Every time music is placed in film, TV, an ad, or a game, two licenses get negotiated: a synchronization license for the composition (paid to the writers and publisher) and a master use license for the recording (paid to whoever owns the master). If you wrote and produced the track and kept your rights, you can be on both sides of the check. Fees are negotiated per use, and broadcast placements also generate PRO performance royalties afterward.
The Two Licenses
A sync placement clears two copyrights. The sync license covers the composition and is granted by the publisher (or the writer, if self-published). The master use license covers the specific recording and is granted by the master owner: a label, or the producer/artist if independent. Music supervisors will not use a track until both are cleared, which is why tracks with simple, known ownership get licensed faster. A messy split sheet can kill a placement on deadline.
What Sync Pays
Fees are negotiated per use and scale with the medium, the prominence of the use, the term, and the territory. An indie film background use and a national ad campaign are different orders of magnitude. Composition and master fees are customarily equal (most-favored-nations), so a fee quoted for one side usually implies the same for the other. After a broadcast placement airs, the composition also earns performance royalties through your PRO, which is real long-tail money on syndicated TV.
How Placements Happen
- Music supervisors. The decision-makers who pick and clear music for productions. Pitching them well means the right track for the brief, cleared, with instrumentals and stems ready.
- Sync agents and libraries. Agents pitch your catalog for a commission; libraries license at scale for smaller fees. Read exclusivity terms carefully before committing a catalog.
- Publishers. An active publisher's sync department is one of the main reasons to do a publishing deal.
Being Sync-Ready
Supervisors work on deadlines, so readiness wins placements: signed split sheets, confirmed master ownership, instrumental and clean versions exported, stems organized, and metadata (writers, splits, contacts) embedded and accurate. Preparing catalogs this way is part of our creative operations work.