How To Get the Most from Music Sync
A beginners’ guide to sync licensing
Do you know that selecting the right music for your content can really affect the narrative? In this article, we will give you a clear view of what synchronisation is, how to pick the perfect song to match your content and how to obtain a licence to use it.
From Top Gun to Tik Tok – music sync has gained ground making its way to become one of the most common forms of music usage in modern content.
For example, a dance troop will synchronise their body movements to the music they’re performing with – yes – like the backstreet boys. The same process happens with music and images. Cool, isn’t it?
What’s synchronisation?
What’s synchronisation?
Synchronisation means matching music with moving images. In layman’s terms, it is the process of matching up pictures with sounds to the same pattern.
Once sound and image hand-fastened, they are now perceived as a single artistic work. This happens when a director or a creator associates an existing piece of music with image sequences and when the composer creates original music over the above-mentioned images. This bond is so tight that the right is often managed directly by the author, or by the publisher (if there is one), without any intermediaries (Collecting Societies). Alternatively, sync agencies can act as intermediaries.
There are two ways: one traditional and one alternative
Traditionally, to use music as a video soundtrack you need two licences: one for the song and one for its recording, i.e. “composition” + “master use”.
1. To pitch a song (composition) into a video, it is necessary to apply for a licence from its author and/or its publisher, if any, or the collecting society to which they may have mandated.
2. To use the sound recording of that song, you must apply for a licence from the holder of the master rights (normally record labels) and the collecting societies of the performing artists involved in the recording. This is generally only the case if those performers have mandated the related rights collecting societies.
Unfortunately, this traditional method can lead the creator to an exhausting and time consuming process that won’t lead necessarily to its accomplishment. This may be caused by denial of the licence by the author and very often the publisher and/or record label or it may be caused by the demand for a disproportionate fee as consideration for obtaining the licence. This traditional method involves the author assigning all their rights to the publisher and record label. The intervention of such intermediaries therefore, creates an excessive tightness that is difficult to overcome when it comes to licence for certain uses.
But if you are a fan of the Eagles’ song “Take it easy” you can save your time and easily rely on fully-licensed music services!
In one click, you can select the perfect track for your content from a vast catalogue, obtaining straight away a sync licence directly from the platform, this is what we call a “one-stop licensing”. This catalogue consists of works by artists who are not members of PROs and whose music is previously selected on the basis of quality, expressive characteristics and evocative power.Your only concern is to choose the right song for your content. With a single licence, you have a vast catalogue to choose from and can benefit from expert preselection for that particular use.