What’s going on music producers, let’s talk about submitting your beats off for placements and even probably some TV production. Let’s talk about it.
Music producers, new year, new you. You wanna start getting more placements, maybe nobody’s ever explained to you a strategy of how to get placements. Now, you know, me personally, I’ve had the opportunity to produce for commercials on MTV, I’ve had the opportunity to have my music featured on VH1, I’ve had opportunities to produce for the likes of artists like Kendrick Lamar and Absoul and E40, but this is not about that. This is to show you that I have a track record that shows you I have a strategy for you, as you start to submit your stuff for placements, as you start to try to get your name out there, and you know, I know I’ve made videos in the past about you know, really honing your own business and only focusing on yourself but sometimes you know, there are people out here who wanna get placements and I’m not gonna down you for that. At one point in time, that was the biggest deal for me.
So, if you wanna get a placement, here’s the way that I go about it. Let’s start first when it comes to the artist and then we’re gonna talk about like TV sync and talk about you know, that particular world.
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Now, when it came to an artist, I’ve gone through many different strategies when it comes to you know, attempting to submit my beats off. You know, especially when you don’t have a direct contact to an artist, when you don’t have an opportunity to you know, it’s like I for instance had Absoul before he was huge, he came to my grandmother’s patio and we recorded over in my grandmother’s patio and that’s how I built my relationship with him. You don’t always have that opportunity. S
o, as you’re submitting over for placement, as you’re starting to see emails pile up on your Twitter and they’re saying hey, submit your beats here. Here’s the mindset I will go about it. You know, now, a lot of producers in the beginning when you’re sending stuff off for placements, they get so insecure about I don’t wanna send you know, just a few beats and what if they’re not tight enough and what if they’re not, you know, what they’re looking for and I don’t know what they’re looking for and there’s so much confusion about what you should actually send.
Here’s what I’mma tell you, you should do first and foremost.
Zero it down to about 3 choices, yes, don’t send 15 to 20 beats. Cause you gotta think. When somebody has been going through a list, we’re gonna talk about the rapper that you’re submitting to okay? Imagine there’s a rapper, just put a rapper in your mind that you’re submitting beats to, right? Somebody you wanna get a placement. Imagine that they have been going through about 2 hours of listening to submissions through email, okay? And that’s not an exaggeration. I remember seeing back in the day Wiz Khalifa used to listen to beats on his live stream for 2 hours and I tell you, 60-70% of the beats, weren’t what the artists were looking for.
So, here’s how you stand out. As you’re starting to attach your beats to this email, first beat out the gate needs to be an absolute banger or whatever your definition of a banger. It needs to be so undeniable, that is the one. You need to start with that one, that’s first. Second, I would look for a beat that really is in the mindset of the artist, trying to figure out a beat that really fits the aesthetic of that artist and I mean you really should study that artist if you wanna submit beats to them and not just their old work, you wanna study you know, sort of the things that they talk about and the concepts they talk about. Like a Lupe Fiasco talks a lot about samurais and he talks a lot... So, maybe you have something as a samurai theme that you wanna submit off to him that you think might be aligning with his next project, cause you don’t know, you’re really playing a guessing game.
But make sure you submit beats that line up with their particular branding, with the second beat at least. Like I said, that first beat is the hard one and mind you, I have never heard anybody in the history of making beats, where a rapper came to me and said man, I would’ve took this beat man, it’s just too hard for me. Wait what? I’ve never heard that happen, so have no fear about that first beat, hard one. Second one, you wanna send something that’s really within the lane of their particular aesthetic.
And the third one. Send an oddball. Send a left field beat. Here’s the thing about it. You gotta think of rappers in the same way that you think about your next beat. Rappers are thinking about their next project, they’re not trying to recreate something that happened just the last album. They’re trying to advance from that, they’re influenced by so many things going on around them, other music, things in their life, maybe a rapper just had a son or a daughter and now they’re starting to look at the world a different way. Maybe they’re being inspired by you know, a soulful sample from the 70s and now that’s kind of the lane they’re heading into that direction. You know, it’s almost like, you couldn’t judge where Jay-Z was going, by listening to blueprint 3, you couldn’t predict a 4:44 was gonna happen, you know? Or you couldn’t predict that you know a watch the throne would eventually be a part of his catalog. But here’s the thing about it.
