Music Publishing & Songwriting

What a way to start the week. I picked up Billboard on Monday and saw the news that record sales had just dropped yet again, falling to 18 percent behind May of last year, and down 36 percent from the previous year. Yet, just when I was about to panic, it came to me, like the title of a country song:

When sales go down the drain, you’ll find your money in the sync.

And so it is that all of the focus in publishing today seems to have shifted from mechanical royalties, the money earned for the sale of downloads or little plastic discs called CDs, to synchronization fees, the money paid to publishers and songwriters each time a song is used in a film, TV show, advertisement, video game, etc. This focus would explain why four hundred people were crammed into a room with three hundred chairs at last week’s Billboard Music and Advertising Conference, where everyone in the industry was out to learn how to get the much sought after branding opportunities and advertisement placements that have broken artists from Feist to Groove Armada. We’re all looking for the money in the sync.

In looking over the agenda for that two-day conference, I was struck by one of the subjects that seemed to come up again and again: “What makes a licensable track?”

Good question. If you believe most of the panelists at the conference, it is akin to asking the meaning of life. “Mmm, impossible to say”, “could be anything”, “just depends”, “all a matter of luck and timing”. Wow. Glad I paid $300 dollars to learn that.

Of course, all of this is quite true. There is absolutely no common characteristic that all songs used in commercials or branding campaigns share– anymore than there are common characteristics among all brands. No matter what guidelines one might suggest, there will always be a song that is an exception. If one is looking to discern absolute truth, the “no answer” answer is certainly an accurate and honest point of view. But, if you’re looking to create songs that are more licensable, it’s not a huge help.

On the other hand, if you’re a publisher, and you see hundreds of sync opportunities come and go each year, and you license dozens or even hundreds of songs in advertising campaigns, television shows, video games, movies, singing stuffed dragons, and greetings cards, you have a slightly different perspective. If you do this day in and day out, it’s no secret that out of a catalog of say, 2500 songs, there will be about 10 that will be licensed over and over again. When I was at Zomba Music Publishing, we used to joke that we could cut the whole staff and do nothing but license “I Believe I Can Fly” and probably come out ahead at the end of the year. Every song has an equal opportunity at a placement, but some songs are more equal than others.

So even if it’s only as a creative exercise, maybe it’s worth trying to actually write something aimed at the sync market– rather than writing blindly, and then hoping something just happens to match up with the right campaign or movie scene.
From a publisher’s point of view, here are the qualities that get a song into sync:

1. IT HAS TEMPO. Usually this means it’s up tempo- or at least aggressive enough rhythmically to feel up tempo (as a lot of urban records are actually pretty low in BPM). In certain spots, it’s feasible to get away with something that’s a more relaxed, mid-tempo kind of song, but there are not many advertising campaigns shot to slow, leisurely ballads. Fundamentally, it’s a little difficult to fit a significant portion of a very slow song into what might be a 30 second spot. More importantly, it’s just not very exciting. Most media, whether it’s film, television, advertising, or gaming, is built on excitement and energy. It helps to have tempo.

2. IT SOUNDS GREAT. Obviously, most songs placed in advertisements, films and television shows are fully finished recordings. Still, especially in television, there are a fair amount of demos that find their way into broadcast. Sonically, it should sound like a polished, well-produced recording. This doesn’t mean everything sounds the same– it might be a very stripped-down, “Bubbly” type acoustic guitar and vocal, or a pounding techno track– it has to have whatever sonic quality is appropriate to a finished record in that genre.

3. IT HAS A CLEAR SENSE OF STYLE. You could call it trendy if you want– certainly that trendy sound helped Moby place track after track of his seminal album “Play”. But there are plenty of rootsy Americana acts that find placements, even though they’re anything but trendy or fashionable. The key element is a clear sense of style and an appeal to a very specific audience. The advertising business, and by extension the television business (which is really just advertising with some additional air-filler thrown into the mix), is all about target marketing. Few products or advertisements are aimed at everyone– they are carefully researched to appeal to a specific segment of the population. Consequently, advertising agencies are looking for acts or sounds that very clearly match their target demographic. If you can’t define precisely who your audience is, or which market your song will appeal to, it’s not going to be of much value to the advertising and branding world. Be fashionable and trendy, rootsy and organic, dangerous and edgy or cute and cuddly– but don’t fall somewhere in between or for that matter, try to be all at once.

4. IT’S POSITIVE!!! More than anything else, songs that are sync-able are usually positive, uplifting, inspiring, funny or touching. They are not sad, heartbreaking, angry, melancholy, or potentially offensive. Want a summary of what advertising agencies are looking for? “Happy; ‘this is my moment’ attitude”, “party; having fun with my friends”, ala Sheryl Crow’s ‘Soak Up the Sun’, “inspiring; we can rise above feeling”, think Natasha Bedingfield’s ‘Unwritten’, “family, nostalgia, times of our life”, songs with the word ’smile’ in them, “beauty, purity, vitality”, something like ‘I Believe I Can Fly’. I’ve been seeing these same advertising key words and briefs for fifteen years. I’ve never seen, “sad, reflective, introspective thoughts about a difficult break-up with a boyfriend”.

If you want to be part of the sync world, don’t spend your time writing touching songs about your insecurities and failed relationships. In fact, don’t even spend your time writing love songs about personal relationships. If you’re going to write love songs, write them about family ties, love for friends, love of life, anything but boy-girl love stories.

But what about… ???? I know. You’ve thought of some exceptions to these guidelines– songs that slipped perfectly into the advertising environment despite the fact that they violate one or all of the above criteria. These exceptions are why most publishers prefer to have a catalog of 2500 songs rather than 10. It doesn’t change the fact that 10 songs out of the 2500 do most of the heavy lifting. The goal is not to try to be an exception. The goal is to be one of the frequently pitched songs.

This bias toward positive, up tempo, genre-specific, great-sounding songs is hardly exclusive to the sync world. But as our industry shifts increasingly away from album sales toward single downloads, film, television and advertising placements, publishers and songwriters have to acknowledge that it is next to impossible to find a home for those quietly sensitive, love-gone-wrong ballads that used to make a lovely track #8 on a CD. Love it or hate it, the media world sells fun, energy, attitude and confidence. If that’s where you want to be, then take the advice that the jingle producers of old used to offer their jaded, bored studio singers, as they knocked out one last take of a 30 second song about toothpaste:

Put some smile in it!