Copyright

2016 Erwin Steijlen

All Rights Reserved
No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any
means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without written
permission from the publisher. No patent liability is assumed with respect to the use of the
information contained herein. Although every precaution has been taken in the preparation
of this book, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors or omissions.
Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information
contained herein.
First Printing, 2016
ISBN 978-90-9029596-1
Contact information:
info@erwinsteijlen.com
www.erwinsteijlen.com
www.corporatemusicmethod.com

Content
Prologue: How To read This Book / About the author
Chapter 1: Are You A Crazy Talented 17 Year Old?
Chapter 2: How To Make Money With Music
Chapter 3: Go Corporate with the Corporate Music Method!
Chapter 4: Go Global!
Chapter 5: 25 Rules To Be Successful With Your Music In The Corporate World
Rule #1 The Plan
Rule #2 The Folder
Rule #3 Buy Time
Rule #4 Be Intuitive
Rule #5 Keyword Writing
Rule #6 No Demos Please
Rule #7 Less Is More
Rule #8 How To Get Client Focus
Rule #9 The Stems Approach
Rule #10 Contracts, What Do You Need Them For?
Rule #11 Hours Or Project? (More Dough Please)
Rule #12 Never Say No To A Job
Rule #13 Life Is A Stage
Rule #14 Always Make Your Deadline
Rule #15 Learn To Read Feedback
Rule #16 Writing For Corporate World is Different From Film Scoring
Rule #17 How To Host Your Show
Rule #18 Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Rule #19 More Than Words
Rule #20 Dont Get The One Word Feedback
Rule #21 Get a Chance!

Rule #22 Real over MIDI

Rule #23 Difficult Mix?
Rule #24 Musical Rules (& Tips)
Rule #25 Plugins Rule
Chapter 6: How To Find Clients
Chapter 7: What About Synching?!
Chapter 8: Music Rights and Wrongs
Chapter 9: The Mix, a Great Bronze Medal Winner
Chapter 10: Interviews With Creative Entrepreneurs
Mr. Lee Johnson. Executive VP Audiosparx
Mr. Rob de Vries. Founder & CEO of De Vries&Partners Germany and DvP Group
International
Mr. Jordan Passman. Founder & CEO Score A Score
Mr. Henk Bout. Founder & CEO United and Wisseloord Studios
Chapter 11: Make A Business Plan
Chapter 12: Creative and Concept Thinking
Chapter 13: Some Examples, Some Ideas
Chapter 14: Food for Champions

How to Read This Book

This is a book for songwriters, composers and artists who write, and record their own music.
The purpose of this book is to inspire and inform those who want to become a creative
entrepreneur and make a great living writing music for corporate clients, tv, films, events,
shows and commercials.
Chapter 1 to 4 is about the music market and how much this market has changed in the last
couple of years. These chapters explain why and how the Corporate Music Method works.
Chapter 5 to 9 are about the 25 Rules to Become a Successful Corporate Music Writer, with
musical tips and mixing tricks, examples and everything you need to know about royalties,
rights and synching.
Chapter 10 and 11 feature interviews with successful entrepreneurs, so we can learn from the
people who started a creative business and succeeded.
In Chapter 12 to 14 well dive deep into important things like mindset, creative- and concept
thinking and how to really achieve success as a creative businessman.
For those who read the paper version; all the music and videos that are mentioned can be
found on
www.erwinsteijlen.com
soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen
www.youtube.com/user/erwinsteijlen
Enjoy!

About the Author

Erwin started out as a talented guitar player and songwriter, playing with the best Dutch
artists, live and in the studio. His career took off when he started recording his own music.
Now he has 15 years of experience as a corporate music writer, composing for brands, shows,
events, tv series and films with clients in over 40 countries. Companies like VW and BMW
have been using his music and his skills as a musical director for all of their product launches
all over the the world for years. After writing hundreds and hundreds of epic music tracks for
the worlds biggest clients, Erwin can now probably say he is the #1 product launch
composer in the world.
Some highlights are his work for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, his collaboration with Cirque
du Soleil and DJ Fedde LeGrand, the inauguration of the biggest ship ever built Pioneering
Spirit and his shows with Shakira and Pink!
Brands like Verizon Fios, LG, Ford, Liberty Global, Time Warner, Bentley, Shell, Philips, Nike
and many more love using his music for their commercials and branding. In 2014 alone,
Erwin had 30 commercials on American TV, which he realized using the Corporate Music
Method. Also, hit TV series such as The Mentalist, Pretty Little Liars, Parenthood and Ben &
Kate have built scenes to his songs.
Besides being a songwriter, composer and producer, Erwin teaches Songwriting and Media
Composing at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts in the Netherlands.

Chapter 1 Are You A Crazy Talented 17 Year Old?

If you are reading this youre most likely an artist such as a songwriter or a composer, just like
me. If you are reading this you are probably a musician, maybe playing in a band, just like me
and a million others around the world. Maybe youre a music student or a teacher at a local
music school. You may be all of the above, but Im absolutely sure you are recording your
own music or planning to.
In any case, you love music and you would love it even more if you could make a decent
living out of it. Youll watch and listen to your heroes on records, radio, YouTube and Spotify,
youll go see your favorite acts live and you wish you could live that kind of life too. Maybe
youre living it but its hard to get recognition and even harder to get enough money to call it a
real job.
But lets be honest here.
Are you good enough? Do you live in the right country, preferably UK or US? Do you know
people who can help you become famous? Do you have a record deal? A worldwide record
deal? Do radio stations play your songs? Do the big stars want to record your songs? Do the
Hollywood filmmakers fight over your music? Are you scoring the big pictures? Are royalties
paying your bills?
If the answers to the last couple of questions are a yes, then you belong to a very small
percentage of people who are lucky enough to step into the music business with a good
chance of making it big, if you havent already. If you can add a gorgeous body, long hair, a
voice capable of singing 6 octaves and you can dance like Beyonce.. Im positive you WILL
make it in this cut-throat industry.
But if you are, just like me once, one of those millions struggling to survive as a singer,
musician, songwriter, composer or artist I might have a solution for you.
First, lets be clear about what you want and where you are at this very moment.
Have you really tried everything possible to get somewhere in the music bizz?
Have you really given it all you got?
Are you really working as hard as you can?
Have you tried all the possibilities?
Chances are you have not. Not yet at least.
Now, as long as we are being honest; do you have a slightly romantic idea about being a pro
musician? Do you still think that you will get noticed in the local club even though you are
not a crazy talented 17 year old? Is your highest goal getting on a tv show like The Voice, or
playing at a local rock festival? Or do you want to be on YouTube and Spotify just for your
friends and family? In other words; do you want to be a pro, or stay an amateur? What is your
goal? Are you really serious about your music and the idea of making a living with it? and are
you good enough to be a pro? If the answers to last two sentences are yes then the Method
I think, will be interesting to you.

Help me get Famous!

True, getting famous or scoring a worldwide hit is the ultimate goal for almost all artists, but
its a long shot too, hard to realize and luck is an important ingredient here.
In these modern times, where Spotify, Apple and YouTube rule the music scene, especially
money wise, old-school record companies are desperately looking for new ways to make
money, radio stations are slowly being overtaken by internet radio, and tv is for old folk
because kids want series on-demand like what is offered on Netflix and HBO. In these fast
changing times it is even harder to create steady income with your own music. At times it can
seem practically impossible for a creative person to make any money at all with his or her art.
In the next chapter we will go deeper into the ways how Spotify and YouTube earn their
money, and what this means for you. But the most important thing you need to realize is this:
It is perfectly possible to make a great living as a composer or songwriter, without the
help of managers, record companies or publishers!
Im not talking about a lucky shot to score a hit, but a long term career in music by getting
your own business, making a steady income with your own music, making a living and
supporting your family with your self-recorded tracks. Be an entrepreneur besides being a
creative person; a creative businessman. Build your business with returning, paying clients and
assignments, and be self supporting and free to make your own decisions.
Im talking about writing and recording for the corporate world.
This can be done in various ways, the most obvious of which would be to write music for
commercials. Contact ad agencies if you want to write these 20 second music tracks. But that
market is pretty crowded in most countries or taken by big the players. This is because of the
royalties these tracks make, every second on television is paid so writing these commercials
account for a nice dollar figure on your bank statement. Another way is to write radio jingles
and packages for radio stations. I know a lot of people who do this kind of work.
If you get a chance to compose a nice tv commercial, do it! But also try and look at it
differently, try and find a niche thats not so crowded. What about contacting brands and
companies directly? What about events, shows and product launches? What about the big
corporate market for videos? What about getting your music in TV series and films through
synching? What about a collaboration with clothing designers or starting filmmakers?
Musically its more interesting to write an epic piece for a product launch, a whole song or an
orchestral track for a show or a film, than to make 20 second commercials where the music,
most of the time, has to sound like something you already know (but it does pay the bills of
course). Mixing it all up keeps things interesting.
Collaboration in new territories is key here, think about who you know and who can help you.
What about the artists that did make it? Can they still live just from record deals and touring?
It is known that 91 percent of all the artists in the world are completely undiscovered, and of
the other 9 percent not everyone can make a living. The stars we hear and see on tv, internet
and radio all day, are a very small percentage of what is available. Are they really the best or
are other factors playing a role here too?

An American example from The Huffington Post: Today, the only way to make money in
the music business is to turn an artist into a brand, and then do everything in your power to
maximize that brands value. The first step on this path still involves music. Songs make a
music artist famous in the first place and allow the artist to define his or her brand. Touring
can also be lucrative; spending on concerts in North America surpassed spending on
recorded music in 2009, and stood at $9.5 billion in 2011, up almost 20 percent from four
years before. But tours are also expensive to produce, so they arent necessarily as profitable
for the artist as they initially appear. For that reason, artists have become increasingly creative
with their business ventures. Ten years ago, if you had a hit song on the radio, and you had a
great tour, youd sell a million records, two million records. Thats not necessarily the case
anymore.
Today, if you have a hit song and you have a sold-out tour, then other ancillary opportunities
are available to you: sponsorships, endorsements, TV, movie, animated features all
different types of things. Recording an album really has become like a promotional tool, so
once an artist becomes popular through music, the four members of his or her management
team (agent, manager, lawyer, business manager) work to turn fans goodwill into revenue.
They secure deals for music-merchandise manufacturers to sell keychains with their clients
faces on them, get their clients lucrative judging positions on reality TV shows, and help
broker clothing-design jobs with apparel companies. Some artists have made more with these
kinds of deals than they would have in the golden age of the CD. Taylor Swift, for example,
collaborated with Elizabeth Arden to release a perfume that was predicted to generate $50
million in the year after its release. Swift, of course, also sells millions of records but music
manager Allen Kovac said that its possible even for moderately successful artists to start
lucrative businesses. Kovac cited his client Nikki Sixx, who has parlayed his position as the
bassist of Motley Crue into a clothing line, several book deals and a radio talkshow. Sixx is
also in talks to start a talk show on cable. Hes making more money now as an individual
than he did in Motley Crue, Kovac said.
So the famous artists are looking for new business models too. They have to!
The big companies are too slow in changing their business models and the market today is
too fragmented for the way they used to work. From Forbes Entrepreneurs: In todays music
scene there are multiple subgenres and blogs catering to niche audiences on the Internet,
thousands of cable channels, satellite- and internet radio channels etc. Massive corporations
are not built for this type of promotions, but smaller record labels, smaller marketing firms or
motivated artists are. To meet these market needs, a new and exciting business model has
emerged where entrepreneurs and small businesses supply needs that the major companies
cannot. These companies handle promotions, distribution and marketing for independent
labels and artists. They provide services so independent labels dont have to do everything inhouse, allowing these labels to compete through services that were once only available by
signing exclusive deals with major-label conglomerates. So there are opportunities for
independent artists as long as you see your music as a product, and yourself as a creative
businessman.
But are you good enough for market demands?

The drawing of the little circle stands for the evolution that, in my opinion, every musician,
songwriter and composer needs to go through. Youll want to become just as good as your
heroes and your competition, and in the meantime discover your own unique selling point.
The market demands a certain quality and getting up to that standard is hard enough. But
what makes you different from the rest? Why should people buy your music? Why would
clients be interested in hiring you? So you need to go around the world, learn and complete
the circle, be just as good as your competitors, and then find that One different spot!
Because thats what makes you different and helps you to stand out from the rest. First try
hard to be just as good as your heroes and put as much of yourself into the journey as
possible. Then you will need to find the part where you are different and can make the
difference. One different and step One beyond from what the rest is offering. This is
very important, so much more on this later in the book.

Chapter 2: How To Make Money With Music

Fact: its getting harder and harder to make a living in music. Music is free almost everywhere.
With YouTube, Spotify, Deezer, your kids will never, ever pay for a song. Thats old school!
Music is free in the minds of the young. Nobody will be able to return to the old times.
Money and a living can only be made in other ways, not by selling tracks anymore. Sure,
there is iTunes and it will be here for as while, but since artists put their music up for free on
YouTube and the majority of the people, especially young people, are online 24 hours a day,
sales will go down there also. Its just a matter of time. My own kids tell me: dad, why should
we pay for a song?, its all for free on YT!
Lets talk about selling music, songs. Here are some financial facts; The Guardian march 2015:
Daft Punks Get Lucky was streamed 78.6 million times through its Play 50 chart, earning up
to 660,000, which would be split between record label, publishers, collecting societies and
the French duo. A record deal is 360 degrees these days, meaning that record companies
want a share of everything an artist earns money with. These companies cannot live from
sales anymore so they have to. Artists with record deals get between 19% and 24 %,
depending on the deal they make. So, even a worldwide hit does not make you rich, as you see
in the above example. Not with streams anyway. You would have expected these guys to gain
millions with a worldwide hit, but from streams they will not become millionaires, thats for
sure.
The Guardian: Spotify says that its average payout for a stream to labels and publishers is
between $0.006 and $0.0084 but Information Is Beautiful suggests that the average
payment to an artist from the label portion of that is $0.001128 this being what a signed
artist receives after the labels share.
First this: YouTube is a great place to build a brand, but a bad place to build a
business!
This is a great quote and very true. Anybody can use YouTube to become famous or sell his
product. But, there is little money to be made! You would need 1,000.000 views to earn 2,000
dollars. But then you have to pay taxes, and your costs for making the vids and music. And
signed artists need to share with record company and publishing. But if you do get millions
of views on your channel you have a big chance of being approached by brands and
companies who want you to review their products for money. Most vloggers make a living
that way claiming they always can write whatever they want, but I suspect that real
independence does not benefit from being paid by the brands they are reviewing.
Spotify then..the math:
Spotify has 15 million paying customers and 60 million users overall. These 45 million free
users take the ads for granted. Nobody really knows how much Spotify makes on these ads.
To make minimum wages, meaning 1200 dollars a month a signed artist needs 1,117,021
streams and an unsigned artist needs 230,326 plays. Here is a clearer view of what earnings
are on Spotify and YouTube:

source: http://thetrichordist.com/2014/11/12/the-streaming-price-bible-spotify-youtube-and-what-1million-playsmeans-to-you/
Adding more subscribers also adds more plays. This means that there is less paid per play as
the service scales in size. This means that Spotify and YT retain their margin, while the artists
margin is reduced! In the above example the 3,000,000 plays ad up to $ 7,802.00 of total
revenue You can make the same amount by selling 1125 albums on iTunes. (However, if
you were to sell 3,000,000 tracks on iTunes you would earn 2,100,000 dollars!.. Wow! but
these days are long gone..)
A couple of years ago most people thought that the Internet would bring a whole new middle
class of independent artists, composers, painters, musicians, creative people, etc But, in
reality, it brought us a whole generation of amateurs, hobbyists and semi-pros. Only the big
companies like Apple, Spotify, Google and YouTube, make serious money. Artists are poorer
than ever Thats just the plain truth.
Geoff Barrow of Portishead tweeted in dec 2015: 34 million streams, my income after tax=
1700. Thank U @apple @YouTube @Spotify for selling our music so cheap. Another clear example
of a bad deal..
I did a little investigation with a song of mine to see for myself what the revenues would be,
and it turned it was even less than the above example! I put the song on Spotify and iTunes
through Music Kickup. You need a publisher or a service like Music Kickup or Catapult to
get your music on iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Google Play etc. Catapult is an official distributor
for iTunes, but there are more companies offering this kind of service for a small fee.

Here are the results:

As you can see I got 5016 streams on Spotify for this track earning me 17.42 dollars. This
means I got only 0,00347 per stream. I also got 19 iTunes sales, for which I received 13,49
dollars. This is 0,71 per sale.
So, if i had sold 5016 tracks on iTunes, I would have earned 3561.36 dollars. This is not
entirely fair because not every stream would have been a sale (some listeners may have played
the song ten times but would have to buy it only once of course).
But in this simple example it is also pretty clear, you need massive streams to make any kind
of living.
Another example of how bad it can be:
Kevin Kadish, who wrote All About That Bass, says he made just $5,679 (3,700) from 178
million streams of the song.
For a song like All About That Bass, that I wrote, which had 178 million streams. I mean
$5,679?
Thats my share, he is quoted as saying in a report from The Tennessean.
Thats as big a song as a songwriter can have in their career. It became number one in 78
countries, and youre making $5,600? He definitely made a bad deal with his record company.
But on the other hand, he wouldnt have had such a big hit without this company, and the
radio royalties should make him rich anyway. But now youll understand artists like Taylor
Swift, AC/DC, The Beatles and Garth Brooks a bit better when they dont want to be on
Spotify.

Heres what Taylor Swift says about her choice not te be on Spotify anymore:
Ms Swift says that the argument about fair compensation isnt really about her. She can
support herself, her band, crew, and entire management team by playing live shows: at last
count, her 1989 tour had grossed over $86m. The real problem is for those whose starpower is more modest than that of Ms Swifts supernova. Despite technology that puts more
power into the hands of musicians to make websites, sell merchandise, book their own shows
and connect with fans, many continue to sign old-fashioned, complex paper contracts
regarding the rights to their music. These play to the strengths of lawyers and accountants,
not lyricists and tunesmiths, ensuring that more money flows to handlers than to creators.
(The Economist)
So, what can you do to make a living from music as a creator? As a songwriter, composer or
writing artist? Here are the answers:
1 Be on the radio all day, and be on all radios worldwide. That would bring you loads of
royalty money But, it would take a while getting it. It can take somewhere between 1 and 3
years. And, you would have to share with publishing, the record company and collecting
societies like ASCAP. But, depending on where you are signed, which has a lot to do with
where you live and work, most of the time you will only get on national radio. You will need
to be a signed artist with a worldwide record deal to get on all these radio stations worldwide.
Thats the way most radio stations work, they get new music from record companies
promoting new artists. So, first, you would need a great deal. I know of a great singer who
can write well, but every time she records a single she signs this pretty useless distribution
deal with a record company. They havent even managed to get her on national radio, not

even once! But she did sign their publishing contract, meaning she lost all control over her
own music and recording. No shopping around and no synching with this track, no more
freedom to do what she wants with her song, and for what? There are thousands of artists
that keep signing these bad paper contracts just because it sounds so great: Ive got a record
deal, Ive signed with this great, big publisher, but the truth is that 90% of the times, it
wont get them anywhere. Got a great deal? Sign! If not, remain free and work it yourself, or
work with smaller companies who understand how the new music to business ways work.
If youre good, the big ones will come back for you anyway. About the deal from my singer
friend: That record company put no effort into her song at all. They didnt pay for the
recordings, and these days singles arent even hardware, anymore, only digital. So, no costs at
all. None. They need to use their distribution and marketing system, but if theyre not totally
behind you, or you arent a well known artist already, this deal will be of no use. Also, it will
always only be national. So find a company that believes in you. Even better if its smaller and
knows how modern day marketing works. Stay away from the big companies unless they can
offer you a great (worldwide) deal. Otherwise, do it yourself and use the Method. Get your
music on films, commercials or tv series and built it up from there.
DJ Martin Garrix left his record company Spinnin records and management in august 2015,
after failing to get his Intellectual Property Rights back. He signed a bad deal when he was
very young and trying to change it did not work. He cut his losses, left the company and now
only concentrates on new music and he is currently (as I write at least,) available for a new
label and a new (better) contract. We all know about the struggles of George Michael and
Prince with their companies, but we also all know of artists who dont live in the UK or US,
who can only have national success. The road to success is a one-way street; going from the
UK and US to the rest of the world. Youre not allowed to enter the street from the other
side! This is how old-school record companies work and its about time this changed!
Whats the second way to make a living from music?
2 Gig! Tour! Play live, play, play, play.. Most musicians pay their bills with touring, playing
live! Play as much as you can and ask decent money for your live appearance. Thats what all
the big acts are doing. They tour and earn a lot of money with it. Thats why all the old acts
are touring again. No more record sales, so they have to. Build a loyal following and keep on
playing and touring. (Coldplay costs 1 million for a show Ive heard). Costs for touring can
be high though and health problems from an important band member could mean no money
at all for the whole crew when a show has to be cancelled.
3 Teaching is the third answer. Many musicians have a teaching job, or had one at some
point in their lives. For songwriters and composers this happens less often, but its
increasingly becoming a subject at music schools and conservatories. But be honest.. does
answer 1 and 2 really apply to you? If youre a songwriter or composer, but not a performer,
you wont make much money by playing live. And the only way to earn royalties would be to
write that hit song, or get your tracks on TV shows. My guess is that, for most musicians,
composers, songwriters and bands, the above answers would probably not apply at all.
For media composers, another troublesome thing is happening right now. In a crowded
market, which advertising is, and where many composers are offering their services, the

following happens more and more. A normal working situation for a media composer writing
tunes, jingles, radio and tv commercials would be to get paid for the work; the writing and
recording for a commercial. After that, the commercial would appear on tv and the composer
should get 66% of the royalties (34% for the publisher when there is one). Thats how its
agreed upon by law.

In the real world, however, the following two situations are often occurring:
The agent or advertising agency writes its name on the music, pretending to be a co-writer,
and thus getting 33% of the writers part, leaving the composer with only 33% of the
royalties. So the ad agency director brings in the lead, negotiates the fee and gets most of the
money for making the spot. Then negotiates a fee with the composer where he also uses the
royalties as a negotiating tool. So, suddenly, getting backend is not a right anymore. The client
goes like: hey, you will get royalties, so why do you need a fee for writing at all? This fake cowriter now earns most of the money thats being paid for the commercial, and he also takes
33% of the royalties

Its almost the same with getting your song on a Rihanna album or a similar hot artist; every
other producer thats in her team wants his name on your track too, because only the
singles sell. Kids do not buy the rest of the album, but only the hits. So you sign that deal and
share your writing credits or your song wont appear on the album at all. Thats the reason so
many names appear in the song credits.
It gets even worse for the modern media composer when broadcasting companies turn into
publishers themselves (which they do often enough) and besides getting 34% as a publisher
they want up to 80% of the leftover 66% writers share. The composer wont get the job if he
doesnt agree to pay back these 80% of the royalties to the broadcaster. This is done in paper
contracts and composers are so scared of saying no, and losing clients and income, that they
agree.

This really is a cut throat business

These kickback contracts are a frequently occurring problem nowadays, and as long as
composers sign these contracts it will only get worse. But when this is your only income, I can
imagine its hard to say no. Especially when there are 100+ other composers capable and
willing to take over these 20 second tracks and take your money. So you need a lawyer on
every deal, it seems, but my guess is that this wont change a thing. Maybe the entire royalty
system as we know it, will end in a couple of years, because when young people stop
watching TV, they will also stop watching at commercials and the payment of backend might
stop too.
So, in my opinion, there will definitely will be changes in royalty payments in the future.
So, whats the answer then? Whats the solution? What can you do to make a decent living as a
songwriter or composer? What can you do to make a life for your family and yourself with
your own music? Im not saying to give up on all your goals. Do try to write a worldwide hit,
be on every radio station, play gigs everywhere, be a film composer. but I am suggesting
that you should learn more about the market, what the market needs, and where the money
is. and then take advantage of this knowledge. So, again, what can you do to make a decent

living or even a great living with your music? My answer is, as you probably will have guessed
already

Chapter 3: Go Corporate!
Films, tv series, commercials, games, corporate videos, brands, events, product launches
they all need great music! They need songs that have the same quality as the ones that are
played on radio, they need great orchestral music thats just as good as the music in movies,
they need dubstep, rock, singer-songwriter songs, EDM you name it.. Theres a market and
this market pays well. This market needs music! Dont think this is an easy market, though!
The stock music days are long behind us. You need to be really good! Dont think that these
media composers only do 10 second jingles or 20 second commercials. These people, the
clients and brands really need top notch tracks and real music. Music that is now, music that
rocks It needs to be up there with the best. It needs to be like the music your clients listen
to in their cars when driving to work. These brands work hard and spend a fortune on
developing their products, so the music for these products needs to be great too.
The market needs epic tracks, instrumentals and songs in all styles, from dramatic to dance
and from rock to singer-songwriter.
There are 2 ways to make a great income with your music in the corporate way:
1 Write directly for brands or via event and advertising agencies. It will get you paid for your
writing and the use of your music. (many times there will also be royalties)
2 Synching.
Synch your music to tv series, films, commercials. It will pay you license money and royalties.
Questions you now might have:
Can I do this too? How do I get clients? How do I write for such a client?
How much time do I have when i get a composing job?
How much money can I ask?
How does it work with music rights?
How do I get synched?
Is my music good enough?
What kind of music do they need?
I dont have clients, what am I doing wrong?
Can I make money too? And how can I make money too?
What should I be able to do musically?
What do brands like BMW, Philips, LG or Nike really want?
Whats it like working with film or ballet, a choreographer, advertising or event agencies?
What do I need to know in order to pull it off ? Whats it like?
In the following chapters I will give answer to the above questions and more.

But first:
What is the Corporate Music Method and what can it do for you?
Over the past 15 years I have been working hard as a one man company. I have seen my
company grow and get big opportunities and assignments. Ive had great successes based on
the Method. I found there are ways to make a great living with your own music, without
sailing the same routes as most others do. Its not easy and for sure the Method is not for
everyone, but it can be done, and the journey is an exciting one!
Getting clients who are loyal, getting assignments that are out of the ordinary, the worldwide
trips Ive made, the cities Ive visited and the musical friends Ive made. The music Ive had
the chance to write, music I would never have written otherwise. It made me a much better
composer and songwriter, and it also gave me great insights into how corporations and
businesses work and think. When I decided to share what Ive learned, a feeling of coming
home fell over me, kind of like reaching the harbour of your hometown after a long and
adventurous journey. And since were already in the nautical world; The Corporate Music
Method is based on 4 anchors.
You will need all 4 anchors to work in order to get your boat safely into harbour. If one
anchor doesnt work or is broken, your boat could go adrift.
These anchors are: Create, Learn, Market and Earn.
Create: This work is all about passion for music and being creative. Corporate brands want
and expect the best, so you have to write as much as you can and be the best you
can. Its all about creativity and your music, your creations. This first anchor is the
most important one because your know how, professionalism and out-of-the-box
thinking, is what your new business is all about, and cant do without.
Learn: Learn from your mistakes, because thats the only way to grow and get better. Learn
from teachers and from friends, learn by reading and watching tutorials. Learn from
how your customers respond and from the feedback you get. Make sure your
creativity grows and flourishes. The learning never stops, and neither should your
creativity. This is a do it to learn it business and you can only become successful
if you keep on practising and work hard.
Market: View your music and your work as a product, a product that is needed by a huge
market. Be open-minded and never say no to a job. Bring your creativity and
knowledge and go out shopping for gigs, assignments, synchs and clients. To
succeed you have to compete, meaning that you have to keep your costs low and
make the profit come to you and your company, and nobody else. You need to be
creative, not only with your music and words, but also with production, mix, master
and as a businessman.
Earn: Once your first 3 anchors have been dropped well the earning will start. You will land

writing jobs and you will start making money with synchs. Release your own music
and become an authority who clients will want to rely on. Investigate what the
market needs and find out where your opportunities lie.
Be creative, keep on learning, market well and expand your network, then earnings
will come!
I am proud that our online course Corporate Music Method is now also an official minor (a
subject earning 15 ECs) at the ArtEZ Institute of the Arts, Netherlands biggest
conservatory. Music students from all over the world can follow these lessons and earn
valuable Course credits. All other music writers can follow the course via our website. Whats
most special and unique about this course is that real clients and music supervisors are part
of the course! School meets market and students get network and a chance to earn money.
Participants will meet, write for and sell music to the corporate market within this course.
This has never been done before, and really is the missing link between music education and
the market. You can find more info on the Corporate Music Method course on our website
CorporateMusicMethod.com

Chapter 4: Go Global
Be aware of the fact that music, like money, is a global thing. It seems like a logical thing to
say but most schools, musicians and even record companies dont work this way, or are,
themselves, even aware of it. They mostly work locally or at the most, nationally. Its how they
constructed their business models in a time when there was no internet and our world was
much smaller.
Money really is global and music? Well, music is even bigger its universal. Everyone can
relate and respond to music, a song, it doesnt have boundaries. So why only promote your
work, your music, locally or nationally? Look at it this way:
The world is your marketplace and little dots of success on the globe can give great success,
and make great income for your family and yourself. It buys freedom! You decide what to do
with your life, and nobody tells you what to do. That is a great feeling and, although its not
the easiest way to choose to live your life, its very rewarding and can give a great sense of
fulfillment.
Stop thinking small and start thinking big!
Schools all around the world are now discovering that this is the new way to reach students,
and more and more online education is available. Schools like Harvard and Berklee are
working hard on this, thus making their great programs available to students all over the
world.
We need education to build our world, and, even more, we need creative people to change the
world. Global thinking is indispensable in these modern times.
So, how can you use this new way of thinking?
If you want to be a successful entrepreneur and run a creative business you will need both
local and international clients, and both local and international success to keep building and
growing your business. The market youre getting into does not see borders, the internet has
made sure there are no borders where music is concerned. Learn to think global and big, see
where the opportunities are, and use these opportunities. Send your music to potential clients,
send it to libraries, send it to music supervisors, directors, show callers, ad agencies, event
agencies, publishers, record companies, clothing designers, website designers, video
companies, film directors, creative schools, but dont stop at the border of your country!
Make sure you get these little dots of success all around the globe, and keep building your
business. Be someone the market wants, and be someone the market needs.
These days an independent artist needs to be an independent businessman, too!
It really is perfectly possible, without a record company or publisher, to become a
self-supporting composer or songwriter, and make a great living out of it. But youve
got to Think Global!

