Business News Labels & Publishers

Resilient Music puts the spotlight on advertising sync

By | Published on Tuesday 29 September 2015

Resilient Music

Music rights procurement consultancy Resilient Music recently put the spotlight on the advertising side of sync, surveying brands, ad agencies, rights owners and artist managers about the way licensees and licensors work together, how each side views the sync sector, and where the opportunities to do better business lie.

The results of that survey are being published through a series of blogs on Resilient’s own website, but CMU got a sneak preview, and in the latest CMU Trends Report we provide our five key take-aways from the research. Premium subscribers can get the full lowdown here using the premium content password from this week’s CMU Digest.

But for now, here is each key point in a sentence or two…

1. Music remains a key tool for consumer engagement
With over 60% of agency respondents choosing eight or higher when asked to rank the importance of music to their clients on a scale of one to ten. As Resilient noted, this will only add to the calls from labels and publishers for brands to increase the budgets of the music components of their campaigns.

2. Brands and rights owners could be involved earlier in the creative process
Many brands would like to be involved in final music selections, while ad agencies providing one-track choices at the last minute makes it harder to negotiate a good deal from the rights holders. Labels also said that they’d like to be involved earlier in the creative process, especially when brands are working with new talent.

3. Re-records are a fact of life and can be good for publishers
This is where a brand commissions a re-record of a track, so that it only has to license the song rights from a publisher, and not the master rights from a label. The record companies Resilient spoke to were divided on whether the threat of a re-record would make them negotiate downwards on price. Meanwhile publishers noted that re-records can free up budget to pay higher rates to the song rights owners, and make the licensing of more expensive songs more realistic.

4. Fees are going up for online video
Although TV ads will still usually command a premium from labels and publishers, the rates rights owners are looking for from online branded content are also going up. Though rates will vary depending on whether content is going into paid-for ad slots or simply on YouTube – and depending on the territories where the ad will be seen – so brands should be clear on those things when negotiating deals.

5. Brands want simpler licensing, obviously
Everyone wants simpler licensing, and they probably won’t get it, even though the music rights sector is aware of the issues. Though some brands said that some rights owners could simply go further in customer service, at least acknowledging that brands are customers when it comes to sync! Basically labels and publishers that put more effort into client relations may score more sync deals down the line.

The latest CMU Trends Report is fully focused on the sync industry, explaining how sync licensing works, surveying leading supervisors on how they choose tracks, and exploring differences between the UK and US market. You can buy a copy here for £9.99, or go premium with CMU today and access this and all archive copies of the Trends Report right away.



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