Client Feature: 9 Questions with The Hit House

The Hit House is a one-stop label supporting independent artists, not an algorithm. The Hit House takes music personally and provides a premium score and sound design catalog driven by exclusive staff composers including award-winning music creators. In our interview, Vice President/Head of A&R and Catalog Development Jesse Goodwin discusses building trust with music supervisors.

How did The Hit House first begin? What did the business look like in the early days?
The Hit House was started by CEO Sally House and her husband, our head composer, Scott Miller. In the early days, we were primarily a custom shop and the library began with Scott’s foray into comedy with the first Funny Bone album.

What kinds of sounds or genres have been most in demand from your clientele recently?
The Hit House prides itself on finding gaps in the marketplace that we can fill instead of chasing trends. We find that now more than ever clients want authenticity in their music. Artist and composer-driven songs written from a place of love for music as opposed to being purely motivated by sync ability.

What’s the best way to get a music supervisor to listen to your tracks?
The label-to-supervisor relationship is based on trust and time. Don’t send 40 tracks. Send 5 right ones. If you don’t have what they’re looking for, send nothing. You want them to know that if you are sending them a playlist, it’s quality.

Does The Hit House pursue any marketing initiatives to make the company stand out from the crowd? Or does most business development happen through direct communication?
We are a relationship-first company. Our marketing is letting our clients know that when they call, one of two people is going to pick up the phone. That when they send us a custom brief, our staff composers are going to give them the same quality they got the last 10 times, and it’s not being farmed out to 40 non-exclusives writing for 10 different libraries each.

Is The Hit House currently looking for new composers?
We are always looking for new composers, artists and producers to join our artist collective. We like to make sure that if we bring someone on to write, it is because we believe we can help them make a living with music, not to pad our catalog song numbers. We are a small company with limited openings, but we keep all submissions on file.  

Any advice for up-and-coming sound designers, composers, or recordists striving to create professional, industry-quality tracks?
Quality over quantity. Melody over gimmicks. I don’t care if you have the coolest hits if you can’t write a theme. Spend time on your mix; listen to whom you are going to be competing against. Send your 5 best tracks at most.

Does The Hit House have a company mission that guides business development or client experience?
We believe music is human connection.
A one-stop label supporting independent artists.
Not an algorithm.
A premium score and sound design catalog driven by exclusive staff composers.
Not an AI-optimized search engine of endless background tracks.
A team of award-winning custom music creators.
We take music personally.

Any upcoming releases or exciting plans at The Hit House that you can share?
We just launched our label division, THHrecords. It is an amazing group of rappers, bands, DJs and producers all creating one-stop songs.

Any all-time favorite placements?
We like our coffee mugs placed as close to our mouths as possible.