“The Music Licensing Success Roadmap” is designed to provide a comprehensive guide for musicians aiming to get their tracks placed in TV shows, films, and
other media. Each stage covers crucial steps in building a successful music licensing career, offering tips, examples, and resources to help you along the way.
Step 1: Creating Sync-Ready Tracks
The first step in licensing success is to create tracks that are suitable for sync placements. Music supervisors are looking for songs that
can enhance visual media, so your tracks need to be both high-quality and emotionally engaging. It’s not just about having a great song — it’s about creating music that resonates with listeners and complements the mood or narrative of a scene.
To achieve this, your tracks should be professionally mixed and mastered to meet broadcast standards. Think about it like this: music supervisors are inundated with
submissions, and low-quality production is an instant turn-off. If you’re not yet a good enough producer to achieve this goal, consider working with an outside producer to help you get your tracks up to speed.
For many of the tracks I’ve licensed over the years, I’ve recorded the basic tracks in my home studio and then collaborated with a more experienced producer, like Gary Gray for example, who helped finish the tracks by mixing and mastering
them. This is more cost effective than simply going into a studio at the very beginning of your project and paying by the hour for the entire session, but can still make the difference in the track being ready to be licensed, or not.
Instrumental versions of your tracks are also essential since vocals can sometimes clash with dialogue in certain scenes.
Make sure your songs are emotionally impactful. Can they underscore a dramatic scene, a triumphant moment, or a romantic sequence? The goal is to study the kinds of music currently trending in sync licensing to get a feel for what works and write music that broadly works in the context of licensing without losing your unique voice. This isn’t as hard as it sounds, since most stories reflect universal themes that chances
are you are already writing about.
Related resources:
Music Production Fundamentals — This 8 hour video course, led by #1 Billboard charting producer Gary Gray is focused specifically on how to produce Music for Licensing Opportunities by Independent Musicians and Home Studio and Project Studio owners. Backed by over 30 years of research and thousands of
hours of hands-on experience in studios internationally, including a successful track record of licensing, radio airplay and album production — including released material for multi-platinum recording artists — this course is now available to you for a small fraction of the market value for such a course.
Included with your Sync Lab membership here:
pricing — THE SYNC LAB
