No. 13Financial Terms
Sync Fees
Also called synchronisation fees, sync licensing, TV/film placement fee, sync revenue
Fees paid when your recording is licensed for use in film, TV, advertising, or games.
Watch closely
Labels typically control sync licensing for master recordings; artists should negotiate approval rights and fee splits.
- Appears in
- Recording Agreement, Publishing Deal, Licensing Agreement
- Topic
- Licensing Income
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- Reviewed
- July 2026
In plain English
A synchronisation (sync) licence allows a third party to pair your recording with visual content. Both the master recording owner (label) and the publisher (song owner) must licence separately. Fees vary enormously, from a few hundred dollars for an indie film to six figures for a major ad campaign.
Why it matters
Sync placements can be transformative for an artist's career and income. Labels often control sync licensing for recordings and take a significant commission. Knowing your approval rights and fee split is critical.
Where it can land
The same clause is drafted three ways. These are the positions we see, worst first, so you can tell at a glance which one is in front of you.
- Label can licence recordings for sync without artist approval, including for controversial products
- Artist receives no share of sync fees (all retained by label as master owner)
- No blacklist of prohibited sync uses (e.g. political advertising, alcohol, weapons)
- Artist approval required only for 'derogatory' uses, definition is vague
- Sync fee split of less than 50/50 to artist
- Artist approval required for all sync placements above a defined fee threshold
- 50/50 or better sync fee split to artist
- Explicit blacklist of prohibited product categories (alcohol, tobacco, political, weapons)
The language
The drafting language and the negotiation moves for this clause are part of the workspace.
You have read what the clause means and where the risk sits. The rest is the side-by-side of how it reads when it is against you and when it is not, plus the specific moves that get it there.