Mid Sweden University

This essay revolves around Synchronization management & Synchronization licensing, or in short sync. The development of sync as a career choice and profession has been fast and is still ongoing. It is not until later years that sync has become a proper profession, whereas before it was just part of a publisher or sales person’s regular work.

In short, sync deals with the commercial use of copyright protected music. A synchronization manager negotiates fees and licensing agreements while handling the dialogue between commercial businesses, publishers and in some cases song writers. Once a deal has been made a Synchronization license is granted by the owner of the copyrighted music, allowing the licensee (the person wanting to use the material) to use the music according to the agreement. A Synchronization license is most commonly used when a company wants to use music in either commercial, television or any kind of visual media.

To get a better understand of Synchronization management a series of interviews were conducted to get three different perspectives. The first interview helped establish what a synchronization manager actually does, and was held with a person who works with the profession in question. To better grasp the song writing point of view when it comes to sync an interview with a person who was writing for sync briefs was conducted. Lastly, a publisher was interviewed to help understand synchronization licensing from a publishing point of view.

The result generated by the interviews in combination with already written articles about Synchronization management helped get a better understanding of the profession and how different individuals are using it in their daily life in music. The main question of this essay was to establish if sync is a reliable source of income for “up-and-coming” song writers and music producers.