Hello and Welcome!
If we haven't met before, I’m Michael Elsner, and for years I struggled to get my music out into the world. I understand how it feels to work so hard, yet still not earn enough to pay the bills. I know what it's like to question your abilities because any slight form of musical success has been elusive.
That all changed back in 2004 when one of my songs got picked up and placed in a popular TV show on CBS called Cold Case. It was then that I immediately discovered how prosperous music licensing could be. Now, with over 2400 placements of original music in TV shows, film trailers, and commercials, I’ve accomplished much more than I ever dreamed I would, with licensing my songs being at the heart of it.
Over the last few years I’ve worked with, and mentored, hundreds of artists and musicians, each having since gone on to great success. Through this process, I realized that while there’s a lot of information out there regarding what music licensing is, there is very little regarding HOW to Successfully License Your Music. That’s why Master Music Licensing was born.
Every Musician Deserves to be Heard...
My desire is to help you create a consistent income stream with your music by showing you HOW to Successfully License Your Music to TV shows, Films, Commercials, Video Games, and other outlets. I want you to experience not only the incredible satisfaction that comes from having your songs heard by millions of people throughout the world, but the financial benefits of a recurring, passive income stream as well.
While you're here, make sure to download the FREE E-book “The 4 Step Plan to Licensing Success” and check out my BLOG. It is focused on “intentional success.” I post blogs and videos about music licensing, publishing, recording, writing songs for TV, Film & Commercial outlets, generating a consistent income with your songs, and, on occasion, stuff that doesn’t fit neatly into one of these categories. I also occasionally write about the resources I am discovering.
My goal is to create insightful, relevant content that you can immediately implement in your professional life. If you are an artist, songwriter, musician - or aspire to be any of these - then this blog is for you.
I typically post once a week. To make sure you don’t miss any of the latest posts, and get notified when enrollment for each course is open, subscribe to my e-mail list by clicking here to grab your copy of The 4 Step Plan to Licensing Success.
My Top Posts
If you are new to this site, or music licensing in general, you might want to start with the most popular posts. Here are my top three in each category:
4th and Loud (AMC) | 60 Minutes | ABC On-Air Promos | Acceso Total: La Voz Kids (Telemundo) | Adam Ruins Everything (TruTV) | Addicted To The Life | Aladdin 2019 (Trailer) | All My Children | The American Athlete (ABC) | American Idol (FOX) | American Latino TV Show | American Weed (Nat Geo) | America’s Most Badass (AHCTV) | Amish Mafia (Nat Geo) | Artists In Love (Sky Arts - UK) | Audi (Commercial) | Automotive Vision.TV | Baywatch (DVD) | Barnwood Builders (DIY Network) | Beautiful Homes and Great Estates | Best Week Ever (VH1) | Better Call Saul (AMC) | Beyond The Break (The N) | Big Body Squad (BBC) | Bloodline (Netflix) | Breaking Amish (TLC) | Breaking Down The Bars (OWN) | Buck Commander (Outdoor Channel) | Buick (Commercial) | Building Off The Grid (DIY) | Bulloch Family Ranch (UPtv) | Car Czar (National Geographic Channel) | Cheer Squad (ABC Spark) | Chef’s Table (Netflix) | Chevy (Commercial) | Cinderella (Trailer: Disney Films) | CNN Headline News (CNN) | CNN Special Report (CNN) | Cold Case (CBS) | Comic Book Men (AMC) | Commander Life (Outdoor Channel) | Counting Cars (History) |Disney + | Dirty Rotten Survival (Nat Geo) | Dr. Drew’s Life Changers (The CW) | Dr. Oakley Yukon Vet (Nat Geo WILD) | Driven: Oklahoma State Cowboys (Golf Channel) | Driven TV with Pat & Nicole Reeve (Outdoor Channel) | Duck Commander: Before The Dynasty | E! News Live (E!) | Ellen DeGeneres Show (NBC) | Entertainers with Byron Allen | ESPN | Evil Kin (Investigation Discovery) | Evil Twins (Investigation Discovery) | EXTRA (NBC) | Fameless (TruTV) | Fantasy Island (Trailer) | First Week In (Discovery) | Flea Market Flip (HGTV) | Flip or Flop (HGTV) | Food: Fact or Fiction? (Cooking Channel) | Forbidden (Investigation Discovery) | Fox and Friends (FOX NEWS) | Fox Sports Network | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee (TBS) | Funniest Pets and People | Gadget Show | Garage Gold (DIY Network) | Good Morning America (ABC) | Good Omens (Amazon Studios) | Gunny Time (Outdoor Channel) | Hack My Life (TruTV) | Hair Battle Spectacular (Oxygen) | Hand of God (Amazon) | Hannah Montana (Disney) | Here Comes Honey Boo Boo (TLC) | High School Musical 2 (Disney) | Hillbilly Blood (Discovery) | Homestead Rescue (Discovery) | Hot 20 Countdown (CMT) | Hotel Impossible (Travel Channel) | How It Really Happened (HLN) | Hunters (Amazon Prime) | Ice Holes (Nat Geo) | Impractical Jokers (TruTV) | In The Bedroom with Dr. Laura Bergman (OWN) | Inside Jokes (Tru TV) | Inside The Vault (WGN America) | Interior Therapy (Bravo) | Island Medics (BBC One) | Jack Ryan (Trailer - Amazon) | Jagger Eaton’s Mega Life (Nickelodeon) | Keeping Up with the Kardashians (E! TV) | Kilborn File (Fox) | Killing Fields (Discovery) | Lies, Crimes & Video (HLN) | Lizard Lick Towing (Tru TV) | Lone Star Lady (A&E) | Lopez Tonight (TBS) | Lost & Found with Mike & Jesse (Discovery Fam) | Lucky Ladies (FOX Life) | Magnum PI (Commercial) | Maleficent 2: Mistress of Evil (Trailer) | Mark Felt (Trailer: Mandalay Pictures) | Married At First Sight (Lifetime) | Master of Photography (Sky TV - UK) | Mazda (Commercial) | Mike & Molly (CBS) | Millionaire Matchmaker (Bravo) | Modern Marvels (History Channel) | Monster Fish (Outdoor Channel) | Mr. Neighbor’s House (Cartoon Network) | My Big Fat Revenge (Oxygen) | My Cat From Hell (Animal Planet) | Mydestination.tv | Naked Science (Nat Geo) | Narcos (Netflix -Trailer) | NASCAR | NBC On-Air Promos | Next (MTV) | NFL Today (CBS) | NHL | Niko and the Sword of Light (Amazon) | NRA All Access (Outdoor Channel) | NY Ink (TLC) | Oceans 8 (Trailer) | One Life To Live | Our Wild Life (TLC) | Over My Dead Body (Investigation Discovery) | Paid Off with Michael Torpey (truTV) | Paradise Hotel (Fox) | Pawn Stars (History Channel) | Peter Perfect (Style Network) | Pets.tv | Pit Boss (Animal Planet) | Poker After Dark (NBC) | Politics of Love | Private Lives of Nashville Wives (TNT) | Q Viva the Chosen (FOX) | Ray Donovan (Showtime) | Real Housewives of Beverly Hills (Bravo) | Real Life Nightmare (HLN) | Real Life: The Musical (OWN) | Real World (MTV) | Recipe.tv | Rehab Party At The Hard Rock (Tru TV) | Resale Royalty (Style) | Restoration Wild (Animal Planet) | Return to Amish (TLC) | Ridge Reaper (Outdoor Channel) | Rivermen (History Channel) | Robot Soldiers (Nat Geo - UK) | Rust To Riches | Salvage City (Discovery) | Sarah Palin’s Alaska (TLC) | Searching For… (OWN) | Secret