Chapter 5: 25 rules to be successful with your music in the corporate

world.
In order to be able to write for my clients and make the deadlines over and over again, I have
development rules which I live and work by. I want to share these little secrets with you
now and hope youll use at least a couple of them, to improve your workflow and your
writing.
Im sure youll find many tips to be useful, while you may find others to be controversial.
They work for me and they can, and will work for you too.
Enjoy, let me start off with a great quote from Goethe because it says it all:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it Boldness has genius, power, and
magic in it..
He was right, just begin, just do it, action/reaction. Starting is the hardest part, but its a
beautiful thing when you get response, and your dreams start to build in real life.

Rule #1 The Plan

I love it when a plan comes together..
Hannibal from the A-team knew it, you need a plan and preparations before an important
job. Always make sure you have a plan the night before you start working!
Start the next day early, make room in your agenda and make sure you are able to work
without getting disturbed. This may seem like an obvious statement but in my experience not
many people work this way. The night before, you force yourself to make a plan. Get a
basic idea of what you what you want to write and record. In my case, this is usually working
for a client. But the creative process works the same when you want to write something new
for yourself, a release, an assignment for school, whatever.
Get into the right mindset before going to sleep and tell yourself that tomorrow is the day
when it will all happen. Since this is a business with deadlines, often tight deadlines, the
pressure is on your shoulders and the idea of focus and the feeling of having control is very
important and reassuring. You need to tell yourself tomorrow I will write something great
and you will. Just believe in it.
The mindset, focus and taking the time to think about your upcoming work makes all the
difference between a useful, creative day and a long, tiring, not so creative, fighting against
deadlines kind of day. Heres what you do: Think of the client, the product, event,
commercial, film, song whatever you will be working on. Usually, in my case, Im leading,
which means that all the other disciplines are waiting for me. This makes the weight on my
shoulders even bigger.
So, film, choreography, sound guys and, of course, clients (and agents) are all waiting on what
you will come up with. The Plan is simple; write what fits best for the client, the show and the
clients wishes. In the corporate world information from the client or agency may not be very
musical so you will probably need to figure out yourself what fits best. Most of the time the
keywords you get are very vague. This is a thing you must get used to.
Use your own imagination and experience to do the job. Do Google searches on the brand,
for instance. Make sure you get a feeling for what and who they are. Whatever you do, you
have to make sure you have a Plan before starting up your DAW the next day.
Have the Plan ready the night before, sleep on it and start early the next day! You can write
the Plan on paper or type keywords into an email to yourself, or you can do it all inside your
head.
The planning gets easier when you do a lot of (corporate) jobs, but the one thing you always
need to do in order to help the creative process and get the plan together is explained in the
next chapter.

Rule #2 The Folder!

Your place for inspiration
The Folder is very important! Its going to be your source of inspiration and the one reliable
thing you can fall back to whenever things go wrong during the writing process. When writing
under a deadline it is important to have a goal and not have hours of uncreativeness. The
Folder will keep you going in the right direction, the Folder will be your little source of extra
inspiration.
So what do I mean by The Folder?
Make a folder on your desktop and put in all the material you find inspiring for this particular
job. Be intuitive here; it can be a kick drum, a special synth sound, it can be a chord
progression you wrote a while ago, it can be the way a song on the radio is mixed, a YouTube
link, older music youve written, new music from an artist you started listening to, a groove,
an instrument, the way a vocal is recorded. It can be anything at all as long as its inspiring and
has something (think intuitive!) to do with the music you have to write the following day.
After a while, when you put material and music into this folder, an idea will begin to form in
your head, your imagination will start working and put things together. Something that will
link the product, brand, event or show to your music. You will become inspired to write
something special and these intuitively chosen tracks, sounds, words, images, chords will help
you write it.
An example of an assignment I got in early 2015; the launch of the new BMW X5 Hybrid. It
was clear to me that this is a bold car, but also a beautiful one, it can drive on electricity but
also on fuel. A mix of old and new and I also got a strong Beauty&the Beast feeling about
this product. Not the musical of course, I mean the pretty looks and the brutal motor, the
mix of aesthetics and raw power. So, the music should represent that. Besides that, I knew
that there were to be live dancers and even flying dancers/acrobats planned in that launch,
and that it would be in Shanghai, China. The film was being shot at the same moment as I
was writing so I was leading and I had to write the music without film. The film would be cut
to my music. In the corporate world this is pretty standard and in that way different from the
movie world. So, what do we have here; hybrid, beauty versus beast, dance/ choreography,
flying acrobats and the Wow moment at the end when the product, in this case the new car,
is introduced to the audience, the world press, the world. I also know that these press
conferences and Product Launches are very, very important for companies. The whole world
press will be there, all the big shot CEOs and the competition are watching too!
Now listen to what I came up with:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/music-for-bmw-x5-hybrid
Electronic music, dramatic but now sounding but theres also a live violin, heavy beats but
also pretty strings and some real drums, heavy bass synths in dubstep style but also a great
building chord progression. (I also added a lot of sound fx, because film guys usually love
these to edit to).
When all is ready and the client has approved I usually do one more session adding fx at

special moments in the film. This makes it more interactive and more powerful.
You can see the final result here, although its only filmed with an iPhone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoWxoFTb8H0
Whenever you get stuck in the writing process, you go back to the Folder. Listen to what is in
there and get instant inspiration that steers you in the right direction again. A small sound or
the way another track is mixed will give new ideas you can use in your new track. This has
helped me greatly over the past years and it can help you.
Composing can be a lonely job, working alone under the pressure of a deadline and people
calling you every 2 hours asking when the music will be ready.. so you need something to fall
back on. The Folder is your chosen path, the way you think your music should sound for this
particular job. The Folder will help you every time!

Rule #3 Buy Time

Time; the one thing you have never enough of
What is the worst thing that can happen when youre working hard in your studio?
Besides ProTools crashing of course Its being disturbed time after time!
It kills your creativity and especially when you get stressed people on the phone it totally
changes the mood youre in. This ends your creative moment in a bad way and its hard to get
back into it again. When you work alone like me and dont have an assistant its hard to find
the peace of mind to compose while still running your business. You have to pick up the
phone because it can be an important message or a new job. So whats the answer here?
Its buy yourself time!
To buy time I start working really early.
At 6 or 7 in the morning Im in the studio. Ive discovered that Im really creative and
productive at that time. I always manage to write and record a nice track by the time its 1 in
the afternoon.
Clients wont start calling before 10 or 11 in the morning, which means at least 4 hours of
quiet quality time in my studio. Grab a cup of coffee and start working this could work for
you too!
Get in early the night before and youll see that youre more creative when youre not
disturbed. Im actually creatively at my best in the early morning, very focussed.
Prepare like we discussed in rule # 1 and #2, have a Plan and make a Folder, then go to bed
early and make sure to set your alarm clock! Try it, youll be surprised how much calmer youll
feel, despite the pressure of a tight deadline. Youll start with fresh ears and a long day ahead
of you. This feeling of having a long day to work will give you a feeling of control and a
relaxed mindset, which will make you write better and be more creative. I often have jobs that
require me to write, record, mix and master a whole song in 2 days. It can be done, but you
need these days to be very creative and fruitful. I know most of you out there are used to
making long nights without sleep, but I firmly believe that with fresh ears and starting early
instead, you will get much better musical results.
Try it, buy yourself time!

Rule #4 Be intuitive!
Intuitive Music Writing 2.0
This is a very important one! Like with rule# 2 the Folder, you need to trust your first
emotion, your gut feeling. Whenever writing chords or a theme, making a sound, mixing,
writing lyrics etc. be intuitive. Trust your musicality. Rest assured that you will know what is
the best musical decision immediately.
99% of the time your initial idea will be the best, changing it against that first feeling will
result into long hours of unsatisfied feelings and struggle. If you trust these intuitive feelings,
you will know which things need to be better and which to leave alone. After the intuitive
choices, the hard work of finding that better chord, sound or voice will start. But again,
when you find it.. you will know and you have to stick with it immediately! Ive tested some
extreme Intuitive Music Writing a while ago and called it: Intuitive Music Writing 2.0
Being in the business that I am, Ive learned to trust my musical gut. Being able to write,
record, mix and master a song, including the lyrics, in a short amount of time, and have a
happy client, is part of the daily life of a corporate composer. Looking back on how I started
and what Ive learned, it all comes down to musical knowledge, taste or sometimes being able
to adjust my own taste to that of the customer, the right mindset and trusting my musical
guts. Maybe a better words for gut would be intuition, musical intuition! Being intuitive
when you write and trusting you first instinct. Your initial ideas are almost always the best. We
sometimes lose these initial ideas by overthinking or by going into detail too soon.
You might argue that all your music is done intuitive, but hear me out, im going to take it a
few steps further
Pitfalls!
Regarding going into detail too soon; I see this a lot with my students and a conversation
during class might go something like this: Student: listen to that bass drum, I have layered 10
kicks! Me; Eh, well yeah, the kick sounds nice but your song sucks!..But, Ive used 20
synths for this chorus part!, eh yeah, but your song still sucks (And I say this with a
smile, of course).
Another pitfall can be the use of plugins when you just keep searching for a sound, going
through hundreds of presets and lose many hours on that. Picking sounds should be intuitive
too! Dont waste time on all these presets. Decide fast if you need piano, strings, or whatever,
and when finished, record or bounce these tracks to an audiotrack. Then kill the plugin so
you wont be able to go back easily. Again, trust you instincts, be intuitive. It will save huge
amounts of time, but more importantly it will keep the creative process alive. Learn to mix
while you write, make the right choices and pick the right sounds. Do it, be intuitive!
Be Intuitive 2.0
So, I took my be intuitive workflow even further. Trusting my own musical intuition when
working alone is great, but what about working with other musicians in the same way?
Could this be done? Usually when I hire musicians like horn players, cellists, violinists,

drummers or bass players my track is pretty much ready and it just needs that live feel of a
really good musician. (Real instruments always win from plugins and midi stuff imo. It is
more difficult to get the sound right, but it immediately becomes your own sound, where
the plugin sound is being used by many, many others). The musicians I am lucky to work with
are very talented, but i always have the feeling I am not using their talent to the full extent. So
I tried something new. I asked two wonderful musicians and long-time friends of mine into
my studio, a world-class drummer and an amazing bass player. I set up some nice mics and we
made sure everything sounded great. The kit was miced with 8 mics (kick, snare, tom1, tom2,
stereo OH, room mic about 2 mtrs in front of the kit) and the bass player had his pedalboard
with a couple of effects and a DI. I played guitar and keys myself. All went into my UA
Apollo and Protools and we were ready to go But, this time we had no chords, no plan, no
lyrics, nothing!

Pic of us three recording intuitively

All I did was call out some keywords before we started; words like indie, up, positive
vibe, Brit- poppish etc.. and a Key to play in of course. Immediately, we started playing
andrecording! Yes, the first time we improvised a song in that particular style we
immediately recorded bass, drums and guitars! I cannot tell you in words how well this
worked. It was simply magic! Unbelievable! We wrote 9 songs in one afternoon and I love
them all. The groove, the feeling, the freshness, the excitement, its all there. What a great
experience. Very, very inspiring indeed! So, all these tracks where one-takers! We had to write
songs so we kept it simple and basic, sometimes we called out chords while playing, but
otherwise it was pure intuitive writing.

Pic: Rogier playing through his pedalboard

Keywords
I used keywords or we listened to some tracks for inspiration in a particular style.
For instance, I like the Black Keys very much, so we listened to some tracks of theirs very
shortly. The drummer starting retuning his kit and the bass player picked up an appropriate
bass and changed his pedals to get a gritty sound. And off we went within 5 minutes a
groove, a riff, some chords were found and I started up ProTools.. Thats it! Done. Pure
music and emotion. Creating the sound right at the beginning, before recording, is very, very
important! When youre finished recording, you wont need EQ or lots of extra time to get
the sound right in the mix. So if, for instance, you want to sound like the sixties or
seventies dont use a high pitched snare or a 6-string bass. This may seem obvious, but its
actually one of the most common mistakes I see my students make in the recording process.
Most of the songs we recorded were over 5 minutes in length, so later on I cut the best bits
into a shorter version of 3:30 to 4 minutes max. Then, I used the same intuitive writing tools
to write the lyrics. I just started singing.. again, no plan, just me singing and improvising. I
believe that, when you get into the music, your mind is set. Then the right words just come
out, intuitively pushing you in the right direction, the direction the song needs! After that, I sit
down with a cup of coffee and finish 90% of the lyrics within an hour. Remember; this is all
about being intuitive and believing that your mindset and musical ability are at their best when
challenged. This is what I truly believe! It will make you productive and happy. Its like playing
live with a great band. Sometimes the magic just happens. I want to be able to recall these
magic moments at any time. Ill explain how to write using key words in your every-day life as
a composer for clients in rule #5.
Deadlines..
I love deadlines, I need them to perform effectively, I need the pressure to help me make
decisions. I write music! The mindset to write, perform and do the best you can at that very
moment. Being so focused on purely creating is a beautiful thing. Addictive even.. So give
yourself a deadline, make a deal with a fellow musician, make a promise and keep it. Force
yourself into writing and finish at that agreed

Pic: Dave playing an unknown kit

SOUNDCLOUD!
Ive put some snippets of the tracks we recorded on that magical day up on Soundcloud.
The first Soundcloud link is of the unmixed ideas, straight after we recorded them. All the
drums, bass parts and guitars are one-takers done without a chord sheet. It really is the first
and only time we played these notes together. I hope I inspired some of you out there to try
this also. My guess is youll be amazed on how much useable material will come out of it. It
gives us back an old school band feel and, mixed with the modern day DAWs, you get the
best of both worlds.
Links to SoundCloud:
Music examples Intuitive Writing
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/music-examples-for-my-blog-nr-2
And the finished songs (which can also be purchased on iTunes)
http://www.erwinsteijlen.com/until-mars/
What do you need to start:
a (home) studio or a room where you can record live instruments
some mics, a DAW and some headphones.. Basic knowledge on how to record drums,
bass, guitar and keys
a couple of good musicians who understand the what you are trying to achieve
key words or an idea for the musical direction
no egos! Its all about the songs, not difficult fills, solos, etc.. These can be added later if
needed, but only after the vocals are there!
you can also have a singer present who can record his ideas immediately, along with your

jam

Pic of the album cover of Until Mars on iTunes

Rule #5 Keyword Writing

How to do it and how to use it
In this rule well talk about how to read keywords and how to use them. There will be
examples of keywords I have been given for assignments over the years and you can listen to
how the music turned out in the end. Reading the given keywords well for a job is not always
easy, but very important. Sometimes the client has no idea what they want, but usually there
will be some directions and words that hint towards what they want and like or how they feel
about their brand musically. Its your job to make these directions and keywords audible in the
music, to turn these keywords into real music. The client needs to feel like he or she somehow
wrote it with you. When I get pitches from music supervisors, the keywords are always
clear and musical. But from some not-so-musical businessmen it can be hard to see and feel
what they want. Sometimes it feels like you have to write exactly whats in a clients head
without being given any useful information. This can be tough, if not impossible.
Some years ago I needed to save the day for a friend of mine, who has a great video company
and does amazing work in 3D. It was a job for KLM/AirFrance, the Royal Dutch Airline. A
couple of other composers seemed to have failed and now there were only a few days left
before the unveiling of a new way of flying business class with KLM was to take place.
There were seven levels of interference between KLM (the client) and myself! Seven! And
I call it interference because all it really is sometimes is noise that needs to be cancelled out.
Seven levels means seven agencies, like advertising, event, food, film and video agencies that
all had their own thoughts on how this unveiling should be done, and worse; what it should
sound like.
When I said yes to this assignment, it was almost weekend. I knew I wouldnt be getting
much sleep, but that it was going to be as difficult as it was, I had not anticipated. All these
different agencies are scared to trust somebody they dont know and they all think they know
best what the client wants and needs. Better than I do. Taste, however, is a difficult sense and
keywords can be interpreted in many ways. These hip ad agencies can have a tendency of
overrating their own taste and abilities, and that was certainly the case this time. They wanted
the music to be like the White Stripes or something underground grungy, unshaven, a dirtyt-shirt kind of festival track. But to me this didnt fit at all! Look at KLMs logo, its a swan for
crying out loud! This is a huge airplane company that has millions of customers and wants to
attract the richest people on earth with this new service. So it should seem obvious that
alternative rock is not what came to mind when I started writing.
I made my first version of what I thought should be the direction and sent it as an mp3.
These advertising guys were so busy that they could only listen on their iPhones!? They
didnt like my direction and kept hammering on their on style of choice. They refused to let
the client decide, so KLM didnt have the chance to listen to what I had come up with.
To make a long story short; after 5 different tries they still couldnt make up their minds and I
pulled the plug. I quit this gig. Its no use when there are too many decision makers on
board who have no trust in the composer.
However, my friend send my first draft to KLM and - what do you know - they loved it! So, in

the end my first version was used and the reveal was a huge success. I never heard a thing
from those hipsters, of course. This is a no-compliments business, so you had better get
used to it.
Now, what about those keywords. Here are some examples:
For an assignment I received for the new BMW M4 GTS, a seriously fast supercar, I received
these keywords:
Bold, heavy, grungy, powerful.
As usual, I was leading and the film came after the music. This show was in Tokio, Japan and
music had to be delivered asap.
This is what I came up with:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/m-4-launch
I am usually careful not to go over the edge or to be too extreme, because most of the time
clients dont like that (unfortunately). So the M4 music is a bold mix of orchestral with
modern electronic and dance sounds, mixed all quite heftily. But, my music was turned down.
Why? Heres the feedback I got:
I like this track. However I was expecting something different. I think the tempo is too slow
and it should be more heavy and wild right from the start. It should fit to the fast driving
sequences (without seeing this material until now). Its too sublime and majestic for me, it
should be more extroverted and rude. I would also love a hint of Japan in the music, since
this launch is in Tokio.
I love the dark bass in this track, please keep it!
Pretty good to get such musical feedback. Unfortunately for me he didnt like my first track,
but its not often that I get positive or musical feedback, so I became inspired to write a new
one.
Heres what I came up with. It is unusual for a company like BMW to accept this kind of
music, but they liked it. I also enjoyed making a heavy rock track like this.
Important: I used Anime and Manga movies as the inspiration for the hint of Japan!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nd0Lc4TAIGw
Heres the final feedback I got:
Great! Love it! Lets do it like this. It turned out really cool!
Its pretty unusual to receive a compliment, but I got one this time and thats nice! After all, us
musicians need some applause every once in a while.
A nice job I got this summer was to write the Anthem for a newly-built horse riding stadium,
the Champions League of horse jumping. A Global Tour for worlds best riders was to be
held here and this event would be witnessed by the rich and famous, including Bruce
Springsteen and Elton John. Apparently the first composers did not do well, so they came to
me with only 4 days left. I took the assignment after a nice phone call and here are the

keywords and briefing I received:

We need an anthem for this new stadium and our show idea is DJ meets Orchestra.
It must grow from small to big, have a great melody line and can be sturdy, cool and a little bold. These horses
and their drivers are tough and sometimes rough. They want energy in the music, but nothing too much boom,
boom, boom. It must sound like now, but no loud house music.
I also knew that 2 days in Wisseloord Studios were booked for recordings. I love that great
studio and was happy to work there again! (theres an interview with the CEO and Founder
of the re-vitalised Wisseloord Studios later on in the book).
I had recorded my theme song for the Tour The France at Wisseloord in 2010 and knew it
would be a pleasure recording there again.
About 100 musicians and artists were booked for this show, including string players, horn
players, percussionists, singers and dancers, and all should have a part in the Anthem. Heres
the final music:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/dj-meets-orchestra-opening-stadium-stal-tops
Here are some keywords I got for a VW show in Brazil.
Together Family Friends Dreams Ideas a spark Inspiration Innovation Future Technology Responsible
dynamic driving Passion shaping dreams
Nice words that give a feeling and are pretty useful for writing music.
Another example I from a while back from a client who needed 3 tracks:
Music 1: minimal, rippling, little bit emotional, piano maybe
Music 2: optimistic, happy, bright feeling, bubbling
Music 3: industrial-techno
What do you think, could you pull it off ?
The strangest keywords I have been given over the years were for Philips and their Ambilight
tvs. The show was in Berlin with a very modern and, well, different dance group that had
to perform inside a building with hundreds of tv screens. All the info I received for the music
was colors: green, red, purple, blue and yellow.
It came out nicely too, client liked my purple music especially ;-)
A good example is the music I wrote for BMWs concept car presentation in Beijing, China.
A modern choreography by Joost Vrouenraets with ropes and lights and classical ballet
dancers. I used piano, cello and electronics for this piece. However, I had a hard time
convincing the responsible BMW person of my musical choices and I ended up (quite
frustratedly) sending her this letter:
Dear ,
First of all I would like to point out that it is absolutely necessary to listen on good speakers or headphones to
give good feedback. A laptop just wont do! Furthermore one must look at the bigger picture and not just focus
in on small sounds or let ones own personal taste prevail. Its my job to write music that fits the brand,

choreography, film, event, ambience and audience, all at the same time. So I will make decisions that would not
necessarily be my own taste, but are the right ones to bind all the above factors together. Concerning the opening
and reveal I would rather go more minimal, arty and daring. Make a statement, just like the car does.
However, when my keywords and briefing tell me otherwise, I oblige. Reveal: This piece is based on a triplet
feel, as the piano starts with triplets and these, over the next 3 minutes, grow and grow. We go from one little
piano on the high notes all the way to a big orchestra with modern beats, real drums and percussion in the end.
From small to really big.
Part 1, for me, represents the turning parts of the car. The wheels, the parts in the engine. Everything that is
hidden and constantly moving, allowing the car to drive smoothly and allowing for a superb driving experience.
So these triplets are the base of everything in the car and thus also my music. Taking them out would be like
removing the engine from the car. As for changes: Over 30 seconds have been cut out of part one. Also the
high notes dont play anymore in the track, except for part one, but have been made much lower in volume.
The really high notes are played on glass to give a brilliant and fresh sound, but maybe these are the ones the
client doesnt like. I can adjust these easily. The first 7 seconds (15 in V1) are there to make a transition
between movie and dance. Also, they give the dancers time to assume their position on stage. At 7 seconds the
other piano comes in, giving warmth and lowering tension. At 22 seconds, a live drummer has played drums
and percussion and you can hear him start to playing cymbals and hi-hat very clearly. These werent there in
V1. The build in this part 1 V2 is much faster. Also, mix adjustments where made all over, constantly
improving the sound, but you will need to listen over a good set of speakers! The piano triplets are also very
good for classical ballet and widely used by composers all over the world. They speak for classy, classical,
beauty, tension (something is about to happen, the start of something) all at the same time. In part 2, the cello
starts. I find the stop where the strings fade and the solo snaredrum plays very beautiful and strong (40 sec).
The dancers need points in the music which they can respond to, moments things that stand out rythmically or
with sound fx or hits. This is one of those moments which dancers need and can respond to very well. So
making this change more smoothly is not what I would advice. Keep it strong, like it is. Like holding ones
breath, one moment of silence before touching the accelerator and a beautiful drive through the countryside and
woods starts. Tomorrow I will record a real cello and this will make a big difference. One has to be able to
listen through this, it is a work in progress, after all. From 1:13 the real drums start playing. This gives alot
more depth and reallness to the music. More movement and colour. Human feel in combination with machines
and technical devices. Just like the car. Part 2, for me, is about the beauty of the car, the cello plays lyrical
lines, gives emotion and feeling. But, in the background there still is the engine working smoothly with its
triplets. Part 3. I have to make another 20 seconds of music there. It will have more build, but first I want to
record the cello and see how that inspires. This part 3 is about now, the modern high-tech times. Combining
old with new, cello with beats, real drums with synths and orchestra with samples and dance music. At around
2 minutes the real drums kick in again, giving more life and movement. Try and see the 12 dancers moving,
look at the total result of whats happening. Strong music combined with strong dancers, film, the car. All
together it will be a great and strong statement. We have to go for the edge, not the middle of the road imo.
That is not what this car is about and not what this music should be about. Emotion is what people
remember, its what people talk about, what moves them. That is what I do my utmost best for to achieve. I
have to say that asking me to write music that has to fit other music but that Iam not allowed to hear is an
impossible task. So the only thing I can do is write the best I can, given the keywords, feedback, time and
budget. In my opinion, thats exactly what I did and what Im doing.
Best, Erwin Steijlen

