How do I get TV placements for my music?
Having growing success in the area of Sync Licensing with my band, The Belief Cycle, I’ve been getting a lot questions from other Artists on the topic. TBC has recently landed placements with The CW, VH1 and BET and I’m here to give you the knowledge my bandmate Ryan Marquez and I have acquired through study and experience.
Let’s start with an explanation of sync because there’s a lot of mystery around what it actually is.
“Sync” is short for Synchronization, as in the synchronization of Music with Video. Sync placements land pieces of Music in TV, Advertising and Film. These placements usually last about 10-30 seconds and in rare cases can feature a full-length Track. A placement will be mostly background music and may have moments where the volume rises up to feature a certain passage. A recent placement for The Belief Cycle song “Toothbrush” was 39 seconds long, starting with a hook lead-in that dipped into the background behind some dialogue for the verse then crescendoed to emphasize a line of verse lyrics before ending on the song’s final hit. It’s possible to land opportunities where your song is the star but mostly these are background support for the scene.
You, or more likely a representative for you, will communicate with the Music Supervisor of a TV show, ad campaign, film, etc. to land your spot. Your music will be registered as a “work” with your Performing Rights Organization of choice (most commonly ASCAP or BMI). After being placed, a piece of music will be part of the Cue Sheet for the broadcast it was included in. Work Registrations and Cue Sheets are how your royalties are tracked and distributed. Syncs pay out in one of three ways: royalties, flat fee or a combination of both. It’s common place for your royalties and/or fees to start arriving 3-6 months after your placement, that’s just how it works in this industry.
Syncs opportunities are almost always non-exclusive, meaning that once a piece of music has been synced it can be placed over and over in other programs. What will be exclusive is signing your songs with a music publisher, they will want exclusive rights in the sync domain to exploit the music you send them. They only have co-ownership of the music of yours they agree to take in, not of your entire catalog or career and only in the sync world. You can still release and perform songs they sign (According to our experience, definitely fully read a contract with a lawyer if presented one).
Unless you’re going to go out to make your own relationships with music supervisors, your initial goal is going to be to get representation from a music publisher who will take on the task of getting your music placed (in exchange for a standard agreement of 50% of the earnings). We’re signed with a music publisher, that’s my route so unfortunately I don’t know much about securing relationships directly with music supervisors. Later in this article I will detail all the steps to submitting your music to music publishers/music libraries. Music publishers are companies of agents that look for opportunities to monetize music. Music libraries are online platforms that contain the signed music of a publisher. Because a publisher collects all the rights, paperwork and audio files upfront, their clients are able to quickly purchase a license and get to work with the tracks they find in the library.
Most of what gets synced are cues. Cues are instrumental compositions specifically catered to the sync market (non-lyrical vocals likes “oos” “ahhs” “woahs” are popular for cues so they’re not necessarily 100% instrumental). These are cues not songs, the parameters are different. This isn’t a process where you submit a Beat Pack you made or the instrumentals from your songs, you’ll need to learn how to compose commercial music for success with cues. If you want to learn more about making cues, I recommend getting in-depth with the affordable online courses from Sync Academy.
Our sync resume so far is balanced between songs and cues, so clearly there is a route to get your songs placed. All my study on this topic has taught me that this is the most difficult route to go for being synced, but this happens to be what worked for us. Songs are a riskier way to go than cues, as placing them involves even more luck. By custom making cues for sync, you studied and practiced making commercial music. In this second scenario, you’re creating a song to your heart’s desire then trying to sell it commercially. That means that it’s up to luck if your inner artistic voice happens to be one that creates syncable music. There are no guarantees here. I’m further along than you and I can’t guarantee my next song or cue with TBC will get signed or placed. More of our tracks get turned down than signed and of the dozens signed only a handful have been synced (so far). We call our submissions raffle tickets, more tickets in the pot means a better chance to get picked for a cash prize. There’s a lot of luck involved here, as with anything in monetizing your art. Here’s what is in your control: properly navigating the steps you’ll need to go through to get your music sync-submission-ready.
