Concord Music Publishing’s UK Sync Division Launches Inaugural 'The Scoring Sessions'

Last month, Concord Music Publishing hosted the first in an innovative series for their writers exploring music composition for moving images – The Scoring Sessions. The inaugural session focused on advertising and was held in partnership with leading music supervision agency Native Music at their studios in Soho and included Concord songwriters Darryl Reid (Dopamine, Iggy Azalea), Rob Turner (Go Go Penguin) and Ben Garrett/Fryars (Mark Ronson, Pharrell Williams, Rae Morris). 

Starting off with a virtual meeting where the Concord writers were supplied with a brief and edits of commercials from leading brands, they were walked through the creative and technical aspects of bespoke composition for advertising with just 48 hours to turn in their work (emulating real world scenarios). Feedback by Dan Neale and Fred Ashworth from Native was given followed by a final viewing session at Native’s studio. 

The sessions have been designed by Concord to continue growing the connections and relationships between music and the world of sync.

Sara Lord, SVP international sync and project development at Concord Music Publishing comments: “Everyone wants a sync for their song, but a lot of our writers are also keen to get involved in working directly to picture – whether that is for adverts, film, telly or video games… So we’ve launched a series of sessions to help with that process. There is a lot to it and if we can facilitate giving them the edge then that we shall – it’s what we are here for. 

Partnering with Dan & Fred at Native was a no brainer for the first one – they are total pros in this world and even our more seasoned writers have taken a lot from it.”

Dan Neale and Fred Ashworth at Native comment: “We have often worked with artists for bespoke composition or re-records, and although it has been successful the same questions regularly arise. For someone who writes primarily for themselves or other artists there are understandably gaps in knowledge about what is required when writing to picture. It is of course closely related, but it requires a different way of applying their musical skill. So, it was both exciting and interesting for us to have the chance to work with song writers and help them bridge those gaps, as well as give them a realistic overview of what the process can be like.”

Concord Music Publishing writer Ben Garrett/Fryars reflected, “It was a pleasure to meet the Native lot and hear them shed light on what goes on behind the scenes after you’ve pitched something. I found it fascinating to listen to the variation across several compositions in response to a very detailed brief”

Rob Turner, also on the Concord roster added: “This was something completely different to how I normally approach making music.  It was such a great opportunity to learn first-hand from the pros at Native who shared so much fantastic knowledge and to see how much work goes into this side of the industry. I can’t listen to an advert in the same way."

Joe Skinner, sync associate at Concord Music Publishing summarises: “The Concord Sync team are always looking for proactive ways to help our writers get more of their music used in TV, Film and Advertising. Our US team have hosted multiple sync writing camps over the years, which have been hugely successful both creatively and financially. We wanted to open another avenue/income stream… 

Before joining Concord, my background was in music production and bespoke composition for advertising, and I wanted to find a way to use this experience. The emphasis of these sessions is composing directly to picture, rather than writing 3-minute tracks that are “sync-friendly”. Although the concepts have similarities, there are certain elements of writing to picture that make the composition process completely different”.

Further Scoring Sessions for TV and Film will be held later this year.