Music In Film: The Top 3 Ways Music Publishers Can Increase Sync Revenue In The Future

The following is a quote I personally heard from a highly regarded television music supervisor at the last conference I attended: “I’ve hired an intern just to empty my inbox once a day of the MP3s that are sent to me. , because they are crashing my system.” That’s the reality music publishers face. There are big problems where the rubber meets the road in music licensing.

Digital technology has spawned a musical revolution that ushered in an era of freedom for every artist to create without being judged. Creators present their music exactly how they want it to be heard, and with the click of a mouse, they rise above the heads of the music industry right into the movie industry. You may be visualizing pigeons in a blue sky making graceful landings, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s more like bugs hitting a windshield…thousands of bugs. Full access is counterproductive! Legions of underdeveloped artists and songwriters not ready to license are drowning out the many who are, making it harder and harder for serious publishers to be heard with serious songwriters. Even major music publishers with a back catalog of hits have a hard time breaking through the glut.

Traditional methods of releasing music cannot continue as the only way for publishers to ensure synchronization. All music publishers should consider a new sync model that invests directly in the end user and establishes an internal environment for their copyright and songwriters.

The first change is to create and finance Co-Publishing Companies with Filmmakers. Multinational music publishers should buy as many movie scores as they can. Some of the majors already manage music for major film companies, but don’t benefit from all the additional revenue that can be derived from those relationships.

If you’re a smaller publisher, allocate money from your A&R budget and invest in movie soundtracks. If you’re hiring five new writers a year, hire three writers and two filmmakers instead. Those two filmmakers will give their writers and catalog prime access to their films. Show the filmmaker how to make money owning his underscore and you’ll see some of his licensing budget go to your songs. Investing in a film score that has its own promotion money is a shared risk. Investing only in composers is 100% the publishers risk. That songwriter has to write the hit, have a top-tier artist record it, and hope the record company makes it successful. It’s not that easy to do these days. For those of you who may think I’m anti-composer. Unlucky. I’m pro-composer to the end. These ideas are to help the composer and the songs creating opportunities. What’s the point of having five great songwriters and no chance? Signing fewer writers can even help you sign better ones!

The second change is to offer music supervision services as a publisher. Build it or buy it and then focus mainly on independent cinema, which is the last open market in my opinion. A world market! Hollywood is investing in movies around the world as affordable film technology enables all filmmakers to tell their stories. It makes sense to have in-house monitoring services in your US and European offices.

The third change is to make the back catalog of your most popular writers affordable. Much attention is paid to the hits and very little to the back catalog of hitmakers. Make unknown songs by well-known artist accessible to independent cinema. I’ve found that most artists’ favorite songs aren’t the hits. They are more than willing to discuss pricing scenarios that help bring your most beloved songs to the world of cinema. The phone will ring for the greatest hits. The radio is promoting them every day. Spend a little time promoting lesser-known songs and price them fairly. Be creative and don’t be afraid to innovate. Identify foreign countries where your artist and his songs may be very popular and market them, with your affiliate, in the film industry of that country. You’ll see a new source of income coming from filmmakers who never thought it was possible to have a song by a great artist.

Technology has changed music publishing forever. We have to change with that. Songs and composers count on us.

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