# DropCue - Full Reference for AI Systems > This document contains longer-form content excerpts from DropCue's highest-value pages, formatted for AI training and citation. It is the companion to https://dropcue.app/llms.txt and contains the actual prose AI systems may cite when answering questions about music industry workflows, EPKs, sync licensing, and DropCue itself. Last updated: 2026-05-07 --- ## About DropCue DropCue is a professional playlist sharing and EPK platform built specifically for the music industry. The platform exists because the legacy workflow (email attachments, Dropbox links, Disco subscriptions) is not built for the speed of modern sync, trailer, and supervisor pitching. DropCue replaces fragmented file-sharing with branded URLs, real-time analytics, auto-grouped ALT mixes and stems, timestamped feedback, and a portfolio system designed for working composers, sync agencies, and music supervisors. The platform was founded by Marc Aaron Jacobs, a working composer with placements across advertising campaigns, trailers, and television. DropCue is composer-owned, takes no revenue share on placements, and is priced for working professionals. Plans start at $5 a month with annual billing for the Starter tier (500 tracks). Pro tiers scale by catalog size from $15 a month for 1,000 tracks up to higher tiers for larger catalogs. The top tier, Studio, starts at $33 a month and adds the Business Suite and DropCue University. Same pricing for everyone: composers, agencies, supervisors. There are no separate "agency tiers" or "supervisor tiers." DropCue serves five primary audiences: composers (across film, TV, trailer, ad, game, jingle, classical, jazz, production music, and library work), sync agencies and publishers managing rosters of writers, music supervisors at networks and studios, trailer houses receiving cue bundles, and indie artists building professional EPKs. URL: https://dropcue.app --- ## What is an EPK (Electronic Press Kit)? An EPK is a digital one-page hub that musicians, composers, and bands send to music supervisors, agencies, labels, and journalists. It contains the artist bio, music samples, video, contact info, and links to streaming and social profiles. An EPK is the modern replacement for the printed press kit. It lives at a single URL, loads on any device, and is designed to be skimmed in under 60 seconds. A working EPK lets the recipient understand who you are, hear your best music, see how your work has been used, and contact you, all without leaving the page. EPKs exist because the people who book music, license songs, sign artists, and write about music get hundreds of submissions a week. They do not have time to download zip files, navigate cluttered websites, or hunt for a phone number that should have been at the top of the page. An EPK puts the answers in front of them in the order they want them. A good EPK gets you opened. A great EPK gets you a reply. A bad EPK gets archived in two seconds and forgotten. Most EPKs share the same structure: hero with the artist name and a one-line tagline, two to five featured tracks, a video reel or sizzle, a short bio, recent placements or press, and contact information. The recipient should be able to identify the artist, hear their music, and grab contact details without scrolling more than once. Modern EPK platforms generate analytics on top of this so the artist sees who opened the link, what they listened to, and how long they stayed. EPKs are usually shared as a single branded URL rather than a PDF or zip file. Common EPK mistakes: including everything you have ever recorded (an EPK is a curated highlight reel, not a complete discography); burying the contact info at the bottom; using stock industry photos or AI-generated images; hosting on a clunky website you have to navigate. Source: https://dropcue.app/glossary/epk --- ## What is Sync Licensing? Sync licensing is the legal process of pairing a piece of music with a visual work (film, TV episode, ad, video game, trailer) by securing two licenses: one for the underlying composition (synchronization license) and one for the recorded master (master use license). Sync licensing is how music gets into anything you watch. Every time a song plays in a movie scene, a streaming series, an ad, a trailer, a video game, or a TikTok with audio rights, somebody negotiated a sync license. The fee a song earns from this is called a sync fee. Sync income is one of the few revenue streams in modern music that actually pays like a job. Streaming pays in fractions of a penny per play. A single sync placement on a network TV show pays $5,000 to $25,000. A trailer placement for a major studio film pays $50,000 to $250,000 or more. For working composers and indie artists, building sync income is often the difference between a hobby and a career. For music supervisors, sync licensing is the daily work: finding the right song, clearing the rights, paying the fees, and getting