“Sync Summit Hollywood” Preview – 5 Questions for Founder Mark Frieser

What’s the current state of sync? Mark Frieser, founder of the upcoming Sync Summit Hollywood, has two ways to answer that question.

Attendees are a big part of the action at SyncSummit.

One is with his sharp insights for our “Five Questions With…”, where this multitasking synchronization rights professional shares his 360-degree view on the industry.

Second is with Sync Summit Hollywood itself, the second edition of this semi-annual series that he launched with a bang in June, in NYC.

Following up on that successful maiden voyage, Frieser is inviting all whose careers touch music + picture to attend December 4-5, at The Roosevelt Hollywood. He’s got many of the best that the West Coast has to offer – LOTS of music supervisors, record label pros, advertising execs, production music creators, and many more – under one roof.

But it’s all the participants of a Sync Summit that are the actual stars of the show. That’s because not just meeting, but making deals is encouraged. It’s the undercurrent of what’s going on – a marketplace for content creators both visual and musical to start dynamic new projects on the spot.

If the NYC experience was any indication, LA music supervision aficionados are in for a power-packed 48 hours. Visit here to register, and follow along with Friezer to hear What It’s All About.

Why did you found the Sync Summit — what makes this a different event than some others that are focused on music & licensing?

Simply put, I wanted to create an event that I would want to attend.

Let me explain.  I work in sync both on the buy (production) and sell (management of acts, working with rights holders) side of music in digital and interactive media, and I felt that most of the events I attend and speak at, while not bad, didn’t really speak to issues of importance to people in the business: like music’s importance in a narrative, its power to promote artist and build audience and most important, what are the business models people are using, what are the best practices and enabling companies and technologies that can help buyers and sellers get together.

In fact, I think that most events do one of two main things when it comes to sync.

On the one hand, there are events that are designed to educate creators and rights holders in the ins and outs of the business – a sort of “Sync 101” with a bit of time to pitch to beleaguered music supervisors.

On the other hand, there are events that are really high level or more generalist, and have the obligatory sync panel because all the kids are doing it, and they usually speak on a very general level without getting into the most important issues in the business for people in the business.

Sync Summit is different.  It is meant to be a forum where the people who make and use music for visual and interactive media – most of whom have some experience in the business, can discuss the creative, business and promotional aspects of music, whether original composition or existing tracks, on a higher level – people already doing business in the market or those who are looking to have a more direct and deep understanding of the sync and music market.

This focus on higher level dialog, combined with the integration of many opportunities before, during and after the event to make connections, discuss issues and make deals is the emphasis of the event.

Mark Frieser, Founder of Sync Summit.

Also, and this is very significant, I wanted to build an event with more music supervisors than any other event, because at the end of the day, they are the market makers, and they are the people that we need to listen to and connect with in order to ensure that rights holders and creators within do with is necessary to get placed.

From there, who is the Sync Summit for?

See above.  Well, you can infer that the crowd is more B2B-oriented than many sync events, though it provides incredible value to everyone from the composer or artist just starting out in sync to the most seasoned music executive.

The reason that it does this is because we make sure we bring the market makers together with the owners and creators to discuss what they do and how they do it – and what it is they are looking for.  You hear more at our event about how the business works from the people that run the business, and you get to meet them in a way that is both comfortable — for them — and productive — for you.

So at the end of the day, the event is targeted at music supervisors, producers, creators, artists and libraries – and the people that help facilitate deals.

You held the first Sync Summit in June in NYC. What did you learn from launching that event?

If there is some kind of a personal takeaway from the event we did in June, it is that there is a lot of evolution in the sync market, that’s dynamic, growing and changing – and if you are a part of it, it behooves you to keep current with the ways and means the people in visual/interactive media use to get their jobs done.

In terms of event highlights – well, it is always fun to hear what people do and how they do it, and there was a lot of that – from learning about the evolution of the market from people like Robert Kraft to hearing the latest from PJ Bloom how he does his job and what he’s looking for – all of that is great – but what really excites me as a person in the market and event organizer is when people come back to me and tell me about the deals they’ve done and the new music/musicians and rights holders they have connected with.

For me, that’s what it’s all about.  Learning and making deals – everything else is just a means to an end.

Will Sync Summit Hollywood be the same experience, just on the West Coast?

Similar but different. As someone who has produced more than 200 events in my career, I’ve learned that when it works, you keep what works and then build upon it.

What we learned from our attendees and speakers was that people desired more facetime, more connections and more real dialog.  Also, people wanted to hear from the market makers and creators how they do their jobs and how and why they used certain pieces of music (e.e., like why did “Breaking Bad” use a track in a particular scene to illuminate the dialog), so we’re making sure that this event places more emphasis than New York on:

— Case studies dissecting how music and narrative blend to tell a story
— Workshops with key industry players to build dialog, enable dealmaking and create new connections
— Discussion of business models that work in the marketplace

So, like anything else that works, you constantly iterate and improve upon what you are doing to make it better.

What makes music supervision a particularly dynamic & fluid field now?

Well, that’s a good question, and I hesitate to provide an answer as I think many will have their own opinions.

That said, strictly from my personal perspective, I believe that the thing that makes music supervision and the music and media market so interesting now is that people are paying more attention to it than ever before – as a fulcrum for artist promotion, as revenue source and as another creative avenue for rights holders.

The market is expanding rapidly in terms of volume – across media there’s more video production and more interactive ventures than ever.  And that means more opportunity for people that have music that works for media.  That’s great.

Deconstructing real-world sync scenarios, from shows like “Breaking Bad”, will get a heavy emphasis.

At the same time, budgets will always be squeezed, the volume of players in the market mean there’s constantly downward pressure in costs and competition is greater than ever.  That’s why you should have every technical, intelligence and networking tool at your disposal.

And where will we see the most change?  They’ll be more use of online marketplaces, technologies, downward pressure on a per-cost basis and more volume from interactive efforts.

Sounds like you’re interested to hear what comes out of the LA event.

I believe — and what I see proves this out — that the market belongs to those that are talented and nimble.

People who take the time and do their research to understand the marketplace and then react to it on a business level will be the most successful, and attending events like Sync Summit can help both buyers and sellers to do business, assess challenges and opportunities and ultimately make the most of the evolving Sync Market. I hope we’ll see you all in LA on December 4-5.

– David Weiss is the Founder/Editor of SonicScoop, and co-author of the book Music Supervision: Selecting Music for Movies, TV, Games & New Media.

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