About Us

Our Story

Here at Think Music, we are in the artist business, not the song business. We are committed to finding the newest talent and supporting their goals as they grow their artist brand.

We are an exclusive representation licensing and publishing company, aimed at providing the music supervision community with premier (and primarily one-stop) music from artists, writers, producers, and record labels from around the world. Our primary focus is licensing music for Television, Film, Advertisements & Trailers.

Our taste runs a little left of center (it's more fun that way), and we represent every genre with equal enthusiasm. Simply put: we love music, and we love this work.

We pride ourselves on our close relationships with music supervisors and personally work on each project until the supervisor has found what they need. When nothing existing quite works, we have the ability to tap our roster of premier artists and writer-producers to create a custom song built for the project. Because we don't have shareholders to please or big label release dates to adhere to, we only pitch what fits the brief, not what we are forced to push that day of the week.

We've also got a Library Division -- a tight, sync-cleared catalogue at library rates, for when the deadline is yesterday.

Our Values

Transparent Deals

We are 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 masters 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 global partners). If only one side (ie only master or 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 50%.

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 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.

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.

Our Team

Julie Shama Stephens

Founder & CEO

julie@thinkmusic.la

Julie has been in the music industry for over 20 years. She serendipitously landed in music licensing in 2006 when she managed and signed sync veteran, Tim Myers to his first licensing deal with Zync Music. When they parted ways after 3 years, she launched a new sync agency, which has since morphed and developed into Think Music, Inc.

Julie has been spearheading the charge into the licensing world and aiding in the global recognition of many artists whom have landed campaigns for notable companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, T-Mobile, Apple, Dell, Captain Morgan, Maybelline, VW and more. With her extensive management and A&R background, Julie is also always in pursuit of the best 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.

In 2002, Julie made the move to Los Angeles 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 Hollywood Records/Disney in the Promotion Department for the following 3 years, working with artists such as Hilary Duff, Jesse McCartney, and Phil Collins. 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, incorporating licensing and publishing, along with helping artists develop and find their passion.

Julie has signed over 500 artists, writers and producers, generating millions of dollars for her clients. Many of her clients have been working with her for years and years.

Shannon Quisenberry Palazzolo

Head of Sync and Artist Relations

shannon@thinkmusic.la

For 10 years at Think Music, Shannon has helped their large roster of independent artists land placements in hit TV shows, national & global advertisements, major studio films, movie and video game trailers. With a strong ear for lyrics and love of artists who fall left-of-center, Shannon is always listening for new acts to share with her favorite music supervisors. When not pitching, you can find her using her sync experience and management background helping artists shape their careers through various panel discussions and speaker engagements ranging from the LA College of Music to SXSW to The Hawaii Songwriting Festival. The latter of which she sits on their Advisory Council.

With a background in artist management, Shannon spent six years at Brick Wall Management in New York City, working with a 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 which ultimately led her to Think Music.

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, Sheryl Crow, 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 her work with non-profit organizations, most notably The Kristen Ann Carr Fund, Alliance Schools, Artist Against Hunger and Poverty, and Musicians on Call.

Trevyn Savage

Sync Coordinator

trevyn@thinkmusic.la

Trevyn Savage is a Music Coordinator based out of Portland, OR. As a mix-cd aficionado and show choir-nerd in her high school years in Burbank, CA, she naturally joined college radio when she moved to Portland to study Art History at Lewis & Clark College. After running on-campus concerts and two weekly radio shows, she worked for Portland venues Mississippi Studios and Revolution Hall as their Merchandise Manager and Marketing Assistant.

More recently, she's transitioned into sync, coordinating music for short films and ads for Deadline via Bandwagon Media and assisting Music Supervision on the Bravo series 'Below Deck' & the Netflix film 'Arnold.'.

Her history and passion for the music industry dates back to the young age of four, when she was forever enshrined on the cover of the iconic Black Sabbath "Reunion" album!