CD Baby is no stranger to getting songs placed in TV, movies, and commercials. Last fall we celebrated a number of our artists having their songs featured in major cable and on-demand streaming shows, and our synchronization successes have only grown since then. This April has proven to be the most successful for our sync department and the artists whose music got licensed.
It’s not just feature films and network television shows either. We’re finding lucrative opportunities for artists’ music in trailers, ads, and even social content such as this Apple Instagram post:
We’d like to congratulate the following artists on these placements:
- Minimal Criminal – “Fear the Djinn” (song) — What We Do in The Shadows – FX
- Paul Overstreet – “Bad on the Beach, Somewhere in the Caribbean”— Muletown In the Round – RFD-TV
- Joshua Dennis – “You Are My Sunshine (Music Box)” — The Alienist 2 Promo – TNT
- Paddy the Wanderer – “Tied Up” — I Am Not Okay with This – Netflix
- Venti Petrov – “Assemblé No.1” — On the Rocks – Film
- AShamaluevMusic – “Uplifting Cinematic Piano” — University of Hawaii Ad – University of Hawaii
- Amo Amo – “Closer to You” — Apple Instagram — Media Arts Lab
- Ayres De Los Andes – “P’al Carnaval” and “Flamenco Andino” — Street Food Asia – Netflix
And that’s just the past four weeks! February and March were also successful months for our sync department placing artists in a wide array of media.
How did they get these songs placed?
These artists opted in for CD Baby’s sync licensing program when they were submitting their music! Sync licensing is the placement of music in other media like TV shows, movies, video games, or advertisements. CD Baby offers this service at no additional cost to artists. All you have to do is select the option for sync licensing when you are submitting your music.
If you are already distributing music through us and would like to opt in for this service, follow these steps:
- Click the View/Edit button for your submission
- Scroll down and click Sync, YouTube, Facebook, and Dubset Licensing
- Click Edit Sync Licensing Options
- Click Collect Sync Money
Opting in to sync licensing will add your song(s) to our music library
Music supervisors for TV networks, film studios and advertising firms use music libraries to search for music to place in their media. They search terms relating to genre, instrumentation and feel to find a song for a specific scene or type of project they’re working on.
That’s why it’s crucial during the submission process to complete all the information about your release, including:
- Description
- Notes (which can be used for bio, lyrics, or whatever else you like)
- Genres
- Sub-genres
- Sounds-like artists
- Mood
- Language
- and more
All this information helps us locate the right music for the right project.
Music supervisors love CD Baby
More and more music supervisors are seeking music from CD Baby because we boast a large catalog of music that can be licensed without the red tape of major label interference. Since opting in to sync licensing with CD Baby means the artist owns their copyright, music supervisors have learned that licensing through us is quick and easy because they can clear all the rights in one place.
Also, CD Baby’s catalog is especially attractive due to the breadth of genres our artists play. Or, as VP of Creator Services Jon Bahr says in the Broadway World post, “Our catalog is so broad and massive that we can get very specific. We have a version of most things people are looking for.”
We do the work for you
When CD Baby secures a sync placement, we negotiate the placement fee. The fee amount is dependent on a few factors, including the budget of the project, the nature of the usage, and the duration of the song being synched. The company then pays us that placement fee. We take a 40% cut from this revenue, which is considerably less than what traditional placement companies take, since many also require a claim to your publishing. You then keep the remaining 60% of the placement fee.
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