"Sync" is short for synchronization: licensing music to be synchronized with visual media — film, television, advertising, video games, trailers, social content. For most catalogues it is the highest-value and most visible use of the music, the placement that can define a song's second life.
Here is the part that trips people up. Every sync needs two permissions, not one. The music supervisor has to clear the master (the recording) and the composition (the publishing). Those two rights are often owned by different parties — a label for the master, one or several publishers and co-writers for the song.
That is where placements die. If the master and the publishing sit with different owners, or the song is split among several co-writers with no one coordinating, clearing it becomes slow and legally risky. A supervisor working to a deadline will simply choose a track that is easier to clear. The best song in the pile loses to the one that can say yes today.
This is why one-stop matters. A "one-stop" catalogue is one where a single entity can grant both the master and the publishing rights in a single signature. It removes the friction entirely and dramatically raises the odds that your music actually gets used — supervisors actively favour one-stop precisely because it is fast and clean.
A sync licence itself usually defines the media (what it is used in), the territory, the term (how long), the exclusivity, and the fee — with performance royalties often flowing on the back end when the production airs. Fees vary enormously by use, budget and profile, from a modest library placement to a six-figure national campaign.
If you want your music to be sync-ready, prepare the unglamorous things in advance: a clean instrumental version, correct metadata, and clear, agreed ownership and splits so there is no scramble when an opportunity appears.
At PA74 Music our catalogue is offered one-stop — master and publishing cleared together — which is exactly why we can place it in films, series, ads and games without buyers having to chase separate rights holders. Explore the catalogue →