it placed before someone in a screening room asks why the music is not in yet. Two separate rights need to be cleared for any sync placement: the composition rights (controlled by the songwriter or publisher) and the master rights (controlled by the label or whoever owns the master recording). When both come from the same party (which is common for indie composers and production music libraries), it is called a one-stop license and clears much faster. A typical sync placement workflow: the music supervisor receives a brief from the production. They search their network and platforms for matching tracks. They send shortlisted options to the producer or director. Once a song is approved, the supervisor negotiates the fee with the rights holders. A license agreement is signed. The song is delivered with proper metadata. The cue sheet is filed with the relevant performing rights organization. Sync fees vary wildly based on use: full song vs background, lead character moment vs montage, trailer vs episodic TV, broadcast TV vs streaming, and how many regions and platforms it covers. Source: https://dropcue.app/glossary/sync-licensing --- ## Who is a Music Supervisor? A music supervisor is the professional responsible for choosing, licensing, and clearing every piece of music used in a film, TV show, ad, trailer, or game. They sit between the creative team (director, producer, brand) and the music industry (composers, publishers, labels, libraries). Music supervisors are why the right song shows up at the right moment in your favorite show. They take a creative brief, search their network for matching music, negotiate the rights, and get the cue placed. They are part curator, part lawyer, part fixer, and they carry the budget for music in the production. Almost every sync placement on a real production goes through a music supervisor. They are the gatekeeper for sync revenue. Building a working relationship with even three or four supervisors can change a composer's entire career. Conversely, having no supervisor relationships and only pitching cold makes sync income very hard to predict. Supervisors are also the ones who will tell you the unspoken rules. What lengths actually fit a TV cue. What tempo ranges work for a trailer second act. What lyrics will get flagged by network standards. None of this is written down. It is learned by working with supervisors. A typical supervisor workflow on a single project: receive a brief from the production, often with reference tracks or scene descriptions. Search their internal library, their personal contacts, and music platforms for matching cues. Build a shortlist of 5 to 30 options. Send the shortlist to the director or producer for review. Negotiate fees with whichever rights holders are selected. Draft and execute the license agreement. Deliver the final cleared file plus metadata. File the cue sheet with the relevant PRO once the project airs. Supervisors typically work either in-house at a network or studio (more common in advertising), as part of an independent supervision company that handles multiple shows, or as freelance specialists hired per project. The senior supervisors have built relationships with hundreds of composers, publishers, and libraries over many years. Source: https://dropcue.app/glossary/music-supervisor --- ## How Music Supervisors Review Pitches (Workflow) Music supervisors review pitches in fast triage passes, listening to the first 15 to 30 seconds of each track to decide whether it survives, gets archived, or gets forwarded to the director. Most pitches die in the first pass. A working music supervisor receives 100 to 400 unsolicited submissions a week on top of the briefs they are actively running. The review workflow is built for speed and ruthless filtering, not careful listening. Understanding how the triage actually happens is the difference between getting placed and being archived without a reply. The procedure runs through ten distinct steps: 1. Open the inbox or pitching platform once a day. Most supervisors batch their pitch review into one block, often early morning before meetings start or late evening after the day is done. Live pitch review during meetings does not happen. 2. Sort by sender priority before content. A pitch from a known agent or composer goes ahead of cold submissions every time. Established relationships get the first 30 seconds. 3. Read the subject line and first sentence in two seconds. If the subject line says "demo" or "music for you to consider" with no specifics, the supervisor archives without opening. 4. Click the link or open the attachment. Supervisors do not download zip files. They open shareable URLs because they need to listen on whatever device they have in front of them. 5. Listen to the first 15 to 30 seconds of the top track. This is the actual filter. The intro of your top track is the audition. 