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Brands & Merch Business News Labels & Publishers
UK sync revenues up as latest Hollywood mission kicks off
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 13 July 2015
It has to be said, record industry trade body BPI has become very stat happy of late. Rarely a week goes by without one percentage or another leaking out of the BPI’s County Hall HQ. Some just slip into the Thames unnoticed, others become front page news. This is the way it works with sneaky stat snacks of course. I know this because someone was talking about it the other day on FlibFlob.
Anyway, today’s big fat stat of the day is that the UK record industry’s sync income was up 6.4% in 2014 generating revenues of £20 million, which we possibly already knew but that figure is especially relevant this week because over 40 British indie labels, publishers and artist managers are embarking on the UK industry’s annual sync junket to Hollywood – I mean, the annual UK Trade & Investment-backed ‘LA Sync Licensing Mission’ – meeting up with some of those big fat music supervisors in movie land. And the super thin ones too. But mainly the big fat ones.
I said ‘big fat’ a lot in that paragraph didn’t I? I better distract you with the news that Queen won the Big Fat Sell Outs Award for 2014 by having the most ad syncs in the UK, they helping to flog Tesco, Furniture Village and Thomson holidays. Rock n roll. Though Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse Of The Heart’ was the most synced individual song, it having been used by Innocent Drinks, Toyota and Cadbury’s. So, that’s nice, isn’t it? Good old Bonnie Tyler.
Tesco, by the way, bought in no less than 44 syncs last year, according to adbreakanthems, doing its best to sully the work of Billy Swan and Paolo Nutini, as well as the late great Freddie Mercury. So well done Tesco. And all hail the sync! Let’s all invest some more blood, sweat and tears into matching the most inspiring of all lyrical devices with the best in beats and awe-inspiring melodies. And do it quickly please. Tesco has some more frozen chickens to sell and needs something new by tea time.
Says BPI boss Geoff Taylor: “Clinching a sync deal in the entertainment capital of the world can transform an artist’s career literally overnight and launch them to a new global audience. Through the BPI’s annual trade mission with the Music Publishers Association and UKTI, we can help artists and the labels and managers who invest in them by introducing them first-hand to Hollywood royalty at media giants such as NBC Universal, CBS and Walt Disney”.
He adds: “The networking opportunities we offer are second to none and open up the way for smaller companies to compete with international players to place music on American cult TV programmes, blockbuster movies, popular adverts and interactive video games. The revenues from sync complement other revenues from CD sales, downloads, streams, concert tickets and other business areas. Combined, they add up to support future investment in music and to boost the contribution that the music industry makes to the UK economy”.
And now let’s all take a few minutes away from the hussle and bussle to enjoy the greatest supermarket/music alliance ever:
