Tips on how to get your music synchronised

Synchronisation, sometimes called placements, refers to when a song or musical work is reproduced onto a television program, film, video, commercial advertisement, radio, video game or ringtone. It is called so because you are ‘synchronising’ the composition, as it is performed on the audio recording, to a film, TV commercial, or spoken voice-over; to a piece of audio-visual material.

If a specific recorded version of a composition is used, you must also get (in addition to a synchronisation license) permission from the record company in the form of a ‘master use’ license. In addition to the financial rewards, any audio-visual use of the artist’s music, whether the artist is author or not, can be very helpful to his/her career development. It creates mass exposure of the artist’s music, which can generate an increase in record sales and generally elevate, or in the case of an unknown performer, sometimes launch an entire career.

These placements are normally handled by a professional called a Music Supervisor and they are typically employed by most production companies.

In the digital era, the best way to present music for audio-visual uses has changed considerably. Here are some tips as to make a successful connection with an artist’s music;

1. Make a high quality recording. Never send in a demo. Music supervisors expect a great sounding, well-mixed and well-produced recording.

2. Do your homework. Find out as much as you can and only submit music that might be suitable for a particular production. If it is a series, check the credits of previous episodes or games and see what music was used.

3. Build relationships with a few key supervisors, if possible. Encourage them to send you ‘briefs’ when they are looking for music for projects. When sending music for a brief, only send relevant music.

4. When submitting music, never use email attachments, as it can clog up the music supervisor’s email boxes. You can use a link to an MP3 via streaming services such as SoundCloud, YouSendIt or DropBox. Always allow the music supervisor to be able to download the music with one click if they want to. Don’t use services where they have to give feedback in order to download the track(s).

5. It is absolutely crucial that you include your contact details in the metadata when sending a link to an MP3 file. Metadata is the title of the file. Be sure your email address is easily visible when the MP3 is imported into iTunes. Include your contact email address after the artist’s name in brackets in the metadata.

6. If you can control the both the recording and publishing, make this very clear. Use the words ‘ONE STOP SHOP’. This is very appealing to supervisors as they know they will be able to clear the track quickly and probably for a lot less money than a track signed with a large publisher or major record label. Independent artists are very appealing to music supervisors, especially in the USA where it can be expensive to use music from major record labels and publishers. They will often look for a replacement ‘indie’ song for a song they cannot afford from a major publisher or record label.

7. NEVER send music supervisors music that contains a sample, unless it is totally cleared. This is fundamental. If you send them a track they push through with the director then it transpires that there is an uncleared sample in the track, they will never take your music seriously again.

8. Don’t expect instant reactions from supervisors. They are very busy. They are sent hundreds of hours of music every week. Never send links to more than two tracks with any communication.

9. Don’t contact music supervisors too often. If you do, they will designate you to their ‘junk’ filter.

10. As well as sending music to music supervisors directly, it is important to work blogs and radio stations.

11. As well as representing the music yourself, there are numerous agencies that will represent your music for you. As with everything, some agencies are better than others. It is wise to use one agent. If a supervisor is presented with music from several different reps at once, it will confuse them and this can be detrimental. Agent’s fees of 20% - 25% of income they source are reasonable. It is important to try out an agent with a few songs before you commit an entire catalogue. Decent agents are usually placed where the media is created.

12. To get noticed by a music supervisor, make sure your music is available on services such as Spotify and YouTube. Many supervisors spend a lot of time on YouTube, so if you’re able to make a decent video that is always a plus. Don’t be afraid to send credible cover versions of well-known songs; supervisors will often look on Spotify for cover versions if they can’t find the original.