Sync Licensing

Providing rights for a production house or content creator to put music to video.

How does it work?

A Sync licence is technically the right to copy a musical work in order to synchronize it to video. Almost any copy made of a musical work requires a licence, but sync is when this copy is done for a specific purpose – synchronization. Whomever is making the copy is responsible for getting a licence from all the rights holders in the musical work.

You probably see many audio visual productions every day. That’s a lot of sync! So to make things easier, broadcasters and streaming platforms agree to blanket licences with copyright societies like CAPASSO. So long as the broadcasters and streaming services are paying their dues and reporting music usage, then composers and rights holders like music publishers can get their royalties, and music publishers can choose not to licence each sync. This doesn’t mean that music publishers lose their sync right, it just means they may choose not to assert it.

Now comes the crunch. Blanket licenses have limitations. For example, where music is used in a production on TV for longer than a month, or outside of South Africa, or for traditional and digital media when there is branding, then it can’t be included in CAPASSO’s blanket licence. For streaming services and social media, the moment a brand is involved, including any kind of ‘commercial tie-in’, then a special sync licence is required from the rights holders, and music publishers do a licence.

Music Publishers have a hard time keeping track of these limitations, and it means a lot of admin! And the truth is many productions that should legally have a sync licence do not. Big brand campaigns usually do negotiate sync licences and this is an important income source for composers and music publishers. But campaigns have gone digital – mostly social media – and this income source is under serious threat where sync licences are not being sought. Composers should have a say in whether they will permit their song to be used by a brand, and they should have a say in how much the brand should pay. This is where music publishers need to step up on stage using their superpower – the sync right!

Oh, and by the way, even though no video is used, Radio advertising also requires a sync licence.

This is an important and often overlooked aspect of music publishing whereby people submit their music to be used in film, television, commercials, gaming, etc. Good music supervisors are experts at licensing and help to select tracks for productions.

Getting a hold of them is often done through networking and leveraging professional music industry relationships. That’s something to consider if you are starting out new, and seek to find sync licensing opportunities for yourself.

How much should I charge?

This is a common question from Music Publishers. The truth is that sync operates on a willing seller – willing buyer principle. But music publishers should understand the producers’ budgets and learn what songs go for in the market. There are ways to learn. Normally there is more than one music publisher in a musical work, and most of the time the publishers work on one fee for the whole song. This means you can observe what the other publishers are charging, so long as music publishers are not working together to fix prices in the market.

There are a number of things to consider when negotiating a fee – the stature of the artist and song, term of the agreement (for how long the production can be made available), territory and on which media it will be available / accessible. Ad campaigns often last 3, 6 or 12 months, but film and TV may need rights in perpetuity. Music Publishers often break down advertising media into TV, radio, online, cinema and public location.

Licence vs Copyright Ownership

In South Africa, by default the person paying for or making arrangements for sound recordings (masters) owns the copyright in the sound recording. This can be varied by agreement.

However, the same does not apply for musical work, which is the domain of music publishers. It’s not such a clear default that a commissioning party should own copyright in musical work. Music publishers usually seek to issue a licence, rather than a composer ceding their copyright to a production company.