I got no reply, but the music was accepted and the event a big success. When you work hard
at your music, and you have really thought about what is right, you sometimes have to make a
stand. It can go both ways, depending on the who youre addressing.
Have a listen to the end result:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVe1WL1C34Q
I get many pitches from music supervisors looking for music to synch. Songs and
instrumentals for commercials, tv and film.
Heres what they look like:
We have a briefing in from a music supervision firm for an undisclosed (but very
recognizable) client in the mobile industry. They are seeking a sexy R&B track.
Looking for songs with vocals only for this one.
From client:
Keywords: R&B, sexiness, swagger, self-confident, party poppin!
Overall, we want a track with a modern R&B/hip-hop feel that has some some selfcongratulating swagger to it. Think Genuine, R. Kelly, etc. Music that is ironically
fantastic. A bedroom track that has energy, impact and confidence and is not
sleepy. Think R. Kelly Ignition and not Barry White.
Track could be from a current/emerging artist or something from the 90s when this
genre reigned supreme (but must fit within budget!).
Should have a great beat, not sleepy.
A track to match our lead characters confidence and attitude. He thinks hes the
shit and we want something that would be the first track on one of his playlists.
Lyrical connection pertaining to: meeting you, loving you, I found you, come to me,
sexiness, party popping, optimism, just got paid, confidence, popping champagne,
looking good, feeling good, getting ready for a party or to have fun.
Terms / usage: Global Digital 1 yr. Broadcast 3-6 months (limited to US, Brazil,
India). No Retail. Industrial 1 yr. Material is 1 x :45 with cut-downs and revisions for
territory. Budget: $25K to you (max).
Good info here and a nice budget. Most of these pitches are pretty short notice, max 2 days
and usually even shorter. This means its hard, if not impossible to write, record, mix and
master something entirely new. You can, however, send in anything that fits.
Another one looked like this:
We have a cool new search in from a MAJOR music supervision firm. This is for a
Motorola spot. The spot is already live right now in some markets with the track in
the video, and they are working on replacing this music.
Heres some information from the client on exactly what theyre looking for: We are
looking for an up-tempo, colorful, worldly track with modern pop/dance influence. It

can toy with modern/electronic beats or breakbeats but SHOULDNT be

predominantly electronic or bassy. Track needs to have a great, consistent beat to
drive visuals. It should be an exciting and fun track. Again, not too bass-heavy or
clubby and not overly electronic. The music is going to replace an existing track on a
spot which is already released in some markets. The client likes the spot and wants to
do more with it. That includes revving up the music to see what else might fit. Please
refer to this only for the visual reference, but apply the creative direction included in
this brief. (SEE ABOVE FOR LINK TO SPOT.)
KEYWORDS: uptempo, worldly vibe, modern pop/dance influence, consistent, upbeat, exciting, fun, colorful.
ARTIST REFERENCES: Robyn, (the lighter/tropical side of) Major Lazer, Little
Boots. Terms / usage: 1 x :30 ad (unlimited lifts, edits, tags and versions for
localization); Broadcast TV (Brazil only), internet and industrial, worldwide, 6
months (In perpetuity for social media with respect to posts occurring within the
allotted term)
Budget: $30K all-in to you.
And another example:
Were working on an AWESOME search for some BADASS music for a CARLS JR.
spot. The product being advertised is the Mushroom and Swiss All-Natural Burger.
Heres some specific music direction from our client:This track needs to be Bad
ass. It wouldnt surprise you to see this track played as a Victorias Secret model
crushes the runway or a beautiful pole-dancing model seduces poor little business
men. Slowly-paced. The visuals of the spot are slow moving vignettes of sexy images,
so the music needs to reflect this. The instrumentation is sparse and not overdone.
Masculine. It shouldnt feel cute, or whimsical in any way at all. That said, were still
open to female vocals (as well as male).
Minimal Vocals. We need this to be an instrumental, or very sparse vocals.
We will have a VO in conjunction with it. If vocals are present, female is preferred.
Contemporary. We would like a piece of music that feels fresh and current. Even if
its a rock track, it feels like something youd hear at Coachella, and not from the 90s
arena rock tour Lyrically Relevant. This is an all-natural burger, which means it has
no antibiotics, steroids or hormones. As an added bonus (but not entirely essential) it
would be great if some of the vocals had themes of going all natural, wanting it,
taking it off, etc. Its okay if it skews naughty and sexually suggestive. Again, we
know this is a big ask, so its a nice-to-have. For directional purposes, some early
tracks we are liking are:
The Black Keys - Shes Long Gone (Lyrically, this doesnt fit, but we like the raw,
sexy blues riffs, and the pacing)
Beyonce - Partition (This captures the mysterious, dark, sexiness we are looking for)
Banks - Begging For Thread (The dark instrumentation is what we gravitated

towards)
Peaches - Mud (we like the sexy, distressed, slowly paced, sexy instrumentation)
Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know (Seriously cool walking riff)
Terms / usage:Materials: 1x:30 & 1x:15 (with edits, and versions, etc)Terms: 6 months
TV, 1 year Internet, Industrial & PR.Territory: North America (includes Mexico and
Canada), New Zealand, Costa Rica, Panama. Worldwide with respect to the Internet.
Media: TV, Internet,
Industrial, PR
Budget: $22,500 to you.
All very clear on what they need, great pitches to work on.
Let me tell you a little about some tracks I sold through synching.
Eco Pop; This little instrumental did well for me. Originally written for a Seat corporate
video. When I later sent it to some music supervisors, it got used by Delta Airlines, VW and
for US tv commercials by Verizon Fios, Clairol and Time Warner. (The piano I manipulated
with Waves H-Delay by turning the feedback knob and recording its random effects. People
like this different use of the piano and its one of the reasons this track was used so much).
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/eco-pop
This Unstoppable Fire; a track I call my ode to U2, since I love their simple but effective
use of chords and fantastic delayed guitar sounds. I first made this for a VW corporate film in
France, but it was later used by LG, Hitachi, Siemens, Honda, Delta Airlines and many more.
(Have a listen also to the amazing bass lick by Rogier Wegberg at 1:21 min)
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/this-unstoppable-fire
Walk The Line; a song I originally wrote for Wrangler who did an MTV commercial with it
and a fashion show. Later I did a complete re-recording and it was used in US tv series
Parenthood. The instrumental version was used by Jaguar for their XF car commercial and a
game called Hazard Ops. Link to Jaguar commercial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS0jKcJAvPM
Link to Hazard Ops trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvyHjFQ_odk
Heres the hard rocking song:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/walk-the-line
Makin Me Dance: this happy song was used in US tv series Ben & Kate, The Mentalist and
Pretty Little Liars:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/makin-me-dance
One thing you can discover in all these tracks is that they are a little bit out of the ordinary.
Remember the drawing of the circle stating you should be just as good as your heroes, but try

to be one different? Walk The Line, Makin Me Dance and Eco Pop are one different.
Listen to the quirky piano in Eco Pop and how the vocals are mixed in Makin Me Dance.
There are different fx on almost every word in the verses. The loud rock track Walk The Line
was inspired by Johnny Cash and mixes loud guitars with dance synths and different vocals
in sound and vocal style. Just a little bit off but remarkable. They are not your usual song,
and therefore they provoke a reaction from people who are looking for something cool, new
and different. Ill explain what I did in these tracks musically in the plugin chapter later on in
the book. Some typical keyword examples for BMW look like this:

Rule #6 No Demos Please

Never send your client a demo!
The corporate world is full of pros, but theyre not musicians! Most of the time theyre not
even musical! They are busy people who build and sell products and they have absolutely no
idea how hard it is to write and record music in a short period of time (and make it sound like
their favorite cd). But that happens to be exactly what they want and expect from you! You
need to deliver a track and a sound which they can relate to. So sending them a demo (eh, now
you hear an acoustic guitar but thats gonna be an orchestra, and me singing um,um,um thats gonna be a
standing bass) is the same as throwing your idea or track away. They wont get it and you
will lose all the time you spent working on it. Every time you send in an unfinished track you
will get turned down and youll lose all of your work. The client wants to hear something
great asap, your agent will need to hear something great asap, the director, the film crew, the
choreographer and so on.. They all want to hear your music and they will all tell you that they
can listen to a rough demo. They will all tell you that they understand how it works and that
they can listen through the demo sound. Losing your work sucks, obviously, so be prepared
for that question and be prepared with an answer. You cannot expect your clients to
understand what you mean when it isnt recorded well yet or the sounds are a bit strange in
the demo stage. They just wont understand! And can you blame em? Nope, so your answer
should be:
Youll get it when Im ready. Also, clients have a tendency to reacting to small things. They
can react pretty heftily to a relatively unimportant effect or a synth sound. You have to learn
to read their feedback. It will not be musical and many times Ive interpreted it the wrong
way. I would make a whole new track thinking they didnt like what I had recorded, while the
only problem was really small, but to their ears, strange sound. Also, they almost never give
compliments, as they feel they hired you, you are just doing the work you are paid for. There
are exceptions, of course, but especially the German customers are known for this way of
giving feedback. But its also true that German clients pay well and always put you in the best
hotels. Its just the way they do business and how their system works. Youre stepping into
their business system and their business model, so you need to be able to adjust yourself a
little. What I do most of the time to save time and money is sing the first version of a
corporate song myself. Usually only na,na,na,nas.. with some keywords they really want in.
I Melodyne myself 100% and this way show the client how the vocal line goes and how
strong the chorus is. Its either that or recording a singer who you have to pay for singing
nanananas Since you are a small company, doing most of the work yourself keeps the
budget in your pocket and keeps it interesting for the client because you can be cheaper than
the larger competitors. But, be honest about your singing! If its really a no-go to record
yourself as a singer, then either play the vocal line with an instrument (pref. piano or,
depending on the style, a good violin sample) or hire a singer. I usually have a singer in my
first offer. There are also singers who can record quite well themselves. It can save time and
money when they record your nananas in their own studio. Get yourself a network of
great musicians who have their own studios.

Rule #7 Less is More

Make quick, intuitive musical decisions in your DAW
Less is more, is a phrase from the Robert Browning poem Andrea del Sarto, also called
The Faultless Painter published in 1855. Its been used for minimalistic architecture, but is
just as true for music and even how you work in your DAW.
Dont have too many plugins in your DAW. Buy the ones that work for you and learn to work
with them. Learn the ins and outs. This will give you your sound faster and it will give you a
better chance of making your deadline. Again, trust your intuition! Rule #4, Be Intuitive,
works in your DAW too. Dont go looking for the right synth sound by clicking through your
presets folder, because it can take hours and hours. Think about what you need (percussive
sound, string sound, organ, modern synth sound etc) and then choose asap. When you
have a couple go-to plugs or, even better, some hardware to choose from, pick these. Less is
more.
Heres another workflow you may find useful; record all MIDI generated sounds to an audio
track. Stick to your original idea and gut feeling, then make some notes in your DAW under
the MIDI track and kill the plugin. This way all your MIDI becomes audio real quick. This is
very old school and just like recording a real instrument. It forces you to do the best you
can as fast as you can. Again, intuitive and creative before endless tweaking and surfing
through thousands of presets. Stick to your ideas and make intuitive choices. Remember that
in earlier days, like when the Beatles recorded, they didnt have DAWs and endless tracks to
record to. They had to fight about the arrangement and then choose what they wanted the
most; an extra tom track, or more backing vocals? An extra horn recording or a keyboard
part? Having to make these decisions is a good thing! The music gets better this way. The
proof is in thousands of great songs and recordings from that period. It really forces you to
think about your music and arrangement.
So, make choices and commit. Your track will be better in the end. Dont put too many ideas
in one track. Try to be clear about your plan and goal and try to do it with as few chords and
ideas as possible. Do too much and clients will reject your music. Simple, clear ideas, well
played, well recorded and well mixed will get an immediate approval. Less is always more
because your idea is clearly heard. It can be hard working by yourself, so take a break once in
a while, walk the dog and listen to your music again. List the strong points and decide what
could be better. Decide what you really need, dont be scared to throw away material you
worked very hard on. If it makes the track better, do it. Maybe you have a good friend who
you trust and knows about music. Ask him what he/she likes or not about your track.
My wife who does not play an instrument and has nothing to do with the musical world
whatsoever has always been very honest with me about my music. I ask her to sit down in my
studio and listen to what I have so far. I then watch her and see how she reacts. I must admit,
I get annoyed when I see doubt in her eyes, or when she frowns, but in the end, she is
(almost) always right.
She does not care about difficult chords, ten layered kicks or arpeggios at 180 Bpm, she just
responds with her heart and is completely honest with me. Shes like the client in many cases.

I do push her out of my domain once in a while, angry that she didnt like what I wrote that
day. But most of the times she is right and I make changes to my music.
Keep your ideas simple and put as much passion and effort into it as you can. Its all about
emotion and nothing else.
When it needs to be beautiful, make it really, really beautiful
When it needs to be heavy, make it really, very heavy
When it needs to be dark, then make it dark..
What Im trying to say here is youve got to make clear choices, choices that other people
understand and can relate to. Your music will be so much stronger and your clients will love
you for it. This may sound easy, but this rule is hard to follow. Less is More..

Rule #8 How to get Client focus

Force your client to concentrate on your music and may the Force be with you
Corporate clients usually dont have headphones or great speakers in their office, so expect
remarks about not enough bass in their feedback. (They will listen on their laptops and then
complain unreasonably.. yup, they will, I promise). So heres a good tip on how to get your
music approved quicker and how to make your client happy. First; on every email I send with
a close-to-final version of my music I will put LISTEN ON HEADPHONES OR
SPEAKERS! in capitals!
Now, heres the great tip!
Write a detailed letter or email in which you explain your music second by second and minute
by minute. Ill start something like this:
0.00 0.10 sec Intro, dark feeling, lights flash, audience sense something is going to
happen
0.10 0.20 sec Beat starts, singer walks on stage. People focus on film etc, etc..
Here are some examples:
A song I wrote for the Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards.
I think I managed to put all the keywords in and this song fits the Awards 100% imo.
Please listen on headphones and remember that the electric guitar now plays the vocal part Antje Monteiro will
sing in the final version.
Please read while listening:
00.00 - 00.18 Intro, orchestral. Lights go down, just one spotlight on our singer, Antje, who walks on stage
00.18 - 00.54 Verse 1, the sensitive part, Antje is singing softly and emotionally
00.54 - 01.38 Chorus. This is the tears bit. Very emotional, sensitive and catchy
01.38 - 01.49 Popband starts playing. Sound changes, becomes more modern, Antje may sing an ad lib here
01.49 - 02.23 Verse 2. Like verse 1, only happier
02.23 - 02.54 Chorus again, but now its bigger and very positive
02.54 - 03.11 The Bridge. Here, Antje will start to really sing and show what she can do with her voice.
Orchestra is playing again
03.12 - 03.29 Music goes down and Antje will be singing the chorus here, but smaller, sweeter and a bit
more freely
03.29 - 03.46 Band and orchestra come back in. The choir starts and Antje will sing ad libs
03.46 - -04.04 Outro part. Antje keeps singing the title and the most important lyrics in the song and the
event Entrepreneur of the Year. Let her sing to the winner, make it personal and
emotional. Lights will be important here!

04.04 Ending. Antje can walk away or stay for the applause.
I think everything is in this song: pride, emotions, wow-factor, its catchy, big, grand, positive and everything
fits Antje and the event. Its all there
Another example, this time for the new Opel Insignia launch.
This live presentation of the new Insignia to the world press was with a film and a live dancer.
Very interactive, since the dancer was both on film and present live.
I think the music came out very cool
Nice mix between classical, orchestral, big, but also modern and now just like the car Please read while
you listen:
00.00 - 00.45 tension, build, something is about to happen atmosphere
00.45 - 01.20 Bigger, more classical, wide, film part
01.20 - 01.47 Dubstep style, dance part for the live dancer
01.47 - 02.02 4x4 dance beat, more positive
02.02 - 02.32 Filmpart. big, warm, emotional
02.32 - 03.03 Pretty, build, I added a voice
03.03 - 03.43 Dubstep variation, live dance part 2
03.43 - 04.12 Finale. Live dance and film together. Beats and orchestral together
04.12 - 04.27 Beats are gone for a moment, beauty, wide, big. Nice moment for the car to start driving
04.27 - 04.46 Beats are back, build to ending
04.46 Ending with tata feeling and a Picardian Third (look that one up ;-)
A unfinished preview version of the above track can be seen on this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTQ80Zuwgrk
The above examples show how effective these focus tricks can be. This way, the client has to
focus on your music and will visualize what he or she is hearing. This really works very well.
This even works so well that once, when I wrote music (with my explaining email) for a pitch,
the agent I was hired by liked my email and ideas so much that he pretended it was all his
idea, presented my email to his client and got the job!
Damn, no extra money for me.. but it proves how well this works. Also, while recording and
writing I will often get ideas that would work well for the show. (Lights, sound, live musicians,
where to be on stage, audience participation, make things more dramatic and emotional with
small changes etc..). I write these down and present them. Often, they end up being used.
Cool!

Rule #9 The Stems Approach

When working for a live event, use stems
Whenever you work for on a live event, then, really early in the process, ask for ProTools or
another DAW live. Your mix might sound great in the studio, but in a big hall filled with
10.000 people chances are it wont. So always make stems for the live mixer. Send him the
client-approved mix, but also multi-mono or stereo tracks of kick, bass, music, fx, choir and
vocal track. All depending on the kind of music of course. He will be eternally grateful,
because the live mix will be 10 times better and your client will be way happier. I am often
competing with big agencies and big composer names on the same event or show. But, they
are often quite arrogant and will not share stems of their mix. In the end, my music live will
definitely sound way better than theirs, the only reason being the stems I provided!
This approach can be used in difficult mixes, too. Sometimes the session gets so big that you
loose control and oversight. Make stems of music, fx, drums, bass instruments, choir, vocals
and export these to a new session. Then start again with adjusting volume and panning, new
reverb, new bus compression. Make your choices easier, get new grip on your mix.

Rule #10 Contracts, what do you need them for?

Handle with care, this is a controversial one
This really is a controversial one. I confess, very often i dont use contracts. What??? I hear
you think. Really??? Well yeah, that may come as a surprise for most of you, but its most
certainly true. I do feel a little ashamed about this, but let me explain..
Clients will hire you for a particular job. For that particular job they will use your music, your
time and your talents. If they want to use it again, they need to pay more. Right!? So, when
you are hired to do a product launch, you will write music for that one launch. Seems logical.
If a client wants to hand out give-aways using that music, fine. If he wants to put the music
on YT or his website, fine. But when he wants to use that music for a radio or tv commercial,
not fine! You would have asked more money if you knew this was what your music would be
used for. I think you can all agree with me on this. Agencies or brands think that, when they
hire you, or me and we write music for them, they immediately get all rights to the music.
Wrong!
Music rights always stay with the composer. Dont let anybody tell you otherwise. Music is
and will always be property of the person who wrote it, until 70 years after his or her death.
Now, what about those contracts?
I see it this way; Contracts work two ways; what you get and what you have to give back, and
what the client wants and what he/she gives back. Its a give and take situation.
Without a contract, you skip this.
This is good? Why?
If I were to make a contract for a client, I would have to put in it that I will make music for a
certain amount of money. I would also put in this contract the situations in which they are
allowed to use it. Here comes the trouble, because if the client thinks they own the rights, he
just learned he doesnt. So the negotiating starts on who owns what and when the client is
allowed to use it.
Then, a 40 page contract will be sent my way and everyone has to start reading the smallprint. That costs a lot of time and effort. These big companies have lawyers and you probably
dont.
But it can be so easy: client needs music for a project, you deliver.
You got some sort of written proof via email, so getting your money shouldnt be a problem.
In the fifteen years Ive been doing this work, I have always got paid! There has been some
trouble and sometimes it takes a while, but I have always gotten my money in the end.
So, why no contract?
No contract means youre free to do with your track what you like after the client has finished
with it (within certain limits of course). It all depends on the sort of job you where hired for.
I firmly believe in the non-exclusive way of thinking, because its the new school way. Get as
much exposure and money (remember: money means freedom) as possible with every track

you write. This would be impossible to achieve with an exclusive contract where you give
your music to a client or a publisher.
For instance: If a track is used in a TV commercial, I wouldnt dream of using it for another
brand unless the other brand is ok with this. If a track is used for a corporate video or a onetime event, after a while I feel, I can use this track again. Why not? In the non-exclusive
publishing world the clients know that the music has been used before and will be used again.
It means they can get it cheaper, while for the composer it means having freedom to place
this track somewhere else, also. So, in the publishing world this is already normal, a standard.
I just decided a long time ago to do it with my clients too. I wrote this music and I didnt sign
anything this means theres no legal reason not to reuse your music. The client got his
music and used it for what we agreed upon (commercial, event, product launch, corporate
video, film etc..) and you get to shop around with your track and sell it over and over again.
Not writing or signing a contract gives you free reign over your own product. Always be
careful though, you dont want to lose your client over this!
If a client really wants to own a track, then you can give them the rights, but I would never do
this. Usually, its ignorance about the facts. They think that they wont have to pay royalties
because they paid for the writing work. Untrue! They think they can do anything they like
with the track. False!
But, if you make a contract you would have to deal with all of these facts and the have
lawyers reading and changing everything.
Decide yourself whats best in any given situation. Whats the best way to deal with that
particular client and assignment. Of course, where a worldwide deal and rights are concerned,
lawyers write contracts and I have to sign. Of course I do, but in other situations you might
be better off without them. I know this is a tricky one but it worked out well for me, so think
about it.
Re-using of music.
Think of it this way; when a client rents a PA and lights for a show they dont expect to keep
it. Then why would they be owners of your song? However, if a client really wants to own the
track, ask for extra money. When a client doesnt want any trouble with YouTube rights (this
happens a lot), tell them that it is the law that decides about rights, not you. What you could
do is to not register that particular track with your Performing Rights Organisation (PRO), so
nobody will know its yours and they wont have to pay for any extra rights. That sucks, of
course, but you keep a good paying customer satisfied. These YT royalties are usually pennies
anyway. Better to keep your customer satisfied and go for the big bucks and have returning
customers. When a client asks for a contract, I give them one, let me make that clear clear. In
15 years I always got my money. It has been difficult once every so often, but in those cases, a
contract wouldnt have helped. My customers are all around the world, so what am I
supposed to do when one in China, Malaysia or Brazil refuses to pay? Fly over and start a
fight? No, this is a business where you need to have some trust and need to be trusted. Client
asks for music, I deliver, and the client pays.
When the event or launch is done, 99,99% of the time, my music is forgotten about. Its sad

but true. Its left in a computer somewhere. Only very rarely will they be used again. Bentley,
for instance loved my World of Bentley song so much that they kept using it. (When the
CEO died, they even played it at the funeral! Wow). So I decided to send music tracks to
libraries and make some extra money with them. This works like a charm, because these
tracks have gone through multiple rounds of feedback and have been approved by big
brands. These companies liked them and paid money for them, so other brands and
companies are likely to like them too! There are tracks I sold over 50 times. This nonexclusive publishing really is a great way to earn money and get your music or band known.
Read the interviews I did with Lee Johnsson of Audiosparx and Jordan Passman of Score A
Score. They are two success stories built on synching music.

Part of the contract for the use of Eco Pop for Verizon Fios.
Every new use was paid extra and I was lucky enough to have many uses..
Conducting
Let me tell you a little, not so pretty story about a composer who did have signed contracts,
but still got into a terrible mess. It goes like this; After working for a client multiple times over
the years, all was well and all collaborations were very successful. A certain trust grows and
you tend not to think about what can go wrong. However, me being as naive as I was some
10 years ago can now be a lesson for all of us.
I did a tough show for the new BMW 7-Series in Munich, Germany. I let them talk me into
conducting the orchestra, which of course I should never have done, since Im no orchestral
conductor! I must admit it is a great feeling of power when you stand there before these great
players and they follow your every move.. Its like having a huge guitar with the biggest amp
ever and sound comes out by waving your arms. I didnt know much about conducting and I

guess I stood there like a kind of fake James Last, smiling and waving a bit. Must have been
funny for the orchestra players, because I saw them shaking their heads and looking at each
other like what is this guy doing?. Well, besides that funny part, this event was very
stressful. The opening went wrong when the movie we had to accompany live started, but I
had no click on my in-ears. So we were late and in no way did the music sync to the film
anymore! It turned out the sound guy forgot to give me volume on my in-ears In the
audience was Chancellor Kohl (boss of Germany at that time) and a lot of other VIPs. They
all stood when I came out on stage with my tailcoat tux, because I was after all, the
conductor. This added considerably to my stress level, I can tell you that. The opening failed
because of the no click situation, but the finale was no pretty sight either. It was way worse!
Picture this; a singer with a 100 meter dress was singing while the dress was slowly being risen
into the air, this way fully hiding the stage and orchestra. The plan was to drop the dress at
the most epic part of the music and then show this new car to the world. However, in order
to do this, an electric system was made to split the orchestra in two parts, it would move the
stage to the left and right. But this little piece of science stopped working before it was fully
open and the car couldnt come through! So instead of conducting, I was pushing and pulling
like crazy together with the roadies and stagehands, thus trying to open this stage for the car
to come through. Picture me giving it all I had to open up such a big part of the stage with so
many people, an entire orchestra, on it. On the other side of the dress was the audience, who
had absolutely no idea what was going on behind that huge piece of fabric. In the last
seconds before the drop, we managed to get the car in, but it lost its side mirrors and got
some serious scratches in the process. All the musicians and myself were totally stressed, but
the audience rose and clapped for the show and the new car. Afterwards, I promised myself
never to play conductor again. At least it ended well, or so I thought.
But, unfortunately, the real problems began when we all went home. The owners of the
company who hired me had apparently sold their company a couple of weeks before, but had
told nobody about it. My client hadnt told his employees either, so everybody found a letter
of resignation in their mailbox. Now, who was going to pay my bills, including that of the
whole orchestra? My client didnt exist anymore and all I heard was that I was supposed to get
my money (and that of all the musicians) from the new owners; a big player from the USA
with its closest department in London, UK. When I approached these people, they had no
idea who I was and why they should pay this bill at all.
I couldnt reach anybody who could or wanted to help and it started to look like I was going
to go bankrupt. I had to pay an enormous amount to the orchestra and I needed the cash also
for my family. It was nearly christmas and I had to borrow money from my parents to pay the
bills, but even worse, I had no idea whether I would get the money at all!
This situation took months and, of course, all the musicians started calling me asking when
they would get their invoice paid. This was a terrible situations in which my contracts didnt
help, because the company I made it with didnt exist anymore. That period gave me a
stomach ulcer and, for months, I thought I didnt have any friends anymore, and just a huge
pile of debt.
Finally, tracing my client, he promised to pay me, but it took several more months to get it all.

He started sending couriers with German marks in envelopes, but every time there was only a
small part of what he owed me. I finally managed to pay everybody and learned a big lesson
to never trust anybody again when such a big amount of money is concerned. I should have
asked for half beforehand. Never, ever take the responsibility for that kind of money! Theres
a risk with every job, but hiring an entire orchestra under my own name and not demanding
any money upfront, was a seriously bad business mistake. It was plain stupid!

Rule #11 Hours or Project?

More Dough Please!
I almost always work on project basis.
I write a detailed offer to my client and specify what I will do for the money.
Writing music is not the same as painting a house or repairing a car. What is a song worth?
How do you decide on the price? It all depends on what its used for. If you really have no
idea what to ask, then be honest and ask for their budget. This worked out great for me a
couple of times (when I got more than I would have asked for). Let them know that hiring
singers and studio musicians is extra and always make them pay for your extra recording time.
By-the-hour payment is normal in the corporate world, so have a daily rate besides the project
price. When things go wrong and you arent to blame, but need to go back into the studio,
then ask for extra money. In my project price, I include one re-write and changes after
feedback. I mix and master most of my music myself, but for songs or big jobs, I let a
mastering pro do the mastering. This is almost always better. Make sure that is also in your
offer.
I usually work on negotiated project prices, but I also have a day and half-day price. The last
two might come in handy for extra editing hours, or if they need you to record a voice-over
and things like that. I have never worked on an hourly rate, myself.
I feel a project price is fairer, since I cant be creative 24 hours a day, so charging clients for a
product, song or instrumental track or mix seems more logical to me.
You can let them know beforehand whether you will do one re-write or two. This way you
can ask for more money if your music is turned down. Sometimes it is difficult when a client
thinks he is clear with his assignment and keywords, but still doesnt think you wrote the right
music for his brand.
You dont want to lose that client, so be careful in asking for more money every time. Its
better to keep the customer satisfied and make some more profit next time. Anyway, a turned
down track can for sure have its uses in the future, for example in synching, so your work will
rarely be for nothing. Only the loss of time and getting in trouble with new deadlines can
make it problematic.
I keep most propositions pretty simple. It will state what Ill do and when Ill deliver. Usually,
I repeat some of the info I have received for that job, what or who I need to hire, if
applicable, and I specify the amount of studio time needed for mixing and mastering. These
propositions are never the same twice and since I am a small company I keep these friendly
and not too corporate.
It might look something like this (translated from dutch):
Hi (name of client),
Thanks for the info and the assignment! Were in a bit of a hurry, looking at your time schedule, but I
definitely get the
feeling of what you want to achieve. If I understand correctly, my music starts after 5:45 minutes, after the

first act. My initial feeling tells me we need a different build for this music. My suggestion would be to build it
more like a dance-track;
1 Give the DJ a bit more time to make a sound and atmosphere
2 Strings come on stage..
3 Etc, etc..
I dont have standard prices, since every assignment is different, but I usually never start working under
3500,00
In this case it might be better to count days. The price for a day is 850,
Ill be working Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday
Also the 2 days of recording in an external studio, like we agreed, (Monday and Tuesday), including mix
and master
The final day (Wednesday) would be for the extra edits you need (Price Giving Ceremony, Lap of Honor etc.)
I wont calculate a full day there, only 500,00
With regards to orchestration and parts for the players, Im happy to do this, but it would be better to ask
someone else, since we we are pressed for time

Rule #12 Never say no to a job!

