Sounds Like Publishing is on the Music Makers’ Side

When was the last time you saw an ad and thought, “this would be better if it didn’t have music?” Maybe you can think of a time when an ad’s visuals (or even the product itself) just didn’t appeal yet you found that you were tapping your foot to the rhythm of the music or humming along to the tune. It’s become a truism that music is often one of the last aspects a client will consider, especially when time is running out and budget has already largely been spent. Yet an ad without music, be that an original track or an element of sonic branding, will always feel incomplete.

This is all to say that music is exceedingly important to the success of an ad. Behind the music are its makers and, the truth is, they don’t always get their dues. To counter this, and to ensure that the composers and companies making music can continue to do so for a long time, Sounds Like Publishing (SLP) is here to track down the royalties rights owners deserve. In business since 2011 (the company originated in Amsterdam and established a presence in London in 2014), the company is offering a “niche service”, according to the UK managing director Steve Joyce. The company’s steadfast aim is to “maximise global broadcast royalties for media and advertising.” That may sound simple enough, but Steve is quick to point out the major challenges that stand in the way.

Major challenges

The first challenge is that reporting music for advertising doesn’t function in the same way as reporting ‘traditional’ music from major labels, so the royalties can’t be collected in the same way. The performing rights organisations (PROs) and societies, which are typically responsible for said royalties – like PRS, GEMA, SACEM – are all well over 100 years old, with some getting closer to the 200 year mark. “These are legacy organisations,” comments Steve, “and whilst they have evolved hugely and do a great job by and large, it’s easy to forget they were originally set up to deal with the likes of Brahms and Wagner. These days it’s for Ed and Taylor, not really for advertising jingles.” As such, advertising music isn’t taken that seriously, it’s not a priority for the collection societies translating to lack of royalties for the makers of that music. “We’re having to work at a granular level to get people paid,” Steve adds.

The second challenge is awareness that making music for advertising entitles one to royalties. SLP looks after over 200 clients comprising of music companies, brands, and libraries alongside individual composers. The process of tracking down royalties is the same for each client, though it’s not just a case of registering a work and waiting for the money to roll in. “There’s a lot going on behind the scenes and many hoops to jump through, along with different rules and regulations in each territory be considered. It’s time-consuming work that needs a lot of attention – this is time that our clients can better spend on their own creative work.”

SLP has been fighting the good fight for a while now though Steve points out that change in the industry moves at a glacial pace. Plus, not all countries even pay royalties for advertising. “I think there are about 38, maybe 40 countries globally that do pay. Canada has started to in the last year; Italy doesn’t, South America (the biggest global advertising market) does not. So, what we’re dealing with is a small number of major territories like the USA, UK and Europe.” Though so much of advertising is currently for online and digital spaces (with this set to only increase), there are no royalties to collect – this means that makers only have broadcast television to rely on. And with broadcast’s own move into digital, a big question looms for Steve and SLP: “How are these people going to make any money?”

Royalties are a lifeline

The only royalty streams for composers in this field are linear TV, radio, and cinema. That’s not YouTube, not TikTok, or any other social platforms where ads may appear. “Overall, there needs to be a change in policy,” says Steve. “The industry is acknowledging that there’s a problem but, for example, on demand digital TV channels currently don’t pay out royalties for commercials. We’re told that PRS [a British music copyright collective] is going to start asking them to include advertising reporting when their broadcast licenses come up for renewal, which may not be for another three or four years.”

Every time an ad with music is played it generates a royalty because broadcasters are paying for the music’s use. Yes, the royalty rate for each individual broadcast is miniscule, but it suddenly starts to add up when you have 50,000 broadcasts in a dozen or so territories. That’s why SLP is working hard to ensure that the music is registered correctly, all around the world. “We’re tracking it. We’re on top of the ads being broadcast and on top of getting our composers and clients paid for the use of their music.”

Steve doesn’t mince words when saying that “making a living in music is really hard.” He adds: “If composers aren’t paid that much upfront for the work, then we need to make sure that they’re getting everything possible on the back end”.

The new (except not really) thing in the industry is sonic branding. Think the distinctive Netflix ‘tudum’ or the McDonald’s ‘whistle’. SLP has seen the rise of sonic branding as an area of business interest in recent years. “It might be three seconds of music but we’re going to track it around the world and get its creator their royalties,” says Steve. As the examples demonstrate, just three seconds of sonic branding can become iconic for the brand – even more so than the visuals – so why shouldn't the creators behind them get their dues?

Residuals can be a lifeline for a lot of creatives. The recent SAG-AFTRA strike looked to negotiate with streaming services, who don’t currently pay residuals to actors, about the issue. Many actors pointed out that if it wasn’t for residual cheques from early on in their careers, they may have left the industry. Pedro Pascal, one of the biggest actors in the world right now, said of his career: “My entry-level lasted about 15 years [...] when I had less than $7 in my account. A residual from ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ showed up and saved the day. It literally is the reason I was able to stay in [Hollywood] and not give up.”

Steve saw how the residuals became a lifeline for many during covid. “New production dried up overnight and so many of our client companies and individuals had practically no ‘new work’ income. The residuals helped them to pull through, everyone’s still in business,” Steve can report.

The value of music

So how does SLP actually track where the ads are broadcast? There are many strands to this. There are tech platforms in place to help, obviously, but these are additional tools rather than fix-all solutions ensuring that music makers to get paid. BMAT is one piece of software helping SLP track royalties; once an audio file is uploaded, it reports on everywhere the audio is going out. “It’s really, really useful,” Steve says, “though you still need to translate that to what the societies need in order to release royalties for payment. The rest of the work is not glamorous. It’s hundreds of emails asking for 30 seconds of music to be changed on a cue sheet, and chasing to make sure it’s done, then supplying PROs with supporting broadcast data and licenses to prove the music was used and they’re accounting the right number of broadcasts. There’s nothing high-tech here, it’s a lot of metadata and manual work.”

It may sound like SLP is fighting an uphill battle but it’s one they’re not going to give up on. Change, though slow, is happening. Irma Holmgren Holm, head of operations, is excited that the company is having conversions that will nudge the industry away from “a legacy mentality, an if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it mentality,” when – clearly – the way things are now is only working for a select few. “The conversations are long and slow and difficult; we’re pushing for these issues to be addressed and considered, which hopefully can garner a result that better reflects the state of music and sound in advertising as it is today, like getting composers paid for online streaming, for example,” Irma says. SLP plans to continue honing and refining what it currently does to help music makers have their source of income be a sustainable one.

Steve notes that some composers don’t even know they’re entitled to royalties, particularly in the US where they may not even know their work is broadcast internationally – that’s how devalued music in advertising is. “We’re talking about billion-dollar brands making money from the music created for their ads. Yet the people who made the music are often unaware that they could be making an income from all the territories that the ad has been broadcast in when they should be collecting those royalties,” Steve says.

Changing entrenched industry behaviours is no small task and SLP is aware that it’s going to take time; it’s up for the challenge. Why? Because no one ever said, “this ad would be so much better without music.”