Wiater Carnihan - Unblocking the Sync: A Bands Guide to Brands, and a Brands Guide to Bands

Unlocking the Sync

A bands guide to brands, and a brands guide to bands

By Kier Wiater Carnihan with Dr. Eamonn Forde

Published and edited by MusicTank Publishing, University of Westminster

First published London, December 2017

Copyright Record-Play 2017

ISBN: 978-1-909750-13-5

MusicTank is a University of Westminster-owned independent think tank, working to provide comprehensive cross-industry intelligence, facilitating insight and open debate to positively stimulate innovation and change across a radically evolving industry. MusicTank produce insight events, publish papers and provide media commentary, bespoke training, research and consultancy.

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Record-Play helps brands get creative with music in a way thats easy, ethical and effective. With over fifteen years of experience in music supervision, they spend every day sourcing, licensing and clearing music for every type of brand environment, from localised retail playlists to global ad campaigns.

record-play.net

The copyright in this publication is held by Record-Play, and is reproduced under exclusive licence by MusicTank, University of Westminster. This material may not be copied or reproduced wholly or in part for any purpose (commercial or otherwise) except for permitted fair dealing under the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior written permission of University of Westminster

The copyright owner has used reasonable endeavours to identify the proprietors of third-party intellectual property included in this work. The author would be grateful for notification of any material whose ownership has been misidentified herein, so that errors and omissions as to attribution may be corrected in future editions.

About this guide

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With many fascinating interviews and true stories from artists and experts from across the sync landscape Unlocking the Sync makes for both a very entertaining read and a pragmatic look at many of the important considerations for those launching themselves into sync licensing for the first time.

This is a sync licensing mentor in book form for the uninitiated; and even those experienced in the world of sync should find new insights.

This book wont hand-hold you through all the ins-and-outs of sync licensing agreements but it does contain lots of useful background information and practical tips and its somewhat irreverent and fundamentally independent-spirited approach make it easy for AIM to recommend as a great companion to our own sync deals guide and directory.

Paul Pacifico, CEO, AIM

The economics of the entire music business continue to shift and render the 80s dream of getting a major record deal a less obviously rewarding or relevant vision to hold on to. Understanding the potentially lucrative area of sync and all its complexities should be part of the basic toolkit for any serious independent artist.

Jack Horner, Joiner of Dots/ Founder, FRUKT

Coming into the music industry I was aware of sync but being an independent artist, didnt know where to start with having my music considered. Thanks to Record-Play I got my first ever sync, so its great that they are sharing their knowledge in a book that will be useful for musicians like myself to learn amore about their world.

Jay Prince, rapper and producer

Table of contents

Preface

In 2000 I launched Record-Play a music consultancy built around two basic principles: supporting musicians by making them cash through placing their tracks in commercial environments (ads, games, films, etc.), and finding and licensing the most exciting new music for businesses and their productions.

The aim was to stay independent and act non-exclusively. This meant assuming no form of ownership over any of the music we used, and working hard to bring in lots of licensing opportunities without compromising our ethics.

The industry was going through tumultuous change. Napster had swept in the age of file-sharing and digital piracy had begun biting into creators sales revenues, all while still at least eight years away from the first streaming services. Things were looking bleak and artists needed to diversify to survive. Sync and brand-related activities represented a lifeline; with year on year growth in the commercial value of sync, this was an excellent place for musicians to generate much-needed income.

Slowly but surely, Record-Play grew, working in a way that aimed to be both transparent and ethical for clients, artists and rightsholders, ensuring musicians were paid fairly while businesses knew what they were buying into both sonically and legally.

Despite the constant volatility of the industry during this time, we continued to notice three negatively disruptive scenarios that, to us, desperately needed addressing:

1.The number of artists who, through no real fault of their own, didnt have a clue about what they were getting into with a sync deal. This included basics such as rights and usage, as well as how they could develop and benefit from opportunities around commercial exploitation and placement of their music.

2.The number of music users entering into a licensing scenario completely in the dark about how to work with artists, the types of licenses required and the manner in which to procure them.

3.How some businesses set their stock in exploiting this lack of understanding and subsequently undermined the relationship between music creators and music users.

Thus, ethics and transparency in commercial music exploitation become the motivation for producing this book; a guide essentially designed to offer both musicians and those who want to engage them a deeper understanding of each others businesses, breaking down the processes and using real life examples to demonstrate the complexity of sync licensing and brand/artist interplay.

With this guide marketers can look at what motivates the artist in a sync deal, artists can feel more confident in commercial scenarios and both parties can align themselves for long term and reciprocally beneficial partnerships. We hope you find it useful.

Daniel Cross
Founder and CEO, Record-Play

October 2017

Foreword

According to the IFPI 2017 Digital Music report , synchronisation is in rude health, accounting for 2% of global recorded music revenue; a welcome and positive story of growth in a music industry whose recorded music revenues have been in steady and consistent decline for over a decade.

With that in mind, when presented with an opportunity to partner with Record-Play for this publication, we felt it filled a gap in the armoury of the independent music maker whose focus is necessarily considerably wider than simply putting some music out there. Equally, it informs the end user of music be that for advertising, film, TV or interactive media how properly and respectfully managed procurement of music can reap dividends.