Work with as many styles possible.
Should you focus on one style? Well, thats what most people seem to think. Its widely taught
at schools that focussing and getting good at one style is the way to go.
I hear this all the time from teachers and composers. It does seem logical; when youre a
band, you need a distinct sound and style. But I always loved bands like Queen for not seeing
any boundaries in what they could do. Whatever song they wrote, it was still Queen. Not
making progress is stagnation. In business, thats killing. Also, doing the same thing over and
over tends to get boring.
A corporate composer cannot just do one style. In my opinion its all about music and you
just have to keep learning! Its great to write a rock song, but also great to make film music,
dance tracks or a piano piece. Its all music and learning something new is what its all about.
The best musicians and bands in the world try to reinvent themselves over again and over
again. Learning and incorporating all of these styles is what I like the best in my job. If you
ever doubt your ability to work in a certain style, here is a simple solution: Listen, analyze and
learn! Analyze a new piece of music and understand why its so great. Which chords are used?
Which instruments are played? How is the mix different from what youre used to? Learn and
use it in your own music. Mix all the styles up.
And very importantly: when you get a client and you do a great job for them, the client is
satisfied and happy, thats cool. But then they come back with a new assignment. If this one is
out of your comfort zone, if they ask for a style youve never written before, what will you
do? If you decline, you will probably lose that client So, take the assignment, work hard
and learn whats special about that new style. The best way to learn is on a real job anyway. It
forces you to really dive in deep. Ask friends for help if you dont think you can do it alone.
Once, I had to write a tango for a world famous bandoneon player. I had no idea how this
instrument worked or even what makes tango, a tango. So, when I said yes to the job, I had a
bit of studying to do. It turned out that the bandoneon plays in a specific key and most
tangos use the same chords and structure. Once I figured that out, I wrote my own chords in
the tango feel and style and came up with a nice melody. I was honest with the bandoneon
player, admitting it was my first tango ever and he was amazed. He liked it! He played it very
well and the show was a big success. Yeah, learned something new. Its all just music, be
passionate about it and your listeners will be too! Its all music, feelings and passion. Dont
limit yourself or your opportunities.
I do understand that most libraries or music supervisors want us to specialize in a specific
style and focus on that style. It will give them better music which they can sell for more. We
will all be slightly more talented in one style than the other. But, in order to run a creative
company, mostly by yourself, you will need to be good at many styles. Otherwise
opportunities and clients will move on and you will lose income. Dont make it bigger than it
is, just listen, learn, analyze and start. Hire good musicians if needed. Copy mixes in that style
and you will get there eventually. Never say no to a job

Rule #13 We all need to be performers

Life is a stage, my friend.
Performance always wins over mix and editing!
Having a great player or singer playing your music makes all the difference in the world. It can
turn a mediocre idea into something special. This is the biggest reason why certain songs
become hits and others dont, the performance is what people react to. In these digital DAW
days we sometimes forget this. Having 300 tracks at your disposal does not make your music
better. Most of the time less is more and a great melody always beats a 10-layered synth or
guitar parts. Sound starts at the beginning with the player. A good player will bring different
instruments and amps, and with a great player or singer you often dont even need EQ. They
will make sure their instrument sounds great and fits the track. Be critical about the initial
sound and it will save you lots of time in the mix. When the player performs brilliantly to the
music, it will sound brilliant. It will always touch the hearts of your audience and client more
than any expensive plugin. Audio wins from MIDI every time and all the time. Its more
difficult to achieve great sounds, but you immediately have something unique. When using a
plugin, youll share the exact same sound with thousands of others. In the end it does, of
course, depend on the budget, so where needed plugins have the ability to perform great, too.
Just use them wisely, intuitively and creatively.
Mixing. Its fun to do and very important in present-day music, but its also a bit overrated. All
these videos on YouTube explaining how a compressor works and what plugins you
absolutely need in order to achieve a pristine sound. Its all nonsense, of course. The money is
in the chords, the words and the performance, then comes the sound. Too much mixing can
even ruin a track, so dont get carried away with your delays and other toys.
Mixing is easy when the musicians and song are great. Mixing gets hard when youre in the
studio with lesser gods who think they are Metallica. When recording great musicians, they
will have their sound together, so no worries there. The mix is an essential part of music, but
it should only be focussed on once the chords, theme and performance are in order.
Be honest about your instrumental and vocal abilities. Try and get the best result in the
shortest amount of time. Call a friend who plays better guitar or keys than you can, ask him
or her to play a part. Promise to help him next time, or if you can afford it, hire them. You
product will be so much better in the end.
I hear people talking about the mix of hit songs. They focus fully on small parts in the music
and want to know which reverb was used, which kick drum mic, what routing for the vocals,
what synth for a solo part and so on The truth is that this song would probably be a hit
anyway, without all of these extra tools and sounds. Its the performance that touches people.
The rest is important, but the performance rules! So Perform, perform, perform..

Rule #14 Focus and Concentrate!

Always Make your deadline!
Use your time! Dont look at your email during work, dont look at Facebook during work.
The computer in my studio does not have access to email for this very reason. You need to
focus and use your time. You must shut out as many external factors as possible.
This is a world full of deadlines. People and budgets are depending on you making that
deadline, so use your time, be on time. Business people are a different breed from musicians.
A deadline really is a deadline in their world! This means you should absolutely always make
your deadline, whatever it takes! Focus using the Plan (rule #1) and the Folder (rule #2),
concentrate on one thing: the music. Buy Time (rule #3) and you will always get most of the
work done. I dont believe that creativity comes in a flash from the sky, or that you have to
wait for it to come slap you in the face. Thats all nonsense.
This is a craft and when you sit down and concentrate, you can write a song right then and
there. Just do it.
This is as much of a mindset job as it is a creative one!
It may even be more about mindset focus, concentrate, write.
A great way to get an overview of what you are doing is this: before you start writing or
recording, set markers in your session. These markers indicate where the energy of your
music should be, where the dramatic build should be. Just like a movie scene your music
needs that build, and to see that build with markers visually helps you write the music. If, at
some point during a show, the singer comes on stage, but needs to walk 50 meters before he
starts singing, it takes time. You will need to write music that gives the singer time to walk
these meters. There might be an intro where the stage is dark and lights provide a feeling of
anxiety and tension, there might be dancers at some point, or a choir. And usually the finale is
at the end. Put all these events in a timeline and add markers to the Protools session. This
way you can build your music from marker to marker. This works very well. Give these
markers fitting names and see that your session now looks like a song. It might be a good idea
to have the chorus start at an important point in the build, let the choir start at the end or at a
bridge.
If you work with film, then also use markers to indicate specific points that you feel are
important and should be highlighted in your music. Do this intuitively and without thinking
about it too much. When this is done you have visualized how your music will be in terms of
energy.
A thing which seems hard to do for musicians, is making a deadline. This is, however, very
important, because the corporate world is different from the world of musicians and bands.
Deadlines are deadlines. Deals, appointments and being somewhere at the agreed time
really are expected of you. This can be tough on musicians, who may have a very different
lifestyle from business people, but you have to adjust at least a bit and keep your promises to
your client. If this means delivering your music on a Friday afternoon, even when you know
that nobody will listen to it before Monday, do it. If the client calls you on Friday and insists

on having the new version by Monday morning, which means you Make your deadlines and
be clear about what can or cannot be done. The client really doesnt understand what it means
to make a new piece of music from scratch and make it sound like Hans Zimmers last movie,
or the Foo Fighters last album. You will get better and faster at writing and mixing and you
will get better and more loyal clients if you always deliver by the agreed time.
Use every tool available and use your time wisely to get your music approved.

I put important changes in the show, film or commercial into the session first with markers.
This way I know where to build and where beats need to start, etc.
In this case markers like; car sound fx, start beat, start driving, break.
You can listen and see the final result, which was for the 2016 BMW M2 launch in Monterey,
USA.
(The film stops at a certain point because real cars come driving in.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meNt-Rao4XM&feature=youtu.be
This music was turned down unfortunately (with some serious bad feedback) but i got back
in the studio and came up with something they liked and loved.
You can hear and see that version and read the feedback in Rule#20.

Rule #15 The Many Loving Ways of Communicating Clients

Learn to read feedback it can be hard, very hard..
Corporate people usually have no musical background and dont know how to give musical
feedback. That can be a problem sometimes, because when dealing with different languages
and multiple agencies that are all very opinionated, you must try and read between the lines to
know what the client wants. More than once I have thrown away a whole piece of music I
had worked on for days because of negative feedback, that later turned out to be meant
differently. Even after 15 years of writing for this market and having delivered hundreds of
pieces of music, I still find it hard to accept written feedback in a particular tone of voice. I
am still often amazed by the sheer stupidity with which some people respond to a piece of
music. Maybe a dozen times I have started from rock bottom because of feedback that I had
misinterpreted, or that wasnt translated correctly by the project producers who are between
me and this client. Many times I have also read the feedback way to negatively. This has to do
with my own disappointment after working hard on a track and working alone. Sometimes its
hard not to lose touch of reality just a little.
You get caught up in your own musical world for a while, focussing completely on that one
job and accepting a no is almost impossible. I still get angry at times and, because Im angry,
Ill throw away a great track. The lesson here: never, ever immediately reply to such a
message! Go walk the dog, do something else, have a good nights sleep and then read it
again, call em on the phone and talk about it. Clients have a tendency to overrate their own
taste and abilities regarding music and, since they pay you, some of them think they need to
be arrogant. Or maybe thats just the way they communicate with their staff . An agent can
be a good help here. However, their loyalty is usually with the paying customer, so most of
the time youre on your own. This can be frustrating, believe me. When working on several
projects at once and one or two are turned down, you could have a serious time management
problem. This means starting over and working even longer hours.
Some ten years ago I did a big writing job for a huge product launch, which involved hiring
an entire Spanish island! The capital city of this island was full of this brands products and
the island was taken over by the brands guests, thousands of em. A huge cave was turned
into the biggest club in the world, which would have made partying Ibiza jealous. In this
cave/club it was possible, within a few seconds, to totally change the color, smell and
atmosphere. From green to red to blue, all the videos, the images, 3D projections, etc.. they
all changed in sync.
I had written all the music for this huge event,. But what didnt go well, unfortunately, was
writing the most important song, which was needed for the events ultimate product launch.
These big companies many times take a promising person out of his or her regular day job
and temporarily give them a new job for half a year. His or her new goal is to make this event
the best ever, to make this event and this launch something so great that people will never
forget it. These people get a lot of responsibility, but, regrettably, not everyone is up to the
task. The guy who was on this particular job was very insecure, made no decisions and kept
asking for more. So once I had written and recorded 7 songs for that specific product launch,
he was still not happy! 7 songs! When he told me so in an email in a very unfriendly manner, I

drew the conclusion that I was probably not good enough for this job and I told him to keep
his money. I cannot and will never accept anybody being that disrespectful, and I assure you
he really was. There is no reason to use certain words and we all know that in an email, they
can have even more impact.. So I told him, in words I cannot repeat, to go to hell.
That weekend I felt great for standing up for myself and making a stand, but I also felt bad
for losing a big client (really big, actually my biggest client at the time!!). The next week, to my
surprise, there was suddenly a lot of money in my bank account and an email from the same
guy, almost begging me to come back. I was enabled to double my fee and they chose a song.
#1 (surprise, surprise.)
So, if youre not sure how feedback is intended, try and get a conference call and ask what
exactly is not OK with the music. In case you do have to start again, start at rule #1; have a
Plan.
Think again, listen, make that new plan, make that folder. Then, go to bed and start fresh the
next morning. Use rules #1, 2 and 3. In the morning, sitting at your desk with that nice cup
of coffee or tea, youll look at it differently. With that fresh energy you can and will make
something great.
Working with international clients can bring along other challenges besides language and time.
Chinese customers tend to respond differently than European and American ones.
The Chinese may say they love the music, while really they dont! You have to keep asking
until youre sure theyre being totally honest. I once wrote a track for Geely, a big company in
China. They seemed happy with my music, but after asking several times, I received an email
with some ideas from the client / CEO himself, asking whether I could make it more like
this (he attached a track in the email). When I listened I couldnt stop laughing; this was miles
away from what I had written. He send me some kind of karaoke track with high-pitched
Chinese vocals and loads of cheap reverb. It sounded like an old cassette tape that didnt play
back properly anymore. I got his point, however; I was sounding too European and not
Eastern enough. After adjusting my track with an almost too corny piano theme and a lot of
reverb and adding a nice choir from Spectrasonics Omnisphere (Japanese choir) they where
really happy and they used the track extensively. Maybe its just how the business people
communicate, but Americans tend to be mostly positive, with words like awesome, but can
also be blunt in their feedback. In the Netherlands, where I live, people usually trust my
knowledge and expertise. In Germany they always seem to know better themselves and rarely
give compliments. However, in all countries around the world the same thing happens when
your stature/authority changes. When you become more well-known or even famous youre
instantly recognized as an expert and your price goes up. In music, often having a name
counts more than having any real knowledge or expertise. I often do live shows where I play
guitar or Im behind my DJ booth and people think this is all I do for a living. At some point,
someone from the company were performing for comes on stage during rehearsals and asks
me the most asked question i get all the time: Can you really live from this work?
Now, you wouldnt ask the local baker the same would you? Or your account manager
working at the bank Hey, can you live from this work?. So why is it that people wonder

how musicians get by? Maybe its because there are so many musicians who are not, or barely
getting by. Maybe thats true, but I do at times find it slightly insulting. It is almost expected
from me to play the poor musician part and my answer has to be: Yeah, its hard sir, but I
made a profession out of my hobby, so Im not complaining
Oh, come on. I studied, I work way harder than most people do, I travel, Im building my
own company and I do make a great living with my music but to keep things friendly,
mostly Ill oblige and play my poor musician part like a method actor with true conviction.
It feels like in music you can only be at the bottom of the ladder or at the top. There are no
steps up, like in the business world, youre either known, famous and rich or you are
struggling and poor. Theres nothing in between, at least in the minds of most people. A
while ago I was doing a show that was hosted by a well-know Dutch TV host. When I played
some guitar, he wanted to know if I could really play, so he started calling out famous tracks
in front of the audience which I then had to play. I had to convince him I was a real artist, a
real musician. Thats another thing most normal people dont have to do every day: Prove
themselves over and over again. Or do you ask the baker to prove himself by letting you taste
his bread? And do you ask the account manager to do some math before you make a deposit?
So, in the corporate world you will always be an outsider and someone who has to prove
himself over and over again. Remember this when you read feedback too. This is just how
fame and being well known works in the minds of most people. So, until youre famous, learn
to read that clients feedback, keep em satisfied and play your part as well as Daniel DayLewis

Rule #16 Writing for the Corporate World is Different from Film scoring
Youre the master, youre first in line, lead us to success..
Why is corporate writing different? Because 99% of the time music is leading with product
launches, events, shows, corporate videos and, everything else is build around it. You will
have to get used to staring at a black screen or an empty DAW and use your imagination.
Even for small corporate movies, film companies tend to want to cut to music and will ask
you to go first. Tips here are: Ask for a timeline and get them to send you whatever they have.
Speak to them about what they want and then start writing.
I start with markers and keywords in my session like we talked about in Rule #14. That way I
can build a timeline based on events that will take place in the film or show.
All these events take time and I place markers into my DAWs timeline, giving me my first
basic idea of where the dramatic highlights should be. I then decide upon a tempo and,
looking at the markers, Ill see a pattern for where the energy will be, where to built and
where to hold back.
Are there special moments that will be in the film or on stage? These are important points to
work on with your music, just like where the climax needs to be, or the singers chorus. No
different from film is that projects and ideas change. The client may not like some parts of
the film, which means that your carefully put together music will have to be shorter or longer
or change with the scenes. These changes can be difficult when you work with beats. Use
things like filters in your music to make half-bars smoother, but make sure your important key
points stay intact. Never make drastic changes in your original music score or session, because
the possibility is always there that you will need to go back to that first idea. Always make a
copy! Save a copy into the same session or make a copy of the whole session and continue
your work in that one. Call it copy or V2 and always make sure you can go back to V1!
Earlier, we talked about keywords and writing with keywords. You can now see how
important this is. When you are leading and there is no image or footage to write to, its all up
to you, good keywords, and a choice of direction. So learn to read these keywords well and
always keep investigating into the brand and company values. Try to understand what they
want to achieve with this product or event. If you dont do your homework, theres a good
chance you wont get the right tone of voice, chords or feel for that client and job.
Heres an example. The music i wrote for the BMW i8 launch in Brazil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZJCn-R4ICw

I got a really special assignment in late 2014 for the Inauguration of the biggest ship ever
build. This boat is 500 mtrs long and it is used to lift an entire oil rig from its place and bring

it to the shore. This huge ship would be baptised on open sea in front of a big audience, and
besides the speech of the founder there would only be music and a 3D animation during the
show. The show was called Heart of the Matter, so a big heart was build that could be
moved in realtime. Usually there are flying elephants, big choirs of 500 people and 150 meter
filmscreens. None of that for this reveal, all should be very pure and musical and make use of
this huge ship and the open sea as a background or decoration.
My only keyword was: emotion, pure emotion.
Now with the real heart moving and images of the father of the founder, who had passed
away, it would be easy to go over the edge and make it too sweet or kitschy. So I had to be
careful with what instruments to use and be careful on how much drama I could put in. The
3D fx where amazing and made you feel as if you were in a sort of Jules Verne book. Check
out this video of the inauguration to see how it looks and what music I wrote:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bTPlAo_iAY
Since there were to be no live performers at the inauguration, I recorded a great violin player
and he did a really good job playing my parts. (Xander Nichting, send him an email if you
need finely recorded and played violin parts.. http://www.violintracks.com/).
Its a very emotional piece, and I got proof I was on the right track when I played to the
client for the first time. The founder cried and shook my hands. I used a trumpet further on
in the music, because it gives me the feeling of the sea and its wideness. The drums and
orchestra fit the roughness of the sea and those maritime travellers, who are at sea for
months, battling the elements. A big organ also shows up every once in while, which fits this
big ship perfectly. A great assignment with a happy customer, who gave me freedom and
trust.

Rule #17 Presenting your work

Be a show host and host your show
If possible, present your music together with the film. It makes it so much stronger. Image
looks better with music and music sounds better with images. It does! So really try and do a
presentation together. If this isnt possible, use the second by second approach from rule #8.
If you are presenting the music yourself (and hosting the show), then rent a speaker set and
bring your own cables. Dont rely on other people, they will let you down! A business is not a
studio, they will not have anything useful there. If somebody else presents it for you, make
sure they understand your choices. They are your ambassadors, so help them and they will
help you. In any other case, your chances are 50/50.. It depends on the mood of the client
and the quality of the agent. Realise that, sometimes, there are politics at work. The client
pays the agency. Unfortunately, its not rare for there to be trouble (over budget, stress, boss
didnt like the ideas, whatever, there can be any number of reasons etc), in which case you
are ****ed. Some of my best tracks have been turned down for no reason other than trouble
between the agent and client. Shit happens. Sometimes client feels they need to make a point,
a statement and refuse a suggestion from the agent.
Remember to put listen on headphones or listen on speakers and be as extensive as
possible in explaining your music (see rule #8) when youre not presenting your music
yourself.

Rule #18 Everybody wants to rule the world..

Always try to be a songwriter
No matter what the assignment is, orchestral, epic, small, ballad, dance, rock, piano.. always
try to use a song form in your music. There is a reason everybody sings and remember songs.
All throughout history, songs in A/B form have got stuck in peoples heads. Strong themes,
singable themes, themes to remember and touch a certain part of your brain. Everyone is
raised with songs on the radio and these forms are naturally known to us. Theres a reason
why we all sing songs, pay money for them, even when many of them use the same chord
progression. We still buy and play them over and over.
We simply love that form and build, its in our DNA.
Strangely enough, in my teaching I see a lot going wrong with these forms. Composers use
too many different parts in their music. They also write unrecognizable themes which are
difficult to remember or very long parts using the same chords with not much going on.
Somehow these composers dont hear it.. Using the song form as a guide is a great way to
solve these problems. Use an A and B part in your music and make them both strong. At the
part where, in normal pop songs, a bridge comes along, you can bring the music down and
start a new build. In film music, go a minor third up, really make a C part etc, etc.. whatever
you want, but always come back to the A or B part! Make it logical and easy to remember. It
does not matter what kind of music you write, it has to be easy to remember and have a
recognizable form. It needs to be a story, have a logical build, a climax maybe, the return of a
great theme or an uplifting chord progression. The above seems obvious, but I suppose its
harder than it sounds, based on what I hear from my students and other composers.
Coldplay only uses 4 chords in most of their hits and they manage to keep millions of people
satisfied and happy. How can this be? Its how they use these chords, in which form they use
these chords and of course their use of lyrics. The lyrics fit perfectly and people respond to
them. The combination of epic instruments and builds from modern dance music gives them
a now feeling and a sense of urgency. Production in modern day songwriting is a great part
of the success too.
People are used to a certain level and want to hear it in your music too, especially your clients.
Well go deeper into chords and some tricks you can use while writing later on in this book.
Coming back to the corporate world and what the client wants:
1 The chords and feeling need to be what the job asks for.
Whether your music needs to be epic or small, sweet or heavy and dramatic, no matter what
the feeling, the chords need to communicate that basic emotion right away.
When played on piano or guitar, you should already be getting the desired effect, imagining
the orchestra, beats, synths or vocals in your mind. Playing these chords and giving your
music an A and B part must already give you the right feel.
2 The theme or vocal line needs to be memorable.
These are always easy! Easy and friendly to the ears, nothing too complicated.

A trick I use is to loop my chord progression, open up my iPhone and record whatever I sing.
Every single time a nice theme or line will come up. Just trust your musicality and sing. It
doesnt matter if its off key, its the line and the timing that counts. You can refine it later.
3 Decide on what style you need for the assignment. If its pop, youll need the obvious pop
instruments, like drums, guitars, bass, piano and synths. If its more like film music, an
orchestra library and orchestral percussion will be needed, and so on.. If you use libraries, try
to be creative and dont just use presets. Youll want to stand out and be recognizable, so
when you have your chords and your theme, its time to make the best sounding track you
possibly can. It has to be top-notch for your clients, as they are only familiar with finished
records and radio songs. Try and use as many live instruments as you possibly can! An
instrument you record yourself will always sound unique, because of the player, mics, mic
settings and room. In combination with modern day DAWs and the great plugins that are
around, you should be able to get a good sound pretty fast. Be intuitive, as always, and decide
quickly if the sound fits the job or not. Recording a live band is lot more difficult than
starting up EZ Drummer, but itll give you a unique sound right away, and so much more
satisfaction. But of course, the amount of budget and time required for this are not always
available, so libraries and plugs can often be life savers.
You now have: great fitting chords, a strong theme and a unique sounds.
4 Mix!
Depending on the musical style, you can get very creative in the mix.
Add plugins to improve, destroy or beautify your music. The mix/production amounts to at
least 20% of your music. In the case of electronic music its even a lot more. Always have a
couple of reference tracks ready in your session. Check these mixes for sound and build every
couple of hours, this will greatly improve your own mix. You will instantly have new ideas
sound-wise when listening to great mixes. Analyze whats happening and what makes these
mixes great. Proceed to use this knowledge for your own mix. Turn that reference mix down
about 10dB, because it will be a mastered track and it will be a lot louder than your music
while youre in the mixing stage. Louder always seems to sound better, which it obviously
isnt, but it works that way in our ears. Its more in-your-face, more direct, more like the
radio So turn it down and try to get similar results by analyzing and learning.
All the above means nothing if rule #13 is not done right. Performance always rules and
gives people goosebumps. Check your performance and decide to let somebody else play a
certain part if needed. It will make your music so much better and will get it approved faster
by your client and will give you more sales in the future!

Rule #19 More than words

What about lyrics?
The use of lyrics in the Corporate world are somewhat different than in the normal world
of songwriting. Clients tend to want their mission statement or their product folder in the
lyrics, preferably literally. Kinda like a TV commercial from the fifties, where nice looking
ladies hold the product in their hands and talk about it. This doest work anymore and youll
need to convince your client of this.
Many musicians and composers I meet are very focused on music and forget about lyrics. Of
course a film composer usually does not need to write lyrics very often, so when they are
needed, maybe its better to hire a pro for this. Or is it? I sometimes hire a specialist, but only
when I have such a tight deadline that i cant do it myself.
Lyrics are half of your song and also half of the rights! So letting someone else write means
giving up half. Not a problem, but is it necessary? Writing a song all by yourself, telling your
story is a very rewarding process and be aware that normal people respond to words and
lyrics much more than musicians and composers do. Of course the right combination is what
counts in the end, but many musicians tend to concentrate on their own instrument and find
it hard to see the big picture. Maybe you can play a guitar solo by speed picking a million
notes in 3 seconds, but is this what the track needs? If so, do it, if not, mute that part because
its the song that counts. You have to have a story to tell, then find the right words for your
story and the right chords to accompany that story.
A couple of tips on corporate lyric writing:
1 For us non-native English speakers; read as many books as you can in English! This really
helps a lot imo, gets you thinking in English and you keep learning new words.
2 When you write a song I believe that, automatically, certain words and feelings come up.
Record these words in your DAW or iPhone, or write them down. Again be intuitive and trust
your first feeling. Many times I just set up a mic and start singing randomly at my track. I
always seem to nail a few perfect sentences to the music. No idea how this works, but it does
so dont question it and trust that it will happen.
3 Make a Plan for the lyrics. Whats it about? Love? Struggle? Life? Happiness? Or is it for a
brand?
In the case of a song for a brand you need to use a lot of metaphors. The brand will want
their vision in the lyrics, but you will want the song to be as good as possible. Ive had to use
lyrics about the leather of a car, or even singing practically their entire corporate vision
statement. I didnt know whether to laugh or cry, but either way my song had been ruined.
Learn to use these statements and corporate visions in a poetic manner. Sit down with a cup
of coffee and start writing, do a brainstorm session all by yourself and write everything down
on a plain paper. Then, analyze your thoughts. Again, do this intuitively and you will see that
certain words and sentences will stick out in a positive way. Use these words, write them down
on another piece of paper and start working on parts that arent good enough yet. Keep
singing your theme or vocal line and make it as easy as possible. Use rhyme, but try to be

creative. Imagine a certain singer in your head and imagine him or her singing your song.
Does it work lyrically? Your musical instincts will tell you when it does or when it doesnt.
Some companies business people sometimes seem to think they can also write the lyrics
themselves (most of the time they cant, of course, but you have to let them give it a try), so
then what I do is sing a version of the vocal line with just la,la,las. This top line has to be
catchy, clear and easy. Unfortunately, when I sing a line that consists of 10 syllables, they
often manage to put in 15 or more.. impossible to fit in and the top line is ruined.
So instead, ask them for keywords! Words they think are important for their brand and
product. I then start writing to my top line using their keywords. I start with a brainstorm
session, writing down everything that comes to mind, coming up with my own words that
mean the same as the keywords, or fit well. Then Ill do a Google search on certain words,
feelings, products and again, Ill intuitively add in these words. By now, you should have a
couple of A4 pages full of ideas. Go put them together and pick the strongest for your
chorus. Dont make it harder than it is, its just a song, just music and not the cure for a deadly
disease.
Heres part of my lyrics for the inauguration of another ship I did a while back. Its called the
Aegir and its name is based on an epic god from Scandinavia. The event was pretty epic and
so are the lyrics: https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/aegir
You ride the tops of waves across the ocean
Ruler of the ever cresting waves
I call upon your never ending motion
Let your ears, ring with siren
songs of whales and mermaids tales of
water worlds and boundless sea
Where the tides and billows flow where,
waters wild but still below for
wind and waves are ruling here
So, let us see, you are the chosen one
Chorus
The lord of seas, commander of the ocean
The ruler of the ever cresting waves
You call upon its never ending motion
You got just what it takes
You ride the tops of waves in great devotion
With flame and wind you set the sky alight
Hail to Aegir, ruler of the ocean

Who keeps us safe at night.

(This is just a part of the lyrics)
Ive written a couple of songs for Mini (the car) and also for VW. The lyrics of the VW look
like this:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/come-together
Come together, when the working day is done
Come together people celebrate
Bring together to connect is what we want
Come together and elevate
Come together, like a family here to stay
Come together, people lets create
Bring together not tomorrow but today
Come together it just feels great
Chorus
Reach out, to anyone
of all the walks of life
Feel good, the limit is the sky
Reach out, to anyone
of all the sorts and size
Enjoy, it makes you feel alive
Come together, people dare to join the ride
Come together on this brand new day
Bring together, everyones a superstar
Come together just to celebrate
Chorus
Reach out, to anyone
of all the walks of life
Feel good, the limit is the sky
Reach out, to anyone
of all the sorts and size
Enjoy, it makes you feel alive
A song I wrote for a shooter game. https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/shoot

I got my finger on the trigger

I make my move without a sound
You mess with me and youll be sorry
so spread the word, im back in town
i am a man with a bullet
this is a perfect day to die
I came looking here for trouble
Win every fight, Im dynamite
Rock and Roll
Soothe your soul
Lose control, You got me burning baby
Chorus
Now, shoot, at will
Now, shoot, to thrill
Now, shoot, to kill. No turning back, when i attack, now shoot!
You see a man with a mission?
My chariot burning fire and ice
If theres trouble i am ready
until the flames will reach the sky
I am a hazard, call me danger
im born to kill, my way of life
You cross my path and i will crush ya
the last you hear is my battle cry
Rock and Roll, Soothe your soul
Lose control, you got burning baby
Chorus
Now, shoot, at will
Now, shoot, to thrill
Now, shoot, to kill. No turning back, when i attack, now shoot
Lyrics of a song called Lights i wrote for Philips
Remembering the first time, your smile just took my breath away.

