Series #2: SYNC 101: How to get your music onto tv, films, ads and games.
Getting your music used on television shows, films, adverts and games can be a lucrative source of income for independent artists/songwriters and a great way for your music to be heard by new audiences. Americana music fares well in the sync world, particularly for trailers and television dramas. But how does the sync world work - what is a Music Supervisor, what does a sync deal look like, what kind of fees are involved and what are the Music Supervisors looking for? All the basics of sync licensing covered.
Moderator : Mark Gordon from Score Draw Music
Heather Connaughton, Downtown Music
Michelle De Vries, Music Supervisor
Sophie Urquhart, Music Supervisor, Tin Drum Music
Kiran Patel - A&G Sync
Panellists Bios:
Mark Gordon from Score Draw Music: Score Draw Music is a multi-award wining team of composers with studios in both the UK and Ireland whose work has spanned global campaigns for brands including Adidas, music for many hundreds of episodes of children's animated shows for Disney and Nickelodean Jr, and score and titles music for shows for Netflix, Amazon Prime and PBS. Mark's composition work in Score Draw Music has included co-writing music for Dolly Parton to sing in a children’s animation series, a co-write in the 2018 Oscar-winning film The Shape of Water, and ongoing work across film, television and animation.
Outside of the company Mark is a member of the Ivors Academy Media Committee Board in the UK, dealing with ongoing issues for media composers around copyright, skills and opportunities. He also programmes Output Belfast - Ireland’s largest music conference, and has spoken globally on music and media at conferences including SxSW (seven times) The Xchange Mumbai, The Great Escape, Primavera Pro and Paris Sync Summit.
Sophie Urquhart, Music Supervisor, Tin Drum Music: Sophie set up Tin Drum Music in October 2011 following 8 years experience in music supervision as WCRS advertising agencies’s in house music consultant and Chrysalis then Sophie Urquhart, Music Supervisor, Tin Drum Music: Spirit music publishing’s creative director of sync. Tin Drum have supervised a number of award winning advertising campaigns including E.ON + Gorillaz; A Solar Collaboration and several beautifully choreographed commercial spots for Agent Provocateur. Feature films include Backstreet Boys: Show Em What You’re Made of (Stephen Kijak), Stone Roses: Made Of Stone (Shane Meadows) and most recently Get Duked! (Ninian Doff)
Heather Connaughton - Senior Manager, Sync.: With over a decade of experience in music publishing, Heather has worked across production music, direct licensing and commercial music. Heather worked for a number of years at Extreme Music and went on to help launch Epidemic Sound in the U.S market. Now at Downtown; she represents a roster that includes heritage catalogues such as John Lennon, Miles Davis and Gershwin, in addition to globally renowned writers such as Jimmy Napes, Ryan Tedder and artists including Kano, The 1975 and Naughty Boy.
Kiran Patel - A&G Sync: Kiran has headed up the creative team at A&GSync since 2014, with 10 years+ experience in the music publishing and synchronization licensing industry, seeking high profile sync deals across the world as an award-winning and international sync agent. A&G work with a broad range of independent publishers, management companies and independent labels (i.e. Dirty Hit, Lucky Number, Luaka Bop, Supernature) with offices at Tileyard Studios, London. Recent work has included trailers for The Little Things (Warner Bros) and promos for Prime Video, AppleTV+ and Netflix as well as brand campaigns for adidas, Apple iPhone, Esteé Lauder, Revlon and Nissan.
Michelle De Vries, Music Supervisor: Michelle is a very experienced music industry executive with excellent credits on both sides of the Atlantic spanning a 20 year career. She is uniquely qualified for this position having had a wide ranging experience, working in Music Management, Music Publishing, Music Production, and most recently as a freelance Music Supervisor and Consultant to Film and TV Production Companies. Current projects require numerous and varied skills, including sourcing tracks and composers, negotiating, structuring and drafting licensing deals, working within UK and US music union agreements, overseeing global performing rights, booking orchestras, recording studios around the world, featured artists, session musicians, and engaging and working with composers to deliver a finished score. She has also been involved post release with organising special screenings of films and contacting press and radio contacts for PR purposes.
