Tell me exactly, how do I get a Sync placement?

Recently I posted on social media about getting a song placed in a Netflix series. I imagine lots of you might want to know how that came about.

Teams fulfill dreams

The most important point is to say it was a team effort with myself and singer Joanne, plus significantly helped by our experienced producer Tim, who makes a living from being a full time music creator.

That said, I believe it’s fully possible for anyone to achieve this goal on their own if you have the musical skills, can write lyrics, can sing them, and more importantly are prepared to put the effort into pitching them. Personally working in a collaborative way allows your own skill gaps to be filled by others and hopefully you compliment their skill gaps with your own talents.

Connections

The connection with our producer in the Netherlands started with me responding to a profile on the songwriterlink website. He was looking for someone to provide lyrics and vocals to some tracks.

He sent me some tracks, I wrote some lyrics that matched the mood of the music, and I asked my singer friend Joanne to sing the top line melody I had sketched out.

The three of us agreed on the final lyrics, and Joanne recorded the vocals at home.

Tim produced the three tracks to a finished radio ready standard. In some ways writing the song is the easy part, finding a sync library is the hard part.

Pitching

Sync libraries are companies which gather finished tracks and make them available to film / TV music supervisors or any creatives looking for original music. They are almost always pre-cleared tracks, which means there are no open disputes about master ownership, and more importantly no requirement to ask permission to use the songs in any project.

Probably over one year, our producer pitched our three songs to various sync libraries in Europe, the Netherlands and UK. In late 2021 a UK library finally expressed interest after a lot of rejections and no replies.

Sync library contract

In January 2022 we signed an exclusive sync agreement. This means you can’t offer the songs to anyone else, and it usually involves agreeing a significant cut of any potential royalties are also pre-agreed with the Sync library. At the same time we had also amicably agreed splits between the three of us reflecting the proportion of effort put into the song. This is all written down in our contract which everyone signs.

To be honest we kind of forgot about the songs, and it was only when our producer sent a statement he had received, did we know that one of the songs had already been used and placed into a Netflix series. The version used was actually the instrumental version of the full song, and most likely was some incidental music as part of one episode in the six part series.

Reality of Royalties

The sync library handles any performance royalties via your normal PRO (in our case PRS / BMI). On larger placements there are sometimes mechanical royalties too, and in which case these are handled by the Sync company acting as a publisher.

When you say your song has been placed in a Netflix series it sounds amazing (and don’t get me wrong, it is), but the reality of payments for a relatively small series and usage is in this case roughly enough to pay for a chippy tea after commission and the receipt of your own share.

The need for a catalogue of work

The key to success in Sync placements as a career is volume. You need a significant catalogue of finished songs. For each song you also need at least an instrumental version, and potentially shorter versions such as 30 / 60 second sections for use in adverts.

Our producer creates around maybe 50 such songs a year (plus all the promotion). It really is a production line of work and effort needed to make this your sole money maker. That said, the Film and TV industry is different to the Music Industry. Money is available from advertising and film budgets, so music makers are often paid better in this sector.

Where do you start?

Certainly reach out to producers who need lyricists or singers. Make friends and connections in person and online.

Maybe gather some musical mates so you have all the skills inhouse, and start writing some songs together for this purpose. As for Sync libraries and contacts, this is the hard slog. Look for Music Supervisor names and music library names in credits of TV shows and films. Find their websites, check what they are looking for, and even if they are open to submissions at all.

Having a large varied catalogue enables you to choose what songs might work best for any one library.

In short, it takes time, dedication to writing and producing professionally finished tracks. Then further hard work in finding, making and chasing contacts.

Maybe as is the title of the series our song was placed in, this challenge is only for the Brave Ones!

If you have any more specific questions please do contact me via my website contact page.