The Secrets of Sync Licensing
Pulling the curtain back on a lucrative (yet often mysterious) facet of the music business
We’re Rachel Hurley and Frank Keith IV, co-owners of the music publicity firm Sweetheart PR. Once a week, we’ll publish a new edition of My Manager, where we’ll share actionable advice on all facets of the music industry. The newsletter is free to all until the end of this week, at which point we’ll pivot to a $5/month subscription for the weekly newsletter, and we’ll send out a monthly “Free Friday” roundup with limited access.
We missed sending out the newsletter last week. We had it ready to go…but we’re waiting on clearance from The Orchard to publish our podcast interview. It turned out to be pretty packed full of juicy info. Hopefully, they’ll give us the green light this week and when they do, we’ll send it out as a bonus newsletter.
In the meantime, we also recently spoke to music supervisor Joe Rudge. He’s based in Brooklyn and known for his work on films such as Room, Blue Valentine, The Big Sick, Eighth Grade, Hereditary, and Midsommar. He’s currently working with Netflix and Ron Howard on Hillbilly Elegy.
Rachel worked for Joe as an assistant music supervisor when she first moved to NYC twenty years ago. He knows his stuff and is an all-around nice guy. We talked about what he’s listening to, how he finds music, the best way to connect with a music supervisor, and why this is such a great time to seek out sync licenses.
INTERVIEW: JOE RUDGE // MUSIC SUPERVISOR
My Manager Interview with Joe Rudge (25-minute audio podcast)
Sync Licensing 101 (10-minute read)
News You Can Use
Spotify expands its ‘Group Session’ feature to work remotely
ATC managers launch new company producing ticketed livestreamed concerts
Podcasts Worth Your Time
The Bob Lefsetz Podcast with guest Don Passman: Passman literally wrote the book on the music business...and takes a deep dive on modern deal structures in this talk with Bob Lefsetz.
Stock Music Licensing might not seem like the most heart-warming endeavor, but if you’re looking to diversify your music income sources - this is worth a look.
Capitalizing On Licensing Songs With Low Profile Founder Jen Pearce
Your DIY Toolkit (we’ll give you one tool a week to focus on)
With so many outlets producing original content these days (Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, SHOWTIME, STARZ, Disney+, Apple TV+, CBS All Access, Quibi, and so many more), there is no better time to dip your foot in the sync licensing pool.
Music supervisors are always on the look for new music to fit the projects they work on. And unless the director asked for a specific cue, they don’t care what your social media following is; if your music is perfect for their scene - they want it.
How Sync Licensing Works: What Artists Need to Know
BUT WAIT! There’s More…
FOLK ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL PRESENTS:
CommUNITY Online Episode 10 - Teaching Traditions (Live webinar Aug 5th @ 10 AM Eastern): Come learn about a whole world of possibility in a reinvented imagining of what the teaching space of tradition might be.
Social Media Tips
Everything You Need to Know to Create Engaging Instagram Carousels
Making cinemagraphs (moving pictures) on your phone for social media
TikTok of the Week
Just for Fun
Behind The Song: John Mellencamp, “Pink Houses”
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Coming next week:
A conversation with Angela Zimmer, Editor-in-Chief at The Boot.
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