Guide
Sync Licensing: The Complete Guide for Composers
Marc Aaron Jacobs
Founder, DropCue · Composer
Sync licensing is how your music ends up in a Netflix scene, a car ad, or a video game. Here is the plain-English breakdown of how the money, the rights, and the pitching actually work, written for the people making the music, not the lawyers billing for it.
Who this is for
This page is for composers, songwriters, producers, and recording artists who keep hearing that "sync is where the money is" and want to know what that actually means before they spend a year chasing it. If you have written music you think could live under picture, in a trailer, or behind a brand spot, but the terms go fuzzy somewhere after "synchronization license," start here.
It is also for the artist who just got a first placement offer and is staring at a one-page agreement full of phrases like "MFN," "in perpetuity," and "all media now known or hereafter devised," wondering whether signing is the smart move or a trap. And it is for the working library composer who already lands placements but runs an entire pitch list out of a spreadsheet and an inbox that hit critical mass months ago.
You do not need a publishing deal, a lawyer on retainer, or a back catalog of placements to use any of this. You need to understand the mechanics well enough to say yes to the right deals, price the rest, and keep your pitches organized so opportunities stop quietly slipping through the cracks.
The audience-specific reality
Sync licensing sits at the intersection of two things most musicians were never taught: rights and relationships. "Sync" is short for synchronization, the act of pairing your music with a moving image. The moment a music supervisor on a show or a creative at an ad agency drops your track under a scene, they need permission, and that permission is the sync license. Why it matters more than ever comes down to simple math. Streaming pays you fractions of a cent per play. A single sync placement can pay a flat fee up front plus performance royalties on the back end, every time the show airs or streams.
Here is the part that trips people up. Every recorded song is actually two separate copyrights. There is the composition, the underlying song of melody, chords, and lyrics, and there is the master, the specific recording of it. A full sync placement usually clears both: a synchronization license for the composition and a master use license for the recording. If you wrote and recorded your own track and own it outright, you control both, which is exactly why independent composers are catnip to supervisors racing a clearance deadline. One email, one signature, done.
The catch is that the supply of music is enormous and the number of decision-makers is tiny. Music supervisors, the people who place music in film and TV, are buried. Production libraries like Artlist, Musicbed, Marmoset, and Epidemic Sound aggregate thousands of tracks precisely because buyers want one clean source. For an individual composer, the real work is not writing more music. It is getting the right track in front of the right person at the right moment, then tracking that pitch so a "circle back in Q3" does not evaporate. That tracking problem is where most composers quietly lose deals, and it is the gap this whole topic keeps circling back to.
Why DropCue fits this workflow
DropCue is built for the composer who wants to own their sync pitching instead of handing it to a library that skims a cut off the top. The platform started as a music catalog and playlist-sharing tool, a faster and cheaper alternative to DISCO, so you can send a supervisor a branded link to a curated playlist, watch which tracks they actually played, and collect timestamped feedback. That is the front door of any sync workflow: getting your music heard and knowing it landed.
Once you get serious about placements, the Pitch Pipeline tool turns scattered outreach into a real CRM. Every supervisor, every brief, every "follow up after the holidays" lives in one view with stages, so you stop pitching the same person twice and stop forgetting the warm lead who asked for "something more cinematic." Pair it with the Market Scanner, which surfaces film and TV music opportunities and briefs, and you have both the leads and the system to work them. Best part: DropCue takes zero revenue share on anything you book through it. A placement you close is 100 percent yours.
When you want to go deeper than a guide, DropCue University is a one-time course on the business of music and sync licensing that walks through agreements, fee math, and the supervisor relationship in detail. It is the structured version of everything this page introduces, and it includes 7 days of full DropCue access so you can run the workflow for real while you learn it.
The features that matter most
✓ Pitch Pipeline (CRM for sync pitches)
Sync is a follow-up game, and inboxes forget. Pitch Pipeline tracks every supervisor, brief, and 'circle back later' as a stage in one view so warm leads never die in your drafts folder.
✓ Market Scanner (film/TV opportunities + briefs)
You cannot pitch a brief you never saw. Market Scanner surfaces active film, TV, and ad music opportunities so you are pitching real openings instead of cold-emailing into the void.
✓ Branded playlists + listener analytics
Send a supervisor a clean, branded link and see exactly which tracks they played and where they bailed, so your next pitch leans on what actually landed.
✓ Timestamped feedback
When a supervisor says 'love it from the drop,' you get that note pinned to the exact second, turning a vague reaction into a re-edit you can actually deliver.
✓ DropCue University ($99 course)
Turns this guide into a full curriculum on agreements, fee math, and supervisor relationships, plus 7 days of full DropCue access to put it to work.