If you’re always thinking about the next phase, the next move, by sending an oddball beat, a beat that you know, people will be like, I don’t know if that’s a you know, Kendrick type beat, I don’t know if that’s it. That’s fine. Send that left field beat because they’re looking to experiment the same way you’re looking to experiment as a producer. So, as you start to put your beats together and you’re like yeah, I’ve been making a lot of trap beats, but I kinda wanna, I don’t know, I wanna do something more soulful. The same way you’re evolving, they’re evolving too, so don’t treat them as if, they’re gonna be stuck in the same box, over and over and over again as the years go on. You know, treat them as the creative creatures that they are. Cause you’re a creative creature in itself. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Treat them with that respect. Now those are three things that I think you should keep in mind as you’re submitting beats off to rappers.
Now, when it comes to TV and sync, you know really thinking about commercials and thinking about that particular world. The beats that ended up getting picked. Cause I’ve had placements in video games, all these different things. The beats that I feel like they pick, are the ones that you don’t really see people rapping over. They’re instrumentals that stand on their own, they’re instrumentals that don’t need a vocal on it because I’ve already filled that space up. So, some of those beats that you got, that are a little bit more musical, some of those beats that you’ve got that have a little bit more experimental sounds. Maybe even like some synthesizer blips that you’ve never used within an actual song. Maybe it’s some German down tempo you know/ dub synthesizers that are really harsh on the ears and nobody wants to rap on it.
Those are the type of beats you need to submit off for them. And then also, before you submit those off, make a folder based upon you know sort of the scenes that you see these beats for because a lot of times you’ll get these folks who are in the TV sync that say, man do you have something that’s great for a car chase? Or do you have something that’s like you know, somebody shopping on Rodeo or a very expensive you know street and they’re living the luxury life? Do you have beat that evokes the feelings of luxury you know, or promotes the luxury life? And as you start to think of it that way and what emotions, even like think about separating your beats between emotions. Like anger and frustration or you know sad or emotional. When you separate those, you make the job of the person who has to pick the music so easy. And when you make their job easy, they’re gonna make sure you’re getting taken care of. They’re gonna make sure that you get first dibs next time they start looking for submissions on beats. So, that being said, keep that in mind. Separate those by emotions, by scenes, you know maybe even double some of the beats down so that they fit different criteria.
Whatever the case may be, as you start to figure that out, there’s plenty of websites out there that allow you to submit. Why not prepare yourself first to get into that particular spectrum? You know, go to events. I remember the first placement I ever got, outside of a rapper was this thing called vans downtown showdown and it was at the Paramount studios, I had a friend that worked in the actual video editing company that was basically covering the event and because I went there, shook hands with the CEO of that company and he said hey, you make music? I said yeah, matter of fact I got a beat CD with me. This was back when we was holding CDs and CDRs all the time. I gave him the CDR, within a month, he asked for my performance rights organization information. He asked for you know, my PayPal information or my address and within a month I got a check for about 300 bucks, 200 bucks. 200 bucks I got a check and I was just like yo, this is too amazing. Well, that’s what happens when you get out there and shake hands and sometimes just open yourself up to other opportunities outside of just rappers.
Rappers are not the only ones looking for beats, you know you got YouTube channels now that are looking for beats. You got YouTubers that make gaming videos and now they wanna have your beats in the background. Start looking at it from that angle. Also, it’s a great way to get your name out, if you’re not necessarily looking for the money. Just get out there. That’s all you can really do.
Once again, this is Curtiss King of airbit.com. Have a good one.
Music producers, don’t forget to subscribe to the airbit channel right now.
