Frequently asked questions

Getting your music placed in visual media — film, TV, ads, trailers, games. You license the song for the placement (the sync fee) and earn backend royalties every time it airs. It's one of the few ways independent artists get paid real money without a label.

Get pitch-ready first: instrumentals, clean edits, stems, metadata, signed splits, one-stop clearance. Then pitch — short, one streaming link, say why it fits. And keep pitching. Placements go to the catalogs that stay in motion.

The person who chooses the music for a film, show, ad, or game. They take the brief, find the songs, clear the rights, and make the story land. They're who you're really pitching — learn what they look for and make their job easy.

It ranges wildly — a few hundred for small placements, tens of thousands for major ads and trailers, plus backend royalties that pay for years. One good TV placement can quietly pay you longer than a streaming hit.

No. Plenty of placements go to independent artists pitching directly. A good publisher or agent helps at scale — but never sign anything, or give up a cut, before you understand exactly what they're doing that you can't.

A pitch-ready catalog: your strongest 10–20 tracks, each with an instrumental, clean edit, stems, lyrics, complete metadata, signed split sheets, and one-stop clearance. If any piece is missing when a supervisor asks, the moment passes.

Short and respectful. One streaming link (like DISCO) — never attachments. Say what the song is, why it fits, and that it's a one-stop. Then leave them alone. Cold pitching rarely works on its own; the real move is following their work, staying current on what they're scoring, and showing up with thoughtful comments over time so they know your name before you ever pitch.

A song where one person or team controls 100% of the rights — master and publishing — and can say yes on the spot. Supervisors live on deadlines. If your song needs five clearances, they'll take the one-stop that sounds just as good. Get your splits signed before you pitch, not after someone asks.

The sync fee is the upfront payment to license your song. Backend royalties are performance royalties collected by your PRO every time it airs — a TV placement pays backend for years. Both matter, but backend is where a single placement quietly compounds.

The song plus everything a supervisor needs to say yes fast: instrumental version, clean edit, stems, lyrics, complete metadata, signed split sheet, and one-stop clearance. If any piece is missing when they ask, the moment passes. Get pitch-ready before you pitch, not during.

Ten to twenty of your strongest — not a hundred. Supervisors don't have time to dig; curation is the pitch. Every track should be pitch-ready with its instrumental and metadata ready to go.

No. Most pitching is non-exclusive — you keep your rights and pitch the same songs to multiple opportunities. Never give anyone exclusivity on your catalog without a real reason and a real advance attached.

There's a line. Disclosed, legitimate AI-assisted work is one thing; passing off fully AI-generated tracks as human-created is another. Supervisors can tell the difference, and trust is the currency. Use AI as a tool, not a ghostwriter.

Completely normal. Supervisors get hundreds of pitches per brief — silence usually means "not this one," not "never." Log what you sent and move on to the next brief. The catalog compounds; the individual pitch doesn't need to.

Feed is a curated board of real, active sync licensing opportunities for serious artists, plus a music supervisor directory and a submission tracker. We gather opportunities from public sources into one place and update them regularly. Access is a one-time $50 payment, and it's free for members of HRDRV.

Feed is a one-time payment of $50 for full access — not a subscription. Members of HRDRV get Feed free and keep it even if they leave. We never charge to submit to an opportunity and never take a cut of your placements — you secure placements on your own, directly from the opportunities posted here. Feed is the directory, not a middleman.

If you're actively pitching for sync, Feed saves you the hours it takes to hunt down legitimate opportunities and helps you track what you've submitted. It's built for independent and DIY artists who want real leads without gatekeeping or per-submission fees.

We gather opportunities from publicly available sources — public calls for music, supervisor and company posts, and open library submissions. We don't republish paid or members-only briefs, and we don't pull from private emails or closed groups. Every opportunity links back to its original source.