In the first blog post on explaining what synch is and means, the fundamental questions are answered – what IS synch? Whose rights are involved in synch licensing and what are these rights? Finally, a brief overview of who is who in the synch world. 

What is synch? 

In the music industry, synch or synchronization refers to licensing a piece of music for use in an audiovisual work, such as a film, TV series, advertisement, or video game, etc. That “piece” of music usually consists of a particular musical work and a particular recording of a performance of that work. All three are protected under copyright law and therefore a license is needed to use, or in other words “synch”, this piece of music in an audiovisual project. Such a license is usually referred to as a synch license. 

Synch can also refer to the creative professional practice of synch agents and music supervisors who, in addition to dealing with the legal side of licensing and technical side of providing the track and metadata, also have a creative role as a music curator for finding and selecting the most suitable music for a given project.   

Whose rights are involved in synch licensing?

Synching a piece of recorded music directly involves three types of rights and commonly two types of rights holders: 

1. the author(s) who wrote the melody and lyrics, often represented by a music publisher. The author’s rights are generally referred to as publishing rights.
2. the record producer, often record labels or sometimes artists themselves. The record producers invest and organise the recording of the first, or the master, version of the track and thus their rights to the recording are generally referred to as master rights.  

When recording a track, the record producer will also have to secure the permission of the performers who are performing on the recording and thus will have performers’ rights. It is general practice that performers assign their rights over to the record producer, otherwise it would be very difficult for the producer to distribute these recordings. Therefore, the master rights usually also include the performer’s rights in the package. 

What rights are involved in synch licensing?

In the usual jargon of the industry the phrase “synch rights” is used. However, technically synching requires a bundle of different rights to be included in the license agreement. 

For example, the main right used when creating an audiovisual work and synchronizing a music track to it, is the reproduction right, because the track (a recording containing a performance of a work) is being copied to create the new audiovisual work. Later on, when the audiovisual work is released and distributed, other rights come into play as well, such as distribution right (of physical copies), public performance, broadcasting and making available rights, as well as possibly lending rights and others. A synch license will need to contain a list of all of the rights being used when creating, producing, releasing and distributing an audiovisual work (a film, TV show, advertisement, video game, etc.).

How to get a synch license?

When planning to synch a music track to an audiovisual production, the audiovisual producer has to get two permissions – that means synch licenses – for the publishing rights and the master rights of the track. These can be usually granted by the record label and the music publisher of the song, in certain cases also the collecting management organisation (CMO).  

Finding out who owns what rights to which musical works and recordings is far from straightforward. Synch agents can represent catalogues that have been pre-cleared, which means the needed licenses for both publishing and master rights have already been secured. In that way, the synch agent can serve as a one-stop-shop for the client, making the whole process significantly simpler and faster. 

It is also possible that different rights are controlled by different parties. For example, while getting the right to synch a piece of music usually comes directly from the rights holders, for example the record labels and music publishers, the right of public performance might be managed by a CMO.

Who is who?

Ultimately, synch deals are made between the rights holders – artists, creators, or music publishers and record labels – and the clients who want to use a piece of music in their audiovisual projects. However, given the complexity of the licensing process, especially due to the challenges of finding the right information about rights owners, understanding specifically how to structure a license for a specific use, etc., there are potentially several professionals in between, working to find and clear music and help synch deals happen. 

Music Supervisors are professionals working with producers of film, TV series, ads or brand campaigns, or other audiovisual projects. They find music, advise the directors and producers on music use, clear the rights, that is acquire the necessary licenses from whoever represents the rights to the music, and make the deals. In general, music supervisor role refers to some creative curation capacity, meaning that they can understand the creative vision of the project and advise on music accordingly. 

Synch agents are specialised representatives of music rights for synch. A synch agent represents a catalogue of music that they have to a large degree pre-licensed. That means, they have already licensed the music – both with regards to the publishing and recording rights – and are ready to provide a synch license quickly. This is crucial as in audiovisual projects, be it film, TV show, ad, etc., time is often of the essence and if a license for a particular track cannot be cleared within 24 or 48 hours, it’s possible that another one will be sought. 

There are other names for similar roles, for example rights clearance experts can provide the same service as music supervisors, but without a creative curation aspect, simply focusing on the licensing of the music required. Music consultants is used (for example, in Italy and elsewhere) as the term for music supervisors. 

There are more specific aspects when it comes to the particular fields of audiovisual media production. The nuances of music supervision can differ from film to games productions, as well as the schedules, budgets and profiles of the professionals involved. These will be gradually covered in future blog posts.