The moments that we had, we didnt need any words to say

Today we bring the future, and all before is only history
Lets celebrate this moment, lets show the world just
how great it can be
You just turn yourself
To the better half
Chorus
Oooooooh step into the light
Oooooohh into my sight
Uhuhuh,uhuhuh into the light
Uhuhuh,uhuhuh
Forget the lonely days, let the colors bring you joy and love
The life that lies before you, you know it fits you, fits like a glove
Just step into me, for everyone to see
Oooooooh step into the light
Oooooohh into my sight
Uhuhuh,uhuhuh into the light
Uhuhuh,uhuhuh into the light, light, light
Bridge
Now that everyone can see I trust to be
A friend until eternity.
Told you how to find your way out of the dark
Cause this was where youre meant to be.
Here is the key here is the key
Into the light
Here is the key here is the key
Into the light
Chorus
Oooooooh step into the light
Oooooohh into my sight
Uhuhuh,uhuhuh into the light

Uhuhuh,uhuhuh into the light, light, light

Rule #20 Dont Get The One Word Feedback!

Understand what a client needs.
Dont write difficult music, dont try and force your own taste onto them.
Use your taste to make something good that fits the bill and what the client wants.. When I
first started out in 2001, my second job was to write for a BMW Motorrad launch. This offroad bike was to be presented near Cape town, South-Africa. An entire village was built in the
wilderness and their most important clients were flown in and brought to that new village.
After killing millions of bugs and trying to keep the heat away, the customers got a show of
bikers doing crazy jumps and so on, all to my music of course. Months before, I had had my
first music presentation in Munich, Germany.
I was flown in and stood there alone in a big room, where at a long table before me were the
CEO and his staff. They were all anxious to hear what I had come up with. My thoughts
were: off-road bike, fast, strong, rough guys in leather suits driving through even rougher
surroundings. So I came up with music based on a wild drum&bass pattern: Low, detuned
heavy rock guitars and wild, aggressive-sounding synths. It fit the product and their
customers, or so I thought..
When I got the one-word feedback from the CEO, a big, blond German guy with fiery blue
eyes His one-word feedback was:
SCHEISSE!
(Meaning Shit!)
That was it thats all he said.. and his staff was looking at me like Yeah, its Scheisse!
(because when the boss says its shit, they all think its shit, of course).
So, were did I go wrong? I didnt know my customer well enough and I had the image of who
their buyers are totally wrong. Theyre not young, wild people, theyre businessmen buying a
second or third bike.
Also, the launch party was meant for businessmen, not even the final consumer (who would
purchase the bike for themselves). It was for the (rich) people selling these products through
their distribution network.
I got it totally wrong. I had worked with the wrong info and hadnt asked enough questions. I
had also put way too much of my own taste and ideas into the music. I ended up making a
mix of beats and orchestral for this product launch and client was happy. Clients usually want
more of the same, stuff they already know, but with a twist. When youre in this corporate
business, just give it to them.
Just before release of this book I wrote and recorded music for the new BMW M2. A show in
Monterey, USA. I was really happy with my music and still think it fits the car, brand, show
and film perfectly. Real music, real instruments and real rock for a fast car en a show in
America. However my client didnt think so and thought they needed to put it down in some
severe feedback:
Guitars are too high, too nervous, too hectic and too harsh. Music needs more bass and less electric guitars.

The music sounds unpleasant to the ears and we miss synchronization between rhythm and film.
Music sounds unpleasant to the ear???? Come on! But hey, client is king
I already talked about this one in Rule#14 but here is version 1 again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meNt-Rao4XM
Heres what I came up with next and my client loved (more bass indeed, i de-tuned my guitars
to a low C): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-95GqsXewl0

Rule #21 Everybody Deserves a Chance

Make sure you get one..
I firmly believe in action/reaction, being pro-active. Just start and things will happen. Dont
be afraid to send your music somewhere. Whats the worst that can happen? Bad feedback?
Somebody steals your idea? If they want to do that they will anyway. Theres nothing you can
do about it, so just see it as a compliment and move on.
I once discovered when I Googled my own name (come on, we all do it sometimes) that I
had a hit in South-Korea. Loads and loads of websites with my name, face and songs. My
name was between Madonna and Justin Timberlake But the thing was, I hadnt release an
album at all! Somebody took my electronic and dance tracks, put them on an album, ripped
my picture from the Web and started selling my songs. Obviously I have no idea who did and
I certainly didnt get any royalties. But hey, its still a compliment.
So, what about chances and taking them? Everything you do in life is a mindset. Theres no
real reason to write a song. There are plenty of those already (Ive been told that 50,000 new
ones are written each day). Theres no reason to start a business either. It gives you a lot of
stress, but if you do, something is bound to happen, and people will respond. This message
can be anything, but you have to make a start, nobody else will do it for you. I got my break
in 2001. The composer for a big event in the Netherlands got sick and the organization had
nobody to write the music. In that office someone thought of me I still have no idea why,
but I must have somehow sent a message that I was the man for this. They trusted me. I was
a guitar player making a living playing gigs and playing on artists records. I was also a
songwriter, but not many people knew this. So the offer came as a big surprise.. it turned out
that the audience for that big event was to be over 9000 people and the first track I was asked
to write was for Cirque du Soleil! This world famous circus theatre company is really, really
good and I became really, really scared! Whats more, I had nothing to record on and I had
never worked with ProTools before, or any other DAW for that matter. I had seen it in
studios where I played guitar, but never tried it myself. So you can imagine my stress level was
high. But at the same time I was very happy to have been given this chance and really felt like
I could pull this off. So, I called my dad and asked him if I could borrow some money to buy
ProTools, a mic and a headphone in order to be able to start. He agreed to help me (for
which Im eternally grateful) and I was in business. I presented my first 3 tracks to my
customer and they liked it!
When I listen to it now I feel a bit ashamed, because the music wasnt even written to grid.
My loops were wrong and off and I had no plugins. So everything was done on an old
synth which I borrowed from a friend. (A great composer called Rene Merckelbach, check
him out). But I got the job and it paid me more than I had ever earned in an entire year. Im
so glad I didnt write them an offer myself and asked what the budget was instead! To be
honest, the six tracks (it was a big assignment) I wrote after these initial 3 were turned down
and I had a very hard time pleasing my client. But after 3 months of hard work, everybody
was happy, the show was a big success. I was in business. In that same year I got 5 more of
those jobs, I travelled from the US to South-Africa and from Germany back to the
Netherlands and I learned so much. There really are opportunities all around us, everywhere.

Try and get one yourself, work as hard as you can and get in business! Just do it take em.
You can bluff like I did, as long as you deliver!
Do understand that when people do something, help you, buy your record, give you that
chance in the music industry
Their decisions are made on the three following criteria: first money, then personal politics
and then music. In that order!
So stay objective and try to figure out why things are going the way they are and then do
something about it. Its easy to respond emotionally. I know, I do it all the time. Creative and
musical people need to be more emotional than most others in order to be able to make
music in the first place. But try and stay objective, use what youve learned and create an
opportunity out of it. Stay positive and approach it like tenor sax player Albert Ayler:

Rule #22 Real over MIDI

People will always recognize fake instruments, no matter how good plugins become. But
depending on the budget, you cant always use real musicians and instruments. Of course a
lot of music these days is made in-the-box. But even then, a couple of unquantized and well
played live parts can make all the difference. Besides the performance of a real musician, the
sound you get is always unique and different from the plugins most composers use.
Here are some ideas:
Hire a violin or cello player and ask the player to double your MIDI parts. This makes for a
huge sound difference and gives you instant punch and emotion. There are great musician
online who can record in their own studio and deliver pretty fast.
Record some cymbals live yourself over your drumloop. Play swells, crashes and rhythmic
parts on the ride cymbal. It will give your loop some live feel.
Record some of your MIDI parts again through an analog external device, such as a
compressor or a pre-amp. This will work well with key sounds, midi bass, pads and probably
loads more. Just experiment, because itll give you a more unique sound.
Dont play all the string parts at once. Some great piano players can do that in one take, but
your orchestra part will sound more realistic if you play it per instrument. Try not to overquantize. Try to think like a live player playing one instrument and give this instrument your
full focus.
Sometimes theres a tight deadline and not very much budget, so theres no time or money
for extra musicians. In that case, finish the music and get it approved by your client. But later
on go back to your mix and write down what your would like to change. Ask friends who play
well to help you, ask them to play a real bass part, for instance, or record real drums. Add
percussion or a violin part. Be creative. In return you can help them out. Paying them is also
an option, of course.
When all is finished, your track should be ready for some synching. Have it mastered and
send it to some libraries.
Try and use as few plugins in your project as possible. Go deep into your plug of choice and
try to make it sound like a real instrument. What I mean is that you need to tweak and use
compression, eq, preamps, tape emulation and so on to make it sound more real and unique.
Every small change in the sound and mix will make your music a few percent better.
Use the intuitive writing method to record a few musicians at the same time. Use the first
part of the day to make a nice sound and the rest to record as much as you can. Be intuitive
and dont re-record everything ten times. Its all about feel and credibility. You can take the
best parts and make loops out of these. You can re-use these loops in other songs. You can
trigger the drum parts, change the sound. Be creative and use the unique sound and feel of
real musicians.
Make samples of anything that sounds great in your studio or house. Hit on stuff, add
reverb, delay and later use these sounds in your tracks.

 Make a folder where you collect hits, drum rolls, snare sounds, swooshes, swells, fills. When
you give these sounds and loops a name, also note the tempo in BPM. When youre working
on a track, make 3 or 4 stereo tracks and call these FX1, FX2, FX3, etc.. add these fx at
random and adjust the tempo with a plugin (for example Waves Soundshifter, which is pretty
amazing). These sounds will make you sound more live and real. Especially in more hybrid
tracks where you combine orchestral with rock, pop or dance, these transition fx are gold.
Heres a nice example of a hybrid track, orchestral and dance in this case.
I made it for a big lease company early 2016
V1 is music and film. Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UWfvgSMYxc
V2 is how its used by client, with voice-over. Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bf9x7VMC6Lw
- Some samples, no matter how expensive, just wont cut it. Guitars will always sound fake
and will immediately be picked out as such by listeners. Maybe somewhere subtle on the
background they can work, but when it counts they wont. This has to do with the way you
play that instrument and how well people know its sound. Its the noises, the strumming and
how hard they hit the strings that all make for the sound. A plug just cant replicate that, so be
honest about your mix and music and whenever a guitar is important, record a real one. For
an amp recording you only need one mic: The Shure SM57, which you can get real cheap.
Remember, its always more about the playing and the chords than about gear. A great player
will even sound great on a cheap instrument, amp and mic and a bad one will still sound bad
when miced with a Neumann.

Rule #23 Difficult mix?

Sometimes a track can be very hard to mix when it involves a lot of parts, a lot of automation
or many doubled parts with different sounds. You keep on tweaking, but its still sounding
unfinished and rough. A good idea in such situations is to make stems.
Record keys, guitars and other instruments together, mix bass, mix all the drums together, an
fx track etc.. Bounce these and you will be left with a maximum of 8 stereotracks.
Open a new session and import your bounced tracks. Now start over with your mix, panning,
eq, reverb, be intuitive and make big moves and decisions. Finish your mix within half na
hour.
Now it should be clear what is good and what needs to be redone.
So, difficult mix? Make stems, bounce, open a new session and mix again.

I had a large, difficult session to mix. I made it easier for myself by making stems and starting over in a new
session. In this case I kept all drumtracks separate, but mixed guitars and vocals in groups. I made choices
that couldnt be altered anymore. Gaining a better oversight of the mix is what I needed to complete this song.

Rule #24 Some Musical Rules and Ideas

We would need a whole separate book if we start on musical ideas and how to use plugins. In
the course we go deep into this, but I do want to share a few musical ideas, mechanisms or
even musical tricks if you want to give these a name, that work well when writing under a
deadline and for brands and products. I will focus on music that is One different, has some
striking chords that are responsible for its success.
When working for brands, you will often need to write uplifting and positive music and its
not easy getting epicness when only using happy major chords. It can however be done
using some musical tricks. Here are some simple but strong ones. Minor keys are often easier
than major keys to create drama and epic sounding music, but my tip would be to use both.
Most of you will have heard of moll/dur or dur/moll, which is basically borrowing chords
from the minor key and using it in a major key and the other way around.
When you are in the key of C, you will probably at some moment play an F chord in your
chord sequence, with F being the IV chord of C which is the I chord. But now, instead of F,
play an Fm. A very recognizable sound you have heard in many songs and classical pieces.
This Fm replaces the V chord, the dominant 7 and is just as strong in forcing your music back
to C. Its actually changing the sixth note in the scale youre working in. In the Key of C this
would mean every A becoming an Ab.
F = Fm, Dm = Dm7 b5
In the song Happy by Pharrell, something similar works its wonders and creates an uplifting
sound: E7 verse (so a major Key)
Chorus: Cmaj7 Bm7 / Bm7 E / E
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM
Cmaj7 is actually an Em with a C in the bass and in Bm7 theres a D note thats also borrowed
from the minor Key.
So it gives us an epic, strong feel from the Em Key, but goes to the uplifting E major at the
end of every chord progression. Very nice!
An example of dur/mol would be playing in Am for instance and using D instead of Dm as
your next chord.
(Play an F after that sequence and you get the song One by U2.)
It doesnt sound like you change anything, but you really do! And for the listener something
happens, the music is more up, more epic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpDQJnI4OhU
Making small changes to chords in chord progressions give an extra bite to the sound,
something the audience will recognize as hey, whats this, its a little different. Moments like
these occur in many hits. Wether theyre born from mistakes or knowledge, I do not know,
but they sure do work.

Heres another example:

Play in key of Dm now
Dm / F / G / Bb C
The G should be Gm but the B note played in the G major chord is stronger and much more
dramatic. It pushes you towards the Bb chord. That single note change gives you way more
epicness.
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/bentley-china
Another one that works well especially in finales of songs and instrumentals for product
launches; Youre in the key of C again and play chords that are in that key, like Dm, F, G, Am,
etc. but at the end of your track you play an Ab or Abmaj7, then a Bb and a C.
This opens up the sound and makes it sound big.
Its actually also the chorus from Can you feel it by the Jacksons and that, for sure, is epic
with its bells and horns.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW1fXL3s7bk
A Picardian third.
Write a piece of music, a nice chord progression in minor, get some drama and theatre going
on, but at the moment that the product comes on stage, the CEO appears or you want an
applause, you want the aha moment, then the Picardian third will do that for you.
Dont use it too much because it can be a bit corny, but it really works well.
Your last chord in a minor chord progression will be major instead of minor. So try this:
Em / Cmaj7 / Am / Em / Cmaj7 / Am / Bm or B7 / E
A quick and easy way to get an uplifting end.
Gnarls Barkley also used this brilliantly in their hitsong Crazy
The verse and chorus chords are Am / C / F / E
But for the bridge they play A / F / C / E
Which really opens up the sound and the song. Great bridge with a very nice vocal line.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w
The song Hello by Lionel Richie uses this too.
Verse chords are: Am G/a / F/ a / 4x, but in the last round this happens:
Am G/a / F/a A /
Dm G7 / Cmaj7 F / Bb E+ / Am Am/b C Am/b /
That A major really forces the music into the next Dm. The following chords using a Bb and
a + chord are great too and you dont hear them much anymore in modern day hits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84RxK4N1wfE

Modulate into a major key at the end of the track for the Aha moment:
A nice, dramatic, more classical ending could be like this.
Play a nice slow piano or strings part with the following chords
Cm / Bb / Abmaj7 / Cm / Fm / Cm / Bb / Bb
Now the surpise comes:
Fm G / C# F / F
Youve changed to the key of F thus ending more up, epic and positively than the Cm key
and chord. Heres an example of these very chords:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/allseas-emo-part3
In film trailers and movies a lot of minor thirds modulating happens.
Play something like Am / Fmaj7 / Am / Fmaj7 / G then do the same in Cm:
Cm / Abmaj7 / Cm / Asmaj7 / Bb
Go back to Am or go up another minor third to Ebm / Cbmaj7 / Ebm / Cbmaj7 / Db
Using a 7th chord to go to a bridge or chorus.
Mostly we hear this used with the V chord, the Dominant 7th
So in the key of F this would be a C7.
But the Beatles used it differently in their song Hey Jude.
Chords are: F / C / C7 / F / Bb / F / C7 / F / F7
That last chords, the I chord with a 7th, really pushes it towards the next Bb and the bridge.
In the last epic part of their hit, they needed to borrow from the minor key.
Singing: Na, na, na, na, na, na, na over F / Eb / Bb / F
Much more dramatic and strong than staying in the major key.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2JYfNhuxAg
Using both a 7th on the root chord and a VIm Moll/Dur in a great way can be heard in
Extremes More Than Words. The chords go like this:
G G/B G/C
Saying I love you is
Am7 C D G
not the words I want to hear from you
G G/B G/C
Its not that I want you
Am7 C D Em

not to say but if you only knew

Em/B Am7
Ho-ow ea-sy
D G D/F# Em
It would be to show me how you feel
Em/B Am7 D7 G7
More than words is all you have to do
G7/B C
To make it real
C Cm G
Then you wouldnt have to say
D/F# Em7
That you love me cos
Am7 D7 G
Id already know
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIiLvg58SY
A song I love is Our House by Madness. The change in the chords give this house a
totally different feeling. Its the house you miss, the house you used to live in with great
memories from long ago.
The chords are beautiful, starting in the key of C the verse goes like this:
C / Gm / Dm / Fm
The V chord is made minor, as is the IV chord. This gives a totally different feel to the words
than the major V would have done. Very Nice!
In the chorus they go up 1 key:
D Am / Em Gm.
So they play the same chords but double time now and again using these minor IV and V
chords.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwIe_sjKeAY
This is great songwriting! Try playing the normal C key chords and sing the same vocal line,
the difference is amazing.
Heres a great example of what minor chords can do:
A minor version of All I Want for Xmas suddenly sounds haunting and very, very different.
Nicely done!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDACj0tkD-s
These above examples are simple but great and can really be used in film music or orchestral
work too. But as always, less is more, so only use it when its needed and really helps the
music and fits the chord progression.
Most Coldplay songs are epic without the use of these kinda tricks. They use mix, sounds
and words to create epicness and drama in their songs which usually use no more than 4
chords. I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas is a very good example of a major key epic
song, but the sound, build and message is so positive and groovy that it doesnt need extra
chords or musical tricks. Only 3 chords are used: G, C and Em.
Using harmonic minor works great in chord progressions too.
When a piece of music is in Dm for instance, try these chords:
Dm / A/c# / F/c / G / Bb / F / E7 / A
In the Dm chord the note A is the fifth, playing an A chord next to this, A becomes the
one. But were playing a slash chord with C# in the bass, forcing it into the next chord: F
with a C bass. The A note is the third in an F chord so the same note is still playing.
With the G major we use the same trick we saw earlier in this chapter, we go out of the key
of Dm, which is a great way to go to Bb.
The E7 uses a G#, forcing it to the next chord A.
Then the A major chord makes it Harmonic minor and forces the C# note into the D
This is a very dramatic use of chords. Heres a famous Dutch song using these chords:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0EnrHp3dU
In jazz and classical music a lot more goes on musically, but in the corporate world try and
use it with sparsity and with the less is more approach. You will often have only 1 minute
of musical time to get to the aha moment. Use the songwriter form and the musical builds
that work with songs, it will please most corporate customers way more than deep classical
music. Make a memorable theme instead of a difficult chord progression. Itll be easier for
the client to identify him/herself and their brand with.
An amazing song, very special to me, is Ordinary World by Duran Duran. Some great chord
changes happen in this track and thats for sure a big reason for its huge success.
According to the sheet music this piece is in the key of E major / C# minor. However one
could argue its in B major since the B chord in the chorus feels like coming home.
Intro: B / F#m / D13 A9/c# / Am/c
Verse: C#m7 / Emaj7 F#sus4 / 4x
Pre: C#m7 / G#m / D#7 / Emaj7
Chorus: B / F#m7 / D C#m7 / Eadd9
B / F#m7 / D C#m7 / Eadd9

Solo: B / F#m7 / D13 A9/c# / Eadd9

B / F#m7 / D13 A9/c# / C
Have a listen and play along with this wonderful epic song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1PnQT4emS0

Rule #25 Plugins Rule

Some plugin, mix and recording tips
This book is not meant to be a chart for mixing and the real help on writing and recording is
done in our course, Corporate Music Method. But there are still some important and helpful
tips I would like to share here. Please remember that mixing is not difficult when working
with great musicians who know how to create sound thats needed. A great drummer will
know how to tune his drums and he will also know what snare to use on certain projects. The
mixing gets difficult when working with lesser gifted musicians. And, when there is no budget
for real musicians, you just have to fake it.. Good use of plugins is something a composer for
the corporate market desperately needs. He must be up to date with knowledge and how to
use libraries, compressors, delays, reverbs and so on. There is so much to be found on the
Internet and especially on YouTube. A great mix and the right and creative use of plugins can
make your track at least 10% better and in electronic music even more. But still, the music has
to do the work. The mix cant save a bad song, it can only help to make a good one better.
1 A problem every project studio has is room and the sound of that room. Or better put, the
lack of a room-sound. A good way to solve this, is a method I learned from Steven Slate.
This is meant for live drums, but can just as easily be used for fake drums made with MIDI.
It goes like this (see picture below).
Create a stereo bus and call it Space, cause were going to pretend we have a nice and big
recording space in our studio. Send all your drum parts to this bus, except for the kick drum,
which we want to sound dry and upfront.
The first plugin on the bus will be a stereo delay. This can be any simple delay and in the
picture I used the standard ProTools delay. Left needs 30 Ms delay en right 40 Ms because
were pretending the mics are a couple of meters away from the kit. No feedback or anything
else, only a slightly off delay to simulate a real room. Next is a reverb with a room preset, all
wet, no pre-delay and about 500ms of room reverb.
Then add an EQ and cut off everything below 100 Hz, since we dont want the rumble.
Last in line is a compressor, preferably a 1176 Type.
Dial in 4:1 en make sure there is about max -3Db of compression going on.
Play around with the input and output knob and settle on something nice.
Set the attack halfway and the release slow (7)
Now, turn your volume knob from that bus all the way down, and then slowly rise it while
playing your drum track. Wow, instant bigness and room sound! How much room you need
depends on the track and I usually automate the volume for verse, chorus and other dramatic
parts of the music. Give it a try!

2 Sometimes all those libraries and MIDI instruments sound dull and alike. Heres an idea:
If you have some outboard gear like a pre-amp or a compressor, re-record these parts
through the analog gear. Make it sound more interesting, make it more analog. Just send it
through these machines for extra warmth. Warm Audio for instance has great stuff for a
good price. Their WA-76 and the Tonebeast give you an immediate analog sound at a low
cost. (I have no stake in this company, I just like their stuff.)
3 Automate, automate, automate.. use the strength and force of the DAW.
Let the parts of your music rise and go up and down with the vibe of your music. In a nice
mix you should see a lot of movement from the faders. Automate the volume, but also the
verb, delay, panning and so on. Be creative and use the DAWs power. Of course this works
better with modern EDM than a country ballad, so be careful. A small lift on the chorus part,
for instance, can work wonders. Or riding the verb on a drumbus. Be creative and dont be
scared, find the One difference in your mix too!
4 Use delay on vocals. I love the Waves H-Delay for this because it has a dirty sound to it.
Make a stereo bus and send your lead vocal to it. Ride the send and/or volume fader to the
vibe of the music. Makes it sound alive and live. H-delay works wonders on piano and guitars,
makes it sound more dirty and has some nice unexpected sounds that randomly happen when
fiddling with the knobs. I love that kinda of thing. Its like playing guitar: Noisy and never
hard on the grid.
I often re-record a track while playing with the feedback knob. Try it yourselves. You can also
put a reverb after the delay, put the delay on an AUX, delay all wet, this way the verb gets only
fed with the feedback/repeats of the delay instead of the entire signal. This can work great
on vocals.

5 Use as much mono signals as possible!

In nowadays recording via DAWs almost all signals are stereo, but why? Why should a piano
always be stereo? On presets this might seem impressive and sound great when played solo.
However, in a band or full tracks its easier to place and pan when an instrument is mono.
In old sixties recordings, such as in music by Aretha Franklin, you even hear mono drums all
panned to the left and the backing vocals all panned to the right. It still works, grooves and
sounds great.
Giving instruments a more extreme place in the sound image can really work and open up a
mix. Logic makes pretty much every track stereo, so the first thing youll need when you open
a Logic session to mix, or bounced files from a Logic session for that matter, is to decide
which tracks you want to be stereo and which ones dont. In most cases lead vocals is mono,
bass is mono, guitar is mono, keys can be mono, snare, kick and HH, all mono.
Better to start mono and then add stereo fx, this way you can do much more with panning
and stereo image.
6 Use old and second-hand gear. Why? Well, it may crack and make noises, but it gives you
instant character. I sometimes go bidding on Ebay and buy some old gear. Theres loads out
there. Last year I bought some nice old Electro-Voice mics from the sixties and when a friend
of mine asked me to help out with a song she wanted to record, these came in good use. I got
me a nice Re-16 and two omnidirectional EV-635As. These sound great when you need that
kind of sound.
I used the EVs as OHs on drums of this track, without any other mics. Only the kick was a
sample, the rest is only these 2 mics and some reverb. https://soundcloud.com/erwinsteijlen/old-fat-and-ugly?in=erwin-steijlen/sets/music
Another great example of how real gear gives instant magic is this:
I wrote and recorded a song that needed to feel retro and cool. I had a hard time getting the
guitar sound right and after tweaking for days with all kinds of plugins I re-recorded my parts,
and used the famous Electro Voice RE-16 mic which is heavily used by The Black Keys
(along with the RE-18, see if you can get one on Ebay!) and I got instant retro coolness.
Again, back to the basics was the answer; I started with the right instrument, amp and mic
and there is it was, the magic.
Here is the instrumental version of the song (guitar starts at 0:28 min):
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/lovestung-instrumental-version

7 My favorite go-to plugins.

Waves H-EQ. Nice eq where the audio is visible in the plug, makes it easier to adjust.
Waves H-Delay. Super for guitars, vocals and keys. I use this one all the time.
UAD Shadow Hills mastering compressor. This thing sounds amazing on everything. Its on
every masterbus on every mix I do.
UAD Studer 800. For nice saturation and warming of tracks.
UAD 1176 or any other 1176 compressor. For parallel mixing drums, bass and acoustic
guitars. L2 for limiting when doing my own mastering. Works on everything.
Slates FG-X works great on mixes / masters that need to be loud, like rock and EDM.
For instant great kicks, wooshes and claps check out vengeance-sound and their flagship
Phalanx is an amazing sampler too. Love that machine!
Omnisphere by Spectrasonics is a great and deep synth, I use it a lot.
Dutch ProjectSams Symphobia is well known for their big trailer-sound library.
Lately ive been using Spitfire Audio and their Albion composer tool. easy to work with and
sounds amazing.
Waves Soundshifter has saved me on many occasions. This great plug can pitch your entire
track in high quality and it also works great for making audio slower or faster. I cut the best
parts out of a live drumtrack, give it names like HH groove, Cym groove, Fill1, Fill2 etc and
always put the Bpm in the name. Later, in another session track, if it fits, Ill use the same
drumpart again and use Soundshifter to change its tempo. A really great plugin.
8 Use real instruments, but use them in different ways than usual. What I mean is that you
can see the whole drumkit, for instance, as one instrument. 99% of the time people do. But
you can also use all the parts as single instruments. I play live cymbals in my electronic music
very often, just to get a more roomy and live feel. You can hear it here:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/bmw-conceptcar-reveal-beijing

In the following example I recorded all the drum parts as single instruments, so as to make
the groove and feel extra different (I didnt record any cymbals on this song, by the way):
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/make-me-feel-good-by-skyshouter
You can record real instruments like violin, cello, horns such as sax and trumpet, but attack
them with plugins and fx. So instead of making them sound as natural as possible, try and
make a new sound with them.
An example of that is the horns in this track I did a while ago. Listen to the intro and youll
know what I mean, its still live played horns with their timing and swing, but the sound is
certainly not natural anymore:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/makin-me-dance
Horns always work for optimism and up! Since horn libraries sound pretty lame to me, I
only use real ones which I sometimes blend with a synth. I love writing horn parts:
https://soundcloud.com/until-mars/today
https://soundcloud.com/until-mars/huhuhu-new-york-master
https://soundcloud.com/until-mars/im-your-man
In this track there was no money for extra musicians, but I made it sound lively anyway. I
made the drums as loud as possible, looping multiple tracks together and, although it would
be impossible to play all the parts at once with one drummer, the wild effect and something
is gonna happen feeling is achieved. This was for another inauguration of a big ship (Ive
done quite a few over the years):
https://soundcloud.com/erwin_steijlen_epicness/3-conquer-the-world-audio
Often my music is for a live event, so real instruments will play parts of the music I wrote
and recorded. In this track, besides live vocals, a big group of percussionists is featured. Tip:
whenever you get one of these jobs, do not make the parts too difficult! Choose for the big
moves, otherwise there will be nothing left of your music live. The percussion starts at 2:00
min:
https://soundcloud.com/erwin_steijlen_epicness/10-city-of-dreams-audio
The guitarsolo I played on Universe, a song for a special friend of mine who passed away
much too early, I love because I played it through a Fulltone Octafuzz. This is a fantastically
noisy guitar pedal that somehow never does what you expect. So these nice, rich overtones
come at random and make the solo more emotional and definitely more interesting to listen
to. Love it when this happens!
http://www.fulltone.com/products/octafuzz-2
These overtones only appear when you play on your neck element and between 10th and 15th
fret. Heres the song, solo starts somewhere around 2:35 min. https://soundcloud.com/untilmars/universe
A nice trick to bring more happiness and a positive feeling to your music is to use a (live)

tambourine. You can play a rhythmical part, but its more subtle if you just play one hit on the
second snare hit in every bar. So on every fourth quarter note of every measure. The first hit
is just snare and the second would be snare and tambourine. Always works.
For those interested some of the epic music I wrote I put on an album in 2015 and can be
found on iTunes or on Spotify.
Its called Epicness Presents: The Beauty & The Beast
https://itunes.apple.com/nl/album/epicness-presents-beauty-beast/id1038595307
I love mixing styles up; using dance techniques such as side-chaining in more classical or
ethnic tracks. In the M4 music that was turned down by my client I put the whole orchestra
through some serious side chaining. This way your music ends up sounding now and
modern, while you still keep that epic orchestra sound we all love.
Check it out around 0:40 min.
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/m-4-launch
An older track I have sold a lot is another example of the above. Its called Shanghai,
Chinatown and was originally made for a show in well Shanghai, China
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/shanghai-chinatown
More ethnic music, this one was written for and used by the Beijing Olympics in 2008
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/china
The use of delay in music is really great. Dont be scared to use it louder in your mix, esp. on
vocals!
I love to automate the delay track and ride the fader along with the music.
Listen to how Katy Perrys vocals sound on an acapella track of her hit Hot N Cold.
Especially in the chorus parts it is almost too much, but when mixed in with the music its
perfect. It gives it that live, raw and wild flavour. Try it! Love delays!
https://soundcloud.com/erwin-steijlen/hot-n-cold-acapella
And heres the full track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTHNpusq654
Making MIDI drums sound more alive. Thats a thing I often hear lacking in demos and
even finished songs. Step one is to program like a real drummer and when thats difficult, just
keep it simple. Use the drumroom trick I talked about earlier in this chapter.
This is what I would do to get a lively, big sounding drumtrack with MIDI instruments:
I mostly use SSD (Steven Slate Drums) for something like this, but there is a lot available. Ill
pick a drumkit and make a couple of fills, a HH drumpart and a Cymbal drumpart, usually
for the chorus. I will build this drumtrack and then finish the rest of the music.
When the mixing starts, I make an AUX track and use the DrumRoom Trick (see above).
Next thing I will do is copy the Snare and the Kick to another track. I then put an instance of
Trigger on these tracks. This plugin will play any sample I put into it with the exact same
timing and feel as the original track. I usually choose a sample from a dance library, something

different from the normal kick or snare sound.

