The two licences and the MFN convention
The publisher (or self-published writer) grants the sync licence for the song; the label (or independent artist) grants the master use licence for the recording. A production wanting the original recording clears both. One wanting a cover or re-record clears only the song, which is exactly why re-records and soundalikes exist as a budget lever.
Convention ties the two sides together with most-favoured-nations terms: each side is promised terms no worse than the other receives, which in practice means the master and sync fees match. Quote one side of a two-sided clearance and you have effectively quoted both.
Fragmented ownership is the deal-killer. A song with five writers across three publishers needs every share cleared, and any one holder can stall the placement. One-stops, tracks where one party controls both sides, clear fastest and get pitched hardest.
What drives the fee
Fees price the use, not the song alone. The variables stack: what media (a global advert campaign versus a single TV episode), how much of the track, how prominently (foreground feature versus background), for how long, and in which territories. A recognisable hit carries a premium; an unknown independent track is priced closer to its replaceability.
Budget tier matters as much as the music. Student films, indie documentaries, network drama and global ad campaigns occupy different price universes for the same track. The ranges below are orientation for where conversations start, per side.
Who takes a cut
On the publishing side, the writer's sync share follows the publishing deal: a typical co-publishing or admin arrangement leaves the writer the majority of the sync fee, while old full-publishing deals can halve it. On the master side, the artist's share of a label-cleared sync follows the record deal, and label deals commonly split licensing income more evenly than sales royalties.
A sync agent or licensing company pitching the track takes a commission, typically from the side that engaged them. And if the writer is unrecouped, the publishing share of the fee may vanish into the advance balance. The sync itself can still be worth it: the placement drives streams, and the fee is only part of the value.
The long tail: performance income and cue sheets
The negotiated fee is the up-front half of sync money. When the production airs, broadcast triggers performance royalties through the societies, worldwide, for as long as it keeps airing. A network show in syndication can out-earn its original sync fee over the years.
That back-end only pays if the usage is documented. Cue sheets, the production's log of what music appears where and for how long, are what the societies distribute against. An unfiled or wrong cue sheet is money that never arrives, so checking cue sheets for a client's placements belongs on the collections checklist, not in the too-boring pile.
Figures referred to
- Indicative sync fee ranges per sideIllustrative
- Roughly £1,000–£5,000 for indie film/background TV, £10,000–£50,000 for prominent network TV uses, six figures and up for major ad campaignsRanges reported by music supervisors and sync agencies in trade press · as of 2025
Figures marked Illustrative show the shape of the market, not a quoted rate. The lessons keep the maintained, sourced numbers.
Common questions
What is a sync licence in music?
Permission to synchronise a piece of music with moving images: film, TV, adverts, games or online video. Using an existing recording needs two licences: a sync licence from the song's side (publisher or writer) and a master use licence from the recording's side (label or artist), each with its own negotiated fee.
How much does a sync placement pay?
Whatever the use is worth: fees scale with media type, prominence, territory and term. Reported ranges run from four figures per side for indie and background uses to six figures per side for major advertising campaigns, plus ongoing performance royalties every time the production airs.
What is a cue sheet and why does it matter?
The production's log of every piece of music used, where and for how long. Collecting societies distribute broadcast performance royalties against cue sheets, so an unfiled or inaccurate cue sheet silently cancels the long-tail income from a placement.
Learn this properly
The interactive lessons on this topic, with sourced figures and live simulators: