Unlocking The Sync: …a band’s guide to brands, and a brand’s guide to bands

07 December 2017 - Press release

MusicTank partners with award-winning music consultancy, Record-Play to produce definitive, FREE eBook on music synchronisation and brands

- Unique and extensive guide written from two perspectives – musicians and marketers

- Featured Interviews with Sergio Pimentel (Ninja Tune); music supervisors Thomas Golubić (Six Feet Under, The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) and Andrea Madden (Made in Chelsea); artist FEMME; Arun Sethi and Joanna Gregory (Cavendish Music); Emma Lomas (Beggars Group); Alex Lavery (Pitch & Sync).

- Case Studies: Red Bull, Converse, Mountain Dew and adidas


MusicTank today publishes Unlocking the Sync… its 7th music industry publication.

Written by Kier Wiater Carnihan of Record-Play (an award-winning music consultancy that counts adidas and Google among its clients), alongside renowned music industry journalist Eamonn Forde, this guide is set to become the defining text on the subject of sync.

Unique in its approach, Unlocking the Sync is a publication of two halves, written for two different audiences: independent music makers and corporate music users.  With contributions from artists, publishers, record labels, music supervisors, brand managers and more, it offers those on both sides of licensing deals an insight into the worlds of music and brands, and what ‘the other half’ are thinking.  
This plain-speaking guide is presented in a clear, informal style and packed with interviews, case studies, anecdotes, and checklists. Extensively researched and packed with a wealth of information, its accessible style is intended to demystify and open up the world of synchronisation.
It reveals some of the best practices and worst horror stories of recent years, explaining what makes a successful, authentic brand-artist partnership, and recalling some cringe-worthy ones. It details how sync can be approached in a mutually beneficial way and challenges the loose, policy-free use of music that often presides today.
In the interests of reaching the independent musicians and labels who might best benefit from it, this eBook is available from musictank.co.uk as a free download, with users invited to voluntarily contribute by paying what they can afford.
Author Kier Wiater Carnihan said: “Over the last fifteen years or so, Record-Play has worked on thousands of music syncs and artist endorsements, from huge global campaigns to hyper-localised activations. However, despite the impact such deals can have on artists’ careers, we’re always surprised by how little many musicians know about their rights and what little guidance is around to help them navigate the sometimes murky world of brand engagement. With Unlocking The Sync, we hope to illuminate that world and help educate musicians so that every decision they make is one that aligns with their own values and ambitions.”
MusicTank Programme Director, Jonathan Robinson said: “With traditional core revenue streams in continued sharp decline, musicians and rightsholders are necessarily having to look to other sources of revenue to sustain their careers and businesses. Synchronisation and brand engagement are increasingly seen as an essential part of artist and label core strategy, and as such this guide fills a gap in the armory of the independent music maker whose focus is necessarily considerably wider than simply ‘putting some music out there’”.
Unlocking The Sync: A band’s guide to brands, and a brand’s guide to bands will be available at http://www.musictank.co.uk/product/unlocking-the-sync/ from 07.12.17
Separately, MusicTank’s related follow-up event – When Sound Meets Image – will take place Mon 22 January 2018, at the historic Regent Street Cinema, London.

This free half-day event will feature a stellar collection of experts from the worlds of music, cinema, advertising and science, in an exploration music’s enduring relationship with image. Focusing on sync and commissioned music, a variety of scenarios will be investigated from cinema and television through to advertising and interactive games.  

When Sound Meets Image is aimed at those working at both ends of sync and brand deals; musicians, artists, labels, artists managers, music producers and labels, through to brand managers, digital agencies, games developers and filmmakers.

http://www.musictank.co.uk/event-new/when-sound-meets-image/