How Do You Write a Music Brief? A Template, With a Holiday Campaign Example

"Something warm and upbeat for the holidays" is how a lot of music briefs start, and it is where they go wrong. A supervisor, a composer or a search box cannot do much with a mood alone. Swell Sound, a music studio, puts it plainly: "A great brief is the fastest path to great music."

This guide gives you a one-page template, then fills it in for a small bakery's 30-second holiday video. It works whether you will license an existing song, commission something new or search a catalog yourself. It is general information, drawn from supervisors and composers who write about their own work.

What a brief is for

A brief answers three questions before anyone listens to anything: what the music is for, how it should feel, and what the limits are. Steve Berman, writing for animation producers at The Composer Works, says getting the brief right from the start saves production time and leads to better music. The limits matter as much as the feeling, because a track that fits the mood but not the rights or the date is no use to you.

The one-page template

Copy these prompts into a document and answer each in a line or two.

• The picture. Send the cut, even a rough one. Swell's advice: "The cut is the assignment." Add the length and any cut-downs, such as 30-, 15- and 6-second versions. Composer Ninichi's checklist also asks where the project stands and how the music will be used.
• The emotional job. What should the viewer feel, and how should that change from the first second to the last? For a holiday spot it might be nostalgic, playful, tender or quietly majestic. Composer Eddie Grey, interviewed by Filmstro, asks filmmakers to use adjectives for what they are seeing and feeling.
• References, with a because. "Give three or four references," Swell says, and "explain what each is doing that works." Say what you like: the pace, the instruments, the way it builds.
• What it must not be. "Constraints that eliminate categories help a supervisor narrow fast," Swell says.
• Voice and space. Instrumental, vocal or both? Will anyone speak over it?
• Pace and shape. A rough tempo (fast, medium or slow), a key if you know it, and where the music should come in and go out, as Grey suggests.
• License, commission or either. Swell asks you to say so up front. If you commission, settle who keeps the copyright, as Berman's checklist does.
• Where it runs. The media (TV, online video, paid social), the territory and the term. Universal Music Canada's request form asks for these, plus whether there will be paid promotion online, and for how long.
• Budget. A ballpark, before the search starts. Berman and Swell both say to state it at the beginning.
• Dates. Picture lock, when options are due and the day it goes live. Swell's advice: "Work backward from delivery and tell the supervisor the actual milestones."

A worked example: a bakery's 30-second holiday video

This brief is invented. It shows how much a few plain lines can say.

• The picture: a 30-second cut of a baker boxing cookies and a customer's smile, plus 15- and 6-second social cuts. Rough cut attached. A voice-over runs through the middle.
• The job: warm and a little nostalgic, building to a small smile when the box is handed over. Cozy, not syrupy.
• References: a slow fingerpicked guitar piece with soft bells, for the pace and not the melody; a quiet piano cue from a holiday film, for the lift in the last five seconds; a light ukulele tune from an ad, for the smile.
• Not: no big choir, no electronic drop, no sleigh bells from the first bar, nothing that fights the voice-over.
• Voice: instrumental under the voice-over. A gentle vocal is welcome in the final tag.
• Pace and shape: slow to medium. Music enters on the first cookie and ends as the box closes.
• License or commission: license an existing song, with a simple edit to fit each cut-down.
• Where it runs: our website, social posts and paid social, in the United States, for 12 months.
• Budget: a ballpark for the music, written at the top of the brief.
• Dates: picture lock Wednesday, Nov 18; options due Friday, Nov 20; signed license Tuesday, Nov 24; live Wednesday, Nov 25, ahead of Black Friday on Nov 27.

Why every reference needs a because

A favorite song is the easiest reference to give and often the hardest to clear. In Soundstripe's piece on temp love, music supervisor Madonna Wade-Reed says, "Temp love is often tied to bigger and more recognizable songs." Saying what you like about a reference lets someone find the quality without the song. Mike Boris, a former head of music at advertising agencies, says, "If a client gets me involved early in the process, temp love is not an issue." If you have already fallen for a placeholder, read our guide to temp tracks and temp love.

What to do with the answers

When options come back, treat them as candidates, not finalists.

• Judge them against the picture, not in a playlist. Supervisor Jen Pyken, quoted in Soundstripe's guide, says that rather than send a playlist of ideas she has her curated songs "edited to picture."
• Ask the same three questions of every option: does it do the job, can it be cleared for where we will run it, and can we have it by the date?
• Keep a tested runner-up in case the first choice cannot be cleared.

Start earlier than feels necessary

In a Guild of Music Supervisors interview about a big UK Christmas campaign, supervisor Abi Leland says, "As soon as the script is ready we start exploring the music." She describes "many months of working with the director and creatives at script and treatment stage." Your project is smaller, but the lesson scales: write the brief when the idea is ready, not when the edit is done.

Clearance has its own clock. Universal Music Canada's licensing page asks requesters to "allow up to two weeks for an initial response." With Black Friday on Nov 27, a famous song is a long shot this season, and music that is already cleared is the calmer choice. Our guides to how brands choose songs for holiday ads and to cover songs in film and ads cover the big-campaign calendar and the cover route.

Where Starchild fits

AI search on Starchild understands descriptions, so the emotional-job line from your brief makes a good search. Every song can be heard in different styles and voices before licensing, with live key and tempo control, so you can try a song at the pace of your cut. If the brief points to a seasonal feel, browse the holiday genre.

One thing to know: a standard Starchild license covers your own recording and release, your own videos (music videos, lyric videos, Reels and YouTube, monetized too), live performance, and promoting yourself and your music, including your own ads. A bakery's holiday video is an ad for a business, and ads for a brand or product need a sync license. Start at the sync licensing page. Adaptive sync licensing for film, TV, games and ads launches in fall 2026.

Sources

• Swell Sound: How to Brief a Music Supervisor for Your Ad Campaign
• The Composer Works: Animation Producers, 7 Steps to the Complete Music Brief (Steve Berman, 2015)
• Ninichi: How to Write a Great Music Brief for a Composer (2024)
• Filmstro: How to create a killer music brief for your production (interview with composer Eddie Grey, 2020)
• Soundstripe: How to Avoid the Temp Love Trap, Music Supervisors Weigh In
• Universal Music Canada: Sync & Licensing
• Guild of Music Supervisors (UK & Europe): John Lewis Christmas, how the ad of the season gets its soundtrack