Alicen Catron Schneider co-leads the NBC Universal Television music department and music supervises shows including Heroes.
She said that licensing a song to a television show will not necessarily bring you instant fame and fortune.
She said: "Everybody believes that if you get a song on a show it will change your life.
"But then you find it's not noticeable, just an accent to a scene."
Hussain Spek Yoosuf - known as Spek - started his career as a songwriter and performer in his native Canada before moving into the music business.
Today he is managing director of Fairwood Music, a leading music publisher in the Middle East and North Africa.
Spek talked about how he founded his company after travelling around the Middle East and realising that most people involved in music were not aware of copyright law.
"Even people I spoke to at major record labels said 'There's no copyright law here', he said.
"I started by trying to educate ad agencies about the fact they were using music without even thinking about trying to licence it out.
"There were no repercussions. You never got a call saying 'Why are you using Madonna to sell cereal without telling anybody?'"
Spek said he believed that it was important for artists to be able to leave business decisions in the hands of trusted partners, whether managers or publishers, so they could concentrate on their music.
He said: "There's a good quote from Bono about recording albums. He said make sure you're not decorating the house or buying furniture when you're recording an album. If you're worried about that it takes away from the quality of your creative output.
"As an artist, the more day-to-day stuff I was doing, it had a direct correlation on the output and the creativity of the work I was doing.
"Worrying about what the net is after a seven-date Canadian tour after paying for the vans, hotel rooms and gas is not very conducive to writing No Woman No Cry."
The Internet, the panel believed, could provide more opportunities for
musicians.
Alicen said she believed there would continue to be a "voracious appetite for music" online as new web-only tv or video services would also be looking to use music.
Andrea Von Forster, music supervisor at Firestarter Music, said one problem was that there was not yet an agreed payment formula for music used online.
As an example, she told how she worked as music supervisor for comedy website funnyordie.com
She said: "One act said we'll give you the music because the site's awesome. I said 'please let me pay you'.
"There's no standard now for anything on the Internet".
Sergio Pimentel, international music and licensing manager at video games giant Activision Blizzard, said that as the games industry was also looking for new ways to distribute its products online, giving new opportunities to publishers and musicians.
He said: "Our business is moving more into the digital arena as well, following the music industry's example.
"There's going to be more opportunities for downloadable content, whether as full games or chunks of games.
"In our industry there'll be more places for music."
The other panellists were Steve Lewis, founded of music publishing company Stage 3, and Jaime Gough, international manager of Native Tongue Publishing.