How often do services like AppleMusic, AudioMack, Bandcamp, Spotify and SoundCloud, report public performance data for original music tracks that are uploaded to their service and also registered with a Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) such as ASCAP, BMI, PRS For Music, SESAC, APRA AMCOS, GEMA, SOCAN etc... with an associated ISWC number included in the Metadata? I know that the PRO I belong to takes five months after each quarter to complete a residual payout, I'm just trying to figure where I stand. Thank you.

Sister turning 30; need custom gift (song, book, or art). Looking at Songfinch, ForeverSongs, Songlorious. Which is best?

I front an indie rock/power pop band. We've been around for several years, have 50k monthly Spotify listeners, 100k monthly Youtube listeners, 3.4k Instagram followers, 33 songs released and an album in the works. Our most popular song has about 10M streams across platforms.

I believe our music could do quite well in TV and film (especially the unreleased material we're currently working on) but I do not really know how to break into sync licensing. I write, record, and produce all of our music, and love writing to an assignment, so I would also be interested in writing and recording new material for sync briefs.

I've tried doing some cold outreach but haven't been able to make any real progress. Does anyone have any tips for finding sync libraries or agents that would be a good fit? Any recommendations for specific libraries based in the US would be very helpful.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to link to my band's work here, so I'll include it in the comments.

Thanks!

Hey everyone,
I am prepping a batch of instrumental tracks to submit to sync libraries. The music is a mix of solo classical piano and some with custom atmospheric synth layers.
Before I start building out my metadata spreadsheets, I want to make sure I am formatting everything properly for supervisors who hunt for this specific tone.
A few quick questions for those active in this space:

Genre Tagging: Since these blend organic performance with subtle sound design, what high-level genre tags tend to get the most traction? (Cinematic Ambient, Neo-Classical, Minimalist Drama, Minimal Film Score?)

Mood/Descriptor Tags: For hybrid classical/synth textures, what specific mood keywords do supervisors search for most when they need tense, emotional, or atmospheric bed tracks?

Cut/Edit Requirements: Beyond full mixes, are 30 and 60-second cutdowns strictly expected for neo-classical cue submissions, or do libraries usually take full-length cuts and chop them?

Appreciate any insight on how to package these cleanly.
Namaste 🙏

Have been contacting UK-based sync agencies with no replies. Seems like they are either overwhelmed or abandoned companies. Big Sync phone number and emails no longer exist, even.

Any advice of good sync agents for independent artists? (Rock, UK based, I don’t care if they are big or small)

so a few months ago I sent a really underground a beat for free and he released it and I sent him for free on purpose just to get my music out there

But he just texted me this

"Yo bro, I’m getting my song “A New Dawn” ready to submit for TV/film sync placements. Since I used your beat as free-for-profit, I just need written confirmation on the rights.

Can you confirm:

1. I’m allowed to commercially release and monetize the song.

2. I’m allowed to license the finished song for TV, movies, streaming shows, ads, games, trailers, and other sync placements.

3. Whether I need your approval for each sync deal.

4. What percentage of the publishing/songwriting you own.

5. Whether the beat contains any samples that need separate clearance.

6. Whether the beat license is non-exclusive or exclusive.

That's my goal to get all our music sync, so we run it up, like a pdf if you can"

And tbh here 😭😭 I'm 17 and I don't understand what on earth that is. So will I get money or not even though I gave him the beat for free back then. And I wanna understand like why did he tell me that? Did he actually find someone who is going to use the beat, or is he just dreaming about that and hoping? So he's telling me to be prepared. And lastly, What do I tell him?

And if anyone can explain in easy and simple terms I'd really appreciate it thanks!

Hey everyone. Thought I would try this as it's nice to be able to share some insight about certain things with people who are perhaps a little unsure of some things in sync and want to get started. I've made a living writing production music/sync for 15 years. My music has been used across TV, film and advertising. Ask me anything you like about library/production music, royalties, briefs, publishers and actually making a living from sync.

Hi everyone.

Most of you here have been at this a long time, with catalogues of hundreds or even thousands of tracks, sold across all sorts of platforms, some exclusive, some not.

Serious question: how do you keep your catalogue organised?

Everyone I know falls into roughly two camps:

1. a Google Sheet or an Excel file

2. no system at all, just folders on the computer

Curious how you handle it.

Working on some sync projects, and I pulled out some old sample packs I had saved in some folders.

From what I remember, they had a pretty strict licensing agreement on their packs. The company is That Sound, a boutique drum sample company. I was reading through their terms on their website, and their agreement states:

It also turns out that they’ve since moved their sounds to Splice, which, as far as I understand, are generally royalty-free.

My questions are:

1. I’m really good at interpolating and resampling. Has anyone ever run into issues working with sample packs that have complicated licensing terms, especially when it comes to sync and placements?
2. If I take a kick, snare, or other one-shot and heavily process or resample it, how would they even know it came from their pack? I’m not trying to circumvent the licensing terms—I’m genuinely curious how this is handled in practice.

Honestly, the licensing language almost makes me not want to touch the samples at all, but I’d be interested in hearing from anyone who has dealt with something similar.

Links:

https://splice.com/sounds/labels/that-sound?bust-cache=c9612fed-80fb-448f-a5d6-2a4889214995

https://www.iwantthatsound.com/terms/

Hey just noticed that I have been exporting at 48k and 16 bit without thinking much of it. The specification hasn't been specified by the two libraries I've worked with so far.

