Warning

Warning, this is definitely a red pill article. 

It highlights the inner workings of the sync licensing industry but the reality may be unsettling for some.. maybe even demotivating. So, only go forward if you really value truth and objectivity. Otherwise, take the blue pill and continue enjoying life. 🙂

Introduction

With the rise in streaming networks, TV sync opportunities are more plentiful than ever. Ad placements are plentiful as well because they are not just running on TV, but also on streaming channels, on social media and in podcasts.

But along with all this new opportunity, there are more indie artists submitting music than ever before. The question then arises, assuming that you have the perfect song, what are the odds that you can actually land a sync placement?

This is a hard question to answer and I did very poorly in statistics but I’m pretty good at math. So, I’m going to attempt to shed some insight here.

How Supervisors Find Music

Let’s start at the beginning. When music is needed for a TV show or commercial, a music supervisor is often given that task.

Depending on the type of scene, a supervisor has a few options for music. They might engage a composer or a production house to create a custom bed of music. They might look for production music cues or they might need a song from an independent artist. Let’s just focus on the case of music from indie artists.

To get music for the campaign, a music supervisor may send out a brief. This is just a document detailing the specifics of the music that they’re hoping to get (includes genre, tempo, energy and maybe some song references for comparison).

Who is the music supervisor sending these briefs to?

Record Labels, Publishers, Sync Agents and Music Libraries. This is who you’re competing with.

Take note that these briefs are usually going to organizations and not directly to independent artists. Reaching out to dozens of indie artists would be an inefficient use of a supervisor’s limited time and energy.

Wide Search or Narrow?

The first question they have to answer is how wide to go initially. Are they sending the brief to a dozen companies (wide) or just to 3-5 companies (narrow). If they go too wide, they may get too much music to review. If they go too narrow, they may not find what they want.

This question is answered based on how challenging or specific the brief is. The more specific, the more niche, the wider they may have to go.

Some will also break their search into multiple rounds. Maybe they go narrow for the first round (to a few agents, libraries and publishers they know). If they don’t find what they’re looking for in the first round, they may do a second or third round adding more companies into the search.

Calculating The Odds

So, knowing all this, how do you calculate your own odds for landing a placement?

Allow me to walk through a simple example as a way of answering this question.

If a music supe is looking for one song and they send a brief to just three agencies, they will probably get 5 – 10 songs from each agency. That’s 15 – 30 songs to review. Let’s assume 15 for this example. So, if your song is one of the ones being pitched, you have a 6.67% chance of being selected for the ad. (it’s possible, though, that all 15 songs are rejected and the search goes back to the drawing board).

100 Songs ≠ 100 Pitches

But wait a minute… why are the agencies only sending 5 – 10 songs? What if it’s a popular genre like danceable pop songs, surely each agency has dozens or even hundreds of these pop songs available right?

Yes they do. But, no agency wants to overwhelm a supervisor. Having to pick through a hundred similar sounding songs is like a producer having to choose between 100 snare sounds – the more choice you have, the harder it is to choose.

So, most send a limited selection knowing that the supervisor can ask for more options if needed.

So, this is the first gamble (and the first battle that your song has to win) – if an agency has signed a hundred songs in your genre, and the sync agent is only going to send 5 songs for a request, then there’s just a 1 in 20 chance that your song is one of the ones included.

Now here’s the bad news. A 1 in 20 chance of getting included into a pitch which only has a 1 in 15 chance of ending up in the ad, means there’s only a 1 in 300 (20 times 15) chance of your song landing the placement (that’s a 0.3% chance of getting synced)

Wait, What?

Now, most people hearing that they only have a 0.3% chance of landing a placement would immediately think “What’s the point?”

But you took the red pill so I know you’re up for the hard discussions.

Increasing The Odds

Let me tell you how I’ve been able to build a career despite these miniscule odds.

For me, these odds, though small, are WAY better than the odds of finding success in the mainstream music industry. Those odds can’t even be calculated because no one can tell you exactly how it works or how to win at it.

So, knowing how sync licensing works allows me to think about ways to increase the odds so that I have more chances to win.

Here are three things that I do to give my music the best chance at landing a placement.

1. Be Prolific
   Nothing increases the odds like more music. Going from 1 song that fits a brief to 2 songs doubles your chances of being selected. Imagine what having 20 or 30 songs in the catalog does.
   
   Being prolific is not easy but it’s a winning plan.
   
   Hip Hop artist Deraj spent one year creating 100 songs for sync. That base of songs (which he’s added to) has provided him consistent placements and a very sizable full time income from music.
   
   Music Producer Matt Vanderboegh focused his energy creating 10 – 20 production music cues each week. After about 3 years of doing this consistently, he approached 6 figures a year from PRO royalties alone.
   
2. Focus on uncrowded niches
   
   Every sync agent has genres or sub-genres that they need more of. If everyone is making dance pop, find another needed genre that has less competition. Being one of 10 in a category is way better than being one of a 100.
   
   Ask your publishers / agents what they DON’T have enough of (or pay attention to their briefs or newsletters where they probably talk about it).
   
   Then focus on making that.
   
3. SEO your Song Titles and Metadata
   
   I’m very deliberate with how I title my songs. I want them to be creative and artistic but I also want them to be found when a supervisor is searching a large database of music.
   
   I avoid overly creative, poetic, or misspelled titles.
   
   If a sync agent is searching the catalog for songs about empowerment, when they see song titles like “I am The King”, “This is My Shot” or “Can’t Be Stopped”, those songs are more likely to get screened and possibly pitched.
   

You Can Do This

If you put my strategy into action you will absolutely increase your odds of landing sync placements.

You maybe thinking, “that’s great Eric, but how am I going to write 100 songs in a year?”

You don’t have to write 100. If you wrote 50 that would be an amazing start. That’s one song per week! 

I suggest you find a group to hold you accountable. Or, maybe one of your collaborators can be your accountability buddy. No one gets there alone. This community is a great place to find people to help you reach your goals: 

Now go forth. And may the odds be ever in your favor.