Lives of Women | Shark Week 18: Laws of Jaws (Discovery) | Sing Off (NBC) | Skechers (Commercial) | SmallFoot (Trailer) | Sneaky Pete Season 3 (Trailer) | So You Think You Can Dance (FOX) | Southern Charm (Bravo) | Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Trailer) | Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Disney +) | Stella’s Oorlog (Feature Film - The Netherlands) | Steve (Harvey - NBC) | Steven Segal vs Justin Lee Collins | Story of God with Morgan Freeman (Nat Geo) | Stupid Man, Smart Phone (BBC) | Sunday Morning Futures (Fox News) | Superhuman Science (Discovery) | Surviving The Cut (Discovery) | Suspiria (Trailer: Amazon Studios) | Talk Show The Game Show (Tru TV) | Talking Dead (AMC) | Team 200 (NBC Sports) | Three Sheets (Spike) | The Appearing (Trailer: Lionsgate Films) | The Club (Netflix) | The Condemned 2 (Trailer: WWE Films) | The Courier (Trailer) | The Dan Patrick Show (NBC Sports) | The Get Down (Netflix) | The Hunt (Outdoor Channel) | The Hunt with John Walsh (CNN) | The Redemption Project (CNN) | The Voice (NBC) | This Is Life with Lisa Ling (CNN) | Toddlers and Tiaras (TLC) | True Life (MTV) | TV’s All-Time Funniest (ABC) | UItimate Science | Who Wants To Date A Comedian (The CW) | Wicked Tuna (Nat Geo) | Unmasking a Killer (HLN) | Urban Conversion | Valerie's Home Cooking (Food Network) | Weed 4: Pot vs Pills (CNN) | Weekend Express with Lynn Smith (HLN) | Working Miracles | World Of Jenks (MTV) | Wrecked (TBS) | Xtreme Waterparks (Travel Channel) | Young Icons (The CW)
3, 2, 1… Frankie Go Boom (Variance Films) | Barely Lethal (RKO Pictures) | Butter (Weinstein Company) | Casual (Hulu) | Dig (USA) | Ella Enchanted (Miramax Films) | Fairly Legal (USA Network) | Graves (Epix) | Growing Up Fisher (NBC) | Harley & the Davidsons (Discovery) | Losing It (ABC) | Second Nature (Cross Films) | Sundays at Tiffany’s (Lifetime) | Thank You For Smoking (Fox Searchlight) | The Ex-List (CBS) | The Young and the Restless (CBS) | Victoria’s Secret (Holiday Campaign) | Young Adult (Paramount Pictures)
- The Career Musician Podcast
- Art 2 Income Podcast
- The Savvy Musician Show with Leah McHenry
- The Music Industry Blueprint with Rick Barker
- The Charron Zone: Music-Business-Life
- Female Entrepreneur Musician with Bree Noble
- The Star Singer Podcast
- Making Money in the Music Business
- Smart Music Business Podcast
- The Business Side of Music Podcast
- The Rich Redmond Show
- Collectible Guitar Magazine
- Hacking Music: The Music Business Model Canvas
- Full Sail University
- Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University
- Darkhorse Institute
- Propellerheads Producer’s Conference
- A3E
- Immerse Music Conference
Below is a link where you can listen to the extensive amount of music I've written and produced:
Here are a few ways to get started licensing your songs...
Master Music Licensing Course
This course is the full music licensing framework from start to finish. If you're ready to start generating consistent placements of your music, this is the program for you!
The 7 Day Sync-Ready Challenge
In this 7 Day Challenge we are going to take a deep dive into everything you need to do to get your songs "Sync Ready." If you're just starting out on your licensing journey, this challenge is for you!
The 4 Step Plan to Licensing Success
This e-book is the definitive guide on How to Successfully License Your Music to TV Shows, Films and Commercials. Learn the exact process I've used to generate over 2400 placements of my music.