Always remember instrumental when you submit music for sync licensing. Here’s why:
Let’s say you come across a licensing opportunity on our Wanted Listings asking for an Electro-Pop Anthemic Piece, à la M83 — Instrumental Only. Awesome! You happen to have the perfect track…only it contains vocals. The time it takes to retrieve instrumentals from your producer can be the difference between you landing that awesome Apple commercial or being passed up for another song, and not necessarily one they dig as much as yours. This is a disappointing and stressful scenario which we would like to help you avoid at all costs. It starts with never underplaying the importance of Instrumentals when submitting music for sync licensing.
Every Music Supervisor needs instrumentals at their disposal. The majority of licenses that occur in big premium spots (TV, advertisements, commercials, film, etc.) are instrumental tracks. This is due to the fact that Supervisors are often looking for tracks to create a vibe and energy without vocals competing with the message the actors or voiceover are trying to convey. This doesn’t mean you won’t have a chance for those awesome vocals to shine in the right opportunity, it just means having your instrumental mixes ready to go will increase your chances of a sync tenfold. Music licensing is all about giving yourself the best chance to succeed. So be prepared — let your music do the work for you and get those instrumentals uploaded!
A few thoughts on instrumentals from our experts:
Erin Dillon (Power, Siesta Key, Madea Family Funeral) Director of Creative Services
“It’s always important to upload instrumentals with your vocal tracks, because editors often need to navigate around dialogue in a scene. Your instrumental track is essential in getting your music licensed so that music supervisors can provide their editors with the best resources in cutting around a scene.”
Eric Medina (Fenty, Charly, Sundance Films, Goldie) Music Coordinator
“Look, Music Supervisors and Editors need instrumental versions, plain and simple. Sometimes due to editing around dialogue, other times they really only want the instrumental. This doubles your chances! And while on the subject — clean versions of songs are required for commercials and TV shows.”
Samie Schilling (Spider-Man: Homecoming, American Crime Story, Life in Pieces) Director of Creative and Business Development
“At Songtradr, we want the artist to succeed, and by submitting instrumentals, artists are giving us the most powerful tool — a chance to successfully pitch your content. Instrumentals are a pivotal part of pitching. More often than we can count, Music Supervisors from all audio visual ecosystems request instrumentals for sync (from major advertising campaigns to a background scene at a café in Paris). Making sure we have instrumentals available can be what locks a placement.”
How to Upload Instrumentals >
Kyle Warner
Kyle Warner is an avid music fan and Distribution Manager here at Songtradr.
everything I have submitted is instrumental; no vocals
I’ve uploaded at least 14 instrumentals to songtradr without a single word!
Another good write up Kyle !
Thank you!
I have not been receiving the two factor authentication code number at all. How can I receive this code?
Hi,
Please email support@songtradr.com with details of the issue.
Am new here I don’t understand this site please can someone put me through
Hi Issac,
Here is a quick overview of what Songtradr does and how it can help your career:
Songtradr’s goal is to open up licensing opportunities to independent musicians around the world.
You can sign up and upload an unlimited amount of music for free. Songtradr does not charge for hosting your audio and provides a free content management system to all content creators. If you are a Pro member and we secure a license for you on the site, we take 20% of the all-in fee. If you have a basic account, we take 40% of the all-in fee from any licensing transaction. All licenses are non-exclusive. You can learn more about Pro membership here: https://www.songtradr.com/pro
Songtradr Pro also includes digital distribution to over 200+ outlets. We do not take any percentage of your streaming royalties or publishing. Your music. Your rights. https://support.songtradr.com/hc/en-us/articles/360005401254-Songtradr-Distribution
Also, once your music is on Songtradr our licensing team is constantly curating through our catalog and pitching from it. Our incentive is your success.
Our site provides tools to present your music professionally with a fully customizable public profile and connects all your rights owners so when an opportunity happens you are ready. Music licensing is a fast-paced industry with time frames being as short as an hour.
Let us know if you have any more questions?!
Best,
Kyle
Please help I’ve signed up but when I’m signing in it says my pass work is rong please help foxs
Please email our Support team at support@songtradr.com so we can help you out with this — thank you!
Great. What are the Importance of Instrumentals in Sync Licensing?
everything I do is instrumental, there are 3 albums available, the 4th is on the way
I do mostly electronic synth music and love it. Sometimes im criticized for going over five minutes though and it’s not easy to express yourself always under 3 minutes. What’s a songs time preference..?? I wish I could do music for individual movie scenes. Thanks folk!
Awesome, congrats on the music. The desired length of a song for a brief varies from brief to brief, but often an editor will use a cut of the song and edit it to fit the scene. When writing for a specific brief, it’s best to go off of whatever it is indicated there. Hope that helps.
[…] your track have an instrumental? Every Music Supervisor needs instrumentals to license music for film and TV. In fact, this is one of the first things they look for when fulfilling a brief, yet it’s often […]