Sync continues to be an important source of income for rightsholders and musicians alike, and in recent years there has been a succession of startups and new agencies bringing new ideas to the sync business.
At our Music Ally NEXT conference in June, we’ll be holding a panel on ‘Sync’s New Frontiers’ to discuss where the most interesting new opportunities are, as well as what technology and processes can help the sync business become even more efficient.
Ahead of that event – you can get your tickets for the 18 June conference here, by the way – here are some of the trends and companies that have been on our radar in recent times.
Automated clearance and fractional rights
Red tape is a headache for anyone involved in clearing music for syncs, which leads into the pitch from numerous startups who think they can ease the pain.
- Chordal has its ‘InstantClear’ API that helps rightsholders to pre-clear their individual shares of music, in turn enabling brands to license tracks instantly.
- Soundstripe has been going since 2016 as a music-licensing company, but has made some big moves recently: for example acquiring The Rights, which built a platform to automate the process of fulfilling sync-licensing requests, in 2025.
- Ringo automates the advertising sync workflow by letting agencies upload a Spotify playlist to instantly receive ballpark pricing and clear tracks.
- ClearBeats aims to enrich catalogues by clearing derivative rights – think covers, remixes, samples… – at the point of inception before track distribution.
Creator economy and micro-syncs
The explosion of user-generated content on platforms like TikTok and YouTube has created a demand for high-volume, affordable, and “takedown-proof” music – and a flurry of companies looking to meet that demand.
AI, matching and brand intelligence
Gut feeling has as much of a role to still play in sync as it does in the A&R field, but that doesn’t mean data can’t be used too: using machine learning, fan analytics and tracking in inventive ways.
- EightSix is an agency that uses machine-learning tech to analyse a brand’s “music DNA” in order to guide its choices of music for syncs, as well as artist partnerships.
- Acrylic is a brand new venture just emerging from beta, but its founder has outlined its plans: helping sports teams to “find the right, culturally-charged music for their social content”.
- SyncIt has a catalogue of syncable electronic-music tracks, but also uses AI to smarten up the process of searching through its selections. It’s also founded by an artist: Nathan Duvall of Disciples.
- Aims and Cyanite are two of the most prominent players in the AI-powered search space, helping rightsholders optimise their catalogues with metadata to ensure licensors can easily find the gems.
Marketplaces and new collectives
Even in what you’d think of as the ‘traditional’ high-end sync market, there are new companies and ideas coming through. Here are some examples of those.
- Catalog is a sync-licensing marketplace launched by music-supervision firm Too Young, which signed up an impressive roster of independent labels – Warp, Ninja Tune, Partisan Records, Beggars Group, !K7 and more.
- Aura is in a similar ballpark in its nature: a ‘sync collective’ launched by the music supervision studio of the same name, with Accidental Records, Mesh, Erased Tapes, Tonal Union, Black Element and Nomark among its partners.
- Synclicity is another recent launch targeting high-volume sync opportunities for emerging artists, with gaming and short-form video among its targets.
- Maia Universe hails from Sweden, and boasts local music royalty among its investors: songwriter and producer Max Martin.
- Hoopr Smash launched in 2025 out of Indian music-licensing firm Hoopr as a self-serve marketplace for brands, agencies and influencers alike to license film and regional music for their projects.
This is just a snapshot of some of the sync startups and agencies we’ve been tracking. To follow the discussion around this topic at Music Ally NEXT in June, get your tickets here.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source musically.com ’
