Yaps On Record July 22, 2026

How to get your music on TV Shows

Words by

Triston

"Yaps On record"

Okay, so I got into Love Island with season 6, and if you watch the show, you already know the music is so on-the-nose. Like, someone could be crying, and they will immediately throw on a breakup song, or two people will have a moment, and suddenly there’s this big sweeping song underneath it, like being like “I wanna kiss you”. It is definitely a lot.

But here’s the thing, the range of music they pull from is actually kind of wild. Like, one minute they’re playing Olivia Rodrigo or Charlie XCX, and the next minute it’s some artist you have genuinely never heard of in your life, and you just might just be Shazaming mid-episode.

(If you don’t feel like reading all this, check out the video above which basically sums up this entire post!)

Subscribe now

Underneath all the drama, I kept noticing that the songs were super specific to moments happening within each scene, I guess, of the show. I assume someone is sitting in an edit bay going, “Okay, she’s crying, what do we put under this?” and picking a specific song - and somehow also knowing about an artist that nobody’s really heard of yet.

So I started thinking to myself who the heck is that person?

How does a song actually end up on a reality TV show, and maybe more importantly, what does it mean for the artists whose music gets chosen & used in widely viewed shows such as Love Island, and how do you actually get your music in front of those people in the first place?

People say the term sync licensing as it pertains to music in films, ads, & in video games - but reality TV is this whole other machine that I feel like a lot of artists don’t know how to participate even in that conversation (raises my hand) and I think it probably shouldn’t be, especially if you’re an independent artist trying to figure out how to actually be heard and seen.

So today, I’m going to break down how songs actually get placed, and more importantly, the actual steps you can take as an artist to get your music heard by the people making those decisions. And then at the end, I’m going to sample some of the sounds from Love Island to create a beat.

Who picks the music?

If you didn’t know, Love Island USA streams on Peacock, and the music supervisors for the show are Meryl Ginsberg, Sara Torres, and Jordan Young. Their job has two sides to it: on one side, they’re a sync agent, which means they represent artists and pitch their music to TV shows and films. On the other side, they’re the music supervisor, which means they're the one actually choosing what goes in the show.

And the scale of what each of them works with is kind of insane. The show preps hundreds to thousands of songs in advance so that producers can quickly match music to whatever is happening in the villa. Since episodes drop daily, there really is no time to start from scratch every single night.

Through some of my research, I’ve found that reality TV is where a lot of indie artists actually have a shot. Not because it’s easy, but because the door is more open than it is for a film or a major commercial.

Wanna know who is making songs for Love Island? , Love Island sources its massive, fast-moving soundtrack through a mix of major label partnerships, blanket broadcasting licenses, direct pitches from ...

How Songs Get Placed

So how do songs get placed?

Unlike the UK version of Love Island, which operates under a blanket license, the US version runs more on relationships and pitching. There’s no automatic system that pulls your song just because it’s registered somewhere. Someone has to actually put your music in front of one of the supervisors on a given show - and that someone is usually a sync agent.

A sync agent represents your catalog and pitches it to a bunch of music supervisors. They know what shows are looking for, they have existing relationships with the people making decisions, and they handle the licensing side of the deal. The tradeoff is that they take a percentage of whatever you earn from the placement, usually somewhere between 20 and 50%.

Even if you do have a sync agent though, your paperwork still has to be clean. Your music needs to be registered with a PRO, which in the US is ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC.

PRO stands for Performing Rights Organization, and basically it collects and distributes the performance royalties you’re owed for your music. There’s a ton of PROs out there, but it’s kinda up to you to figure out which one works for you.

For example, I’m registered with BMI (Broadcast, Music, Inc), which was free, if I recall correctly, for me to sign up with.

Essentially, your publishing needs to be registered separately, your splits need to be accurate, and your co-writers need to have their shares filed because when a supervisor wants to move fast, any hiccup when it comes to the rights of your song means they’re moving on to the next one.

The other piece I didn’t expect is that music supervisors also want stems and instrumentals - not just the full track. They ask for the stems because sometimes they want to layer something differently, have the instrumental under the dialogue, or more. If you don’t have those ready, you’re already behind somebody else who does.

Your Guide to the 'Love Island USA' Season 8 Couples | Marie Claire

How To Get Heard

So, how does one get heard?

There are a few real pathways for indie artists trying to get their music in front of some music supes.

The first is getting a sync agent. And I know that sounds like it requires connections you don’t have, but a lot of sync agents, especially boutique ones, are actually findable. They’re on LinkedIn, they have websites, and some of them have open submission portals. The thing you need to come in with is a clean catalog, stems ready, everything registered, and a clear sense of what kind of music you make and what kind of scenes it fits. Sync agents think in terms of mood and placement, so if you’re pitching yourself, have an answer in mind.

For example, the distributor that I’m with is Too Lost and they offer sync licensing & publishing admin and they also help pitch your tracks for TV, video games, and film placements and collect the sync royalties if your music is placed.

The third path you can take is direct research. Music supervisors do have an online presence. Some of them post about what they’re looking for, and as I said, have open submission emails. From my understanding, it takes time, and most outreach goes nowhere, but some do find artists this way, especially for a show like Love Island that actively mixes established artists with emerging ones.

Now mind you, all of this assumes your music is actually ready. Not just recorded, but formatted correctly, tagged correctly, registered correctly. The metadata has to be right. Your codes, writer credits, & your splits, because the moment someone wants to use your song and hits a rights issue, they are not gonna wait for you to fix it.

A placement on a show like Love Island USA can genuinely change the trajectory of your music career. We’re talking streaming spikes, Shazam numbers going up, and people discovering you who would never have found you otherwise. The show has an official Peacock playlist on Apple Music that fans actually use, which is a real discovery infrastructure.

The artists whose music ends up on these shows are mostly there because someone was already in their corner. A sync agent, a label plugger, someone who knew whoever the supervisor is BUT the music still has to be good - it’s just that good music alone doesn’t get you there.

And I’m including myself in this - like I’m not making this video from a place of having it all figured it out. I’m making it because I went down this rabbit hole and realized how much I don’t have everything really set up yet, and I think for a lot of indie artists, including me, once you learn that the gap exists is the first step to actually closing it.