Basically, a synchronization license is what it sounds like. You’re syncing one form of media with another form of media. In this case, it means visual media. It can also mean syncing live media with music media. So that means taking this file here that’s a music file, this file here that’s a video file and manipulating them so that they sync up.
So that’s what it means from a technical point of view. There is a particular license, called a synchronization license, that is representative of that technical experience. When people talk about sync licenses, that’s what they’re talking about. And just like there’s a sync license for sound recordings or masters, there’s a sync license for publishing. We’ll get back to that later on.
The stems are the heart of what we need in a lot of music licensing. Because there are instances, and trailers in video games, but also in film, TV, and ads. Creative people in the music industry may not want to hear this, but where people are going to want to take your music, and they’re going to slice and dice it a little bit so that they can customize it for that particular commercial, television show or film.
Because when it comes to luxury, it’s as much about where it’s from as who it’s for. Now, we’re from America, but this isn’t New York City or the Windy City. You’re seeing the city. And we’re certainly no one’s Emerald City.
If you really want to succeed in sync, you have to be somewhat flexible. You need to be able to rise to the occasion. If they say, “You know what? We need an instrumental version. Can you do that? Can you compress cadence down to 60 seconds? Can you give us just the horn section and the bass drum right now?” You need to deliver. And that means they want you to give them the stems.
Those things are really important, because unfortunately in sync, it’s not really a subjective portion of the business as much as it is a combination of subjective and objective. That means that when people think about their music, they think about it as a chapter in a book. It’s a story. It’s a thing. It’s an entity that exists. And you don’t slice and dice it or chop it up. It’s an expression. It’s meant to say something. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s a really creative, subjective point of view. And people will either like it or not like it, you’ll come to learn as you continue your online music education.
From the sync point of view, you have something that is certainly subjective. The music is great. It has to be of really great quality. But on the other hand, your music is being used to fulfill an objective that is particular to that project.
So your music is being used to enhance a Coca-Cola commercial, or to enhance a story on a TV show, or a particular moment in a film, or to accentuate the excitement of a trailer. So you also have to look at that, in terms of how the music is being used. And because they’re using it in an objective way, they’re sometimes going to ask for it not to be in its full story form. That’s why the stems are important. That’s an important lesson to learn in music education.
If we want to talk about stems for a moment from a practical point of view, you need to have vocals. You need to have the rhythm, maybe the baseline, maybe a guitar line. Just break it out into its components.
What will happen won’t sound as horrific as it sounds, because there’s going to be a dialogue at that point. If they’re really into what you’re doing, they’re going to work with you. They want it to sound really good, too. After all, they’re not just coming to you because they want some generic stuff. They want you and your sound. So it’s going to be probably more fun than it sounds. You just have to have your music ready.
