As a sync agent, let me tell you four things I look for when people send me music. 

I’m Eric Campbell. I recently launched my own sync agency, sus3 Music. And if you’re not familiar with that term, a sync agent represents artists, and pitches their music to film, TV and other licensing opportunities. 

Actually, I’m a producer and a composer myself.  I’ve been working in sync licensing for the last 10 years creating and pitching my own music for TV, ads and film. Now I can place other people’s music for those same opportunities. 

I get a lot of people asking me what I look for. So here’s some of what I look for when people send me music. 

The first thing is simple, good music. And this has to be said, because there was a time where people felt like they could send their rejected or lesser quality music to sync opportunities. An artist would submit their best music to the label or publisher. And then the other stuff that the label turned back, they might think, “Oh, well, maybe I’ll just pitch this one for TV”. 

But that doesn’t work anymore because the bar has been raised and sync opportunities are looking for the same polished professional sound you would have on your releases.

The only difference with sync is that time period (the age of the song) is no longer a factor. So you can release older material. You can release music that sounds like it was supposed to be made in the 60s, 80s or 90s because TV shows exist in every decade. So retro throwback music actually works really well. 

Second thing, I look for artists who have their paperwork in order.  This means that if you have collaborators, you have split sheets already completed, you have IPI numbers for all the PROs. Look that up if you don’t know those acronyms. Ideally, all the writers also have a publishing company set up with their PROs. But that’s not a firm requirement. 

In addition, if you hired any musicians, if you purchased the track, if you hired an engineer, you should have “work for hire” agreements. This confirms that those people have no additional claim on the song. 

Now this is new for some of you but you should have a one stop agreement in place. This usually is more of a sync thing but one stop gives you the authority to represent the song for sync opportunities without having to go chase down all your other collaborators to get their permission. It authorizes you to license music on behalf of all the collaborators. 

Another thing I look for is artists that fully control their music including the instrumental.  This means that you can’t use leased beats because you don’t control them.  And unfortunately, even exclusive beats don’t work (I’ll probably have to do a whole video about this) but the problem with exclusives is that you can’t guarantee that that beat wasn’t leased before you got the exclusive rights which means there may be other versions of that instrumental out there that somebody else is using. Therefore, you can’t represent that you are the only one who owns this song.

So, commission producers, collaborate with producers but make sure you own the rights.

The fourth and last thing is not mandatory. But, if you are an independent artist that’s working on your brand, then you’re eligible for higher sync fees.  Artist’s that have a growing brand get paid more.  Remember that.

Leave a comment if you have any questions about any of this.