Services
Reality Club is here to dream with creators and institutions who have ideas about how they’d like to use music, and to help them get there efficiently and legally.
Cultural institutions, filmmakers, brands, agencies, artists and labels bring Reality Club in to get the culture right: Reading the world their work steps into, shaping how music carries the idea and planning around it with care for the people and culture it comes from. From there, Reality Club finds the music that belongs in the work and clears it the right way.
What Reality Club does
The work is always built around music and the people behind it. It usually takes one or more of these shapes.
Creative and cultural strategy
Research into the artists, the culture and the communities behind the music, a cultural read on concepts and plans before they’re made, and sound direction for campaigns, exhibitions, events and spaces.
Strategy for artists and labels
Positioning and story, release and campaign strategy, short and long-term planning that keeps artists paid and protected, and catalog and licensing strategy for labels and publishers.
Writing
Liner notes, bios and other music-forward writing that gives listeners a way in.
Talks and listening events
Hosting and moderating talks and listening sessions for cultural institutions and brands. Reality Club’s founder has moderated and hosted events for In Sheep’s Clothing and The Land School, along with listening parties for International Anthem. Highlights include conversations with Jeff Parker and William Tyler and the talk “Music Is the Story.”
Exhibition project management
Keeping a music-centered exhibition on track, from timelines to coordination between the museum, the curators and the people building the show.
Music supervision
Searching for and choosing the music that carries a film, series, campaign or exhibition, from early planning and budgeting to cue sheets, credits and final delivery.
Licensing and clearance
Researching every piece of music and tracing it to its owners, negotiating terms and getting approvals in writing, so the work can open, air or release on time.
Reality Club works project by project or on retainer, and it is most useful brought in early. For bigger jobs it brings in collaborators it trusts, with the client’s agreement.
Who it’s for
Reality Club does its best work with people who have a project in mind and want the music, and the culture around it, to be right.
Cultural institutions
Exhibitions, installations and programs with sound in them.
Filmmakers and production teams
Documentaries, features and series that have to honor the people in them.
Brands and agencies
Campaigns and experiences stepping into music and culture they want to respect.
Independent artists and labels
Artists shaping their story and their next release, and the labels and teams planning alongside them.
What Reality Club doesn’t do
Some music work sits right next to Reality Club’s and is a specialty of its own. Here is where those lines fall, so every project can find the right help quickly.
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Pitching music for sync
Reality Club isn’t a third-party pitching service: It doesn’t represent catalogs or pitch songs for placement in film, TV or advertising. On film, TV and campaign work it sits on the other side of the table, searching for, choosing and clearing the music a project needs.
Who can help: A sync agent, a publisher or a label’s licensing team, who can pitch the music they represent.
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Artist management
Reality Club isn’t an artist management company: It doesn’t manage artists or book shows. It works alongside an artist’s manager and label as a strategist and a sounding board.
Who can help: An artist manager for the day-to-day career, and a booking agent for live dates.
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Artist services and release administration
Reality Club isn’t an artist services company: It doesn’t handle the administrative back end of a release, such as distribution, metadata and registrations. It can help shape the strategy and campaign around a release.
Who can help: A distributor, a label services company or a publishing administrator.
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Content creation
Reality Club doesn’t produce social posts, videos, photography or other campaign content. It can choose and clear the music that goes into that content, and music-forward writing, such as liner notes and bios, is part of its work.
Who can help: A creative studio, a content producer or a production company.
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Digital marketing
Reality Club doesn’t run ads, social channels or other day-to-day digital marketing. It can help shape the strategy and story behind a campaign, and introduce specialists to run the channels.
Who can help: A digital marketing agency or a social media specialist.
If you need any of these, just ask. Reality Club is happy to suggest friends and partners who specialize in that work, and to make a referral where it can.
That keeps Reality Club focused on what it does best: Dreaming with creators and institutions about how music can serve their ideas, then helping them get there efficiently and legally.
Before you get in touch
The most helpful first message gives a clear picture of the project, even in a few lines. It covers four things.
What the project is
A film, a series, an exhibition, a campaign, a release or something new, and who it’s for.
What the music needs to do
The feeling, the moment or the problem to solve, or the question you keep circling back to.
The goal
What a good outcome looks like, and the dates that matter: An opening, a lock, a launch or a release.
A brief and a budget
Every project begins with both: A brief, even a rough one, and a sense of the budget you’re working with, so Reality Club can suggest the right scope.
With those in hand, Reality Club can come back with useful questions and, if it’s a fit, a written proposal.
A first call works best with an end goal in view, and a brief and a budget to work with, so Reality Club sets up calls once those are in place.
Open-ended conversations are a different kind of help. Picking Reality Club’s brain for ideas, or a chat before there’s an end goal, is consulting: A fee-based service Reality Club is glad to offer. If a consulting session would help most, just say so in your note, and Reality Club can set one up.
Have a project in view?
Send a few lines about what you’re making and what the music needs to do. Email goodpeople@realityclubforever.com, or use the Contact page.