Sync licensing companies: how they compare in 2026

"Sync licensing companies" is a catch-all that hides three very different business models. Pick the wrong one and you'll either pay 10x what you should or wait 6 weeks for a licence you needed yesterday. Here's the actual landscape. Note that a blanket licence from a body like PRS for Music does not cover sync — that is a separate clearance, as our step-by-step guide to getting a sync licence sets out.

The three models, in plain English

1. Traditional sync agencies

Boutique agencies (think Sugaroo, Brand New Music, Big Sync) represent artist catalogues and pitch them into brand briefs. They're best for big-budget national campaigns where a music supervisor wants curation, taste and a human relationship. Timelines are weeks. Commissions sit between 25% and 50% of the placement fee. Most won't quote anything under five figures.

2. Music libraries and stock catalogues

Subscription libraries (Artlist, Epidemic Sound, Musicbed and the rest) license large catalogues of mostly library-style music on annual subscriptions. Great for content volume, weak for distinctive brand work — the catalogue is engineered for breadth not voice, so the same tracks end up in thousands of ads. Pricing runs $200–$2,000 a year depending on tier.

3. Self-serve indie sync marketplaces

Platforms like Melody pre-clear independent music catalogues and let brands license per-track on demand. Flat pricing from $5. Sync + master bundled. Curated for distinctive, authentic indie sound — the opposite end of the spectrum from stock. Artists keep 75% of revenue; brands skip the negotiation entirely.

Side-by-side comparison

Directory of sync licensing companies

Below is a working directory of the companies brands and artists most often shortlist, grouped by the model they actually operate. Categories matter more than brand names here: two companies in the same row will behave in broadly the same way on price, speed and rights, even if their catalogues differ. Terms change, so always confirm current pricing and licence scope directly with the company before you commit.

Fees, artist splits and turnaround times compared

This is the table most comparisons leave out. Cost is only half the picture: what the artist actually keeps, and how long clearance takes, decide whether a company fits your campaign at all. Figures below are each company's publicly stated position at the time of writing (August 2026) — where a company does not publish a number, we say so rather than guess.

Melody is our own platform, so treat that row as what we offer rather than a neutral review. Everything else is summarised from each company's publicly stated licensing model and pricing pages; subscription tiers and negotiated fees change often, so confirm current terms directly before committing. Where a split is described as "not published", the company does not disclose a per-licence figure publicly.

How to read those numbers

• Subscription cost is not licence cost. A $250/year library subscription buys access, not a per-track licence — and most tiers cap the type of use (organic social vs paid ads vs broadcast) rather than the number of tracks.
• Agency commission comes out of the artist's fee. A $20,000 placement with a 40% commission leaves the artist $12,000 before publisher and label splits, which is why agencies only pursue larger campaigns.
• Turnaround is a production constraint. If your ad ships in five days, a company quoting two to eight weeks is not a candidate, whatever the catalogue sounds like.
• Transparent splits matter to artists choosing where to list. Pool-based library payouts are hard to forecast; a fixed percentage per licence (Melody pays 75%) is not.

A shortlisting checklist

Once you have two or three candidates, the differences that actually decide the job are rarely on the pricing page. Ask each company the same six questions and put the answers side by side:

• Does the fee cover both master and composition? If not, you have half a licence and a second negotiation ahead of you.
• What territory and term am I buying? A worldwide, in-perpetuity licence and a 12-month single-territory licence are very different products at the same headline price.
• Is the music exclusive to that company? Exclusive catalogues cannot appear elsewhere, but they can still appear in a competitor's ad on the same platform.
• What happens to my licence if I cancel? Some subscription libraries let published content stay live; others require the subscription to remain active.
• Do I get a certificate naming the track, licensee and use? Platforms and broadcasters increasingly ask for it during clearance checks.
• How long does clearance realistically take? Instant for libraries and marketplaces; weeks for agency-negotiated deals, which has to be built into your production schedule.

How to choose

Match the model to the brief, not the other way round:

• Super Bowl or hero brand film? Talk to a traditional agency. You want a music supervisor in the room.
• Cranking out 50 organic explainer videos a month? A stock subscription pays for itself.
• UGC ads, paid social, brand-led TikTok and YouTube? A marketplace gives you authentic indie sound, instant clearance and flat pricing — the only model built for the pace of modern paid creative.

What to avoid

• "Royalty-free" sites with no actual licence document — if there's nothing in writing, you're not licensed.
• Using TikTok's in-app library on a paid ad. It's not licensed for commercial use and your ad account is on the line.
• Agencies that won't show you the licence terms before you sign.

What "cleared" actually means

Every piece of recorded music carries two separate copyrights: the composition (the song itself — melody, lyrics, structure) and the master (the specific recording of it). A licence that only covers one of those is not a sync licence, it is half a licence, and it will not hold up if a brand's legal team checks. This is where a lot of confusion comes from when people compare companies purely on price.

Traditional agencies usually clear both rights because they represent labels and publishers directly and negotiate a single deal that covers the full use. Stock libraries generally hold both rights in-house because the music was written and recorded specifically for the catalogue, which is part of why it can sound generic. Marketplaces need to verify both rights before a track goes live — on Melody, an artist cannot list a track unless they control the master and the publishing, or have documented permission from every co-writer. That is also why covers, uncleared samples and AI-generated tracks built on copyrighted material are rejected outright: there is no clean rights chain to license.

Reading the pricing without getting misled

Headline prices across sync licensing companies are not directly comparable because they are quoting different things. An agency's $5,000+ minimum is a negotiated fee for a specific use — a 30-second national TV spot, say — and it typically buys exclusivity in a category for a defined term. A library's $200/year subscription is not a licence fee per track, it is access to a catalogue, and the fine print usually caps how many finished videos you can publish per year before you need a higher tier. Melody's flat pricing (from $5 for social use, from $25 for commercial use) is the actual per-track cost of a single, specific use, with no subscription and no minimum spend.

When you are comparing three companies side by side, ask what the quoted price actually buys: is it exclusive or non-exclusive, what territory and term does it cover, does it include both rights, and is there a cap on how the finished piece can be distributed. Two "$5,000" quotes with different answers to those questions are not the same product.

Common mistakes brands make when choosing a company

• Defaulting to a subscription library for hero creative. Library tracks are engineered for breadth, so distinctive brand work built on them tends to sound anonymous — and the same track can be running in a competitor's ad the same month.
• Assuming an agency quote includes the master. Some agency deals cover publishing only, with the master negotiated separately (and priced separately) with the label. Always confirm both are included in one number.
• Skipping the certificate. A verbal or emailed "yes" is not a licence. Reputable companies issue a document naming the track, the licensee, the use and the term — keep it on file for as long as the content is live.
• Choosing on price alone for legally risky use cases. Political ads, sensitive brand contexts or international broadcast usually need bespoke negotiation regardless of how cheap a marketplace licence looks — check the usage terms match your actual use, not just the price tag.

Frequently asked questions

About the Author

Samuel Olsson is the Head of Growth at Melody and the Managing Director of Kurve, an award-winning growth marketing agency. With over a decade of experience building scalable growth engines for tech companies, Samuel is now focused on solving the biggest problem in music: connecting the 90% of unheard artists with the brands that need their sound.

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