My work in sync

I am an expert and consultant in sync and music publishing, specialising in syncs for independent artists and labels. My focus is to help artists and labels break into sync on their own terms, guided by their own musical styles. Instead of teaching artists and producers how to be generic production music composers and writers, I aim to support their unique artistic vision.

With my extensive knowledge of sync music tech product development, I am able to oversee and develop strategies for artists, teams, and music tech startups.

B-DEM Records

My experience with the sync music industry began in 2011 when I started exploring options available for my record label, B-DEM Records (BDEM), and researching and learning about the ecosystem.

It didn’t take long before I was in multiple calls with potential sync agency partners to determine who would be the best choice to represent our catalogue.

Even at that stage, I was starting to get an idea of the technology surrounding music synchronisation. I was both bewildered by the complexity of it all, but also extremely eager to understand it and exploit it to its full potential.

Music Gateway

Fast-forward to 2018, and my label had been wound down, so I was seeking a job in the music tech industry.

After already building a relationship with them at BDEM, I took a job with Music Gateway to lead and develop their Customer Success department.

Here, I learned the complete ins and outs of music publishing, how to break into sync, and I built relationships with a large network of artists, songwriters, labels, publishers, production libraries, artist managers, and other music tech companies.

The Private Network

Later, I moved over to Music Gateway’s music library-focused enterprise product, “The Private Network”. There, I gained a unique insight into the workflows and core requirements of both major production libraries, as well as large and mid-to-small independents.

When my time with Music Gateway ended, I spent a short while consulting production music libraries on how to improve their sales and operations.

Vampr Publishing

My next significant role was to conceptualise, develop, and lead a completely innovative music tech solution for close to 1 million users. This solution solved a collection of known industry problems, including how to break into sync without having to pay to store files.

By late 2019-early 2020, I was a qualified expert in music sync technology and, having a background in speaking with tens of thousands of paying users for a music sync tech product, I knew exactly what the pain points were surrounding sync.

First and foremost, there was a big issue with the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) regarding the collection and management of metadata and deliverables.

Secondly, the subscription payment model for hosting files without any guarantee for pitching for sync didn’t serve tech product users to their full potential and left huge artist development opportunity gaps.

We conceptualised a new division of Vampr called Vampr Publishing.

This would be a hybrid model between non-exclusive music publishing and sync music tech, with an organic artist development path from a non-exclusive agreement to an artist-friendly single song assignment agreement, along with additional support for artist development.

I spent over 2 years dedicated to this product.

Highlights include:

Conceptualising, wireframing, prototyping, and launching the first version. This included a front-end built for users and a back-end built for A&Rs to quickly and efficiently reject or shortlist submissions and initial deal structures before being sent off to legal for finalisation.
Onboarding more than 15,000 artists and songwriters.
Accepting more than 50,000 songs.
Conceptualising, wireframing, prototyping, and pitching v2, including an opaque DISCO.ac API integration for delivery to agency partners, improved frontend UX, top-class data analytics on the backend, and mobile-based push notifications for briefs and catalogue building.
Securing syncs with top level TV shows and brands for completely undiscovered independent artists.
We proved we could help artists break into sync on their own terms, with a new non-exploitative model.