Product placement is one of the smart ways brands endorse their products. Anybody, a student of marketing or an end-user, should not limit this marketing strategy to popular TV shows and movie studios and franchisee. This marketing plan can work anywhere on the earth where there are people (read crowd.)
Brands love to place their products in big events, whether it is a sports event like the Football world cup and Olympics or public celebrations. But these events are not regular occurrences. Multinationals want to win the “mind space” of their consumers, and for this purpose, they look for contents their potential customers engage with often or every day.
Apple’s Product Placement Strategy: Migration from Movies to TV Shows/Web Series
For any marketing professional, Apple is the best example to follow as this tech giant has successfully done product placement with a meager budget and sometimes at gratis.
Since the mid-1990s, Apple products have been featured in many movies and then in popular TV shows. The integration of Apple products is achieved with such finesse that it helps Apple grow its brand value leaps and bounds. Thanks to the efforts of Jon Holtzman, who was appointed as Director of Worldwide Brand Marketing at Apple, the company did a scintillating performance regarding product placement.
Slowly and gradually, from the silver screen, Apple turned its attention to the small screen. This strategic shift raised questions in the minds of many people. Why Apple is becoming more open about product placements in TV shows? In this editorial, I have made a sincere effort to understand Apple’s strategic shift in product placement.
Cheaper Than TV Commercials
It is nothing new. Apple knows that movie stars charge humongous fees to flaunt iPhones, iPads, iPods, and Macs in their hands or laps. For Apple’s marketing team, it is far easier to convince the creative team to insert Apple devices.
Advertising rates make a big difference here. According to Variety, promotional placements in TV shows are “substantially cheaper” than TV commercials.
Though every TV inserts or mentions don’t come complimentary, “they are substantially cheaper than traditional TV commercials. And that frees Apple up to spend heavily in more obvious ways. Among 2016 and 2017 TV programs, Apple spent the most on NBC’s “Sunday Night Football,” according to Kantar Media, a tracker of ad spending. Last season, the average cost of a 30-second ad in that show was $728,434, according to Variety’s annual survey of primetime ad prices.”
Reach is another important factor for choosing TV and web series to place products. Studios release their movies in specific geographic locations. The omnipresence of TV allows Apple to promote its products in every nook and corner of the world.
In the last five years, digital distribution has seen a tremendous surge. This has inspired content creators to migrate from traditional TV to the digital media players to deliver or stream their contents.
Look at the speed at which online distribution channels (Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, YouTube, and others) have evolved in the last five years. This new wave has changed the way content consumed by users, especially the young generation. At the same time, it has created opportunities for brands like Apple to connect with their consumers.
Apple has got the most out of this revolution. Web series can be aired anywhere in the world; this gives producers a larger mass and companies like Apple capitalize on this fact.
Long Shelf Life
It is a given that movies today hardly run for 120 minutes. Producers know that there is a massive production cost involved in making a movie. Moreover, they want to earn more in less time; perhaps this is the reason they hire more screens and run the shows four to five times a day.
Unlike movies, TV shows and web series have longer runs. A single episode of any show or series takes nearly 30 to 45 minutes. For every season, producers prepare at least ten episodes. So if you count the total length of one show or series, it comes to 350 to 450 minutes.
The bottom line is that you have a chance to place your product prominently in the hands of leading cast. A movie is usually shown for a month; if it is a super-duper hit, it goes for two or more months. A successful web series or TV show runs every week, and there are at least 10 or more weeks allotted for such popular shows.
Image Courtesy:YouTube.com
For example, the famed 9-1-1 will hit the TV sets in September 2018, and this time the series might have more than ten episodes. Interestingly, this show was first aired from January to March, and now it will be run in the last quarter of the year. One must have noticed that the characters of 9-1-1 continuously use Apple’s smartphones to stay in touch with each other.
For 9-1-1, however, Apple has paid some amount to the producers or creative team as you can see closing credits with an alert “promotional consideration sponsored by Apple.”
