The Art of Sync

Sync has become one of the best ways for an artist to get their music heard over the last few decades. A creative placement in the right show, film, ad, trailer, or game can put a song in front of millions of people, introduce a catalog to a whole new generation, and pay writers at a time when other revenue streams are harder to come by.

When we started out, sync was still early, and artists often had mixed feelings about it. There was a stigma that licensing your work meant selling out, or that fans wouldn’t approve. And at the time, there were easier ways to make money from your work.

That’s changed. Television in particular has gotten far more interesting and diverse, and there are simply more projects that line up with an artist’s own creativity and values. As artists have looked for creative ways to elevate their work, and as social media has opened up new ways for tracks to travel, sync has matured alongside them. For many artists, it’s become a big part of how they reach new audiences, whether that’s an end-title in a new film, the backdrop of a new streaming series drama, a national ad campaign, or a song that soundtracks a game.

Between the two of us we’ve spent decades pitching music for television, film, ads, trailers, and beyond. So here’s what we’d want any artist to know to help their chances of landing their first sync.

The first thing is obvious. It’s fundamentally the same thing fans are looking for. Really great, relatable songs. 

And the best way to write those songs is to know yourself and your point of view as an artist. Don’t try to be a jack of all trades and master of none. Have your own voice, know where you excel, and make music from your perspective. Push yourself to try new things and keep innovating, of course, but don’t be the artist who walks in and says, “What do you need? I can do everything.” That’s not as interesting as it sounds, and it’s not the asset you think it is. We want to know who you are and lean into that, not the other way around.

The second is just to try to understand how music supervisors operate and what they’re looking for. The studios and agencies they serve often need something very quickly. They’re fielding hundreds of emails a day and juggling productions with shifting budgets and deadlines. Knowing what a specific supervisor needs, on a specific project, at a specific moment, is a huge part of the job. This is why a publisher can be helpful. We’re in constant contact with music supervisors. We hear about what they’re working on before it’s public, what kinds of songs a project is leaning toward, and what they can afford to spend. 

After that, it’s important to be super well-organised. That means making sure metadata and splits are up to date and documented. Questions like who wrote the song, who controls each writer’s publishing, who owns the master, and who a supervisor should contact for each piece should all be easy to answer immediately. Nothing kills a sync faster than a fourth writer nobody knows how to reach. A simple thing like having high-res files, lyrics, and an instrumental track ready to go is crucial. When a supervisor is interested in your song and can’t get what they need, it’s too easy for them to look elsewhere.

Finally, keep an open mind about what sync can be. Some of the best placements begin as small requests that grow into something bigger.

That happened a few years ago when a supervisor working on an action film came to us looking for a jazz track to match the protagonist’s love of the genre. Instead of offering one song, we put together a package from the catalog of a jazz legend. The filmmakers loved the idea and ended up rewriting part of the script so the hero wasn’t just a jazz fan, but specifically a fan of the artist we represented, even working his name into the dialogue, calling him the greatest musician of all time. His estate got so into the spirit of it that they shared some of the musician’s own artwork to use on set. It grew from a small ask into something much bigger because everyone stayed open and brought a creative mindset.

Write the song only you can write. Then make it easy for everyone else to say yes. That’s how sync works, and how you can make it work for you.