Broadcasting from Houston, Texas, Barry Coffing joins for a deep dive into the realities of music licensing, supervision, and artist development. With decades of experience as a songwriter, producer, performer, and founder of musicsupervisor.com and We Get Artists, Barry breaks down how he built a global licensing platform that now houses hundreds of thousands of tracks and services major film studios and television networks.
He shares the origin story of creating a searchable music database after struggling to find songs for indie films, eventually raising funding to build a powerful search engine that allows supervisors to pinpoint highly specific musical needs in seconds. Along the way, he explains why “good” songs often place more than “great” ones, how music must enhance a scene without distracting from dialogue, and why emotional universality in lyrics increases placement potential.
Barry pulls back the curtain on sync realities, from replacing major artists last minute on film soundtracks to navigating soundtrack buyouts, agency politics, and the importance of instrumental and alternate mixes. He emphasizes that success in sync is less about selling and more about solving creative problems quickly and professionally.
Beyond licensing, Barry highlights Sustainable Artists and Springboard Fest, where emerging talent receives mentorship from industry veterans and performance coaches. His message to artists is clear – increase your catalog, protect your rights, build your social presence, and treat every track like a lottery ticket with multiple pathways to win.
Topics
0:11 – Introduction and Barry’s background in Houston 1:20 – Building musicsupervisor.com from indie film challenges 5:55 – Cataloging, quality control, and search engine precision 9:52 – Why supervisors return to deep and diverse catalogs 14:20 – Why good songs place more than great ones 18:23 – How songs lose placements at the last minute 25:11 – Common sync misconceptions from independent artists 28:19 – Deliverables and what sync ready really means 39:03 – AI music risks and copyright realities 1:01:18 – We Get Artists and Springboard Fest opportunities
Connect with Barry Coffing
We Get Artists: wegetartists.com Music Supervisor: musicsupervisor.com Springboard Fest: springboardfest.com
Discover more interviews and exclusive content at thedjsessions.com
About Barry Coffing –
BARRY COFFING is a music business entrepreneur, sought-after speaker, and moderator. His music licensing company Music Supervisor Inc. represents over 20,000 labels, libraries, and music artists for film and TV licensing. Nearly every major film company and TV network uses his software. and as a result, a track they represent is licensed every 72 hours.
EXPERIENCE Barry has been an artist (WB Records), songwriter, composer, producer, engineer, music supervisor, and label owner (Sony RED distribution). His music publishing company is administered by the Universal Music Group. He has toured the world as a music director for other artists, as well as writing and producing music for Films, TV, Jingles, and Ad Agencies. As a singer, his voice can be heard singing the end title songs for The Brady Bunch Movie, and Pooh’s Grand Adventure.
PAST AND CURRENT MUSIC LICENSING CLIENTS Sony, Disney, Paramount, Warner Brothers, Universal, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, MGM, United Artists, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, CW, AMC, HBO, Netflix, Hulu, Apple, Amazon, Showtime, Lifetime, General Mills, US Army, Volkswagen.
MUSIC PRODUCTION CLIENTS: Michael McDonald, Chaka Khan, Peabo Bryson, Thelma Houston, Irene Cara, Tiffany, Lee Greenwood, Gary Puckett, and many others.
EDUCATION: Graduated from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas (Vocal Music Major), after which he received an opera scholarship from Houston Baptist University. He also attended the University of Houston, majoring in Radio & TV Performance.
RECOGNITION: In his 30+ years in the music business, he amassed a great deal of credits and awards. He has placed over 200 of his own songs in films and television, received BMI Songwriting Awards, penned Multiple #1 hits, and has an Emmy nomination to his name. His lone stint as a film producer netted him and his co-producers the Best Producer award at the Beverly Hills Film Festival.
TEACHING/LECTURING: Barry is currently on the board of the music business and film program at the Houston Community College. He has lectured at USC, Berklee College of Music, Belmont University, Stax Music Academy, TSU, Rice University, Cutting Edge, NARRIS, NAMN, SWAMP, MESA, HSPVA, and more.
