current jams.
We pride ourselves on our close relationships with music supervisors and personally work on each project until the supervisor has found what they need. We are also able to utilize our premier artists and producers to create the perfect custom song for any type of project. We LOVE music and we LOVE what we do!
In addition to our premier artist roster, we have a library division; a catalogue of songs focused exclusively on sync available for library rates.
About Our Deals - We are completely transparent with our agreements and all of our agreements are the same. Although they have evolved over the years, we pride ourselves on our artist friendly terms. At Think Music, artists retain all rights to their master AND publishing and we only co-publish upon Custom Compositions created specifically with us, and on various sessions we help set up. We commission 30% from all media and 35% from advertisements (An additional 20% is taken X-USA for our worldwide partners). If only one side (ie only master or only publishing) is available, we commission 40%. Every artist has approval rights over each sync. We are the exclusive sync partner for 18 months and then year by year unless the artist wishes to part ways. The majority of our artists have been with us for 5+ years. We pay out every 45 days, and normally quicker. For our library division of artists, we are non-exclusive for a period of 3 years, no approval rights, and we commission 40%.
About Our Founder - Julie Shama Stephens has been in the music industry for over 20 years. She has been in the music licensing business for nearly 17 years, getting her start in 2006 managing and signing artist Tim Myers to his first sync deal with Zync Music. When they parted ways in 2009, she helped start and build a new sync agency, which has since morphed and developed into Platform Music (est 2012), and now the solo owned venture known as Think Music, Inc.
Charity - In an effort to better the world, even just a little, a portion of every license commission is donated to various charities around the country. If you have an organization you'd like us to consider, please email us.
Branding - Our unique backgrounds and over 5 decades of combined experience with artist and producer management, major label representation, radio promotion, booking, A&R, and artist development, allow us to help advise our artists on how to best build their brands. When an artist signs exclusively with Think, they too become a part of the Think brand and a part of our family. We like to say that we are not in song business, we are in the ARTIST business. We want to help each one of our artists build their brands, their sync income, and stay with us for years to come.
Publishing - We participate in various songs from current and past artists. We also offer our premier artists opportunities to collaborate with other artists, producers and writers signed with other publishers and sync agencies. Although we do not administer songs on the artists behalf, we have a partnership with Bluewater Music and can help connect you when the time is right.
For the past 15 years, Julie has been spearheading the charge into the advertising world and aiding in the national recognition of many artists who together have landed campaigns for notable companies such as Microsoft, T-Mobile, Apple, Olay, Dell, Captain Morgan, Maybelline, VW and more. With her extensive A&R background, Julie is also always in pursuit of the newest, undiscovered talent and catalogues to bring into the Think family.
Originally from Boston, Julie attended Berklee College of Music and ultimately acquired her Bachelors from Emerson College. During this time, she had the opportunity to work for one of the world's largest Top 40 radio shows: John Garabedian's Open House Party. There, she met hundreds of major label recording artists and industry veterans that would later help propel her career in Los Angeles.
Almost 20 years ago, Julie made the move to Hollywood and immediately joined Mosaic Media Group (Green Day, Alanis Morisette, Goo Goo Dolls, etc) working under the day-to-day Manager for The Goo Goo Dolls. This gave her the experience which allowed her to attain a position at the prestigious Hollywood Records/Disney in the Promotion Department for the following 3 years working with artists such as Hilary Duff, Jesse McCartney, Phil Collins, and more. Shortly after leaving Hollywood Records, Julie began managing artists and developing what would soon become her own management and licensing company, along with a brief transition to Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in the International Music Department where she worked most notably on a tour for Beyoncé. By 2006 Julie had grown her company to what is now Think Music Inc, incorporating licensing and publishing, along with artist development. Julie has signed over 500 artists, writers and producers, generating millions of dollars for her clients. Most of her artists have been working with her for many years.
Shannon Palazzolo is the Head of Sync and Artist Relations at Think Music Inc. She has been an integral part of helping independent artists land placements in hit TV shows, national & global Advertisements and everything in between. With a strong ear for lyrics and love of artists who fall left-of-center, Shannon is always looking for new music to fall in love with….that could also work for sync!
With a background in artist management, Shannon spent six years at Brick Wall Management in New York City, working with their large roster of artists and producers that included Citizen Cope, Marc Broussard, The Clarks, and Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Ari Hest. After moving to LA and working on Ingrid Michelson’s management team, Shannon was quickly drawn to the licensing side of the industry and started working with Platform Music Group before it’s transition to Think Music, Inc.
Shannon was introduced to the music industry through a collegiate program at The University of Texas at Austin, assisting the producers for the acclaimed live television program Austin City Limits. After two seasons working on episodes with some of the biggest artists on the planet (Wilco, Etta James, Pixies, Elvis Costello, The Shins, The Flaming Lips, to name a few), she decided that behind the scenes in the music industry is where she belonged, and the rest is history.
Shannon also takes pride in working with non-profit organizations, most notably The Kristen Ann Carr Fund, Alliance Schools, Artist Against Hunger and Poverty, and Musicians on Call.
Tarik Bradford is a Los Angeles native and graduate of California State University, Los Angeles. He began his career in the Urban promotions department at Noo Trybe/Virgin Records, working with several of Virgin’s acclaimed artists including Janet Jackson, Gang Starr, The Geto Boys and Luther Vandross.
Once Noo Trybe folded, Tarik made a career transition into the world of licensing with a start at Warner Music Group handling clearances for TV, Soundtracks and master rights samples. After several years, he began working in a more creative capacity securing placements for artists under the WMG roster. Tarik was honored to work with a variety of developing artists who would later become household names, some of which included The Black Keys, Muse, and T.I. He also had the opportunity to secure placements for legacy artists such as Led Zeppelin, Ray Charles, The Doors and Frank Sinatra.
After 8 years Tarik left Warner Music Group for the opportunity to head the creative licensing department at Universal Music Enterprises. Over the next two years, Tarik was crucial in securing placements and branding opportunities for the likes of Lady Gaga, Wale, and Florence & The Machine as well as being instrumental in the Motown 50 Campaign helping to promote, brand and land placements for many of the the classic recordings.
Tarik next moved on to be Senior Director of Film & TV placements at EMI Music Publishing where he helmed the film and trailer department and secured placements for artists such as Kanye West, M83, Drake and Sia. Since then, he has consulted for BMG Chrysalis Music Publishing, Downtown Records, Bridgeport Publishing, Westbound Records, Stampede Publishing & Management working with a variety of artists including Macy Gray, Snoop Dogg, Far East Movement, Parliament Funkadelic and The Ohio Players.
Please email licensing@thinkmusic.la with the details of your request. (Artist, Song, Media, Term, etc.)
Please email all submissions to submissions@thinkmusic.la with the subject: SUBMISSIONS / artist's name
Please know that we receive a large volume of submissions and cannot respond to every email!