Can place the latest products
Web series and TV shows have a fixed date of release. Though movie studios have shown a superior level of professionalism, it is difficult for them to release their movies on a specific date. Among the many reasons for not keeping the set date, the primary one is the availability of screens in multiplexes.
For a web series or TV show, producers work on a tight schedule as they have to air an episode every week. Since shows on small screens run during the different times of a year, Apple can insert its latest products or services in the show.
Image Courtesy:YouTube.com
Nearly two decades ago, Apple’s Jon Holtzman, had successfully placed Apple’s Powerbook in the first part of Mission Impossible movie franchise. Unfortunately, Holtzman had to use a six-month-old product in a movie, which was to be released 12-18 months later.
Though moviedom has drastically reduced this long gap between the production and release of the movie, the date of Apple product release and movie release may not match all the time.
Natural Integration
As mentioned earlier, it is not easy for any brand to convince popular movie actors to show the products in their hands. Movies offer limited opportunities to integrate products naturally. Paid product placements would always sound unnatural or artificial. This will not benefit Apple in any way.
A TV show or a web series has an ensemble cast, and therefore, it sounds quite natural that two or three leading characters own Apple products in the show. In movies, there is only one central figure. So if Apple shows its products in the hands of that central character, it appears a paid product placement effort, which is not convincing at all.
However, there is a downside of putting your product in the web series or TV show. There are chances that other characters in the program are using products of the competition. But then Apple makes sure that its products do not show up in the hands of evil figures on the program.
Can integrate its products & services into entire show/episodes
Apple’s initial success in brand placement started with Modern Family, a family sitcom, which was premiered on ABC in 2009. A year later, in 2010, Apple’s iPad was woven nicely in the storyline of Modern Family, wherein Phil Dunphy held an iPad in the key scenes during the episode. Five years later, Apple got another success in placing its product in the same situational comedy. This time, the series featured an episode with the action displayed entirely on Apple device screens.
Image Courtesy:YouTube.com
The best thing about Apple product placement in Modern Family is that the entire episode took place online, with excitement shared via instant messages, mobile apps, and Apple’s video chatting service – FaceTime.
The full episode (except for some post-production rendering) of 2015 Modern Family season was shot on iPad and the then released iPhone 6.
In both the above instances, Apple didn’t pay a penny to the broadcasters or the producers of this popular series.
Apple can do this magic in other popular shows and series, which can be replete with Apple products and services.
Beyond TV and Movie…
In an interesting observation, Quartz noted that Apple was the winner of the FIFA World Cup 2018. Apple was successful in placing its product subliminally as many players flaunted Apple’s AirPods and Beats headphones while boarding or alighting from the bus or while entering their dressing rooms in the pavilion or disembarking planes.
Image Courtesy:QZ.com
During this soccer extravaganza, Apple has cleverly integrated its products and set the best example of ambush marketing.
How To Find Product Placement Opportunities For Your Blog Post
Summing up…
The rise of product placements in traditional TV and new era web series stem from the fact that millennials don’t watch TV in a traditional fashion. Holtzman has rightly observed, “They use technology, whether that is streaming or a DVR. In both cases, they don’t watch or pay attention to commercials. If they are forced to watch them, they mute the sound.”
About the paid product placement Holtzman added, “As far as being receptive to product placement, I would actually say they are not receptive to the blatant paid product placement I previously described. Just the opposite. But they do like watching what the actors do and say, and subliminally emulate that. What phone does their favorite actor use in the show, what do they wear, what do they drive, what makes them cool? So if products are included in a natural way that makes sense for the script and its characters, product placement works well.”
You may like to refer more interesting posts:
The founder of iGeeksBlog, Dhvanesh, is an Apple aficionado, who cannot stand even a slight innuendo about Apple products. He dons the cap of editor-in-chief to make sure that articles match the quality standard before they are published.
How To Find Product Placement Opportunities For Your Blogs
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/
- https://www.igeeksblog.com/author/dhvanesh/