# Any guidance regarding trailer scene



## Celestial Aeon (Feb 1, 2018)

I am aiming to get my foot through the door to trailer music licencing scene. First step is to build good quality portfolio of tunes and then start the hunt for publishers.

However, it seems like a confusing and hard to figure out scene because there are so many publishers and it is really hard to figure what would be the best way to go about it when starting. The main problems seem to be:

- if you send a tune to one publisher it is often exclusive, which means that you take the risk of not knowing if you get any licences at all and if it is your best tune, you might end up with situation where you missed your chances because of the wrong choice

- if you end up with a publisher who requires you not to publish any tunes on any other publishers you have all your eggs in one basket

Then there is the question of is it better to go for well estabilished bigger houses or new and upcoming houses and so on.

I guess there are no good answers and you just have to start from somewhere, but I am interested in hearing experiences / different view points regarding the whole scene.


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## Celestial Aeon (Feb 1, 2018)

Aa, sorry just realized that I posted this in the wrong forum section - is it possible to move this or should I make a new one under business?


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## SillyMidOn (Feb 1, 2018)

Celestial Aeon said:


> I am aiming to get my foot through the door to trailer music licencing scene. First step is to build good quality portfolio of tunes and then start the hunt for publishers.
> 
> However, it seems like a confusing and hard to figure out scene because there are so many publishers and it is really hard to figure what would be the best way to go about it when starting. The main problems seem to be:
> 
> - if you send a tune to one publisher it is often exclusive, which means that you take the risk of not knowing if you get any licences at all and if it is your best tune, you might end up with situation where you missed your chances because of the wrong choice



That is normal and just something you will have to put up with. The solution to that is to write more/enough tracks.



Celestial Aeon said:


> Then there is the question of is it better to go for well estabilished bigger houses or new and upcoming houses and so on.



You will have to, I guess like most people, knock on a lot of doors, build relationships, make your own experiences as to what works best, but you have to give it time, quite a bit of time, so you can come to your own conclusions and build a solid foundation going forwards. It's very similar in the general library world, where, if you don't give it enough time, you could come to the conclusion that Publisher A is not that good, but then two years later you may think, "huh, suddenly a lot more money is coming in", so then you may have to revise your opinion. It's not straightforward. Sometimes you just don't get along on a personal level with people, that can happen, too, or the library gets sold, or the guy you dealt with at the library moves on to another job, and then suddenly everything changes.

Hope that helps.


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## Celestial Aeon (Feb 1, 2018)

Thank you for your input, I believe you are right. I guess one just have to accept the fact that it is not possible to know / control the variables beforehand and just start from somewhere and make changes on a long run.


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## Jeremy Spencer (Feb 1, 2018)

Yes, and don't get attached to a single piece. Write a lot of cues, and I mean a lot. I have over 100 trailer-like cues in my portfolio, and I wouldn't miss any of them. And don't worry too much about which "tier" to send to, there are no guarantees either way. Send everywhere you can, the competition is fierce....but timing is everything. You might send tracks to 50 places and here back from two of them, and then have a track licensed a year or two later. But don't be discouraged, just continue knocking on doors and networking, it takes time but it's worth it.

PS- your odds of getting in with the bigger houses is slim to none until you have a strong resume under your belt.


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## gsilbers (Feb 1, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Yes, and don't get attached to a single piece. Write a lot of cues, and I mean a lot. I have over 100 trailer-like cues in my portfolio, and I wouldn't miss any of them. And don't worry too much about which "tier" to send to, there are no guarantees either way. Send everywhere you can, the competition is fierce....but timing is everything. You might send tracks to 50 places and here back from two of them, and then have a track licensed a year or two later. But don't be discouraged, just continue knocking on doors and networking, it takes time but it's worth it.
> 
> PS- your odds of getting in with the bigger houses is slim to none until you have a strong resume under your belt.




agree.


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## SillyMidOn (Feb 1, 2018)

Wolfie2112 said:


> Yes, and don't get attached to a single piece. Write a lot of cues, and I mean a lot. I have over 100 trailer-like cues in my portfolio, and I wouldn't miss any of them. And don't worry too much about which "tier" to send to, there are no guarantees either way. Send everywhere you can, the competition is fierce....but timing is everything. You might send tracks to 50 places and here back from two of them, and then have a track licensed a year or two later. But don't be discouraged, just continue knocking on doors and networking, it takes time but it's worth it.


Very true.


Wolfie2112 said:


> PS- your odds of getting in with the bigger houses is slim to none until you have a strong resume under your belt.


 True - but don't get too discouraged - the other 2 things to remember are:
A) It's actually not always all that easy to work out who the successful trailer libraries are, some deliberately stay under the radar
B) The big name trailer libraries tend to employ a lot of composers, so you can often only get a few tracks a year published through them. The same often goes for non-trailer libraries.


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## SillyMidOn (Feb 1, 2018)

gsilbers said:


> agree.


Hey I never realised you were a part of Pulsesetter Sounds - nice work , I own both the zebra sound sets 

[Apologies for being slightly off-topic]


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## Celestial Aeon (Feb 1, 2018)

Cheers guys, valid points!


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## gsilbers (Feb 2, 2018)

SillyMidOn said:


> Hey I never realised you were a part of Pulsesetter Sounds - nice work , I own both the zebra sound sets
> 
> [Apologies for being slightly off-topic]



thanks! means a lot. those take forever to do. and now that we are doing kontakt libraries... its forever x10!


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## will_m (Feb 2, 2018)

SillyMidOn said:


> A) It's actually not always all that easy to work out who the successful trailer libraries are, some deliberately stay under the radar



This is very true, some put a lot of time and effort into having a good social media presence and will be most visible to newcomers but there are many that are less visible that still gets lots of work.

It might help you (the OP) to work backwards, find a trailer that has music you like, then try and find out who is behind it and see what you can offer them.

Regarding the exclusive thing there isn't really any reliable way of knowing, you just go with a library that has a track record and hope for the best. Also, it will likely take a lot longer than you think to get going.


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