Steps for Submitting to Sync Music Publishers:
-Most Companies want you to have a minimum of a 10 track album packaged in your submission. The 10 tracks should share a common genre, theme or mood. Music publishers are interested in prolific writers that can grow to fill a lot of needs for them. They’re not hoping you have one fire single for them, they’re hoping you can supply them with dozens of options to sign every year.
-Have your tracks properly performed, produced, recorded, mixed and mastered down to a final vocal version WAV file (known in the Industry as the Full Mix), instrumental WAV file and clean vocal version WAV file (44.1kHz 16bit).
**I can’t guarantee having me produce and mix your songs will get them placed, but all of our sync success has been with tracks written, produced, recorded, mixed, mastered in my studio. Contact me if you need help with this step.
-if you’re going the cues route, you’ll want to create what are known as cut-downs. Each Full Mix cue will be around 2 minutes and you’ll need versions edited down to 15, 30 and 60 seconds. You’ll want to wait for what other versions the publisher asks for if signed, but you need to be on the ready to return those versions ASAP. Common alternate versions to the Full Mix include No Leads, Drum and Bass Only, etc. In this business, have your engineer on call to bounce alternate versions as needed.
-Be sure there are no uncleared samples in your tracks. You’ll have to sign an agreement with the publisher that there are no uncleared samples contained in your music and if you lie and get caught there will be consequences. You also will likely sign an agreement saying you didn’t assemble melodic loops (found in sample packs and on platforms like Splice) to create your tracks. All your melodies and chords need to be created by you. I create sample-free, so I don’t have any expertise in clearance. Here’s an article on it from Spotify if you need info on that.
-You and all your co-writers need to be registered with a Performing Rights Organization (PRO) like ASCAP or BMI to receive royalties for your placements. Make a Split Agreement with your co-writers, you’ll need to register those percentages with the publisher. Collect the PRO IPI/CAE number for each songwriter too, as the publisher will need that in addition to their percentage. Each songwriter will also need to fill out a Composer Info Sheet with their payment information and a form-W9 to receive a form-1099 at tax time. There will be more paperwork down this line, so make sure you and your co-writers are responsible with that or your sync career won’t be going far. Check out my article explaining Split Sheets, PROs and Royalties: https://feelgoodmusicrecordings.com/blog/splitsheets
-Type up a clean, presentable text document that includes your lyrics and your artist bio.
-Complete Metadata for each song. This is an essential skill for being in the sync industry and it necessitates an article of its own. Until I write one, here’s a good one that I found.
-Prepare a webpage to host your submission as a playlist. This can be as simple as a SoundCloud playlist, but it’s recommended you build a hidden page on your own website to make your submission more unique, presentable and professional. Never send anyone in the business attached files or transfers unless they specifically request it. Cold-emailing someone with files attached, clogging up their inbox will get you blocked. Always send links, not direct files.
-Visit the websites of music publishers/music libraries, determine if they accept the type of music you’re submitting (genre, cue or vocal) and closely read and follow their rules for submission. Many sync publishers and music libraries specialize in instrumental music, so you’d be wasting everyone’s time to submit to them with your vocal music. Briefly explain in a message with your submission that this music is sample-cleared (if relevant), you have agreed to splits with your co-writers, you have Metadata prepared for it, you have 15, 30 and 60 second cut-downs (if you’re doing cues) and your album is ready for immediate exclusive representation. Only submit to one company at a time, waiting at least a few weeks for a response before moving onto the next one. Remember, you’re offering an album for them to exclusively represent. If more than one company responds at the same time showing interest in you, your exclusive offer is not so exclusive anymore and you may lose one or all of those connections. Here is an affordable Music Library directory from Sync Academy that will save you hours of searching companies to contact.
Those are the steps. It took me several years of working towards this goal and a few years of collaboration on it with my TBC partner Ryan Marquez to land that first sync. Hopefully you can take our knowledge and get there faster for yourself.
Contact me if you have questions or want to book a session or consultation.
Drew Mantia
Feel Good Music Recordings
3146264270
feelgoodmusicrecordings@gmail.com
https://feelgoodmusicrecordings.com/
1908A Sidney, St. Louis, MO 63104