Then I mix it in with the original drumsound. This should make it sound much bigger and
fatter. Next comes making another AUX stereo track and opening a nice compressor plugin. I
then send all my drumtracks to that AUX (not with sends, but with my track outputs). All the
drums (including the dance samples) then go to this AUX track, so muting it would result in
no drumsound at all.
Now choose an appropriate compressor setting. Dont overdo it, just make it sound like more
of a whole, more glued, a little fatter. Now add the DrumRoom AUX and there it is, a fat,
heavy and lively sounding drumtrack. You can add claps or more electronic elements to make
it sound more modern. An example of this that can be heard here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7VM1vivXoY
Here are some great tips from the great Hans Zimmer:
I always have my monitors set to the same level. Its the only way I know Im not kidding
myself. I dont use very expensive speakers, I just use what I really know - and can get
replaced easily.
Yes, we build our own sampler, because I can hear the difference, but the commercial stuff
is getting better. And my career was just fine when I was only using Akai S 1000s with 8 megs
of ram.
Im a bad player, but a good programmer. Im forever trying to explain to great players that
want to become composers that they need to treat learning and practicing the computer as
seriously as they practised their guitar or piano. The computer is a musical instrument and the
more virtuoustic you get on that, the better you can express your ideas.
-The moment I start writing, I start mixing. Since I dont write on paper, I spend a long time
making each note and sound convey the right emotion. It helps later with the live musicians. I
can be very specific in my language (and I use English, not Italian) to convey to them why I
want a note or phrase played a certain way. I dont make changes on the scoring stage, I dont
let directors make changes with the musicians there. The recording is about getting a
performance, not re-writing the cue. Nothing sounds worse then a bunch of bored musicians
who had to wait while someones changed an arrangement.
- I dont understand why people dont sample their own stuff. Ive been (more than once)
asked to judge young composer competitions. After a while you cant hear the music for the
sameness of the sample libraries. I wonder how directors or producers can tell the difference.
- If you want things to sound big, make sure you limit your upper dynamic range. All
instruments especially percussion - sound bigger when played relatively softly. You can always
turn it up. When you hit drums too hard, or any instrument is played too loud, they tend to
sound only bright and thin and pingy.

Despite having developed a huge studio complex at Media Ventures, Hans Zimmer now does most of his own
projects in the home studio shown here. This is his main work area, with master keyboard, computer screens
and monitoring. (SOS)

Chapter 6: How To Find Clients?

One of the most common questions I get asked is indeed How do I get clients?
There is no easy answer to this and it takes some perseverance, getting to know people and a
bit of luck. Here are some ideas: try and make a short showreel and get some credits. These
credits can come from a collaboration with a filmmaker, independent or a student at a film
school. These upcoming filmmakers need composers, so this may even lead to a long time
relationship. Start working for free, learn and show that you are talented. You can also use
school assignments to show your writing skills, you can record bands, write and record your
own songs in your home studio. Do a collaboration with other musicians, write for a singer in
your neighborhood. Find like-minded musicians on forums on the internet and make some
music. Make sure you get the highest possible quality sound-wise. If you can spend a couple
of hundred dollars, get your music mastered by a pro. There are loads online. Realize that
your music, when listened to, will be compared to commercial releases, so it is very important
that you come close to these pro tracks. Sound wise that is. When you can get a nice showreel
online with your music and film together it will always work better than just music. To get
into the corporate world you can email or call (calling is more stressful, but will work way
better) ad agencies, event agencies or even brands. Just promote yourself really quick and
simple and ask if you can send them some material. Make sure your website looks good and
let them know you are available and willing to work hard as long as they give you a chance.
Visit business-to-business meetings, talk to people and give them your card. Ask if you can
send them some music. Approach music directors, film directors, check via friends for anyone
who who might be interested in your work and company. Find out which film company does
corporate work and try to get them to listen to your music, or even better, go by for a cup of
coffee. Theres no real best way to go for this, you will just have to get yourself out there and
find that one opportunity and then take it. When you get an opportunity, absolutely always
make your deadline! When you have no idea what kind of money to ask for a job, be honest
about this and just ask them for their budget. Dont be annoying and spam your prospects,
dont bother them with phone calls, do it cool and be polite. Your showreel does not need to
be long. Just let them hear your best stuff, or part of it. Make sure that there is more available
if they are interested.
When composers send me music, they always send too much. I will hear if its good within
seconds and when someone is really good I will check out more of his/her work. Be honest
about your own music, listen to feedback and, if needed, make it better. Dont expect these
busy people to listen for an hour. Make sure your music starts quite quickly, so dont make 2
minute intros or long drones before something happens. Be honest to yourself about the
quality of your music and make sure its your best music they will hear.

Chapter 7: What About Synching?!

A synchronization or synch right involves the use of a recording of musical work in
audio-visual form: for example as part of a motion picture, television program, commercial
announcement, music video or other videotape. Often, the music is synchronized or
recorded in timed relation with the visual images. Synchronization rights are licensed by the
music publisher to the producer of the movie or program -ASCAP website
Synching / licensing has proven to be most valuable to me over the last 7 years.
License fees can vary between a couple of hundred and thousands of dollars every time a
track is placed, but both the money and the marketing value of some of these placements are
great. License money is split between the library/music supervisor and the writer. In most
cases the non-exclusive publisher decides on the price/fee. This depends on the client and
music use of course. A nationwide commercial pays more compared to a small corporate
video. Sometimes TV series dont pay much, however the back-end/the royalties should be
good.
The royalties, however, if youre working worldwide, can be hard to predict and sometimes
hard to get. There are many confusing paths the money takes before it reaches you and in my
case, there always seem to be pirates active while its on the road to my bank account. Picture
a little boat loaded with my valuables drifting in the ocean somewhere. When it finally finds
its way to the Netherlands, it gets plundered by the greedy hands of Performing Rights
Organisations (PROs). A lot depends on which PRO you have and how hard they work for
you. The only solution for this problem is to sign with an exclusive publisher or get an agent
who you trust to get you your royalties. But be prepared to pay big percentages, even up to
50% for this luxury. Foreign royalties can take up to 3 years to get, thats how slow these
companies work. The license money, however, is great and being able to choose your own
path and work with your own music is wonderful. Licenses have brought me a lot of money
over the past 7 years and besides that it has expanded my network greatly. There are also
libraries that let you decide yourself for what price you sell your music. With those sites you
make less money, but you sell a lot more. These libraries can give you a constant stream of
income. License money is hard cash you get either directly after a placement, every quarter, or
whenever your contact gets it. Do read the chapter with interviews, because theres a lot of
valuable information in that chapter on synching and what to write for synchs.
In 2008 I was hit by the credit crunch, the worldwide financial crisis and clients had no more
jobs for me. Well maybe they had, but all these brands were suddenly very careful with their
money, which is understandable of course. But for me and my family this was a hard time and
I started doubting myself seriously. When companies needed to fire thousands of employees
it only seemed fair that they didnt throw a huge party or a big event. They most certainly
didnt need someone to write music for them. Earning no money at all for more than 3
months and not knowing when this crisis would come to an end was very frustrating and had
a negative impact on my self-esteem.
I worried and thought of ways how to get out. It was in this period that I came up with new
plans and got new ideas for music, events, shows, launches and companies. Sometimes you

need to be forced into being creative again, because when youre always working and caught
up in the daily stress, you tend not to think about the future. Then when a crisis lands you are
unprepared. I surely wasnt prepared at all and it taught me a lot about what I was doing
wrong as a businessman. One of the things I started doing, more as a why not give it a try
kind of thing than anything else, is submit music to libraries and music supervisors. I found
these on the internet and just starting uploading music. I had hundreds of tracks, so I thought
Why not?! One thing I did wrong here was sending music to certain companies that ask
money for submissions. Please, do not pay these websites any money! Never pay anybody to
listen to your music unless youre absolutely sure its all legit. The real music supervisors and
libraries dont ask for money and companies like Taxi and Broadjam are fake in my opinion.
Some of these do give you feedback, but your songs will never be pitched, despite the fact
that thats what they claim. You can spend thousands of dollars on these companies, but it
wont get you anywhere. The client, if there even is one, will never hear your tracks. Lets face
it, they have better things to do than to listen to hundreds of mostly crap songs. Do send
your music to companies and websites, but first do a Google search on these. Check em out.
The first library I sent music to was Pump Audio (theyre now a part of Getty Images). I kind
of forgot about my submission after a while. I was just about to give up when I received my
first check in the mail. Apparently I had made a lot of money in the past 6 months and this
got me thinking. If Im getting this kind of money (about 10,000 dollars) from one library,
lets find ten more! Unfortunately its not that easy and earnings change every quarter, but
there really is a lot of money to be made and its a very easy to do. Just send over music you
already have and wait to get it placed. Your music must, however, be really good, because you
are competing against grammy-winning artists and composers nowadays. The synching
business has grown and, because of fading income with royalties and sales, all the pro writers
also need to get their music placed. So work hard on your music, mix well and have your
tracks mastered!
Of course a famous artist or band will get more for a placement than an unknown artist, but
there is real money to be made. But maybe just as interesting is the marketing side of a good
placement. Suppose your song is featured in a worldwide TV series or film. Think of the
commercial marketing it can bring you as an artist and as a composer. Your audience is
suddenly worldwide and if you play it well, you might end up in the newspaper or a national
TV show. You can use this in your biography to get gigs or new customers for writing jobs,
because people are always more impressed with music thats been on the radio, or featured in
a TV series than just any old song you wrote. Thats just the way people are. Wow, hes on
that show, hey, shes featured in that series, etc.. It makes you seem more important I guess,
more successful and everybody loves a winner. So, use that system. Anybody can do it as long
as you deliver first class music.
Not all of the synch business is non-exclusive, but there are great companies out there that
are. There is a list at the end of this chapter, so make sure to check that out. Companies,
brands, film directors and music supervisors are always looking for great, new music. They
want something that fits their clients needs, something that fits the film scene or commercial,
why shouldnt it be your track they place? Nowadays synching and licensing is a part of my
income just as my customers are. Besides that, it has brought me new friends and a worldwide

network. This brings in new opportunities and work. I guess I should be grateful for the crisis
of 2008, because it made me creative as a businessman again and it opened new doors for
me. It made me go worldwide, it helped me go global.
How does this work?
In order for someone to sync a particular composition (the song, melody, lyrics, etc.) to
their new project (the show, commercial, movie, etc.), they must get permission from the
publisher/songwriter and acquire what is called a sync license. In return, a synchronization
royalty (also called a sync fee or licensing fee) is paid to the publishers and songwriters.
This process grants the new content creator the right to use the music and lyrics of an
existing song in their work, but not the existing audio recording. For that, a person wishing to
sync an existing recording to their new content must acquire a master use license from the
owner of the sound recording (usually the label). In the major label world, the publisher, the
songwriter, and the owner of the master recording could all be different entities. If youre in
the independent music world, its likely that you are all three people in one.
So, in this case its great to be independent and own your music. If your track feels finished
and you really feel like its the best you can do, just send it to one of the libraries in the list
below or find more online. It might be a good idea to get your music mastered first. You can
do this yourself, but in many cases its better to have a pro do it. There are plenty out there
and doing it online works very fast. After mastering, your track is usually louder and the bass
and highs sound better, more like whats on the radio or on cds nowadays. You will sell your
music more easily if you have it mastered, thats my experience.
Read the rules of the music supervisor or library and follow them. All of them will first want
to know if you are any good, so they will take some sort of audition. Send them a couple of
tracks and wait. If they like it, you can send more. There are also libraries that are very picky
about what and who they accept, but its their rules so you need to obey. You always need to
be registered with a PRO, which will usually be the one you have in your country. The biggest
ones are ASCAP, BMI and SESAC. They will ask a small fee for joining most of the time.
Ask them for your CAE/IPI number. This is your international identification number as a
songwriter or a publisher which is used to uniquely identify rights holders. You need this to
apply to any library. You can only send in music thats yours, of course, and you can only send
in music if you are the owner of the master recording. Submit your music to your PRO and
then start sending music to these companies, get a conversation going, start making some
sales. (More on this in the next chapter.)
Some of these libraries send pitches, mostly they are short notice but very interesting moneywise. If you have a studio and some free time, try and get some placements this way, because
usually they pay very well.
Other libraries can make you a steady stream of income which may be more important than
scoring one big one.
Doing this non-exclusively gives you the freedom to do whatever you like with your tracks.
Shop around and try to get some success. Meet people, write more and build your business.
Synching is only one part of your income, of course, but if you work it well, it can certainly

become significant.

A long time ago, some 17 years ago, I was in a band called City to City. That band scored a
big hit with a song called The Road Ahead, which turned out to be the best selling single in
the Netherlands ever up to that time. The song became a hit through a Hyundai TV
commercial. It actually wasnt even a whole song, just a chorus. But the public loved it anyway
and literally ran to the record shops wanting to buy that track. So a real song was made out of
it and quickly released as a single. That year we played the biggest festivals, which was great.
But the story here is, like in so many other stories about songs and money, not one with a
nice ending.
The lead singer who had written the music for that commercial had been given a choice by
the studio doing the spot. He could take a fee (about 1200 dollars) and give away his
rights/royalties or no fee and keeping his rights. Having no clue about music rights and that
this song would become a huge hit, he gave away his rights. He really needed the cash at that
time. To make a long story short: The studio owner became a millionaire because he had put
the music rights on his name. Although its not a pretty story, you can see the strength of

synching here very clearly.

Now something more positive; for the ultimate synching experience, watch the amazing TV
series Peaky Blinders season 1. This ingenious series plays just after World War I around
1919, as soldiers return to their homes in England, finding it difficult to make a living. These
raw, hard and modern scenes are emotional and grab you by the throat immediately. Even
more amazing, however is, that there is (almost) no score, only synchs! It isnt even 20s music,
but loud, raw, raunchy rock by The White Stripes, Jack White, Tom Waits, Dan Auerbach (of
The Black Keys) and Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
Do watch this series (the first 6 episodes are on Netflix) and feel and see how well this music
works with the scenes and the emotions of the actors. Just wow, it really is the ultimate
synching experience and proves that One different thinking can deliver something really
special and great. A big thumbs up for the director and his team.
The trailer of season 1:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXNs5HEUspI
A shortlist of non-exclusive libraries/music supervisors:
Crucial Music, Audiosparx, Score A Score, Audiosocket, CueSongs, Mibe, Yooka, JinglePunks
There are many more, but the ones above charge fair prices and are approachable and
trustworthy.
Proof of worldwide synching success for artists:
Remember Too Close by Alex Clare?
He was an unknown artist who was shopping around with his second single when Microsoft
decided to pick up his song Too Close (a mix of pop and dubstep) and used it for their
Windows Internet
Explorer 9 campaign.
The song became number 1 in the German charts and number 4 in the UK charts.
It played almost 61 million times on YouTube. Thats what synching can do..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYXjLbMZFmo
Here in the Netherlands Caro Emerald got famous through a Martini commercial, and not
only national! International succes is something special to achieve for an artist who isnt from
the UK or the US as we discussed earlier in this book. Again, synching brought her where she
is now (but her music is really good of course At least circle round):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkz4tz2YxDM
Phoenix 1901: Cadillac SRX
Thanks to Cadillac, a timely feature on SNL, and a few other TV spots, Phoenix became one
of the biggest bands in the world back in 2009.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvss3uhSKjw

Jet Are You Gonna Be My Girl?

Its hard to believe it, but Jet is the band that started it all. Back in 2003, Are You Gonna Be
My Girl was the first song to be featured in the now iconic iPod ad where iPod-wielding
silhouettes dance to a bands music in front of brightly colored backgrounds. With their
brash, swaggering, sound, Jet were the perfect band to announce the arrival of the new appleera.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuK6n2Lkza0
Ting Tings Shut Up and Let Me Go
The Ting Tings were already enjoying moderate success in the UK when their music was
featured in an ad for next-gen iPods. After the commercial however, the electro-pop duo
became wildly popular across the pond where Shut Up and Let Me Go reached number
one on Billboards Hot Dance Club Songs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-8iFO6Ww-o
Another Apple made success is Feist
Feist 1, 2, 3, 4
Despite years of popularity in her home and native Canadabefore Apple used 1, 2, 3, 4
to huck iPod NanosLeslie Feist was best known internationally for her work with Broken
Social Scene. These days, Feist is a soul-crooning powerhouse in her own right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABYnqp-bxvg

Chapter 8: Music Rights and Wrongs

Time to explain some things about music rights, what are we talking about?
Royalties: A royalty is a payment made by one party (the licensee) to another that owns a
particular asset (the licensor) for the right to ongoing use of that asset.
License: A license agreement defines the terms under which a resource or property are
licensed by one party to another, either without restriction or subject to a limitation on term,
business or geographic territory, type of product, etc.
Mechanical Royalties:
Generated through the sale of music in physical formats such as CDs and DVDs, or digital
formats through downloads predominately on iTunes but also on-demand services like
Spotify. Money comes through your publisher or you get sales from iTunes. This is a fixed fee
the label has to pay.
Performance Royalties:
Generated when music is performed publicly through broadcast on television, radio, cable
and satellite, live performance at a concert or other performance venues (hotels, bars,
restaurants, etc.). The money is collected by PROs such as ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.. and is
then divided amongst the writer(s) and publisher.
Synching Royalties / Licensing
These are generated when music is used in conjunction with visual images, such as films,
television programs, television commercials and video games.
This is a one-time fee collected by the publisher and paid to the writer (usually 50/50)
Master Royalties
Master royalties are paid to a label when the labels recording is used in an advertisement,
film, television program, streaming service or other medium. Master royalties are typically
paid in addition to synchronization or public performance royalties, as royalties paid to the
publisher only grant the rights to the use of a song, not a specific recording of a song.
Other Royalties
These are generated when music is used in mobile ringtones, streaming, stage productions or
print music.
If you want to get into the synching business, you need to sign up with a PRO (Performing
Rights Organisation).
Most people will sign with the PRO of their own country, but this is not necessary. However,
you can only join one PRO (parts of the world can be divided between PROs in some cases).
So in the US most join ASCAP or BMI. Other well known PROs are SESAC, PRS (Uk) and
GEMA (Germany). Most countries have one. I joined BUMA/STEMRA long ago in the
Netherlands.

When you join a (non-)exclusive library you wil be asked for your CAE/IPI number.
IPI stands for: Interested Parties Information and CAE stands for: Composer, Author and
Publisher. Ask for this number with your PRO as you will need it to pursue a collaboration
with a music supervisor or a music library.

Chapter 9 The Mix, a great Bronze Medal Winner

Getting back to the musicWhen you search the internet and YouTube, it really starts to
seem like mixing is the holy grail of music nowadays. Thousands and thousand of websites,
blogs and vlogs about mixing. The use of a compressor seems to be almost more important
than the music it self. This craft can not be learned by watching video clips. Tips on setting
the ratio of an optical compressor are useless, unless you want to learn the basics. This is a
craft that needs to be learned by doing it. You can read as much as you want, but that alone
will not make you a good mixer. Its all about your ears, taste and the music! But mixing is
easy when the music and the musicians are great. Mixing can be hard when they arent.. If I
had to make a ranking of importance between music, performance and mixing, mixing would
come out in third place; The Bronze medal on the Olympics of Music.
If you split the real craft and art of recording, then mixing would be on fourth place.
Gold and #1 will always be the idea, the song, the music.
Silver #2 and sometimes a shared first place has to be performance.
On #3 recording and mixing; the production.
If anything goes wrong with #1 or #2, mixing wont save you.
When music and performance are great, mixing is easy.
There are musical styles in the EDM department where mix stands above performance, so it
will earn a good second place in that style, but it will never rise to #1 imo.
If it were to rise up to #1, you would be listening to edit tricks, delays, reverbs, compression
etc.. It would all sound great, but would not touch anybodys heart. The real passion and the
thing that moves people is in the chords, the theme, the playing and the singing. Mix tricks are
great for freaks and insiders. Mixing and production are, however, still very, very important in
modern music. It can break your music and it can make your music. Its an unmistakeable part
of the holy threesome: Music, Performance and Production.
Always keep listening to the ideas and the performance when youre working on a project or a
job. Do not lose yourself in edit tricks and piles of plugins which only you can understand
and hear.
If it improves your music, use it.
If it makes no difference to your music, lose it.
Ive talked about it earlier in this book but i feel i need to repeat myself: Tricks do not impress
clients and audiences, only other mixers like this stuff.
Dont get me wrong, I like that stuff too. I like it a lot and I love to mix, but you always need
to stay in tune with the more important things being; the Music and Performance.
There is, however, a lot to be learned from these recording and mixing tricks, so learn and try
these out but, never let it become your #1.
There are some tests you can do to see if your idea works.

Does the music youre working on feel great when played on one instrument?
It should be sounding epic and amazingly played only on piano or guitar. You should be able
to feel the groove even without the real groove playing. The idea needs to be strong otherwise
youre selling hot air. Many composers rely on their mixing and use of libraries, but that way
they will never write that one really emotional piece that people still talk about months later.
Does your music need mixing tricks? If so, your idea is probably not strong enough.
Be careful not to let your own love of mixing tricks and sound manipulation come between
you and the client / what the client wants and needs.
This Gold and Silver medal talk is only a bit of fun of course and Im not trying to say
anything bad about great mixers, just never forget whats most important in this business! I
see many students make the mistake of giving too much attention to the mix. Mix as much as
you need and be as creative as you can, but make sure the chords, the words, the performance
and the song as a whole are at least just as good!
I can mix songs for days or even weeks even though Im aware that Ive embarked upon a
never ending search for perfection. True beauty is in imperfection and the spur of the
moment. Too much mixing can kill this, so be careful.
All the mixing tricks in the world that sound crazy awesome can sound amazing when used in
a great track with great ideas, but will sound totally stupid and senseless if the ideas arent
there.
Whenever you get stuck, remember, The Beatles could do it on 4 tracks, The beach Boys
could do it on 8, Queens Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded on 24 tracks, so why do you
need 256 tracks?
Of course.. if you do need these tracks, then go for it, use the DAWs power. But whatever
you do, never give the Mix the Gold medal.. ;-)

Chapter 10: interviews Interview with Lee Johnson, Executive VicePresident of Audiosparx.
AudioSparx is an industry-leading music library and stock audio website that brings together a world of
music and sound effects from thousands of independent music artists, producers, bands and publishers in a hot
online marketplace. In operation since 1996, AudioSparx specializes in licensing high-quality audio content
to clients in film and TV production, game production, ad agencies and others needing world-class audio cues
for their productions and projects. With a vast library of audio content now exceeding 689,000 tracks,
AudioSparx has become the definitive site of choice for stock audio.
Lee, youre kind of a mystery, not much to be found about you on the internet. You
obviously love your privacy. Is there a reason for this?
Yes, with the pervasive nature of the Internet, one of the hardest challenges I face is
eliminating the unwanted noise coming from the Internet it is highly distracting and timeconsuming to deal with. I find that the more I refrain personally from participating in social
media and putting personal information out on the web, the more I can keep the unwanted
noise level reduced as much as possible. Doing so allows me to focus on my job and conserve
my time.
How did you get started in this industry/business?
My parents were very musical and inspired me from a very early age. Ive been playing piano
for about 45 years now, and drums for about 40 years. I played in bands for many years, lived
in LA for a good number of years, and have a solid understanding of music and the music
industry in general. Another critical factor was the emergence of the commercial internet in
the early 1990s, without which much of this would not be possible. The Internet eliminated
many barriers to a meritocratic world, and has provided a level playing field that rewards
ability, perseverance, and hard work.
What else would you be if not the Executive VP of AudioSparx?
I would probably be either a professional commercial graphic artist, or involved in advanced
bioengineering, computerengineering, or software engineering work, or potentially involved in
astronomy; I have an interest in these other areas.
If you had a chance for a do over in life. What would you do differently?
I have made MANY mistakes in my life, both small and large. With the benefit of hindsight,
there are many things I would have done differently. But, that said, it is important to
emphasize that even though I and people in general make mistakes in life, it is never too late
to correct them and move forward with the lessons learned. Life is a continuuma journey,
not a destination. So you can alter that journey for the better with enhanced knowledge and
wisdom, and continue forward. It is never too late.
What do you feel most proud of ?
Helping music artists and composers around the world to be able to make a living from their
art. Before the Internet came along, I worked for many years to be a professional music artist,

with only occasional success, and I know first hand how difficult it can be.
Why did you choose this profession?
A sheer love for music!! The sensation and feeling I get when I discover a great new song, or
a new artist/band that is writing great music gives me chills up and down my back and neck.
Very few other things in life touch me in the same way.
Who do you most admire in business? Other VPs? CEOs? Companies?
Definitely I admire most the talented artists who participate here at AudioSparx without
them we would have nothing. I know the sacrifices they make and have made over years to
pursue their own love of music, and to me they are heroic and magnificent.
What is your strongest personal quality?
A superlative ability to get along with all different types of people, from all walks of life.
What do you feel is your biggest achievement ?
Personally, having and raising my amazing son. Professionally, to be working full time in the
music industry, in a company of which I am a co-owner. The people at AS and yourself are
very committed to the company. I always get an answer to my emails within a couple of
hours, even on Sundays! Thats pretty amazing and very composer friendly compared to many
other libraries.
How much time do you put into your work? Any time left for family or hobbies?
My typical week varies from 50 to 70 hour week. I definitely make time for my family and
hobbies, and savor the leisure time that Im able to experience with them.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years and what are the future plans for AS?
The partners at AudioSparx and I will be still operating and growing AudioSparx. It is a labor
of love for us! Future plans are confidential for competitive reasons.
Any more tips for artists, songwriters and composers?
What do you think needs to be better in the music you get submitted?
Where do most go wrong?
There are just a few of the main issues we see that need to be taught to young up-and-coming
composers and artists:
MIX. We get a huge amount of new applications where the music is very poorly mixed, even
missing the most basic things, like trimming excessive leading and trailing silence, and
avoiding distortion from too-loud mixing. Especially young African-American artists writing
Hip Hop, Dance, and RnB mix their music INSANELY loud, thinking that by maxing
everything at the red line that somehow the louder it is, the better it will sound WRONG!
They destroy their music immediately when they do that.
Many artist applications have highly repetitive music that are essentially the same idea
repeated over and over (e.g. like AAAA, or ABAB) for 4 minutes with only minor tweaks
along the way, totally lacking in any kind of structured development with a meaningful start,

middle, and end (e.g. like ABABCAB, or ABABCD).

