Beyond the Music: What You Need to Land a Sync Placement
Written by Liz Schoenfeld, Sync Manager at Vydia
With the rapid growth of television, movies, and video games that seek music, sync licensing has become one of the most lucrative ways to make additional revenue as an artist. According to Billboard, in 2024, the global sync industry generated $632 million in revenue. Understandably, many artists want a piece of that pie, however, having a great song is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to standing out from other submissions. Music supervisors are not only looking for songs that are sonically fitting, but also properly prepped and ready to be placed in their next project. In this blog post, we will go over everything from rights, metadata, briefs and beyond, to help ensure you are taking all of the right steps in order to land a sync placement.
Music That is Sync-Worthy (& Clearable!)
At its core, sync is not just about finding great music, but finding great music that helps to propel a story. Whether it’s for an ad campaign, summer blockbuster, or video game, the messaging behind the track matters. With that said, it’s not just about the sound, it’s also about the clearance. As an artist, if a music supervisor wants to clear your song, you will have to give approval, typically over email, for the type of use, the fee, terms, exclusivity, and so on, for your portion of ownership of the song. Ultimately, you can’t have sync-able music without being able to clear it and you can’t clear music that isn’t sync–able. As you start to pitch for sync opportunities, it’s imperative to prioritize both so you can be in a better position for sync-cess.
Know Your Rights
For every song there are two sides to it, the master and the publishing. Before submitting your song for a brief, you should know who has the rights to both sides so that the music supervisor can clear your work fast and efficiently. Be sure to detail if there are multiple writers and include their contact information so supervisors know who to get in contact with in order to clear the full song. If you happen to solely administer the master and the full publishing, you should also note that the work is “one stop”. One stop tracks are sync gold and “music to supervisors ears”, as they can license the track with one quick approval.
Correct Metadata
The song may sound great, but is the important metadata embedded within the track? As simple as it may sound, always ensure when pitching content that the track has the correct title and artists. You should also notate whether the track is explicit, clean, or instrumental, so that the music supervisors can have all versions available depending on their needs. For example, a broadcast car commercial most likely won’t use a song with explicit lyrics. If you provide a clean version and/or instrumental version of the explicit track, you may have a better chance to land the commercial. On top of that, be sure to include the genre, BPM (beats per minute), release date, ISRC, lyrics (when applicable), and publishing information. The more information, the better! Most playlisting platforms will also let you add additional notes, which is a great place to include your contact information and other rightsholders, where applicable.
Read the Briefs
When you get a brief, there are 3 things that are most important to look at: When, What, and Who.
When: When is the deadline? You can’t expect to get your music placed if you keep turning in your music past the deadline. Be sure to be prompt.
What: What specifics are they looking for? Did they ask for a one stop rap song with a 150 BPM? Always ensure your content matches the brief, so you’re not wasting your, or the supervisors, valuable time.
Who: The “who” refers to the specific project. Does the show air on a network or does it air straight to streaming? Is it a video game intended for kids or does it have a more mature audience? These are all details that matter when pitching your music to make sure it fits within the context of the brief.
While there’s no exact recipe for securing a sync placement, having the essential ingredients greatly increases your chances of success. Beyond receiving another stream of income and validation that your music is sync-able, a huge benefit to landing your music in TV, film, video games, and beyond is the major impact on your career down the line. A well known example of this is in the past season of Stranger Things and their use of “Running Up The Hill” by Kate Bush. This song came out over 30+ years ago and had a renaissance from this one use. A great sync placement could lead to increased exposure, unlocking new audiences, and exponential growth in your streaming numbers. Next time you go to Shazam a song while watching a television show, know that that is exactly what someone could be doing to your music once you land that placement.
About the Author: Liz Schoenfeld (she/her) is the Sync Manager at Vydia, an end-to-end music technology platform that provides labels with the infrastructure and tools to power their business. She manages sync opportunities with a range of budgets across a variety of mediums including film, television, advertising, video games, and more.
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