OTHER INTERESTS: Barry Coffing has been a voting member of both the Los Angeles and Texas Recording Academy chapters. Annually, he participates in “Grammy’s on the Hill” as a member and as a District Advocate. Barry is on the music business and film advisory boards at several colleges, and his company has a very active international internship program. He is also the creator of the Springboard Music Festival and Conference as well as the founder of Sustainable Artists a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. www.WeGetArtists.com & www.MusicSupervisor.com
About The DJ Sessions –
“The DJ Sessions” is a Twitch/Mixcloud “Featured Partner” live streaming/podcast series featuring electronic music DJ’s/Producers via live mixes/interviews and streamed/distributed to a global audience. TheDJSessions.com
The series constantly places in the “Top Ten” on Twitch Music and the “Top Five” in the “Electronic Music”, “DJ”, “Dance Music” categories. TDJS is rated in the Top 0.11% of live streaming shows on Twitch out of millions of live streamers.
“The DJ Sessions” is listed in the Feedspot directory as one of the Top 60 EDM Podcasts. The series has also been covered by Magnetic Magazine, MI4L, EDMTunes, Fame Magazine, and more.
It has also been recognized by Apple twice as a “New and Noteworthy” podcast and featured three times in the Apple Music Store video podcast section. UStream and Livestream have also listed the series as a “Featured” stream on their platforms since its inception.
The series is also streamed live to multiple other platforms and hosted on several podcast sites. It has a combined live streaming/podcast audience is over 125,000 viewers per week.
With over 2,700 episodes produced over the last 16 years “The DJ Sessions” has featured international artists such as: Matt Staffanina, Cosmic Gate, The Midnight, Amal Nemer, Andrea Casta, Peter Mac, Martin Jensen, Felix Sama, Larse, Ria Mehta, Jens Lissat, Riko & Gugga, BT, Martin Eyerer, Thomas Turner, Plastik Funk, Johan Blende, syence, Redman, Youngr, Dr. Fresch, Sergio Matina, Remo Giugni, Andrew Mills, Robbo Fitzgibbons, HAXHIA, Jungstedt, Deuandra, Faranoe Bros., Leandro Da Silva, Djuma Soundsystem, Massimo Vivona, Late Aster, Andrea Grasselli, ASTOR, Ferry Corsten, Nvrsoft, Alejandro, Thaylo, Robert Owens, Darude, Erika Grapes, Herbert Holler, Meecah, YORK, Sevenn, Amber D, Joey Riot, Drove, Martin Trevy, Thomas Datt, Siryuz & Smoky, Simon Shackleton, SurfingDJ’s, Jacob Henry, Rïa Mehta, Vintage & Morrelli, Joachim Garraud, Mizeyesis, Drop Out Orchestra, Dave Lambert, Tom Wax, Kenn Colt, Nathassia aka Goddess is a DJ, Joni Ljungqvist, mAdcAt, Wuki, DiscoKitty, Handshake in Space, Thaylo, Moon Beats, Barnacle Boi, IAMDRAKE, Spag Heddy, Scott Slyter, Simply City, Rob Gee, Micke, Jerry Davila, SpeakerHoney, Sickotoy, Teenage Mutants, DJ Mowgli, Wooli, Somna, Gamuel Sori, Curbi, Alex Whalen, Netsky, Rich DietZ, Stylust, Bexxie, Chuwe, Proff, Muzz, Raphaelle, Boris, MJ Cole, Flipside, Ross Harper, DJ S.K.T., Skeeter, Bissen, 2SOON, Kayzo, Sabat, Katie Chonacas, DJ Fabio, Homemade, Hollaphonic, Lady Waks, Dr. Ushuu, Arty/Alpha 9, Miri Ben-Ari, DJ Ruby, DJ Colette, Textbook Maneuver, Nima Gorji, Kaspar Tasane, Queen City Hooligan, Andy Caldwell, Party Shirt, Plastik Funk, ENDO, John Tejada, Hoss, Alejandro, DJ Sash U, Arkley, Bee Bee, Cozmic Cat, Superstar DJ Keoki, Crystal Waters, Swedish Egil, Dezarate, Maddy O’Neal, Sonic Union, Lea Luna, Belle Humble, Marc Marzenit, Ricky Disco, AthenaLuv, Maximillian, Saeed Younan, Inkfish,