A huge number of the tracks are lacking in meaningful rhythmic, melodic and/or harmonic
development throughout the song The composer may find a nice groove/beat (modern
keyboards will give you one at the push of a button) but then does nothing to really develop
it into something really cool and unique. Some REALLY bad singers submit tracks
(somebody should have long ago told them their voice SUCKS!!)
If a singer is going to use explicit lyrics, they should ALWAYS also create a non-explicit
version of the same song to avoid HUGELY limiting the commercial possibilities for the
song if there is only an explicit version available. For vocal songs, also create the instrumental
version and at least a 30 and 60sec edit during the composing/mixing/mastering phase, do
NOT ever to go back later and chop up a full track for the sake of creating a 30 or 60. By
doing it during the original production phase, the edits are much more organic and nature and
dont sound just like chopped/hacked versions of the song. 15, 30, and 60 sec edits should be
EXACTLY that long so that they perfectly fit the required time for clients using them for
commercials that have to play exactly this long.
Young composers totally overlook the huge amount of public domain music that they can
recreate. PD songs are like hit songs from the past that can be licensed on-demand for any
type of commercial or digital licensing without having to clear publishing. It would be great if
new and up-coming artists would school themselves on a lot of the PD music that is out
there, to integrate the in-depth knowledge about such songs into their baseline knowledge,
put new spins on old classics, and in the process create a very marketable set of music tracks
that have significant commercial demand. Excessively synthetic-sounding instrumentation,
over-quantization, and other lame MIDI and digital music production techniques really hurt
commercial potential. Real instruments are much more compelling for humans to listen to, or
at least digital instruments but played by humans so it does not sound robotic.
We receive HUGE amounts of dramatic music content, all written in the big orchestral Hans
Zimmer style, and yet artists completely neglect a huge amount of world music that is lacking
from our site (e.g. Thai music, Banda, Soca, Oktoberfest, K-Pop, J-Pop, the list is huge). Its
like everybody is trying to write the same music and nobody is really considering the value
that uniqueness and experimentation and differentiation brings. Also, and this is REALLY
important: all these dramatic music writers are totally forfeiting participation in a HUGE
worldwide need for commercial background music service (i.e. music that can be played in
shops, restaurants, etc.) which pays recurring revenue. Earning recurring revenue for your
music is way more important than getting a single track licensed for some commercial use
here and there Recurring revenue will pay your bills!
Another VERY important recommendation is for composers to affiliate strictly with a USbased performing rights organization (PRO) such as ASCAP or BMI, rather than one that is
outside the US. The reason for this is that the PROs outside the US almost always require
exclusive control of your music, which prevents you from participating in direct-licensing of
the public performance rights of your music. By participating strictly at a US PRO, you can
participate in direct-licensing and simultaneously also participate in the statutory/compulsory
licensing services that PROs provide. Until the laws change in the Netherlands, and Europe

in general, to allow both direct-licensing and statutory licensing simultaneously and in parallel
like what is done in the US, this will be an absolutely critical move for young composers who
want to earn a living from their music.
The music industry is changing and the old rules dont apply anymore. Is this an
opportunity or a problem for AS and how do you see the market evolving?
I am a strong advocate that the laws in the Netherlands concerning BUMA/STEMRA and
SENA, and in Europe in general, should be changed to compel the societies to strictly have
non-exclusive rights, NOT exclusive rights, in the music they license and represent from
composers and artists, so that Dutch composers and artists, and European artists in general,
are not deprived of their ability to direct-license their music in order to participate in
statutory licensing services provided by the collecting societies there. This is a fundamental
monopoly/anti-trust issue that exists in Netherlands and Europe in general that is staggering
in the scope of its excessive abuse and utter unfairness to creative composers and artists.
(ASIDE Erwin, with your considerable influence, you should advocate for this change in
Netherlands.)
What skills do you need to do your job?
Among other things, I need top-notch organizational skills, advanced computer skills, the
ability to read and write in multiple languages, advanced people skills, a smooth temperament,
imagination, a willingness to push boundaries. These are some of the most important
things.
Can you describe your first sale/customer and the feeling you got?
It happened when I was five years old, selling home-grown tomatoes door-to-door to my
neighbors (Ive been an entrepreneur for avery long time). Closing my first sale was both
inspirational and illuminating it lit a fire that has never gone out!
Why does your company beat the competition?
We have a talented team, and we persevere in the face of adversity, which in some cases can
be extreme.
Can you give me one word that describes you best?
Driven!
http://www.audiosparx.com/
Interview with Rob de Vries, Founder and CEO of De Vries&Partners Germany and
DvP Group International Rob de Vries.
DvP Group International are a full-service events company with offices in the Netherlands, Germany, China,
USA, Singapore and Brazil. They have delivered communications concepts and realizations, worldwide, for
the biggest brands for more than 20 years now.
Rob, like some other CEOs theres not much to be found on you on the Internet.
Why?
I love my privacy and I dont like being visible on the internet, dont like to give interviews

either. I love to work behind the scenes but dont like to be in the spotlights or on stage.
How did you get into the event business?
I went to the Hotel Management School and during a night when I witnessed an event I
immediately knew that this is what I want to do. So I applied for a job with a small event
agency. I was about 20 years old I think and they hired me despite the fact that I knew
absolutely nothing about business. I loved it and learned quickly. I decided early on that I
wanted to have my own company, and make my own decisions, so I started an event agency
with a friend of mine.
Did you always wanted to go for the big clients?
Definitely! I made a list of the 100 biggest companies and started at the top. Pretty daring for
a young company with no name, but we did it anyway. I combined my love for cars (Rob has a
whole bunch of amazing cars including an Aston Martin) with the list, and decided we had to go to
Germany first. We went to BMW, Mercedes, Audi, VW and with Opel we scored. From there
it took off and it stayed that way.
Why do these big clients choose to work with you and your company?
Creativity, enthusiasm and real passion. I really believe I am the man for the job, and I always
go into meetings and into pitches feeling this way. I am 100% sure I can pull this off, and I
tell the clients precisely that; Im your man! I can deliver a mix of ingredients that will give the
client something extra. Its like a salad, it needs great dressing, some balsamico, oil etc. the mix
will make it great, otherwise its just plain salad. The rest is preparation, going all the way for
the client before we even get the job. We usually spend between 40.000 and 50.000 Euro on
pitches, so our presentations and books look absolutely stunning. This also helps to win a
client over, of course, and it should because its a huge amount of money. Last year we lost a
lot of money in pitches we didnt win, so we need a big client to earn that money back. We
lost 6 pitches where we came second every time, thats quite frustrating. The client told me we
were the best and most creative in our ideas and plans, but they doubted if we could handle
such a big event. Which is total nonsense if you look at what we already achieved in the past.
Our competitor was bigger and had more staff. Thats what made the client choose for them.
It was a wrong decision based on fear and doubt. Very frustrating.
Do you think young companies can get into your business? And at your level?
Thats going to be harder and harder because you need to be financially strong, really strong.
The big clients today do not pay anything up front, which means we have to pay for all the
costs ourselves and then wait for our money after the event and show is done. This means
hundreds of thousands of Euros in investments. Think about the costs for event locations,
were talking Petronas Twin Towers in Kuala Lumpur, race tracks in the US, travel for guests
and so on. These parties all want their money upfront. Were like a bank without the interest,
because the client wont pay any. There are even clients that want to see my bank account
statement! They want the financial figures of my companies to see if we are financially
healthy. If I dont show these, I wont get the job! They need to be sure we dont go bankrupt
during the collaboration, thats supposed to be the reason. Thats the way the market is
changing nowadays. So what youll see is that the big players will be doing all the big jobs and

it will be really hard for smaller, younger companies to get into the business.
Rob, what else would you do if you werent the boss at DvP?
I would have started a charter company for boats, yachts.
When I was young I had a boat of 27 mtrs esp. made for this reason, I wanted to rent it out
in France and the Caribbean, go out sailing with clients. Unfortunately there was a law in the
Netherlands that wouldnt let me start this company, and we eventually had to sell the boat.
But its still in the back of my mind, so who knows.
Has your style of managing changed?
I do work differently than I used too. Nowadays I have good staff and great people working
for me but I am involved in everything thats happening. Im always the one in control and I
make the important decisions. When its about music I really want to know what the
composer has done before we send it to the client, because it is so important for every event,
show and product launch.
Do you have tips for starting creative entrepreneurs?
Believe in yourself and show that belief. Be the best you can and work as hard as you can.
Doors will open, I absolutely believe in that. Dont be scared to show your vulnerability, be
emotional and honest. I once stopped a presentation I was doing because it went all wrong. I
said to the business people Im going leave, then come back in and were going to start over,
because I really, absolutely believe I am the man for this job, we just started off on the wrong
foot. So I really did go out of the room, came back in and started over. They were amazed,
but I eventually did win them over and landed the job. Believe in yourself and be yourself,
thats it.
Whats your strongest quality?
Thats a tough one. I guess Im always positive, I believe in people and give them a lot of
freedom to do their job. I never shout and almost never get angry. Oh, now I know my
strongest quality; Im a really good problem solver. Whenever things go wrong, Ill step in and
solve it. The Trouble shooter thats me. In Kuala Lumpur last year we hired the Petronas
Towers for an event. And the already huge amount for rent was suddenly doubled by the
owner. This was one week before the event and it looked like we really had a problem that
nobody could solve. So finally I flew in and managed to settle the dispute. We still paid a little
more than what was initially agreed, but the event went through and the money trick they
wanted to play didnt work. I really was prepared to completely call off the whole thing and
take my loss. The Towers owner got scared, because he didnt expect me to make that move
and so he gave in.
What do you think other people admire you for?
I hope they feel that Im a real pro. My motto is deliver more than what is expected. I listen
very carefully to a briefing and then try to give them more. What you need for this is technical
insight (this business has become very technical), organisational skills, we need to see the
build of the event, the drama and the ability to calculate really quickly. I can give a client a
good price almost instantly and on a 12 million dollar event I wont be 30,000 off. I know

about prices and what a good launch/event needs.

How important is music to your company and the success of your company?
Music is one of the most important things at an event. Its a basic need that has to fit.
Better to do without film than without music imo. Music is so important, we sell emotion and
you cant do this without music. Music is art and sometimes its difficult to see all these people
that work for our clients pretending to be composers themselves. You as a composer need to
understand the product, the market and what the music is for. I feel like I know my customers
and their products very well, I need to in order to make a great product launch or event, and I
need creative suppliers that can deliver great material that fits the bill exactly. I feel we need to
protect our suppliers, especially the creative ones, from extreme feedback or insecure clients
that just keep asking for more without knowing want they want. Its also our job to know how
to sell the music, the film, the lights, the food etc..
Who was your first client?
BMW, the 3-series cabrio. We came into the BMW CEOs office with a plan and some music
and we immediately got the deal. We were last to pitch and after our presentation he shook
our hands and tolds us we got the job. Our first big client, Bingo, it was a great feeling. We
never lost a client. That says it all after all these years.
The industry has changed a lot, it has become more technical, there is more know
how among clients. Have you made changes to your company and the way you work?
The biggest change for me is that everything has become so calculated. Clients want to decide
on everything, even the feelings of the visitors and customers. It has all professionalized
greatly over the years and these days theres a lot of multi-media. We always seem to need an
LED wall, audio and visuals. We used to go with an idea, a feeling with some highlights, but
nowadays every second is planned.
Its not better or worse, it is what it is and we need to deal with it. We never used to have film
in our portfolio and now we cant do without it. We grew along with the market.
How do you beat the competition?
With the passion we work with, by being creative, out of the box thinkers, being a little
different. It has a lot to do with the entertainment we offer. We always use live music and
custom made tracks and songs, even clothes are designed especially for that one event. It
makes us different from the rest and thats why the customers keep coming back.
Who do you admire?
LOIS JACOBS!
Some info: Lois Jacobs has been chief executive of Fitch, the retail and branding consultancy,
since April 2009, where she oversees 14 offices in 9 countries. Jacobs, 58, was born in
London and attended North London Collegiate before becoming a DJ in Italy, using the
name Lolo di Londra. She returned to become a personal assistant for the UK managing
director of Fiat, where she became involved in events marketing. Jacobs ran her own agency,
which she sold to Saatchi & Saatchi, and then spent 10 years as the international president of

Jack Morton Worldwide, producing ceremonies for two Olympics, two Commonwealth
Games, as well as three G8 summits.
What would you do if not running DvP?
I love to create. If I would sell my company, then the next day I would call my competitors
and offer them my services and expertise. I would be for hire, I guess. I have a good
relationship with the competition. This is what I do and what I am. Im not the kind of
person to do nothing.
One word that describes you best
Unique.
http://www.devries-partners.de/
Interview with Jordan Passman, Founder and CEO of Score A Score.
SCORE A SCORE is a music production and licensing company that delivers custom music on-demand.
SCORE A SCORE is a marketplace for sounds, a fast-growing and leading company. Jordan made the
Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2014.
1 Jordan, you are very visible on the internet. Many other CEOs arent. Do you think
this has helped your company grow? And was this visibility planned or more
coincidental?
This absolutely has helped my business, SCORE A SCORE, grow. I believe that publicity is
one of the most powerful tools a CEO can utilize, and learning how to sell your company in
a unique way is extremely important. In the beginning, success is a perception, and visibility
from trustworthy outlets is very helpful.
2 How did you get started in the music industry? And are you a musician yourself ?
I always loved connecting people, and seeing/hearing how music complimented visual art. I
started by quite literally dreaming up the idea for a platform to connect musicians with jobs. I
wanted to create the first dedicated online marketplace for composers and people who need
them to connect and collaborate. I am a musician myself, but very amateur compared to the
modern day Mozarts on my roster ;-)
3 When did you take the decision to start a business, to be an entrepreneur?
I was 23 when I decided to start my own business
4 Who do you most admire in business? (other CEOs, companies?)
Amazon, Uber and Postmates. I love the process of finding the best and the most efficient
way to execute plans, ideas and goals.
5 What do you think is your strongest personal quality?
My strongest personal qualities are my passion for people and business, as well as my drive to
help make the world a better place.
6 What kind of manager are you?

A transparent one, interested in the happiness and balanced lifestyle of my employees.

7 What skills do you need to do your job?
Organization, efficiency, passion, taste, confidence, salesmanship, macro-thinking,
management, responsibility & dependability.
8 You work with the biggest brands in the US. Why do these big clients choose to
work withyou and SAS?
We offer world-class customer service (when you send us an email we responds within 10
minutes, at any given time). We are very selective with the music we represent and we offer a
one-stop solution for all things music, which makes us very easy to collaborate with.
9 How does SAS beat the competition?
Ultimately, we deliver the right and best music for the project. However, we are even in the
competition to begin with is because of our salesmanship and our business model. We offer a
risk-free solution, and our clients have no reason not to give us a try.
10 Can you describe your first sale and the feeling you got?
It was for a spec potato chips commercial for a directors reel. It was 50 dollars and I was over
the moon with excitement. The first sale was enough for me to know that if one person was
willing to pay for it, that I could make it a business.
11 Where do you see yourself in 5 years and can you reveal some of the future plans
for SAS?
In 5 years I hope SAS will be larger in staff (currently 4 full-time employees), will have a
larger client base and will continue growing in revenue. As for specifics, we are about to
launch our brand new website, which Im very excited about. Im also optimistic about the
virtual reality market (a space were already playing a role in), which I anticipate will grow a lot
in the near future.
12 Do you have tips for starting creative entrepreneurs?
Every time you meet someone you should ask them to introduce you to someone new. You
can expand your network infinitely. Additionally, always bring your passion to everyone you
meet.
13 Do you have any tips for composers, songwriters and artists who want to write for
the corporate market?
Come join ScoreAscore. We will only accept you if we think we can help you. This is what we
do best!
14 What do you think needs to be better in music you get submitted? Where do most
go wrong?
Samples and mixing are extremely important. For example, synthy/cheap sounding strings
can devalue a track to the point where its un-useable and un-licensable. Its important to
compose in the styles that youre comfortable and fluent in. Specialisation is fantastic. Be the

best at one thing rather than OK at everything.

15 Will the licensing market be changing in the near future do you think?
Absolutely! Everything will be changing as technology continues to advance. New platforms
and mediums, such as virtual reality, have yet to be defined, and the landscape of web content
is evolving by the minute. Throughout these changes, I am confident that IP and Copyrights
will be protected, and there will be great money in music licensing.
16 One word that describes you best.
Thankful.
Visit ScoreAscore at:
http://scoreascore.com/
Interview with Henk Bout, creative entrepreneur
Henk Bout is the CEO and Founder of Wisseloord Studios in its current, revitalized form. He is a
respected entrepreneur in the Dutch broadcasting and facilities industry; a man whos been walking the fine
line between creativity and business all his life. Over the course of the last decade-and-a-half, his two-person
company grew into a multi-national full-service broadcasting facilities powerhouse with 1500 employees, based
in five countries now known as United. He invested money and time to bring Wisseloord back at the top.
(Wisseloord was known worldwide in the eighties and bands like The Rolling Stones, Def Leppard, The
Police and Simple Minds all loved recording in this great studio).
Instead of asking Henk questions, it was better do let him tell his story, which is inspiring for
every (starting) businessman and creative entrepreneur. You will find that many of the things
that I am arguing for in this book come back in his story.
Henk:
I started playing guitar at the age of 13, and had to wait 6 months before I was allowed to
take lessons. When was finally able to start I was all excited, but it turned out to be acoustic
lessons only and since I had bought an electric one, I had no choice but to teach myself. This
was long before the Internet and YouTube, so I had to learn from playing along with records.,
the old school way. I really wanted to play like Eric Clapton, so I bought Crossroads by
Cream and played this song at least a thousand times on 16 rpm, trying to nail that solo. I
basically taught myself to play the guitar. Meanwhile at school, I had one of those career
choice tests and the outcome was that I should find something creative to do and also
something businesslike. The test explained it using difficult words, which my parents didnt
understand, but in effect it said I should be a museum director, haha
Nobody ever understood the results of that test, but looking back now, it was 100% right. I
really wanted a career as a guitar player, but knew that was not going to be easy, especially
making money would be hard. So I made the choice to study economics and keep playing
music as an amateur. At times I felt bad about my decision, like when I saw others achieving
success. But still, becoming world famous while living in the Netherlands is pretty much
impossible. I also saw older musicians who were disappointed in their life and couldnt make
ends meet. Besides that I think I wasnt technical enough on my guitar, and when I saw Al

DiMeola play, I decided to do something else entirely. Besides studying economics, I played in
bands and made some money as a FOH sound man, mixing bands live. When I found out I
could make good money as a cameraman, I entered a world where I could combine my
creativity and business instincts. But, since there was no education for becoming a cameraman
at that time, I just taught myself. I was one of 5 cameramen who made the step from film to
video really early. Video was pretty ugly at that time, but I saw it would be the future, since
news programs here in The Netherlands were looking to transition to video too. I saw a big
opportunity there. Buying a video set was very expensive, about 250.000 Dutch guilders
(125.000 dollars) and I had no money, or any securities needed to loan that kind of money. I
had studied economics, however, and was able to put together a great business plan. The
bank understood my story, plan and vision. I explained what my USP was and how I would
attack the market. The daily rate for a cameraman was pretty high in those days, about 2500
(1200 dollars) per day! I calculated exactly how much money I needed to live and how many
working days I needed to pay back the bank.
My tip for starting creative businessmen is to really calculate what you can earn. Be honest
about this, learn to understand cashflow, learn to understand the dynamics of money coming
in, and money going out.
Of course, it was easier back then to get money from the bank, but you can do it today if you
have a well-written business plan and a clear vision. Show those bankers that you understand
business besides being creative! I believe that successful artists are not only great creative
people, but strong in their business thinking too. So make sure you understand the market,
and that you know how money works. Collaborations between management and colleagues
mostly go wrong when there isnt enough money, or too much. Always be aware of this fact.
So, I worked day and night, wasnt picky about jobs, went to bed on time, and started early.
Youre competing in high-level sports here and you have to prove yourself to, and survive in,
a world full of sharks. Why should clients pick you? Why are you special? Why do you
deserve their trust?
I jumped into a hole in the market where I only had competition from 4 other cameramen,
and I was the only one who had studied economics! I was also good with sound and since I
had some goodwill with my clients, they gave me a chance. When they see youre very
motivated, work hard and deliver something extra, you will get more clients and they will stay
more loyal to you. Thats what happened to me and I really believe the goodwill-factor is
crucial here!
And so is communication. Communicating is not just talking, its mainly listening. Not just
listening to what somebody is saying, but learning through body language and reading
between the lines. Some directors became annoyed with me because I kept asking for more
info on a job. But I really wanted to completely understand what it was this director wanted. I
wanted to deliver the best I possibly could, every time, over and over. If this meant to be a
little annoying, then so be it.
As an artist and a businessman, you need to completely understand your customers profile.
So make sure you understand what you client wants, really wants. Just keep asking away until
you have all the information you can get.

I made a lot of money. In my best year I worked 300 days at 2500 guilders a day, as a one man
company! But after that, year my marriage was broken and I had no private life left. Theres
always a price to pay. Once I was at the top of the Dutch camera world, commercial TV came
along. This was new in Europe and in the Netherlands and I saw great opportunities there.
Besides delivering good work and being creative, I needed to be as cheap and efficient as
possible. Here, my study economics helped me again. I had 3 sets at that time and I rented
out everything every day. This was possible since there were so many news items that needed
to be filmed (I rented out the third set just in order to pay my alimony, by the way).
It was then that I thought of a new business model: combining the renting out of freelance
cameramen and technical people with renting out gear, all in one company. It seems logical
enough, but until that time it was all separate and nobody did this. Combining the two made
it much easier for my clients and I was much more efficient than the rest. Besides that new
model, I always delivered something extra to my client (go One further). I knew the market,
knew what my competitors where doing and I knew what my USP was. This way it was easier
to find my spot, my place in the market. Always keep learning, from the market, your
customers, your target group. Make sure you fully understand the process. When it comes to
artists, I often find their creativity to be great, but, to them, business-thinking is considered to
me something dirty and wrong. I think you should get rid of those thoughts quickly or
remain an amateur.
The first 4 or 5 years after I started my business, I took almost no money out of my
company, just a decent salary. I saw possibilities and always tried to be one step ahead of my
competitors. I did this even when they started using my new business model (which, of
course, was inevitable).
So, in 1988 in started my ENG (Electronic New Gathering) company United (later on I
acquired about 30 cameras and had mostly freelancers working for me). After that, I started
educating camera people myself and I offered them jobs. Clients like to work with the same
people over and over, and this is hard to manage when using only freelancers, so it was just a
logical step. In 1994 I attached a multi-camera company to my ENG company and after that I
added post-production, thus becoming a full-service company.
I achieved this by merging companies and by doing so I became the market leader and had no
more growing possibilities. I saw there was a need for competition for NOB (the biggest
broadcasting company in the Netherlands, which at that time was transitioning from a federal
/ State company into a privatised company). They werent used to working commercially,
because they automatically just got the job, there was no competition, they were a monopoly.
I decided it was time for competition. I challenged NOB. They were four times bigger than
any other company and, to do this, I needed to merge with other, smaller companies. So,
basically, I researched the market and offered a solution. In my mind it was the market that
decided I needed to be the commercial opponent of NOB. The market also decided whether
I was to stand a chance. Merging with other companies wasnt simple. I was laughed at by a
multi-camera company I approached. I remember how they kept laughing, even as I left that
meeting. A couple of years later I bought that company, so I guess I had the last laugh
I offered the full package and by the year 2000 we were the second biggest broadcasting

company in the Netherlands. NOB was about 20% bigger and I understood it was of no use
trying to become bigger than them. That would be brutalising the market and would make
lose me the goodwill factor. I would become what NOB used to be; a monopolist and
nobody likes those.
So my role in the Netherlands was done when I became #2, so I decided to do take-overs
abroad. With money from share holders, I bought companies in Germany and Belgium. Some
take-overs I couldnt do because of the NMA (commission of protection of competition), so
I had to sell certain parts of companies I bought. Eventually, we became active in 5 countries
and from my solo start in 1988 there are now 1500 people working at United.
In these busy times I didnt play guitar for about 6 years and I was only talking to men in
suits. I was kind of living above the tree line; yes, it was high up, but its really cold up there. I
wanted to find my old self, be creative again, be on the work-floor more and closer to new
business models.
When my shareholders wanted to buy a big french company, I was very opposed to this. That
one French company was just as big as the whole of United put together and, in my mind,
there would be an unbalance. Furthermore, there would be a language problem and the
French have a totally different culture business-wise. I just didnt believe in that plan. They
decided to buy me out, and I decided to go back to my roots; music and creativity!
In order to do this, I had to leave behind what I had built over many years, but Ive always
been pragmatic. Besides, I loved the idea of regaining my freedom and starting new things.
Thats when Wisseloord Studios came along (2012) and the idea of making that studio great
again appealed to me very much. I am still CEO of United in the Netherlands, but no longer
the owner, so now I split my time between United and Wisseloord. I took a substantial
amount of money to rebuild Wisseloord and bring it back up to standard, but it now looks
great and we are working hard to make Wisseloord big again. (It does look great, see some
pics at the end of this chapter).
TV is under pressure, kids dont watch it anymore, but maybe they will when they get older.
Who knows? Theres a lot of movement in the music market because of YouTube. Things
have changed and will continue to do so! The record companies have problems with free
music and streaming services and so on But I see chances. You obviously need a camera
these days, just like I used to, haha So artists and businessmen: Use social media, see the
changes in the market and use these insights. Basically you need to evolve to distributing
yourself, become your own brand. Opportunities lie in being unique!
As always, its 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. I really want to get creative again with
Wisseloord Studios and be a part of this changing and damaged world of music. I havent
found the right spot yet, but I will.
Its a search, a journey thats beautiful and I feel confident that Ill find the right spot soon
enough. I see a parallel in your book and what you teach musicians. I want to bring the digital
world to Wisseloord and, besides the legacy of the old days, traditional mastering, recording
and mixing, I want to find new markets. After 4 years, Wisseloord is now financially healthy
again, but we yet have to make profit. Im now ready for step 2; to take over the role

originally played by record companies, which was talent development! There are no processes
left in which young, talented artists are brought to a higher level. I see opportunities there, in
helping these new talents. On the other side Im working on thinking corporately and doing
distribution, using a new business model with cash from investors. Wisseloord and talented
producers going international that will be our new model and were talking to big parties
right now. If you keep searching and keep moving, you will find. Im sure about that!
http://www.wisseloord.nl/

Chapter 11: Make a Business Plan

I hope that the above stories and interviews have inspired you, and you now see the
importance of having a good business plan.
You are special. Why? Because you offer something only few people can; write great music.
Be proud of this special gift and use it wisely. But before you start a company, research the
market, investigate and find out where your USP lies.
Here are the questions you need to find the answers to if you want to start up a creative
business. Try to get a satisfying answer in a few sentences and it will definitely help you start
your new company. Pretend youre going to a bank for a loan and prepare to answer the
questions these bankers will have.
-Business description. Write down in a couple of sentences what youre planning to do. Be
clear and make sure anybody can understand what you mean.
-The problem. Whats the problem youre solving? There should be a need for your new
business. Whats in demand? Who or what can you help? Why is your new business needed?
-The solution. What is your solution to this problem? Why will people want to use your
solution? What makes you or your company the best solution to this problem?
-Why now? Is the moment right? Is the market ready for your new creative business? Are
you circle round? Are you One step different? What makes you unique?
-The market. Whats the size of your market? What is your market? Describe your market.
Again, be brief and clear
-Competitors. Who are your competitors? Are there any? Are they big, small, worldwide,
etc.?
-The product. Whats the goal? What will you deliver and what will people expect to gain
from your company?
-Business model. How are you going to make money? Where do your personal earnings
come from?
-Finance. How much do you think you can earn and when will that money come? In the first
month, after a year? Also provide a solid account of your investments. What do you need to
put in before you can start? Will you need to borrow money or not? Can friends or family
help?
-Team. Do you have or need a team to get your business up and running? If so, who are they
and do you have people on standby in case you need help?
The above questions are important. Try and answer them fully and be honest. Once you have
answers to all of the above questions, its time to get into business. If you truly have a
solution to a problem, if you deliver true quality and if your company and ideas are capable
of growing and acquiring loyal clients, you will be capable of achieving success for sure. Go
for it!