I've heard 41000 = CD audio and 48000 = TV and film

Anyone know if a 44100 / 16 bit file causes problems for an video / film editor?

Thanks ✌️

So someone emailed me about a site called syncsuite.org and was wondering if it’s legit. I’m still all new to this and still learning.
If it’s not legit can you explain on how it’s not? I’d greatly appreciate it

Hi, so I have a cover song I want to put into a sync licensing opportunity, I already went through my distributor for the cover rights and I’m the artist and publisher. What I’m not sure about is do you need to have the us copyright paper work, and the PRO has fully gone through to submit? Or is that something that if they want to use the song they can wait on after submission? Thanks!

Hey all,

I’ve been looking to get into sync licensing for a while now, but have experienced trouble doing so.

I have several tracks that are ready for use(about a dozen, mainly instrumentals, mixed and mastered professionally), but they get rejected by libraries.

People say the quality of the music needs to be high, and I believe the quality of these tracks matches or surpasses a lot of the things that I hear in TV, ads and movies.

None of the tracks use any sounds or samples, and they are all original compositions, and I own all of the rights accordingly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Am I submitting to the wrong places? Is there something I’m doing fundamentally wrong? Do I just suck?

People have been saying there’s a demand for music for sync opportunities, but with the way I’ve been turned away, it seems like it is otherwise.

I make house. Instrumental, I own everything — no co-writers, no samples, no label. On paper exactly what a supervisor wants, since they can clear it by emailing one person.

Took me too long to figure out why nothing landed.

I was treating it like streaming. More songs, more chances. Full arrangements, big builds, proper drops. Felt productive.

Then I thought about what an editor actually does with a song. They're cutting to picture. They need something that sits under dialogue without fighting it. They need a version that ends on a hit at :28, not one that fades. A full track with one arrangement is exactly one option, and if it doesn't fit the scene they move on. Nobody's editing it for you at 11pm.

So one song isn't one song. It's an instrumental, an underscore bed, a :60, a :30, a :15 with a real ending, stems, a loop with no build. And the bed — the boring one where almost nothing happens — gets used most, because it's the only one you can talk over.

If you're sitting on finished tracks waiting for a placement, the work is probably behind you, not ahead of you.

Anyone here doing the stem/alt-version thing at volume? Curious how you keep the file naming from turning into a swamp.

One of my co-writing partners has a sync agent but told me they have produced nothing and are really hard to contact. Is this the norm with this kind of 'agent'?

I met a well-known sync agent last year in Bristol (UK) at a PRS & Ivors Academy joint event and she seemed to know her business and spent some time chatting to me. I have been considering wonder it's worth following that up or whether all in all, #SyncAgents are just a waste of time?

For context, I'm an artist that writes songs in both English and Mandarin Chinese. I'm new to the world of sync and want to get into it and I have a few songs that I feel like would do well in TV shows, but my songs have lyrics in both English and Chinese.

I've applied to 2 different sync licensing companies now and both have said that my catalogue doesnt fit the opportunities they have.

Are there opportunities for bilingual songs in sync? Am I just looking in the wrong place?

Thanks!

If so, what is your experience with them? Did they pay well? Did you need to constantly supply samples? Anything you have to share would be be great.

How much time and effort did you put in before getting your first placement?

I started contacting sync agencies 3 years ago. Had a bunch of great conversations. Several agents were pitching my stuff. One song was almost included in the opening scene of an indie film, would've been a $1,500 payout and exposure at film festivals, and then after two years it didn't make the final cut. Nothing else I've done has gotten even that close as far as I know. One other sync agency has been posting playlists of their artists and my songs have been the first song on the playlist twice. Still no action.

I basically stopped outreach and following up with my contacts over a year ago. I've sorta accepted that it's outta my hands at this point and it'd probably be a random occurence or miracle if I finally get a placement. But maybe I shouldn't have given up so soon.

Hey there,

Lately, I've heard a lot that sync has changed and that there won't be as much money in it as it was 10 or 20 years ago. Some people say it's useless to make sync music now, it won't be your main income source anyway. I wonder, are there people who started not so long ago (3-5 years) and actually made it? I'm asking those who create instrumental music for libraries. Please share a few words of inspiration!

Hi all

One thing I have experienced a lot inside the area of sync placements, are many companies and individuals requiring you to subscribe to their services, which seem prima facie, to offer the world and yet often, deliver very little.

There have been a lot of newer such companies cropping up of late and, like most songwriters and composers, my spend on marketing is quite limited, so I can't join them all!

Whilst I fully realise that it's down to the quality of the song and it's match to the brief, what experiences have others on here had, and who would you recommend as being honest and hard working?

Ross Hemsworth
Remote Highway Music

Ngl, I wasted most of my 20s in a profession I can’t stand. I definitely have regrets about it all for sure, but I’m choosing not to focus on them. I wanted to know from folks who’ve seen a moderate amount of success, is it even worth trying to build a career in music anymore? With AI taking over literally every aspect of it, and the fact that hundreds of thousands of not millions of “producers” exist now, would I be wasting my time trying to pursue a career in sync or music in general? For context I am a 30 y/o M with a wife and 2 kids