Bridging the Gap in African Music with Sync Licensing.

Written by: Allen Kwasi Adjei.

It is interesting to observe how many musicians break their backs just to be another musician trying hard to break into mainstream consciousness rather than being successful recording artists whose songs can become part of the cultural fabric worldwide through sync licensing.

The blissful alliance between Music and technology has boosted creativity, consumption, and revenue generation with ease but comes with a maze of regulations, especially for Indie Artists. African music has taken center stage, impacting Western music as it has always done. Nonetheless, beyond “Afrobeats to the world” are major challenges faced by the continent and its booming creative populace.

You should note that “music is business,” as its influence and reach over the years have gone beyond that of a hobby or a side hustle. Music and technology has unlocked additional revenue streams that musicians and their management can exploit to their advantage. The topic of digital streaming royalties has received a lot of discussions, but the interactive sector and the benefits it offers independent artists have received little to no attention. It is still abundantly clear that most DSPs’ streaming royalties have yet to accurately reflect the way of life and goals of independent artists, particularly those from Africa. Rob Jonas, the CEO of Luminate, reportedly gave a presentation at this year’s SXSW music festival detailing the staggering 38 million songs that were never played on streaming services. What this automatically means is that these songs yielded most likely nothing from streaming royalties the entire year.

A young live music sector that still faces difficulties with logistics, venues, minimal investment, touring, etc. adds to some of the difficulties the African music scene faces. The border between inadequate funding and ineffective marketing campaigns for artists’ new projects is constantly razor-thin, despite all of these, it continues to be puzzling why industry players have consistently minimized the possibility of Sync licensing. The topic of sync licensing is quite an extensive one, so we are going to explore what it is along with its possibilities in three parts. Through this piece, you get access to a wealth of information; evidently lagging within this system, to help renavigate the focal lens of industry players to channel energies to.

WHAT IS SYNC LICENSING?

Sync licensing is a music license granted by the holder of the copyright of a particular composition, allowing the license to synchronize music to some kind of a visual media project.For starters, having your music featured in any kind of visual medium enables it to reach wider audiences than ever before, which is invaluable for independent musicians whose work is frequently constrained by budget limitations when marketing on conventional platforms like radio or streaming services. Additionally, having your song featured in well-known movies or TV shows as well as on digital media sites like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc. grants you valuable industry credibility and may open up additional doors for you in the future, including record deals or opportunities for collaboration with other artists!

OPPORTUNITIES WITH SYNC.

A license must be obtained anytime music is synced to a visual medium to ensure that the composers’ consent has been obtained. Sync licensing is now a crucial component of music exploitation, If you’ve seen the 2017 musical/drama film ‘The Greatest Showman,’ where the song ‘Never Enough’ by Loren Allred was synced, or the iconic scene in Fast & Furious 7 where ‘See you again’ by Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth made headlines as being one of the most shazamed songs of all time, required a license to be synced.In Africa, the use of influencer marketing, brand affinities, and brand endorsement partnerships is still very much in its infancy. There is still a long way to go before businesses and artists can forge a powerful alliance that will serve as a catalyst for growth across the continent. The ability of management teams to comprehend the data around an artist’s career to increase fan conversion rates and brand affinity for mutual benefit between businesses and creators needs a serious overhaul, which is what sync licensing helps to address within the creative economy.