the places where the fruit is ripe, and easy to pick.
While the metaphor is obvious it exists for a reason: we often get so focused on some large, grandiose plan that we tend to miss out on the easy-wins that surround us everyday…or we get so paralyzed and distracted that
This is especially true in the music industry and getting music licensed. Yes, it’s insanely competitive. Yes, there is a TON of specialty knowledge to learn. Yes, there are a LOT of things you “need” to do.
So we focus on major projects or outreach looking for that big score – music in a commercial, a music publishing deal, some mega-artist recording our song…
But what would we see if we looked for the low-hanging fruit first?
Where do we find it?
Friends, colleagues, and aquaintances. That’s where. Maybe relatives sometimes too.
“But I don’t have any friends in the music business.”
Shut up and stop being dumb. You don’t HAVE to have friends directly involved in the music industry. In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t since the music industry is a complete shit show right now anyway.
Capitalizing on the opportunities that are around you everyday will involve people that work for an entity that simply uses music. There are obvious ones like ad agencies and production companies, but it could also be less obvious like a dog food company, a car dealership, or even a school.
Being tuned in to what your friends are talking about, getting interested, and simply talking about what you do is the next HUGE step you need to take. Once you do that, you’re on way to being able to genuinely help them while applying those skills and traits we mentioned before.
Now pay attention because this next bit is SUPER important:
Low-hanging fruit will scarcely be a 1-step process
Think about that. It means that when you talk to a friend or connection, you realistically cannot expect that because of one conversation all of your dreams will come true. Instead, you should expect that it leads to ONLY ONE MORE step toward uncovering an opportunity to exploit your music.
Yeah, yeah, that isn’t sexy and it certainly isn’t what people want to hear. Tough cookies. Take a look at the goals you created from the last email. How many of those can you instantly achieve in one fell swoop? Probably none. But the nice thing is there is good news about this too:
It also means that you don’t need to know someone super important to take a step in the right direction with your music career.
You may not know anyone directly in the music industry, but I bet there’s a great chance that you know someone who knows someone that can use your skills. Or who knows someone who knows of a conference or event where you can meet people to start making real strides.
What does this really mean though? That you need to be some sleezy, sales-y, douche-bag handing out business cards and CDs to any and everyone you meet? Excuse me while I puke.
No, quite the opposite (this is why your friends are great contacts – they’ll make funny faces or throw bagels at you if you’re being creepy and weird). You can never look ahead into the future to see where things may lead. So, even if you think your friends don’t know anyone it’s important to just talk about what you’re up to as far as music goes. Then, if they ever hear of someone needing a musician or song or something related to music, they immediately think “oh wait, my good friend can help!”
Now we start taking action. Here’s what I’d like you to do to start practice this technique, do it now:
- Make a list of friends, co-workers, and aquaintances you can start talking to about your current music projects.
- Next, make a list of skills or tools you have that pertain to music.
- Now, next to each friend’s name, see if you can come up with 1 or 2 things they may not know that you do.
*note: if you’ve only mentioned something to someone one or two times in the past, they don’t know you do it. Trust me.
The next time you see anyone from your list above, try and work just one of those things into the natural conversation. Maybe you have a live show coming up, maybe you love making playlists for peoples’ parties, or maybe you have an in at a studio. Whatever it is, just be concious of that one thing the next time you see that one person.
So now we’ve honed in on our skills and goals, and we’ve started integrating those skills into conversations with friends. The journey continues! Do you feel like a hobbit? That’s too bad cause I’m dressed like Gandalf today.
Today, I’m going to give you some ideas about who might be looking for music and where you can find them. Most of the information you need exists online as far as WHO you need to contact. Here’s a quick rundown of some GREAT resources. 
Video Games – Video games can be a bit trickier, but you have to remember that the people with the coveted positions as music producers and music supervisors have been interviewed, participated on panels, and generally are bombarded with enough attention that digging them up on Google is easy. Give LinkedIn’s search a shot, or try googling the video game company’s name along with “music supervisor” and see what you come up with.
