How to set yourself up for success in sync licensing

Sync licensing is short for "synchronization licensing" — it's a type of music license that is required whenever your music is featured in TV shows, movies, commercials, video games, or other visual media.

In sync licensing deals, the rights holder of the music (which could be the songwriter, publisher, record label, or composer, depending on the rights agreement of the work) grants permission to a production company or content creator to use the music in their visual project.

Licensing your music for use in visual media can be a great way to get your songs some exposure while also making money, both upfront and through backend royalties.

Here’s what you can do to increase your chances of getting your music placed in visual media and securing gainful sync licenses:

Watch (and listen to) TV shows

The best way to know what type of music is used in TV shows, commercials, and movies is to watch TV shows, commercials, and movies. As much as you think your music is great, it may not be what music supervisors need.

Pay attention to the music as you watch TV and movies, especially if it’s the same genre of music you make. Then go through your catalog and find songs of yours that sound like what you heard.

You can also look up who the music supervisor is – the TV show or movie will list this person in the credits. However, music supervisors rarely accept unsolicited music submissions, so it’s not a good idea to send them your music unless they have a call for submissions (check their social media or website for that).

This exercise is just to help you understand what type of music is typically used in sync placements.

Look at the top songs selected for placement

A very helpful way to understand what type of emotions, genres, and overall vibes are needed in sync licensing is to look through a list of what has recently been placed in visual media.

TuneFind put together a list of the most popular TV songs of 2023, generated by data on which songs people searched online after hearing them on TV.

Listen to these songs and make note of how you feel while you listen. Then ask: do you have any songs that make you feel a similar way? If so, earmark those songs as license-able.

Partner with a licensing company or agent

Instead of trying to contact music supervisors directly (which is notoriously difficult), try partnering with a licensing company or licensing agent.

The primary reason to work with licensing agents is this: music supervisors generally prefer to work through their established network relationships rather than sorting through unsolicited tracks from indie artists. Too many music supervisors have had legal issues because indie artists haven't known music law well enough and have made mistakes when it comes to song ownership, which easily leads to lawsuits.

Your sync partner already has those network relationships in place, so you don’t have to establish and develop them on your own. Big bonus: they’ll cover all the legal aspects and complete the required paperwork, so your deal is sure to be legally sound.

How to work with a sync licensing company

As someone who works with multiple licensing companies, and has gotten several placements with major TV networks (NBC, ABC, Canadian TV) as well as hundreds of indie placements, here’s what I’ve learned about finding a partner: it should be a partnership. You make the music, they get the placements. If there’s any imbalance, it’s probably not a good fit.

With that approach in mind, these are my tips for finding a sync licensing company:

• Free to submit music: avoid the pay-to-submit format of sync licensing – they should reject/accept your music based on its sync-ability, not whether or not you paid them.
• Royalties: always make sure you will get royalties if a song of yours is placed through your sync partner – that’s where a significant amount of your earnings are generated.
• Non-exclusive vs. exclusive: I prefer non-exclusive licenses because they allow me to submit the same song to multiple companies to see who has more success placing it – but exclusively licensing a song can be a good choice too, because the payouts are usually a lot higher for exclusivity.
• They split the payout 50/50 (or better): if a licensing company wants to take any more than 50% of the licensing fee and/or royalties, stay away – that’s not a balanced partnership.
• They have reputable clients: make sure they’ve actually gotten good placements before you sign anything (this info is usually public on their website).

Make sure your artist website is optimized for sync to give you the best chance of making a good impression.

Pitch songs in these genres

According to Vo Williams — an independent artist who has done very well in sync licensing — any genre works in sync. There’s a place for every type of music.

However, according to SongTown, certain styles appear in sync more often than others:

• Anthemic
• Swagger
• Assurance/positivity
• Sultry/sensual
• Joy/happiness
• Modern/indie/undiscovered

If any of your songs have these vibes, they could be good for sync licensing.

Pitch songs with these lyrical themes

Certain plot lines continue to appear in shows and movies because they’re universal narratives. We’ve all experienced these plots to some degree, so they naturally show up in the stories we see in movie and TV productions. To match that energy, music supervisors on these productions want music that explores similar themes.

Here are the most common lyrical themes we see in sync licensing:

• Love
• Home
• Heartbreak
• Breakups
• Triumph over a struggle
• Suspense
• Revenge

If you have a song that deals with one of these themes, pitch it for sync.

Get on DISCO

DISCO is a music management platform that lets you store and share your songs and add metadata, lyrics, moods, artwork, and much more.

It’s the preferred platform for most music supervisors and sync companies/agents,because they can add artists’ songs to their library on the platform, which allows them to make playlists that they can then easily share with their team.

Always have instrumentals

You will not succeed in sync licensing if you don’t have instrumental versions of your songs.

Directors and video editors always want the instrumental tracks of songs, so they can incorporate the track into several places within their edits, typically in the background of scenes where dialogue is happening.

Whomever is mixing and mastering your music, have them also bounce the instrumental version of your songs so you have those tracks at hand.

Register with a PRO

A Performance Rights Organization (PRO) collects the royalties owed to the people who own songs whenever those songs are used publicly.

As the songwriter, you are owed royalties when your song is aired or streamed in visual media. The publisher of the song also earns royalties, but as an indie artist, you may be your own publisher — something to be aware of if you're releasing an album independently or through a record label.

In the United States, the top PROs are BMI and ASCAP. In the UK, you can register with PRS for Music. In Canada, it’s SOCAN. Despite their nationality, all of these organizations collect royalties worldwide.

Write what evokes strong feelings

Ultimately, you’re an artist. You should always write what you're feeling. If a song doesn’t make you feel anything, it’s probably not going to make anyone else feel anything —it will feel inauthentic. That means you won’t be happy with it and it won’t work in sync licensing.

Effective TV shows, commercials, and movies work on emotions, and they need emotional music to fit the themes they're exploring. Focus on making the most emotional music you can and you’ll have a better chance at succeeding in sync licensing.

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Caleb J. Murphy is a singer/songwriter whose music has been on NBC, ABC, and in hundreds of indie film projects. He also sends a twice-monthly email to indie musicians called 5 Things To Help You Keep Going.