A Conversation with Heather Cook (Freedom Music Group), John Moses (The Bus Music), and Katie Jelen (Honestly Good Music)

Panelists:

HEATHER COOK (Freedom Music Group):

Heather Cook is a Sync Music Executive, Music Producer, Singer-Songwriter, Music Doc Director,  and Published Author with over 20 years experience in the music industry. Starting her career at The Voice Studio in Boston, MA working with celebrity vocal coaches, sound engineer/producer Stuart “Dinky” Dawson (Fleetwood Mac, The Byrds), Denny Dias (Steely Dan), and Paul Main (Roy Acuff).  She has an undergraduate degree in Music Business from Belmont University and a Masters Degree in Music Business from Berklee College of Music. She spent 3 years running her own music publishing and artists management company Cookin’ Up Music Publishing & Artists Management, 10 Years as a Sync Creative at peermusic where she secured dozens of sync placements and managed the licensing of hundreds upon hundreds of songs for ads, 1 year as Sr. Director, Creative Sync at Eternal Music Group where she produced over 9 albums for their custom music library and where she had placements for Google I/O, FBoy Island, and San Benedetto Italian Mineral Water.

As the Sr. Music Event Producer at the Nashville Film Festival she helped host dozens of music supervisors, orchestrated dozens of artist performances and helped educate hundreds of music creatives in the art of sync music.  She directed and produced the 20th Anniversary O Brother, Where Art Thou Music Tribute sponsored by Variety and hosted at Nashville Film Fest featuring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, Chris Thomas King, Emmy Lou Harris, T-Bone Burnett and Carleen Carter.  She has served as the Administrative Director for AIMP Nashville, SOLID Alumni President, and is currently a Recording Academy Professional Member & Mentor.  

Heather is taking her years of expertise in the formation of her new company Freedom Music Group where she and her team have landed placements for the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Grey’s Anatomy, Huton Hotel, 9-1-1, UFC Championship, NHL Stanley Cup, Love Island, and more. At the same time releasing music for her artist project Brewster Bee.  with music placed in the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Athletes Unlimited, WNBA, ESPN and playing in 30 sports arena’s. She manages the retro pop artist Tabitha Meeks. She is also a co-founding member of Nashville In Sync a Creatives Sync coalition and her book Music for Marketing & Brands is available now.

JOHN MOSES (The Bus Music):

John “JMo” Moses is the Vice President of Creative at The Bus Music, a boutique music publishing company based in the Nashville area.

Before joining The Bus, JMo made his mark at Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), where he was deeply involved in film/TV, digital, and live touring operations. In recent years, he has dedicated his focus to helping artists and songwriters build sustainable revenue streams through placements in film, television, advertising, trailers, gaming, and other licensing opportunities.

JMo has landed high-profile syncs with Netflix, Hulu, HBO, NBC, ABC, Google, and Nike, with music appearing in hit series such as Grey’s Anatomy, The Rookie, Insecure, Grown-ish, The Bold Type, Cobra Kai, and hundreds more. His portfolio includes notable sync placements spanning artists such as Megan Thee Stallion, Mary J. Blige, Migos, Anna of the North, and Gunna, alongside a diverse roster of standout independent talent.

A champion of musical storytelling and creative strategy, JMo is driven by a passion for elevating songs and maximizing their reach in today’s fast-moving entertainment landscape.

KATIE JELEN (Honestly Good Music):

With an extensive background in creative synch licensing, artist development & management, Katie Jelen started Honestly Good Music with the vision to create a positive & supportive environment for creatives to do their best work. As the first ever creative sync executive on the ground for Warner Music Group in Nashville, Katie spent 5 years growing Warner Chappell & Warner Music Nashville’s synchronization business across film, television & advertising opportunities. She has landed songs in award-winning campaigns, worked with clients to create brand-defining custom music & has guided songwriters to success across multiple genres & mediums.

In 2018 she worked with The Martin Agency and brought on GRAMMY-Award winning songwriter Liz Rose (Taylor Swift, Little Big Town) to help client Land O’Lakes reimagine the beloved classic song “Old McDonald” to shine a light on female farmers for a national ad campaign (with an entirely female team). In 2019 she spearheaded a lucrative & multi-year partnership with Norwegian Cruise Line that saw Warner Chappell songwriters creating custom songs for the brand to use across their online advertising campaigns. Most recently she worked alongside songwriting duo OUTSKRTS to help define & bring to life a custom song for the Tennessee Titans called “Get Loud (Titan Up)” to use both on & off the field. 

Since launching Honestly Good Music, Katie has worked on campaigns for brands such as Google, Jeep, Norwegian Cruise Line, Apple, Victoria’s Secret and Old Navy. Music from HGM artists can currently be heard in TV shows and promos for Good Trouble, The Rookie: Feds, Selling Sunset, Station 19, All American, Lincoln Lawyer, Motherland & more. 

Prior to her time at Warner Music Group, Katie got her start at Secret Road Music Services in Los Angeles where she helped to grow the management team, assist in the launch of Secret Road’s publishing division & launch the Nashville operations for the company. Katie is a proud alumni of the prestigious Leadership Music program (‘20), a founding member of Nashville In Sync & the Nurturing Outstanding Women (NOW) mentoring program.