The difference Between a Sync Agent and a Publisher

Pro Songwriting Masterclass | Mark Garfield (POP-UP Music Sync Agency: Quentin Tarantino ...)

So yeah, the difference between a sync agent and a publisher. So just wanna sort of clear this up a little bit. So the,  the difference can be a  sync agent will be solely an agent, which, pitches your music for opportunities, and only works on the, an upfront fee, basis. So what does that mean? So that means that if your song gets into a TV show and there’s a fee, then the sync agent will take that fee.

Now, in terms of any backend royalties, that sync agent is not a publisher, it’s not a music publisher, it doesn’t publish your music, so it will not take any percentage of the, the backend royalties. So it’s only on the upfront fees. So that’s, how, you know, a sole sync agent earns its money is by, by those upfront fees.

So, you know, let’s say XY, Z show on Netflix pays out $10,000. and the deal  usually with a sync agent will be a 50 50 deal on upfront fees. So that sync agent will  earn $5,000, and then the other 5,000 will go to the right. and if the  sync agent doesn’t have publishing attached to the deal, then that’s the only money they will earn.  Now,  if  you look at a publisher, so a publisher  might not be the agent, so let’s say the syn agent about publishing  pictures, the song which goes into the show,  and it has,  the writer has a publisher attached to, to that song.

 So then that publisher will earn, like, the writer will earn royalties off the backend, depending on the deal, with the writer, the, the publisher might get part of the sync fee or not.

So it just depends on, on what, what deal the, the writer has, whether or not they’re just doing administration or whether they actually do pick up on sync fees as well, regardless of whether they as a publisher, got the, got the job in the first place.  So, so  yeah, that’s the publisher. And then what you, you get with, with, in our case with popup music, we have, a hybrid, arrangement where we are a sync agent  and we are the publisher.

 So within our deal, typical deal, we, we sign you exclusively, and I’ll talk about the difference between non-exclusive and exclusive in a minute. But, if you sign an exclusive deal with us as, as, as a sync agent and publisher,  then we will get the upfront fee, for the sync work that we get.

So let’s say that’s the $10,000. So again, the, the, the percentage will be 50 50, so 5,000 would go to us, 5,000 would go to you, the artist. and then in  this particular case,  because there’s publishing attached,  the  publishing, a part of the publishing share will come to us as your publisher because that’s the arrangement that, that we signed with you being your sync agent and your publisher.

 And, we would then collect, in, in this instance, the split is 70 to the artist and 30 to, to the company, to the publisher. So the publisher would take 30% of the, of, of the, of the publisher’s share. and  that means that they would collect right across the board. So any sink or any, any form of publishing royalties that would be, would be earned by that song, in, in that case.

So yeah, that’s sort of the, the, the different sort of, setups you can come across. but the, yeah, the most common is just a sync agent. another most common is just a publisher and then companies like us a bit of a hybrid of the two things. we are a, a sync agent and a publisher.

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