The Most Common Mistakes That Stop Artists Getting Sync Placements
- Matt Errington
- Nov 13
- 5 min read
Every artist wants to be in the best position possible to get a sync. It’s one of the few parts of the music industry where the right moment can change everything from credibility to visibility, income to momentum.
But here’s the part thats difficult to grasp sometimes. Most songs don’t get rejected because of the music. They get rejected because of everything around the music.
Splits. Metadata. Missing stems. Rights confusion. Poor communication.
Half the time, a supervisor never even gets to hit play because something in the backend breaks first.
I’ve watched brilliant tracks fall out of consideration for simple reasons that could’ve been fixed in an hour. And I’ve seen lesser known songs getting big sync placements because the team behind them understood the process.
Getting sync as an artist is much more about readiness than luck. So what goes wrong, and more importantly, how do we give the music a fighting chance.
No Clear Rights or Confusing Splits
This is the big one.
The silent killer of sync opportunities.
If a supervisor can’t instantly see who owns what, the song gets skipped.
They don’t have time to chase co-writers who “haven’t sent their splits yet.”
Production schedules don’t wait.
A track with unclear ownership is a legal risk.
A track with clean ownership is a green light.
What usually goes wrong:
Writers never agreed on splits
Producers don’t have a work-for-hire
Samples weren’t cleared
A vocal stem was taken from YouTube
A beat was downloaded under the wrong licence
A collaborator has disappeared
Publishing is split across too many societies
These issues don’t show up until someone wants to license your work, and by then, it’s too late.
Fix it:
Create a simple split sheet for every collaboration.
Agree early.
Store it somewhere safe.
This is why music publishing isn’t something artists “deal with later.”
It should be seen as the infrastructure that makes sync possible.
Inside Xpandr’s Music Publishing, Sync & Licensing and Music Supervision courses, this is one of the first things we fix... understanding rights so opportunities don’t fall through cracks you didn’t know were there.
Unclear or Missing Stems
Music supervisors live inside edits. They need to shape your song around dialogue, pacing, tension, timing, transitions. If you don’t have stems, your track becomes much harder to use. Not impossible, but harder.
And in sync, harder usually means “we’ll use something else.”
What usually goes wrong:
Stems were lost on an old laptop
Only the final bounce exists
Session files are a mess
No clean instrumental
No acapella
Producers didn’t export stems at the time
Fix it:
Create a stems folder for every track.
Label them clearly.
Back them up in two places.
A sync supervisor won’t chase you twice for a missing file.
Bad Metadata or No Metadata at All
This one is painful because it’s so avoidable.
I’ve seen songs miss opportunities purely because no one included the writer names in the file. Or the contact email was wrong. Or the distributor metadata didn’t match the publishing data.
Supervisors and sync agents search by metadata. If yours is messy, you’re invisible.
Minimum metadata to include:
Artist name
Track title
Writer names + percentages
Producer(s)
Contact email
Year
Genre / mood tags
If you can add tempo, key, instrumentation, and a short description of the vibe or emotional arc, even better.
A Track That Doesn’t Fit the Brief Emotionally
This is the misunderstanding that confuses most new artists and producers.
Supervisors rarely choose the “best” song. They choose the song that fits the moment... the emotion, the pacing, the timing, the subtext.
If your track is too dense, too busy, too dynamic, too lyrically specific, or emotionally mismatched, it might drop off the list.
What supervisors actually look for:
Mood consistency
Emotional flexibility
Space around the vocal
Themes that don’t conflict with the scene
Moments where music lifts, not competes
Lyrics that support the narrative instead of distracting
Sync-friendly music tends to be:
emotionally clear
lyrically broad
sonically spacious
confidently simple
There's space for all types of music for all types of purpose, so this isn't definitive, but more of a guide. Complex isn’t bad, it’s just often harder to use.
Sending the Wrong Songs to the Wrong People
A huge mistake: blasting your entire catalogue to every supervisor.
Supervisors want accuracy rather than volume.
If you send a dark, moody, cinematic brief and reply with your upbeat summer track… that might be the last time they open your email.
Fix it:
Send only what fits.
Two or three tracks max.
Explain why they align with the brief.
Respect the supervisor’s time, the project’s tone and the room you want to be invited into.
No Understanding of How Fast Sync Moves
Sync is often chaotic behind the scenes. Deadlines move. Edits change. Rights shift. Budgets collapse. Supervisors are juggling fire.
If you’re slow to send files, unclear with rights, or difficult to communicate with, they simply move on.
You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be responsive.
A simple, clear reply beats a fancy pitch every time.
Trying To Be “Unique” Instead of Useful
Some artists approach sync like a competition for originality. It’s doesn't have to be.
Supervisors don’t care if your track breaks new genre rules.
They care if it works in the story.
The best sync tracks aren’t the most experimental.
They’re the most usable.
They sit under dialogue.
They support tension.
They elevate emotion.
Think of sync music as storytelling support, not personal expression.
Your creativity still matters, it’s just serving something bigger than itself.
No Long-Term Visibility or Relationship Building
This is the part that most artists underestimate.
Sync is not transactional. It’s relationship-based. It’s trust-based.
Supervisors return to the same artists because they’re reliable, organised, communicative, and consistent.
If you disappear for six months, they forget you.
If you stay present... sharing new music, updating your catalogue, sending stems... you stay on the radar.
Long-term visibility beats one amazing track.
This is why your communication style matters just as much as your songwriting.
Treating Sync Like a Lottery Instead of a Process
Most artists think sync is random. It’s not. It’s structured. Predictable. Strategic.
TV seasons have cycles.
Advertisers have seasonal patterns.
Games have long development phases.
Supervisors search for certain moods repeatedly across the year.
If you understand the patterns, you can write music that actually solves problems supervisors face daily.
Inside Xpandr’s Music Supervision course, our tutor teaches this with real-world clarity - how decisions get made, how briefs evolve, what “usable” really means, and why timing matters as much as quality.
When you understand the system, you can stop guessing and start aligning.
Thinking Sync Is Only About One Song
Your first sync rarely comes from your favourite track. It comes from the one you didn’t overthink. The one with clean stems. The one with broad lyrics. The one with simple emotion.
Sync is volume.
Sync is catalogue.
Sync is consistency.
The artists who land placements aren’t the ones with one perfect song — they’re the ones with a library that supervisors can rely on.
Lets Fix the Mistakes Stopping Artists Getting Sync
Most sync doors don’t close because of talent but because of avoidable detail.
Clear rights.
Clean splits.
Organised stems.
Usable emotion.
Good communication.
Repeatable process.
If you fix these things early, you become someone supervisors trust, which is the real currency of sync.
If you’re ready to build the systems that make sync possible, this is exactly what we explore in Xpandr’s Music Publishing, Sync & Licensing and Music Supervision programmes.
We don’t just teach sync.
We teach the infrastructure that makes sync happen... legally, creatively, and professionally.