✓ Zero revenue share on bookings
A library clips a percentage of every placement. DropCue takes nothing from deals you close. The fee and the royalties are 100 percent yours.
Names you may know in this space
ASCAP
A US performing rights organization that collects performance royalties when synced music is broadcast or streamed.
BMI
A major US PRO composers register with to collect the back-end performance royalties a sync placement generates.
SESAC
A third US performing rights organization, invitation-only, that also collects performance royalties on placed music.
Artlist
A subscription production-music library that aggregates composer catalogs for buyers who want one-stop clearance.
Musicbed
A curated sync licensing marketplace that pitches catalog music to filmmakers and brands.
Marmoset
A boutique music licensing agency known for curated catalogs and custom sync work for film and advertising.
Epidemic Sound
A large subscription music platform widely used for sync in online video and branded content.
Netflix
A streaming service whose original films and series are a common high-value destination for sync placements.
Pricing for this audience
Most of what you need to start pitching sync seriously lives in DropCue's paid plans, and the pricing is deliberately a fraction of DISCO's. Starter is $5/mo billed annually (or $7/mo monthly) and holds up to 500 tracks, plenty for a tight, supervisor-ready catalog. Pro is tiered by catalog size, starting at $12/mo annually for 1,000 tracks and scaling to $69/mo annually for 20,000 tracks, with track packs adding 5,000 each when you outgrow it. Want to lock in forever? The Lifetime Founding Member plan is a one-time $599. Separately, DropCue University is a one-time $99 for the course plus 7 days of full DropCue access. Across all of it, DropCue takes zero commission on any placement you book, so the platform cost is the only cost.
Frequently asked questions
What does sync licensing mean?
Sync licensing, short for synchronization licensing, is the permission a filmmaker, TV show, ad agency, or game studio gets to pair your music with visual content. The license covers using the song in sync with a moving image, and a full placement of a recorded track usually needs two clearances: a synchronization license for the composition and a master use license for the specific recording.
How much do you make from sync licensing?
Sync income comes in two parts: an up-front sync fee and back-end performance royalties. Up-front fees swing widely by use, often from a few hundred dollars for a small indie or library placement to five or six figures for a national ad campaign or a major film or TV spot. On top of that, public performances generate royalties collected by your PRO (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC), which can keep paying for years, every time the show airs or streams.
What is the best sync licensing company?
It depends on whether you want to hand off your music or own your pitching. Libraries like Artlist, Musicbed, Marmoset, and Epidemic Sound aggregate catalogs and pitch on your behalf, but they typically take a share and can be exclusive or non-exclusive about your tracks. For composers who want to keep 100 percent of their fees and run their own supervisor relationships, DropCue is the strongest option: branded playlists, listener analytics, a Pitch Pipeline CRM, and a Market Scanner for briefs, with zero revenue share on what you book.
How much does sync licensing cost?
For the music buyer, a sync license cost depends on the use, the media, the territory, and the term. Small online or indie uses can be a few hundred dollars, while broad national advertising or major film and TV uses can run into the tens of thousands or more. For composers, there is no cost to grant a license you already own, though many use a platform to manage catalog and pitching. DropCue plans start at $5/mo billed annually and take no cut of the placement fee.
Is sync licensing worth it?
For most independent composers, yes, because sync pays meaningfully more per use than streaming and adds a back-end royalty stream that streaming simply does not. The caveat is that it rewards consistency and organization more than raw output. The composers who make it pay off are the ones who pitch the right tracks to the right supervisors and track every follow-up, which is exactly the failure point a tool like DropCue's Pitch Pipeline is built to fix.
What is the difference between sync licensing and publishing?
Sync licensing is one specific right: permission to use a song with visual media. Publishing is the broader business of owning and administering the composition copyright and collecting every royalty it generates, including sync fees, performance royalties, and mechanicals. Put simply, a sync license is a single transaction, while publishing is the ongoing ownership and money-collection that sits underneath it. You can grant a sync license on a song you publish yourself.
Do I need a publisher to get sync placements?
No. If you wrote and recorded your own music and control both the composition and the master, you can clear and grant a sync license yourself, which is part of why supervisors like working with independent composers on tight deadlines. A publisher or library can widen your reach, but it usually costs you a share of the fee. Owning your own pitching workflow keeps 100 percent of placement fees, which is the model DropCue is built around.
Keep reading
- →Go deeper with DropCue University, the $99 course on the business of sync
- →DropCue Business Suite: the full toolkit for working composers
- →Track every sync pitch with the Pitch Pipeline CRM
- →Find active film and TV music briefs with Market Scanner
- →What is a music supervisor, and how to actually reach one
- →Music licensing agreement: what to put in it
- →How to get sync placements, step by step
- →How much does sync licensing pay?
