MBW Views is a series of op/eds from eminent music industry people… with something to say. The following MBW op/ed comes from Tom Stingemore (pictured), the founder of sync data platform, ALLOY, which enables record labels and music publishers to access a greater proportion of the global sync marketplace by standardising ‘sync metadata’ and enabling digital transactions across multiple platforms.
Over the past 12 months, as some of you will be aware, I’ve been calling for an urgent modernization of the global sync industry in the interests of all artists and songwriters before it’s too late.
This process has led me to the conclusion that there are now five main reasons why the sync business (for commercial music, at least) has still not been upgraded to any discernible degree.
I’ll get on to those five reasons in due course, but first, I’d like to pose a hypothetical question:
Would you buy a luxury car if you had to source all of its individual parts and components from a variety of different suppliers?
Okay, the question is a little absurd, but in essence this is what we are expecting our customers to do, each and every time they want to use one of our songs.
(… I’ll proceed under the assumption that your answer to my hypothetical question was “No”.)
“No” is the answer that our clients right across the entertainment industries also now seem to be landing upon, as according to the RIAA, sync revenue for commercial music is down -10% year on year.
Of course, we could point to a number of ‘unusual’ events as the cause(s) for this decline, but in truth… are unusual events really that unusual, anymore?
I’m fairly confident that the majority of record label and publishing company CEOs will not be minded to entertain ‘excuses’ (however valid they may be), should their sync revenues start to nosedive.
I suspect that they probably just want to see that particular graph going up…
… and, don’t we all?
Let’s face it – the unnecessarily arduous process that we are still expecting our customers to go through simply in order to ‘purchase’ our ‘product’, is confusing, inefficient and as a result is not scalable. But perhaps most importantly – nor is it now working in the best interests of the artists and songwriters that we represent.
One music company sync executive told me last year: “We all know we’re working incredibly inefficiently, but we obviously can’t admit that to our bosses.”
They can’t say it. But I can.
Sync is arguably the last area of the music business to be modernized. Many people are trying and in fact, as a result there is now a vast and entirely untapped, global digital sync market for commercial music, just waiting to be turned on.
One thing is abundantly clear: the longer that we fail to embrace digitization of the sector and the longer that we fail to significantly improve our customers’ experience, the more attractive the alternatives to using commercial music will seem.
It has been widely reported that library music (including “soundalikes” of commercial music) currently generates $1.3 billion in sync revenue, while every record company in the world (combined), makes only half that figure.
This may be uncomfortable reading for some, but I am emboldened by the knowledge that, in order to affect change, one has to be willing to sometimes tell people the things that they don’t want to hear.
With all of the incredible music that we collectively represent, we are unquestionably selling the equivalent of luxury cars, but when a customer comes into our “dealership” we are essentially telling them that we can only sell them the wheels and the windscreen and when they ask “Where do I get the rest?” our reply is too often to shrug and say, “You’ve just got to call around.”
If this were actually to be the case in the automobile industry, would it really be such a surprise if sales of luxury cars started to plummet? (especially when the cheaper “fully assembled” alternatives were now almost as good to drive?)
So, taking all that into consideration here are my five reasons explaining why the sync industry has still not got its act together properly:
1. The prevailing view that a song’s intrinsic sync value is based upon scarcity of availability (i.e. it should be hard for customers to license our songs).
I could theoretically understand this point of view from the perspective of maximizing the upfront sync fee on one individual, high-profile sync deal – for a big song by an iconic artist.
But for all other artists and for all other usage types is the upfront fee really the only important aspect of a sync deal, nowadays? Arguably, the principal benefit of a sync placement in 2025 is the ability for a song to be heard and discovered by millions of new fans, and which music executive in 2025 would argue (in terms of the number of people hearing a song), that scarcity is a good thing?
2. The sync industry’s reluctance to adopt any new business model that is based upon a commission of sync revenue – however small.
Digital economies are built almost exclusively upon commission-based business models. Our reluctance to adopt such a business model for sync, is keeping the sector in the pre-digital age.
As the music industry, we have obviously entered revenue share deals with countless digital partners with phenomenal success. So, why would sync be any different?
As it stands, we already have significant operating costs attached to our sync businesses. In many cases, the current operating cost of a label/publisher’s sync business could be somewhere in the region of 35%.
So, in what world could the wide-scale digitization of a new and entirely untapped global sync marketplace (which would be subject to a <10% operation cost) possibly be seen as anything other than a colossal cost-saving opportunity?
3. The ingrained, ‘fixed’ mindset of certain sync executives.
If you were running a music company in 2025, I believe that you would want all of your staff to have a dynamic, optimistic, ‘growth’ mindset, and that you’d want those employees to be constantly moving things forward, and contributing towards positive change for your artists and songwriters.
My journey over the past 12 months has involved me meeting with many of the world’s leading sync executives.
Thankfully, I’ve met with a lot who are undoubtedly fine ambassadors for their companies and for the artists and songwriters they represent. However, it pains me to say that I’ve also met with several who still demonstrate an obstructive, passive, pessimistic, ‘gatekeeper’ mindset, which needs to change.
4. Reluctance to share data with partners.
For many years, aircraft manufacturer Airbus operated with a traditionally closed approach to data. However, under new leadership, the company shifted towards greater data-sharing and digital innovation.
This change enabled Airbus to launch initiatives like Skywise, a platform that helps airlines optimize operations by harnessing shared data.
As data-driven services like Skywise become an increasingly important part of Airbus’ business model, they are no longer solely reliant on revenue from ‘just’ making planes. Many CEOs of the world’s largest music companies have been publicly proclaiming that they are restructuring their businesses to be forward-facing, data-centric and entirely ‘match-fit’ for the digital age.
A vital and encouraging sentiment of course, but these CEOs must ensure that those responsible for their sync operations also got the memo.
5. We have never adapted our strategy.
“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. For over 10 years now, we’ve all been trying to fix the same problem; on our own, in isolation, while at the same time competing with one another.
It hasn’t worked. And it won’t work. We could obviously all continue doing the same thing if we so wished, but sooner or later, we will all realize that for our sector to finally be modernized, we must adopt a new approach.
No one music company (or sync platform) with competitors (of any kind), can solve this problem on their own. For the problem to be fixed industry-wide, requires a truly impartial / agnostic solution.
The sync industry can be modernized, but in order for us to finally deliver a brighter sync future for artists and songwriters, we must change course.
This article is for all those in the sync industry who believe that an ideal world is possible – and that an ideal world is worth fighting for.
So, in the face of yet more seismic change right across our entire industry let me ask:
Do we want to be remembered as the generation of executives who stood on the sidelines as the future “happened to us”, or do we want to be remembered as those who finally took a grip of the steering wheel and actually changed the game?Music Business Worldwide