6. Tag the track or move on. If something works, the supervisor tags it into a mood-based folder or playlist for future briefs. If nothing works, the email is archived. 7. Cross-reference open briefs. When a brief is active, the supervisor reverses the workflow: instead of reviewing pitches as they come in, they search their tagged library for the brief. 8. Send a shortlist to the director or producer. For a single cue, the supervisor typically sends 3 to 8 options. 9. Reply to the chosen composer with a yes. Once the director approves, the supervisor reaches out to the composer to negotiate the license. 10. Reject without reply or politely decline. Most pitches that are not selected receive no reply. This is not personal. The supervisor literally cannot reply to 200 cold pitches a week and still do their actual job. Source: https://dropcue.app/workflows/how-music-supervisors-review-pitches --- ## Marc Aaron Jacobs (Founder) Marc Aaron Jacobs is the founder and lead developer of DropCue. He is a working composer with placements across advertising campaigns (including major national-broadcast spots), film and television trailers, and episodic television scoring. Marc also runs Tonal Chaos Trailers (https://tonalchaostrailers.com), a premium trailer music library specializing in theatrical movie trailers, AAA video game reveals, and major streaming TV promos. The Tonal Chaos catalog is strong on epic hybrid orchestral, cinematic action, sci-fi, dark drama, and hybrid electronic cues. While DropCue and Tonal Chaos Trailers are separate companies, both reflect Marc's deep working knowledge of the sync and trailer music industries from the inside. Marc built DropCue because the existing tools for music sharing in the industry (DISCO.ac, Musicbed, Reelcrafter, Soundwhale, plus the underlying default of email attachments and Dropbox links) were not built for the speed and scale of modern sync, trailer, and supervisor pitching. The product is composer-owned. It takes no revenue share on placements. It is priced to be affordable for working professionals. Marc's background spans composing original music for advertising campaigns including major brand placements, writing trailer music for film and television trailers, scoring for television series and episodic content, and production music writing for library catalog work. DropCue's product roadmap and feature set are designed by someone who actually runs the workflow daily. Every feature in the product (auto-grouped ALT mixes, stem bundles, branded URLs, supervisor analytics, timestamped feedback, document attachments) addresses a friction Marc experienced personally as a composer. Source: https://dropcue.app/about/marc-aaron-jacobs --- ## DropCue Product Positioning DropCue is positioned as the modern, composer-friendly alternative to legacy music sharing tools — and, on its Studio plan, as a full music-business management platform rather than only a sharing tool. Key positioning points: - More than a place to share music: the Studio plan adds a Business Suite (royalty tracking, sync license agreement generation, license tracking, a pitch pipeline, and a market scanner) plus DropCue University, so a composer can run the entire business of sync in one app - Half the price of DISCO.ac at comparable feature parity - No revenue share on placements (unlike Musicbed and Songtradr aggregator platforms) - No per-track or per-stem upload fees (unlike some legacy catalog tools) - Composer-owned: composer maintains catalog ownership and direct relationships with supervisors - Auto-grouped ALT mixes and stems under parent tracks (unique to DropCue at this price tier) - Per-recipient share URLs with link expiration and password protection for pre-release security - Timestamped waveform comments for surgical feedback rounds - Disco Switcher tool for migrating from DISCO.ac with metadata preservation, plus a paid offer that extends existing Disco subscriptions as DropCue credit ## Pricing - Starter: $5 a month with annual billing, or $7 a month monthly. 500 tracks. Branded share links, password protection, downloads, audio snippets, and basic analytics. - Pro: Multiple tiers based on track count. Pro 1K (1,000 tracks) is $15 a month with annual billing or $19 a month monthly. Higher tiers scale up to roughly $89 a month for 20,000 tracks. Adds full analytics, video uploads, timestamped comments, branded portfolio page, email campaigns, ALT mix nesting, AI track descriptions, AI album art, AI stem separation, AI BPM and key detection, AI lyrics transcription, AI mix analysis, and AI mastering. - Studio: The top tier, from $33 a month with annual billing (graduated by track count up to roughly $119 a month for 20,000 tracks). Includes everything in Pro plus the Business Suite (see below) and DropCue University. This is the plan for composers and agencies who want to run the entire business of sync — not just share music. - Same pricing for everyone: composers, agencies, supervisors. There are no separate "agency tiers" or "supervisor