PLP 065: Sync Night with Michael Elsner

by

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:25 — 9.5MB) | Embed

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS

Back in mid-February I attended a virtual sync licensing meeting hosted by Dani Felt (who you may remember from episodes 55 and 56). Dani brought in Michael Elsner as the guest speaker.  Michael has had over 2,000 placements of original music in TV, film, and commercials over the last 15 years.  He gave a terrific talk about sync licensing and also runs a course at MasterMusicLicencing.com. Michael offered so much actionable advice, I had to share what I learned.

“It’s not a get rich quick scheme, but it’s better than a stay poor slowly scheme.” ~Michael Elsner

You’ll Learn

  • Why you have to think differently for sync licencing
  • His four step process
  • Why metadata is king
  • How to locate music supervisors for any movie or show
  • How to pitch your music to a music supervisor
  • Three things to look for in a music library

Resources

Transcript

What’s up Heroes, welcome to episode 65.  Back in mid-February I attended a virtual sync licensing meeting hosted by Dani Felt (who you may remember from episodes 55 and 56) who brought in Michael Elsner as the guest speaker.  Michael has had over 2,000 placements of original music in TV, film, and commercials over the last 15 years.  He gave a terrific talk about sync licencing and also runs a course at MasterMusicLicencing.com.  

He offered so much practical advice, I had to share what I learned. 

But first, cue the intro music.

Sync licencing is a licence between you with music you own and someone else giving them permission to use the song in conjunction with some sort of video, such as a movie, DVD,  TV show, or movie trailer.   It’s sometimes called synchronization rights.  Sync is sometimes spelled S Y N C or S Y N C H if you’re Googling this. 

Michael made a lot of good points in the presentation.  

He started off with the dollars:  sync licencing pays a lot better than the streaming industry does.  It takes 336,842 monthly streams on Spotify to make $1,472… which is the U.S. poverty rate.   He points out that you can make that easily in a single sync licence.  Commercials, films, and trailers can easily get into the tens of thousands of dollars in payments.   On top of that, it can create a recurring income stream as people continue to watch the TV shows or movies with your music in it. It does take some time to get this started.  He commented that sync licencing “(is) not a get rich quick scheme, but it’s better than a stay poor slowly scheme.” 

It’s not just about the money though: it can help provide you a lot of recognition too if your name appears in a major TV show or movie.  Also, you don’t have to give up the rights to your music. A music licencing agency is very much like working with a real-estate agent. You contract with a real estate agent to sell your house, but the real estate agent doesn’t OWN your house and you’re still free to put up flyers around town if you’d like. In sync licencing you’re simply giving a music library rights to represent your music for sync, but you still own the masters. 

He also emphasized the importance of changing your thinking.  We’re all used to working in the music industry, but a music supervisor, or supe, is not in the music industry. He or she works in the FILM industry.  If you don’t make it easy for them and they don’t trust you, they won’t use you.   Music is often the last thing added and they frequently only have a day or two to do so.  This also means you’ll probably have to read the legal contract yourself, because your attorney may not be able to turn it around that quickly.  Thankfully, because you’re only giving them the rights to use your song and not ownership of the master, these sync contracts tend to be pretty straightforward. 

Michel offers a four step process, and I’m sure he goes into a LOT more detail in his online course, but here were my takeaways from his presentation: 

First, build your catalog. Focus on building a good quality song each month. One of the huge benefits of sync he mentions is that you can explore any genre you like…. Follow your inspiration, no need to stifle your creativity because there’s a market for just about every genre. Also, if you’re writing specifically with sync in mind, don’t worry about the “rules” for song writing you’ve learned about… getting to your chorus in the first 30 seconds in order to hold someone’s attention on Spotify. They don’t apply in sync because they’ll probably only use a part of your song anyway. 

As you’re trying to figure out what works, stop watching TV and start LISTENING to it. Notice what types of songs work on your favorite shows or commercials, notice how they’re edited, what instruments are used, etc.  I’d never really thought about this before, but it makes perfect sense. As a DJ we should be constantly listening to new music. If you’re interested in sync licencing, you’ve got to be doing the same. 

