Welcome to “This is your Lucky Break” 🍀

Music Supervisor and Marketing Strategy Executive, Publisher/Editor of American Music + Media here to help support and guide the next generation of amazing artists, creatives, and aspiring music professionals trying to navigate this mysterious business.

This is my first real deal Substack post and I am super excited to be here and connect with you.

I’m Jacquie Lucky 🍀 — a music and media executive, music supervisor, marketing, sync and licensing strategist, and the publisher/editor of American Music + Media (@americanmusicmedia).

I don’t usually find myself writing my thoughts down publicly unless I’m journaling, writing an article or notes, or sending emails, so I’m looking forward to finding my writing wheelhouse here. So bear with me.

And with that said, it’s an absolute pleasure to meet you. Thank you for stopping by.

After more than 30 years working in the music business, I’ve decided to start sharing my experience, strength, and hope to help support and guide the next generation of amazing artists, composers, creatives, and aspiring music professionals trying to navigate this mysterious business.

Some of you reading this may already know me from different corners of the music and media world, and some of you may be wondering who the heck I am — and honestly, that’s completely fair. The music business is a funny place like that. Some people cross paths for decades, while others somehow never meet at all.

My hope and intention is to give you the real and raw — the things you need to know if you’re embarking on a career in this creative industry.

The music business is one of the most fascinating, creative, inspiring, chaotic, emotional, confusing, exciting, heartbreaking, and mysterious industries on Earth.

And unless you’ve actually worked on the inside, most people have absolutely no idea how many moving parts are constantly happening behind the scenes.

Funny as this might sound - some of the people inside the business don’t fully understand how all the pieces connect. It takes years to understand how the different areas intertwine and work together to keep this industry moving.

That’s one of the reasons why I wanted to start “This Is Your Lucky Break.” 🍀

I feel this insider information is important to share because I didn’t know how to get started or who to ask for help. I didn’t know anyone in the business, so there was no one to turn to. There wasn’t a music business welcoming committee greeting me saying:

“Welcome! We’re so excited you got the job. Now let us walk you through how to navigate and understand the music business.”

Sorry to burst anyone’s bubble, but that doesn’t happen. The welcoming committee was apparently fired.

And imagine this - 30 years ago, there was no Google, no YouTube, no ChatGPT, and definitely no “how to break into the music industry” TikTok videos floating around at 2 a.m.

No music business college classes either.

I didn’t know anybody in the business. I came in cold. Like freezing cold.

But we had libraries.

Reference books.

Landlines.

And intuition.

It never occurred to me back when I embarked into this industry that there might actually be books written about the music business.

Fast forward I found out there are many fantastic books out there, and they absolutely can help educate you and give you a sense of what to expect. We’ll talk about all those! But even the best books still don’t replace firsthand experience and guidance from people who have actually lived it.

This business can be terrifying without a support system, a mentor, or someone who understands the ups and downs, the highs and lows, the successes and failures. That’s true in any career path — not just music.

After all these years, I realized something important:

There are so many talented artists, composers, managers, agents, creatives, aspiring executives, and auxiliary  professionals (who are tied in to this industry) all trying to figure out how this business really works… especially the sync, publishing, and licensing side, and a lot of the information out there either feels overly polished, corporate, outdated, overwhelming, boring, not helpful, or disconnected from reality.

I want this to be a place where we can have real conversations about music, media, creativity, artists, composers, sync licensing, publishing, music supervision, marketing, film, television, commercials, branding, storytelling, working with creative professionals, and how this music business actually works behind the scenes.

That’s what “This Is Your Lucky Break” is. 🍀

🍀 We’re going to talk about:

- sync licensing

- publishing

- music for film and television

- music for online games

- music for commercials, advertising, and trailers

- networking

- music marketing, promotion, and brand partnerships

- artists and composers

- artist development

- creative direction

- industry politics

- storytelling

- career pivots

- burnout and mental health

- reinvention

- creativity

- AI

- and all the strange little things nobody tells you until you’re already in the room.

So tell me:

🍀What would you like to know about the music business?

🍀What are you curious about?

🍀What do you wish someone would explain more clearly?

Leave a comment, send this to a friend, and feel free to share your own story too. I’d love to hear it.

I plan on posting here at least once a week, if not more.

I look forward to continuing this conversation. We have a lot to talk about!

Cheers!

— Jacquie Lucky 🍀