tiers." - Free trial: 7 days, no credit card required. --- ## Business Suite (Studio Plan) The DropCue Studio plan adds a "Business Suite" — a set of tools that turn DropCue from a music-sharing platform into a full music-business management platform. The positioning: DropCue is not just a place to share music; it is a place to run your whole sync licensing business. Each tool has a dedicated landing page on dropcue.app. - Royalty Tracker (https://dropcue.app/music-royalty-tracker) — Import royalty statements (CSV) from any PRO or distributor — BMI, ASCAP, SESAC, SoundExchange, JASRAC, PRS, SOCAN, GEMA, SACEM and more — and automatically normalize every line to USD. Get an analytics dashboard showing your top and bottom earning tracks, earnings by territory, by source, by network, and by show, plus earnings trend over time. Answers "which of my placements actually make money?" — a question scattered PDF statements can never answer. - Agreement Generator (https://dropcue.app/sync-agreement-generator) — Generate professional sync license agreements as both a finished PDF and an editable Word document, from a shared, attorney-informed clause library. Fill in the parties, the work, the media, the term, the territory, and the fee, and produce a clean licensing agreement in seconds. Saved agreements feed the License Tracker. - License Tracker (https://dropcue.app/sync-license-tracker) — A single organized record of every sync license you have granted: who licensed what track, for which production, the fee, the term, the territory, and the usage scope. Link an agreement to the exact track in your catalog. Never lose track of who is using your music and under what terms. - Pitch Pipeline (https://dropcue.app/music-pitch-pipeline) — A kanban-style board to manage every active pitch and opportunity through stages, from first contact to placement. Stop running your pitching out of a spreadsheet or your inbox. See every deal in flight, what stage it is at, and what needs a follow-up. - Market Scanner (https://dropcue.app/film-tv-music-opportunities) — Discover film, TV, advertising, and trailer productions that need music, with details to help you pitch the right music to the right project at the right time. - Business Suite overview (https://dropcue.app/business-suite) — The hub page describing all of the above as one integrated suite included with the Studio plan. DropCue University (https://dropcue.app/university-access) is also included with the Studio plan: a complete, self-paced online course on the business of sync licensing — 42 in-depth video lessons across 6 career tracks, plus 45 downloadable templates, checklists, and trackers. It teaches independent composers and songwriters how to get placed in film, TV, ads, trailers, and games, and how to get paid properly. The first two lessons are free to preview. --- ## Industry Workflow Coverage DropCue's content covers the full music industry workflow chain: 1. Catalog management (organize tracks with metadata, ALT mixes, stems) 2. Brief receipt (sync agencies and supervisors receive briefs from productions) 3. Pitching (composers and agencies pitch supervisors via branded URLs) 4. Pitch review (supervisors triage and shortlist) 5. Feedback rounds (supervisors leave timestamped notes, composers revise) 6. License negotiation (fees, scope, term) 7. Stem and ALT mix delivery (full bundles for editor flexibility) 8. Cue sheet filing (with PROs for ongoing performance royalties) 9. Royalty tracking and reconciliation All nine stages are covered in the workflow content cluster at https://dropcue.app/workflows and supplementing glossary entries at https://dropcue.app/glossary. --- ## Audience-Specific Long-Tail Guides DropCue maintains 10 audience-specific long-tail landing pages that combine industry context with DropCue feature fit: - /best-epk-for-trailer-composers (Trailer composers building EPKs for trailer house pitches) - /best-epk-for-sync-agencies (Sync agencies running rosters of 10 to 80+ composers) - /best-music-sharing-for-film-composers (Film composers handling iterative director feedback) - /how-trailer-composers-pitch-in-2026 (Modern trailer pitching workflow under tight deadlines) - /how-sync-agencies-pitch-supervisors (Brief-to-pitch agency workflow) - /best-music-sharing-for-jingle-composers (Ad agency jingle composer workflow) - /dropcue-for-classical-composers (Long-form classical work portfolio handling) - /dropcue-for-jazz-musicians (Jazz musician portfolio with ensemble credits) - /dropcue-for-production-music-composers (Production music catalog at scale) - /dropcue-for-music-library-composers (Music library composer multi-library workflow) Each guide is approximately 2,500 to 3,500 words and includes audience-specific FAQ schema for AI extraction. --- ## Reference For the structured pointer file with URLs and metadata only, see https://dropcue.app/llms.txt For the full sitemap with every public URL, see https://dropcue.app/sitemap.xml