Tim Burnett
VP of Business and Publishing Administration, Heavy Hitters
VP of Music Publishing Administration, Made in Memphis Entertainment
Web: heavyhittersmusic.com, mimecorp.com
Contact: Bill Greenwood, [email protected]
Tim Burnett is the VP of Business and Publishing Administration at Heavy Hitters Music, a boutique song catalog and music publisher that pitches for sync placements in film, television, games and more. It’s part of the Made in Memphis Entertainment family of companies, where Burnett is also VP of Music Publishing Administration. “This job requires a love of music, obviously, but going beyond that, you have to have a knowledge of a diversity of music. Everyone has styles they gravitate to, but in the sync world, we’re looking for everything. We say that when we pitch clients. Pop may be a 10-lane highway, metal might be a dirt road, but all music has a lane. You have to be able to listen to all those styles of music and find out where they fit,” Burnett says.
Heavy Hitters and MIME offer regular “sync camps,” during which their writers, artists and producers collaborate with other companies to create music licensing opportunities, which most recently resulted in a placement in Season 2 of the Showtime series Your Honor starring Bryan Cranston.
“In the sync world, you don’t know what you’re going to get from day to day, which makes it exciting,” Burnett says. “Any given day we could get a brief asking for anything―something that sounds similar to Drake, or something that has a ‘60s Motown sound. We never know what someone is going to be asking for, so it’s always interesting.”
But the amount of content available through streaming platforms is also the most challenging part of the job, Burnett says. “We’re constantly trying to identify and fill gaps in the catalog, and we also know that it is a very competitive space. Everything we’re pitching for―other companies are pitching for the same thing. That’s why it’s so rewarding when we land a placement.”
Burnett says being a good student is one of the most valuable skills someone aspiring to work in the sync licensing world can have. “When I look to acquire talent, a willingness to learn and just being open to the possibilities is the most valuable,” he says. •