Chapter 12: Creative and Concept Thinking

While thinking about your business plan, also start concept thinking! Concept thinking can
help your business greatly. People love concepts because theyre clear and they force you to
choose a niche in a crowded market. So instead of, for instance, starting a regular Top40band, make a concept out of it like; we only play Michael Jackson music. or we interact
with video on stage, so you see the video clips of the original artist while we play these hits.
A concept is the result of a transformation of existing ideas into a new and more easy-tounderstand idea.
Rock band Kiss is definitely a concept band with their make-up and their amazing shows.
All members released solo albums at the same time in 1978, something that had never been
done before and giving them worldwide attention. Prince seems to be playing a role in his
self-created world. At the height of his fame, he played the lead role in a movie, but he
actually played himself , or his alter ego. On stage he looks like an actor too, playing the part
of a gifted musician (something that, of course, he really is).
The Spice Girls were a well-thought-out and branded concept worldwide. It brought them
huge success and plenty of money and fame. Annie Lenox of the Eurythmics is known to
have played a big part in the girls character-design. Money-wise, the trail through a worldwide
network of accountants and banks is so difficult to follow that nobody is really shure how
much was made. But its definitely a lot! Iron Maiden (with their mascotte Eddie) is another
example concept thinking. Masses of rock fans all over the world still go to their shows even
though nobody has bought their albums since The Number Of The Beast from 1982!
Beyonces and Taylor Swifts branding can be seen as concept thinking too. Knowing what
their market would be, then searching for a role model and songs that tell fitting stories to
appeal to that very market. Hiring the best producers and video directors and putting the
artists name after every song (whether she wrote it or not) works really well. The artist has
written a book, played in a movie, does clothing design, writes poems, songs and can also sing
and dance (and besides those things she really understands what young, often American girls
are going through at a certain age).
She is the concept! And a sexy one too. Every girl wants to be her and live the kind of life
shes living. The concept is a modern day fairytale that, almost like a religion, shows people
that they can achieve a better life and make your dreams come true by believing in something.
Real US country men with their hats and cowboy boots score every time with basically the
same song and story. Its a concept and a story people obviously love. In Europe, however
these artists dont get played much. Their musical DNA is too far off i guess.
What about Rammstein? A concept for sure, theyre now touring in America even though
they sing german lyrics. Their unique show and clear music style get them many interested
fans.
Rock music always has had loyal fans and they love live concerts. I have seen hundreds of live
rockbands when i was younger and it was always exciting to see real music played live 100%.

Dutch band Within Temptation are still touring Europa since their success album Mother
Earth from 2008. Wearing big dresses and singing opera-like over hard rocking music is a
concept too. Rock fans really are loyal so the band keeps selling out tours. They prove it can
be done even when youre from a small country like the Netherlands.
On a much smaller level; I once played in a band called Top2000Live, where we only played
songs from the Top2000, a hot list that is very famous here in the Netherlands and is
broadcasted every year around Christmas. You could argue that we were just a (really good)
cover band, but we did sell out 3 theater tours across the country and why? Because it was
One step different from other bands, we were a concept.
A couple of years ago, I started a corporate energy show with a friend of mine called Pump
Up the Company where we combine a power speech with music. This show immediately
became a hit and we still play about 50 times every year for the biggest companies in Europe.
Why? We are different from the rest, we deliver high quality and its a concept, a concept that
people understand and like. Even my Method is a concept! How To Make Money with
Music is a concept thinking.
Now you try and make a concept out of your plans and ideas. Dont do what everybody else
is doing, do something slightly different. Theres no need for over-the-top commercial
thinking and you dont need a We will rule the world kind of idea. Make sure that it
matches your personality, your music, you and your thoughts, you and your ideas and take it a
little further, make an easy-to-understand concept out of it. Selling a song or a band is hard,
but with a special concept behind it, it becomes considerably easier. Theres a story behind it
and we all like stories. Try and make a story out of your company, your music. Make it special!
Now lets dig deeper into the way our minds work and why creativity is so important. Edward
de Bono, Father of Lateral Thinking, a famous thinker, doctor and bestselling author:
Why do some people always seem to have new ideas while others of equal intelligence never
do? Edward de Bonos answer to this intriguing question: There are three basic aspects of
thinking:
1. What is
2. What may be
3. What can be
We are almost totally consumed by what is. We underestimate the extremely valuable
contribution that what may be has made to progress. We do very little about what can be,
even though our future depends entirely on this aspect. So, those who do think about what
can be are the ones with the best and newest ideas.
You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper. This means that
trying harder in the same direction may not be as useful as changing direction. Effort in the
same direction will not necessarily succeed. Lateral Thinking is for changing concepts and
perceptions. The brain is specifically designed to be non creative. If it were creative, the
brain would be utterly useless. It would be impossible to get up in the morning or to function
at all. With only eleven items of clothing there are 39,916,800 ways of getting dressed. To go

through these and to sort them out would take a lifetime. We do not need to because the
brain simply switches us into the appropriate routine. That is the basis of perception and of
action. Because the processes of deliberate creativity are not natural there is a need to practice
them.
Riding a bicycle is not at all natural but once we have learned to ride a bicycle then it becomes
easy. The excellent and much acclaimed Information Age is over.
We are now moving into the Idea age or Concept age. Concepts are the genes of ideas.
There was a time when information was the bottleneck. No more. We can now get all the
information we need on the Internet, our smartphones. The new bottleneck is thinking and
creative thinking in particular. The analysis of information does not yield new ideas because
the brain can only see what it is prepared to see So you have to be able to create the idea
first as a possibility.
It is not much use making a creative effort if you are then unable to appreciate your own
effort. So it is important to develop a habit of mind which sets out to find value in anything.
With time you will become more and more able to detect real and potential values. One
outcome of creative thinking is specifically to focus attention on discovering value. When we
set out to discover value there can be some big surprises. Very often there is a sudden insight
switch. A value which was never even glimpsed suddenly becomes obvious. (The ah-haa
feeling). We do not make very full value of the opportunities provided by technology because
we prefer critical to constructive thinking, argument to design. Creativity is, however, never a
substitute for competence. If the car does not start there is no point in being creative about
destinations. On the other hand, competence is only a substitute for creativity when everyone
around is being incompetent. Competence is the baseline, but creativity is the real value
creation.
Wow, I must admit that I had never read anything by Edward de Bono before almost
finishing my book. I was doing research on concept thinking when his words struck me like
lightning.
This is great abstract and academic thinking and it means basically the same as what Im
talking about in this book. You can call it lateral or sideways thinking, One different,
concept thinking, outside the box or whatever you like. All it really means is that you have to
think differently and be creative when you start a business or a band, write a song, when
youre making music for a client or thinking of a concept for yourself or for a customer. You
need to be creative in your thinking in order to be successful. Period!
Musicians should be creative per definition, thats what making music is all about. The
amazing feeling of playing with great musicians and improvising, doing something that has
never been done before. There is use in doing things over and over again, as Mr de Bono so
well explained, but its real creativity and thinking laterally that makes real impact and
changes to this world.
Musicians are supposed have higher IQs and this has now been proven scientifically. Us
trained musicians seem to be thinking differently than non-musical human beings, as we use
both sides of our brain more often than other people do. People who are naturally creative

approach solving problems more with out-of-the-box thinking. Musicians also score higher
on IQ tests and it seems to be proven that training your musical ability can make your IQ
higher, although its also possible that people with a higher IQ tend to pursue music more
seriously (depending on the booze intake of the rockers among us, of course ;-)
So, composers, songwriters, artists; use your creative brain and amaze the world

Chapter 13: Some examples, Some Ideas

Lets have a look at how an artist or a composer could use the Method creatively.
Picture a talented songwriter/artist whos trying to become famous.
Now look at a great singer and songwriter like Sia. A couple of things we talked about
earlier in this book become obvious and very visible.
Her amazing song Chandelier has over a billion views! A billion!!
Why do you think this is? Of course the song is really great, but the chords and sound are
really nothing new. 4 basic chords and an electronic pop sound. But her voice and the way she
sings is definitely One beyond the ordinary. With so much emotion and power in her
delivery, how can you not be moved? She has found a new way of bringing across an old
message: Be free to do want you want, be happy and be yourself even if you want to swing
from a chandelier. She delivers an old, but greatly appreciated story in a new book.
The video has 236.000 dislikes on YouTube, meaning she also has haters, just like shes
supposed to have as well see in the next chapter. But what is really One beyond the
ordinary is her videoclip, which is almost Two beyond. Watch it if you havent seen it yet.
Its, well, different:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vjPBrBU-TM
So, she really deserves to be world famous, but she would still have had a hard time hadnt she
live in the US and hadnt she had that worldwide deal. She is Australian, but moved to
London to push her career, did backing vocals for Jamiroquai, wrote songs for Beyonce,
Maroon5 and Britney Spears and has already brought out 7 albums. She was able to grow
while her music was being supported and released worldwide.
There is some amazing music out there that has the same power and emotion, but gets much
less or no attention at all. Remember Sia had the chance to built her career, she has multiple
albums and has written for other famous artists.
Now imagine you are an artist like Sia, having so much talent, but living in Finland, Hungary
or Belgium. How would you get noticed?
Suppose the Belgian record companies were interested, you would still only get famous locally
or nationally at best. The US, UK or other countries will not release your music. They really
wont, because youre on the wrong side of the street and their business model doesnt work
that way. So you need to fly to LA or London and build a career there and otherwise be
content with national fame. There are exceptions to the rule of course, but the chances are so
small, that its better to take a different path and work on your brand yourself.
Use the Method and get your music in a worldwide TV series, film or commercial. This can
be done and youll reach an audience thats so much bigger that way. So before you sign that
paper contract, see what you can do yourself internationally. Dont sign a local or national
contract before you know its the best you can get. And why not reach out to big brands
yourself and have a conversation about how that company should sound? Maybe you can

make that brands sound. Modern brands love new artists and upcoming bands, which they
can team up with in their product campaigns. It makes them look hip and young. So pick up
the phone and start sending out your music to these people, everybody loves creative new
ideas.
Whatever you decide which road to take, be clear about the challenges and the dos and
donts, but especially be aware of the opportunities that are there. Look beyond the old
school methods. Be creative, be bold, give it the best you got
Sia used the old school road but there are also success stories with the new school way of
thinking. Dutch pride Armin van Buuren with his label and company Armada are proof of
this.
Watching Armada use YouTube is interesting, because the music is for free, but the company
does make money. Armada, and labels like them, are pioneers in adopting new media, rather
than fighting it.
Everything is free, which fosters a frictionless distribution of the music, the artist and the
associated brand Armada. The end result is massive exposure, with a huge global following,
leading to sold out gigs all around the world (which are obviously not free).
Maykel Piron, CEO Armada:
Sixty percent of the revenue comes from digital music operation. The remainder mainly
from overrides - or kickback fees - from performances and licensing of our music to our
global partners. But also money resulting from artist management and operation of the
Armada brand for the benefit of events, such as Armada Nights, where our resident DJs
perform, is part of this. The share of CD sales and downloads are declining annually. In
contrast, the streaming revenue grows proportionally. That allows us to play distributor
ourselves, so we can release new music and albums 24/7, almost anywhere. Here we are
depending on iTunes and Spotify, our most important online portals. Their success is partly
our success. Because once they start in a new country, they also opened a new market for us.
Because of their size, the entire music industry are depending on them. Thats pretty
dangerous. But it is also a perfect way to capitalize our international fanbase.
By doing it in-house, the costs are transparent and we can easily create content. Video clips,
websites and even our own online sales system, through which we can quickly see our
business results worldwide. We basically do not want to depend on others. I feel we get much
more out platforms such as YouTube, where we daily have three million views on Armada
Music alone.
Nice! You can see that the new way of thinking involves free music and giving away a lot. In
return you get loyal fans that will spend money on concerts and merchandise. If you can get
enough YouTube views and Spotify streams, making 20 Million a year is certainly possible as
Armada proves.
But you need to be a famous DJ to get this kind of following and besides that a great
businessman too! The dance scene really has shown the big record companies how its done.
Podcasts and internet radio are growing rapidly and Armins State of Trance radioshow is

supposed to have 30 million listeners. This would make it the most popular radio station
worldwide.
All without the help of old school companies and publishers. They did it themselves!
Internet radio is a great way for young artists to get more known and get income.
Last month my music was played 47,000 times on different internet radio stations worldwide.
Its another new school way of building your brand and business.
Armadas story is very inspirational if you ask me. Taking the future into your own hands is a
great feeling and the experience of doing it on your own, choosing new paths is very
rewarding. While I was writing this book I had some interest of a couple of publishers. I
admit being honored by the fact that they wanted to publish my story. But when I was almost
finished writing I saw that they were hardly any different from old school records labels. They
all think small, they only see their old network and they mostly see problems instead of
opportunities. They completely forget or dont see huge markets that are out there, purely
based on pre-internet thinking. They seem to be unable to reshape their business model.
All they could talk about was their home market like a baker who sells his bread to the
neighbourhood. No fresh views and ideas here, only old school thoughts.
So I decided not to sign a paper book publishing contract. What better way to promote my
Method than to do it myself, anyway?!
So in the same way I do with my music and the Corporate Music Method I just publish this
book myself, through the great services of Kindle and Amazon. Once again; the possibilities
are there, the services are there, use them to help sell your creativity and buy your freedom.
Coming back to the Method, what about a film composer who wants to do big movies?
Well lets be clear, to compose for big movies you have to live in a country that has a big film
industry. I see many film composition students and some of them are really good. But in their
country there is no film industry. So they should really move to the US, UK, France or
Bollywood. This market is not yet ready for overseas work, directors want to be close by and
walk in during the writing process. Of course in time there will be changes and more
opportunities, but for big budget Hollywood films it will remain as it is for a while.
You can, however, start smaller, with young, beginning film directors or with commercials
and try to get noticed. Its a crowded world at the top of the film industry and more and
more people want in. You have to be different and really good to get noticed. But no matter
how good you are with your libraries, you wont beat the sound of a real, great orchestra.
So, make something unique! Use special chords or orchestration, find your niche and blow
people away with your ideas and music. First make sure you have the circle round and then be
your own unique self. In the real world you will need to shop around with your music and
ideas as much as possible. Dont be afraid of somebody stealing your music. Theres no point
in putting energy into thoughts like that and theres no real way to protect your music anyway.
So reach out and ask film people to give you feedback, advice and to give you a chance.
How did other composers do it? How did they get the big movie jobs?

Here is some information on this interesting subject that I found:

John Williams is a five-time Oscar winner for best original score and composer for more than
100 movies, including Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Harry Potter. He studied piano at
Juilliard and then played in New York clubs as a jazz pianist. He got started in films by
working with Bernard Herrmann and other film composers. Started as an assistant
Howard Shore has won Oscars for the original scores of two Lord of the Rings movies.
He graduated from Berklee College of Music, played in the jazz group Lighthouse and then
became musical director for Saturday Night Live. His work in film began with a
collaboration with director David Cronenburg which has continued through 12 films. He got a
chance through network..
Danny Elfman is a self-taught musician who led the rock group Oingo Boingo. He has scored
most of director Tim Burtons movies (who was a big fan of that band) and many others,
including Batman Returns and the Spider-Man and Men in Black series. Got his chance
when a filmdirector liked his bands music.
Michael Giacchino started making films in his basement as a young teenager. After he
graduated from a course on film and history in New York, he began studying music at
Juilliard, famous from every high-school movie featuring a would-be musician ever. At the
same time, he took day jobs at Universal and Disney, and began to establish himself in the
film business. He soon moved to LA where he kept up his music studies. Landing a job as a
producer at Disney Interactive, Giacchino hired himself to write the music for their games
and began his official career as a composer. His big break would prove prophetic: he created
the score for DreamWorks Interactives The Lost World: Jurassic Park PlayStation game. It
was the first time that a game had full orchestral support and Giacchino soon revisited the big
screen with Jurassic World. More big games followed, including a stint on Medal Of Honor
that would bring him to the attention of a young up-and-coming director called J.J. Abrams,
who was looking for a composer for his new TV spy show Alias. The two proved to be a
match made in heaven. Started with games, films followed via new, young, talented film directors.
If you plan to follow their examples, here are a few tips that may help you with a career as a
film composer: Get a degree in music or a related entertainment field. Going to a school with
a film program, or a music school that offers a film scoring major, like Berklee, can help you
learn about the film industry and the technical aspects of composing and help you
connect with student directors for immediate film projects and future contacts. Work on
different types of films. Only rarely do composers start their careers working on feature films.
Youll probably start with commercials, student films, trailers, games and other smaller
projects. Varied types of film and varied musical styles make for a broad portfolio to appeal
to directors and producers. Make connections with directors and others in the film industry
who may be able to offer you work or know someone who can. Building relationships with
directors is particularly important, because they often will collaborate with a single composer
for many of their films (like some of the above great composers).
Build a strong portfolio that demonstrates what you can do. Directors and producers are
unlikely to listen to more than 20 minutes of sample work, so you may want to create themed

demo CDs of your work. Youll be able to send different ones, depending on the type of
music that is needed. But remember that directors and producers are more likely to be
interested in your (film) credits than your music. Go where the jobs are (yep). Although the
Internet makes long-distance work relationships possible, most film composers need to be in
the same location as the directors and editors they work with. Most of the jobs are in
Southern California or New York. Finally, be persistent if this is the career you want. With
talent, education, contacts and some luck you could wind up composing one of those movie
themes that linger long after the closing credits fade.
Again, the same here as with the songwriters and artists:
Whatever you decide, whichever road you take, be clear about the challenges, the dos and
donts, but especially the opportunities that are there. Look beyond the old school ways. Be
creative, be bold, give it the best you got and May the Force be with you!

Chapter 14: Food for Champions

A little while ago I heard a great public speaker say: Feedback is Food for Champions.
Think about it
Feed Back is Food for Champions.
In my Rule (#15) about reading feedback I stated that it can be hard, especially when
feedback is given in a unfriendly and unmusical way. But its still is the only way to get where
you want to be; at the top. Only when your client loves the music and has the feeling that he
or she has played a part in the end result, only then will your music be approved.
So we need that feedback on every job, wether it suits our plans or not.
Now think of a top athlete who has won every prize, national, world, Olympics, a gold medal
winner. Will he or she still accept feedback from people?
Perhaps a few wont, but real champions will
Why? because a real pro, a real champion will always see a need to learn something new, to get
a little bit better for the next race. To try and make that next gold medal even shinier.
I hope that if you picked up only one useful idea from this book, it will be that you really can
be successful with your own music, without the need of record companies or old school
publishers with bad contracts. You will be able to make a great living from your music
following the Corporate Music Method. Youll need to work hard, and be able to write and
record in pretty much any style. You wont get famous, which is a disadvantage for many
artists, but you will write exciting music that you otherwise would never have done. You will
go to places you would otherwise never have seen. Me, writing tangos or music for Formule 1
race car driver Michael Schumacher, dancing with his car to my music, the Beijing Olympics, a
show with Pink!, a 200 person choir in Lisbon, Portugal singing my words, music for the
Moscow State Circus, working with DJ Fedde LeGrand and Cirque Du Soleil, working with
the biggest brands on earth, doing hundreds of product launches all over the world, getting
my songs in worldwide TV series and on big commercials watched by millions. These are
things that would never happened and music that would never have been written if I hadnt
believed in the Corporate Music Method.
Keeping the rights of your music to yourself and only using non-exclusive way of shopping
and selling your tracks is a wise thing to do (until that great worldwide contract comes along).
In this big sea of talented and ambitious people we cannot all be #1 hit scoring artists or #1
filmcomposers. Theres more needed for that than talent alone, things that arent amendable:
Luck, being in the right place at the right time, having a trustworthy manager or agent, a good
record deal, getting a chance in the the big league, and living in the US or UK really help!
These factors are all needed besides hard work, passion, creativity and truckloads of talent.
Never give up on trying to reach that highest goal, that thing you want most, but be wise and
also find a way to make a decent living with your music that doesnt depend on un-amendable
factors. You can have a one- person company and be successful. Just begin

Now look at the circle (see diagram) again and know this is a road every businessman has to
go down. You have to be at least just as good as your competitors and up to the highest level
for your customers. But thinking One different and One beyond gives you a piece of the
market. It means recognition and visibility. In music you need haters just as much as you need
fans! If youre only middle-of-the-road youll earn nothing. Apple has haters, Google has
haters, Windows has haters. But they all have fans too! Being creative is hard work, finding
your niche, that One step different, that One step further and One beyond time after
time. Think of the gold medal athlete and try to be one.

I sometimes hear people in museums say I can do that while looking at a painting, and I
hear those comments about music too. But these people miss the point, they dont
understand the art, they dont understand how it feels to be the first, to be really creative and
think differently from the rest. Theres no point in copying because, even if you are really
good at copying, you will only just make it the circle around. But there will be no One step

further and there will be no success or sales for your music or your company. Youre just a
copy.
You can make money this way for a while, (listen to the commercials on TV that are
soundalikes). But its boring and uncreative and leads nowhere in the end. Most people can do
this and it will be hard to keep getting work for a good price. Theres too much competition,
and too many people who will work for almost nothing. At least try to be creative and try to
find your One different.
The above story works for just about every product available. Why do we buy product A
instead of B. Most has to do with marketing and how products look. But if its only looks
and the products are bad, they will disappear soon enough. Now, if product A really tastes
good, better and a bit different, you become a fan. But your neighbour might not like that
taste at all and become a hater. Now think about Apple. Its a computer, a damn good one,
their technology is ahead of the rest and its easy to use. Much simpler than most PCs. New
software just instantly works. Thats great, but it only means they are circle round. The
difference is their beauty and their ease-of-use (and the way they market of course). They
thought One step further before getting on the market. These products look so great and
its nice to have them around in your home. People love em. Now think about those old PC
towers man were they ugly.
In music you need to find the edges, you need to go out of the middle musically and get
lovers and haters. If people only say nice about your tracks they wont buy it. You need to
achieve real response and get followers and fans. This also means you will get haters in the
process, but look at this as a good thing. Nobody gets 100% of likes, there will always be
people that dont like what you do. This means you are getting out of the comfortable
middle and your music is getting edgier and more of a statement. I believe this way you will
find your USP, your own unique value.
The One step different rule works, but to make money with it you do need marketing. You
can have a brilliant idea, a perfect song, the best band on earth, but how do you get known?
In the case of music, its hard to do this by yourself. A band needs a good record or EP, some
special videos. Do online marketing and play as many live gigs as possible. It will still be
almost impossible to get a worldwide deal or worldwide recognition if you are not from US
or UK, but finding an audience through their website could well be possible. Think of Armin
and Armada and try to get a loyal following.
The Corporate Music Method works here too; get your music in those big TV series and you
will reach so many people, potential fans, because of 2 reasons. The first is that otherwise you
would never reach that particular part of the population. Most people are reactive, they
respond to music, but are not really searching for new bands themselves. So when it reaches
them in their homes through a film, series or commercial, it makes it so much easier. And the
second reason is that music and film work so well together. They make the message so much
stronger, giving it way more impact.
There is a song by a duo called The Civil Wars that where pretty much unknown until they
got a song in the hit TV series Greys Anatomy. The song is great and worked even greater
with a scene in that series. It made them famous and changed their lives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNlxKH9Jtmc
When people get older they tend to keep to their music, the music they loved when they were
younger; Once a rocker always a rocker, people who used to go to dance parties still like
dance music (though maybe not as edgy as in the old times). Most Prince fans remain a
Prince fan for life. The many good memories and being proud of having a great taste in
music account for this. The only people who are really open for new stars and music are kids.
And kids are also much more open to the marketing tools companies use. Kids become fans
really quick or hate something really quick. They need role models and stars to look up to.
I remember wearing buttons of John Travolta when I was a kid. Its nice to belong to a group
of like-minded friends. In marketing that is a good thing, so here we have the reason why
there are so many young singers on the radio and tv getting opportunities. It really does help
when youre a talented 17year-old with a great body and you can dance like Beyonce. For this
reason, lyrics, clips and music are adjusted to kids level: Four chords, lyrics about growing up
and falling in love, lots of sexy dancers and only pretty people in clips and in the band. And
of course our star can really sing and dance! The succes of Taylor Swift or Rihanna is easily
explained. When Swift makes $86 million just from one tour, you can double that amount in
royalties worldwide, advertising merchandise, YouTube earnings and sales through iTunes.
(Remember, shes not on Spotify). But Taylor wont stay a role model and a hero for most of
these young people when they grow up. Unless she grows with her fans and her music
matures. Thats hard to do, as is shown by Christina Aquilera, for instance. Her success faded
when she got older and her fans got older.
So its no use trying to land a deal when youre a band of 42-year-olds, not the old school way.
But you can use the new school ways and get your band noticed through films, tv,
commercials and corporate use. Spread your music through your website, but before you
think you are ready, do the circle check! Look at the great artists who did it themselves like
Joe Bonamassa and Chris Stapleton. They didnt fit the rules and looks record companies
use for signing artists, but became famous anyway. They did it themselves. And their
approach, for sure, is full circle and One different.
Coming back to the circle and your work as a media composer. Many clients want to hear
more of the same. They often think they know best and if they have little trust in the
composer, they usually tend to want the same music over and over again. So, even if you want
to be One different every time, you may not be allowed by your customers. Sometimes I go
Two further and instantly get overruled by my client. When its too off from what they are
used to, you wont get your music approved. This depends a lot on the brand and how daring
they want to be.
But out-of-the-box thinking really works and gives the brand and product a face and a choice
for the customers to be a hater or be a fan.
I once had a Jaguar commercial with a really heavy and loud metal track on US TV. When you
think about the brand Jaguar, you wouldnt immediately think of metal music. But it really
worked well together with this particular car and ad. Out-of-the-box thinking made this work.
The hardest thing to do is to start. Start a new song, start a new plan, start a new business. Its

really hard to go from thinking about an idea to putting it into practice. But once you do,
youll feel better about yourself and youll have started a chain of events. Things will happen,
action/reaction and whatever happens, it will absolutely always be better than if you had done
nothing.
So indeed, why write another song? There are millions already. Why start a band when you
know you wont be the best. Why shop around with your music when theres so little chance
in making it big? Why?
Well, it will make you feel better about yourself and if you feel better about yourself other
people will notice. And getting noticed gives you other and new opportunities. Its nice to
work with other musicians and its even nicer giving a concert to an audience, and even better
still, when your music, your playing makes people happier. New and positive things will
happen that can be life-changing. My wife became a little bored when the kids got older, so
she started a new company called Stuff to Love. Clothes and jewelry she started to sell at
parties at peoples homes. Nice evenings with happy people that liked her style and ideas. So
now, as her company starts to get bigger and more successful, it takes up a lot more of her
time than she anticipated, but shes happy about it and it truly changed her life. She just
started
In the beginning of this book I quoted Goethe. I dont quote much and sometimes these
sayings can be corny and empty when they are overly used, but then again, if it makes you
think and makes you start.. why not?! So here it is again:
Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it Boldness has genius, power, and
magic in it..
I really believe he is right. Whenever you have the chance and you really want to do
something new, start a company, make a product, write a song, start a band, make a movie
just start. It will eventually get you a response and it will change your life one way or another.
We cannot all become world famous or filthy rich, but we can try and make the most out of
the time we have here on earth. Making music and making people happy with your music is as
good a reason as any other.
Think about what you really want and how you can achieve this. Be honest and ask for help
when you need it. Listen to people with knowhow and use their feedback. Whatever you do,
do complete the circle and be as good as the market and your heroes. Clients expect it. And
then look for the extra component, the One different, One beyond, One further,
your USP, your value proposition and go out into the world with it. You really can be
successful if you stay true to yourself and work hard. Be as unique as you can and always
deliver high quality. Learn from feedback like a real champion, a gold medal athlete and keep
growing as an artist and as a person.
Realize that how simple the above might seem, not many people do this, not many really try
it, not many people really and actively change their lives and go for it. Most people are scared,
lazy or whatever excuse they can find to convince themselves it cannot be done. But those
who do, they are the creative ones, the leaders, the thinkers, the game changers. Why not be
one of those people? Now go and build yourself a successful company with your music!

Wishing you all the best,

Erwin