Second, you need to create valuable content by creating alternate mixes and versions of your song.   Those versions might include instrumentals, acapellas, acoustic versions, etc. You also want to create stems of all your mixes.   Having multiple versions makes it easier for the audio engineer to work your track into the final mix.  For example, if they want your track for a point in the show when two people are talking, they may only want the instrumental mix.   It should go without saying… but I’ll say it anyway…. You’ve got to own the rights to everything in your track. No illegal samples! 

Third, you’ve got to focus on the metadata because that’s how people will find your music in online catalogs.  He strongly recommended AIFF lossless format which holds metadata, whereas WAV files does not.  This is the same reason I recommended AIFF for DJs way back in episode 15.  For metadata he recommends a 1-2 sentence description, a list of 40-50 keywords or phrases describing the track’s mood, feeling, and instruments, and your publishing and contact info. 

Finally, get your music heard.  Some music libraries are non-exclusive, so you can cross-post your music across multiple libraries.  He strongly recommended against this and said to only use exclusive music libraries.  Here’s why: sometimes non-exclusive libraries will re-name your track, and a music supe could get submissions from two different sync libraries for the same song, both claiming the rights to it which creates a legal headache for them. Supes want to know that if they use a track, there are no loose ends or legal entanglements.  

I asked him if he could recommend a couple of libraries during the Q&A session, but he said there is no “right” answer. It depends on your music and what the library tends to represent or is missing. He mentioned he’s been with 14 different libraries over his career, and it all depends on your niche. To find the best music library for you, he recommended subscribing for one month to Music Library Report and do your homework. https://musiclibraryreport.com/  You can join for a month for $35.  He did mention three screening criteria when you’re evaluating libraries. First, it should be an exclusive library. We already talked about that point.   Second, he said any library you chose should have a phone number and you should be able to reach someone to talk about your music.  Finally, he said he’s had the best luck with platforms that use the Source Audio software to manage their music; I guess it has a particularly user-friendly interface and does the best job managing metadata, but I’m just guessing. He didn’t elaborate on that point.   If you don’t know what a music library looks like, I’ll include a link to one he mentioned, 5 Alarm Music, just so you can poke around and see what we’re talking about.  5 Alarm does also seem to use the Source Audio interface.   

He discouraged going straight to supervisors yourself, but still offered advice on how to give yourself the best shot if you want to try this yourself. 

First, do your research.  Figure out what sort of show your music fits in, then use Tunefind.com and IMDB. Click on See full cast and crew, then Series Music Department. Then Google them and find their contact info.  Next, reach out to them via email or social media and try to deliver a lot of value. Tell them specifically what you like about their show and music selection, then pitch your track with a link. Key points you should mention: I have all the metadata, I own master and sync rights, and here’s a streamable link.  He recommends SoundCloud (which is free), although Dani Felt uses DISCO | Home which really seems set up as the perfect tool if you’re doing a lot of sync licencing. Disco allows you to upload your tracks and then creates a database that uses your metatags as well as it’s automated tagging to help you find exactly the track you’re looking for later. It’s $10/month. 

There is another option: check out episode 55 of the podcast with Dani Felt. If you don’t want to spend a bunch of time on this yourself, you can use a middle-man (in this case a middle-woman) who can help connect your music with the right music supervisors.  

Micheal’s course isn’t cheap, but given how much value he delivered in a 30 minute talk… I suspect it’s worth the money.  This isn’t something I’m really passionate about so for now I think I’ll try sending some of my tracks to Dani and see what she can do, but I could see myself taking Michael’s course at some point in the future.  If you’re interested, head over to MasterMusicLicencing.com  He’s also got a free e-book over there if you want to dig more into his materials. 

Michael’s course is one option, but there are others.   I’ve also been very impressed with Ari Herstand, author of How to Make it in the New Music Business (which is a terrific book by the way) and over at https://aristake.com/.  He’s got a great blog, a podcast, and a sync course too, although it appears to only be open at certain times of year. I’ll have a link in the show notes so you can comparison shop… if any of you have experience with sync licencing I’d love to know your thoughts at ProducerLifePodcast episode 65, or in our private Facebook group at Facebook.com/groups/ProducerLifePodcast

Until next week, this is the House Ninja reminding you to be somebody’s Hero today.

Before you go....

Join the the other Heroes on my email list to receive four free tracks, my ultimate festival packing list, and more!