Read Time: 4 minutes

Last week I wrote an article showing you how to master briefs to secure more sync placements.

One of the steps that I mentioned involved paying close attention to the song references included in the brief. Dozens of you emailed me asking for more information about how to analyze song references when pitching. So, here it is.

What is a song reference

A song reference is a song included in a brief, showing a specific example of what the client is looking for. This may be a song from a major artist that actually want but can’t afford. Or, it could be a song that comes close to what they are looking for but it’s missing the mark in some way.

Why I love them

Creating a song idea from scratch is always a challenge. It’s even more of a challenge if you have to create on a time crunch.

In addition, there are so many options, it’s hard to know if you’ll end up with something totally different from what the client was originally thinking.

So, I find that song references help me focus. It’s already in the ballpark of what the client wants so it cuts out a lot of decisions that I need to make. At the same time, it still leaves plenty of room for me to create something fun and original.

How to analyze

With each song, I pay close attention to the details. What I’m looking for is “understanding”. The more I understand the components of the song (as well as WHY they picked that song) the better chance I have of giving them what they’re looking for.

1. What do they like about the song?
   • Look for clues in the brief
   • Try to understand “Why” they included the song so you know what areas to focus on.
   • Sometimes they’ll include things about the song they don’t like (e.g., it has the right energy but the production is too busy)
2. Tempo (BPM)
   • some briefs state that the song MUST be a specific tempo
   • If the tempo is not explicitly stated, I try to stay in the general range of the reference track tempo
3. Chord Progression
   • Is the song in a major or minor key? (This affects the emotion of the track so I really pay attention to this.)
   • Knowing the specific progression is optional but it helps me create something similar (but not exact).
4. Production Elements
   • Is it busy or sparse?
   • Organic instruments or heavy sound design?
5. Song Arrangement
   • What’s the song length?
   • Chorus first or verse first?
   • If my chord progression and production elements are unique, copying the song arrangement is a great hack for producing quickly.
6. Vocal Production
   • Just a lead vocal or stacked vocals?
   • Minimal or heavy background vocals?
   • Are the vocals clean, Auto-tuned or using heavy distortion?

You may not choose to mimic every aspect of the song. But paying attention to the details will give you a lot of options when it’s time to choose a direction. And again, the more you can infer WHY the song was chosen, the more on target you’ll be. Sometimes that information is not available so you’ll have to make your best guess.

How many references do you want?

Usually you only get 1 – 3 references from a brief. (Most of the briefs I get include only one song). One is better than nothing but I like to have 5 references.

With just one song, if I match the tempo, the chord progression and the production, I might end up with a song that is too similar.

You want to be really careful that you don’t end up with a song that could be considered a ripoff of the original song reference.

So, to avoid that, I expand their references by adding a few of my own.

How to find more reference songs

Here’s how I do it:

I create a playlist in Spotify with the references that they include.

Once the songs are in a playlist, I expand the playlist by adding additional similar sounding songs. If the brief includes 3 songs, this makes it easy because Spotify includes a feature that will suggest similar sounding songs to add to your playlist (if anyone uses Apple music, let me know if there’s a similar feature).

Now, if the brief only includes one song, that’s not enough to trigger Spotify’s suggestion feature so you have to find at least 2 more songs on your own that are similar. This can be tricky, especially if you’re not familiar with the genre.

When that happens, I will listen to other songs by the same artist. And, I’ll also listen to other artists that are similar (this is another Spotify feature that I find really useful). If those don’t work, I can look at playlists that the song was included in (another useful Spotify feature) and try to discover similar songs that way.

Make sure you try to only include songs that fit the brief – similar tempo, production style, etc.

Once you have at least 3 songs in your playlist, then use Spotify’s suggestion feature to find at least 2 more that fit the brief. I don’t add everything that Spotify suggests. They have to fit the brief so I will keep listening and refreshing the screen until I have enough songs in the playlist.

For me 5 is a good number because it provides enough variety in tempo and chord progressions. So, I can use ideas inspired by any of the songs and be more likely to end up with a song that is original but still in line with the brief.

Conclusion

I hope you find this technique useful. It’s one of my strongest hacks for nailing a sync brief. It helps me to quickly create an original song that is, hopefully, just what the client is looking for.

Do you think this technique will work for you? Send me a message and let me know.