SPECIALISTS IN FINDING AND
LICENSING SONGS FOR
ADVERTISING
Music Mill is a professional music supervision company – We have been delivering Music Search and Sync Licensing Services to the advertising industry in Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific Region since 1999.
WE HELP:
- Creatives by finding and licensing great songs to fit your advertising campaign brief and budget.
- Producers by doing the rights research, liaising with all the record labels, publishers and music managers and negotiating the music synchronisation licence – quickly, reliably, and professionally.
- Suits by improving the quality of the Work and reducing the risks of music supervision negotiations going wrong.
- Management by improving the quality of the Work and reducing the risks of music going wrong.
- Agencies by partnering on pitches. We provide free song advice and can provide timely music cost estimates for your proposed campaign.
OUR CREDENTIALS:
- We are the preferred music supervision partner for many premium brands and advertising agencies across Australia, New Zealand and AsiaPac.
- We have licensed well over $100M worth of songs via our Work, many by top shelf artists and writers.
- We have completed thousands of sync licence negotiations and delivered many hundreds of successful music searches for tracks to fit music briefs for advertising campaigns.
- Our clients value our professional and efficient service and specialised song advice for advertising. They keep coming back. But don’t just take our word for it, see some of our client Testimonials.
TESTIMONIALS
What our clients say about our work
“Bruce, you and the Music Mill team did a fantastic job for us on what was an incredibly challenging brief given the task of negotiating and licensing a relatively unknown Thai funk band for the BA AMEX campaign. We also had a challenging budget and timeline to contend with too, but at every step of the process you kept me in the loop and were always there as the brief evolved as they often do.”
Jeremy Dunn, Executive Producer, Hogarth Worldwide, UK
“It’s been lovely working with all of you, you make our lives so much easier, and we very much appreciate your endless advice and the huge amount of work that goes into finding great music tracks for us.”
Amanda Bennie, Senior Agency Producer, Ogilvy Sydney
“Bruce Tweedie and Music Mill are a fabulous resource for any commercial music challenge. Incredibly diligent, responsive and above all vastly experienced and knowledgeable, Bruce helps me navigate the arcane landscape of music searches and licensing with honesty and a great sense of humour. He tells it like it is and gets the job done.”
Matthew Jones, Head of Integrated Production, Unilever, Ogilvy, London
“Bruce Tweedie from Music Mill has an incredible contact list in the music industry and an in-depth knowledge about what might work for your project. Bruce was intuitively able to manage the music negotiations for this wonderful but complex project – his support and quick responses made us all feel in safe hands. He was professional at all times, and his attention to detail helped guide us through to a very successful outcome.”
Mignon van Weeren, Director of Broadcast, VMLY&R, Brisbane
“Bruce and the Music Mill team are amazing to work with. They’re responsive, collaborative and don’t beat around the bush. Their music knowledge and contacts mean clients get accurate information quickly. They hustle for their clients and always go the extra mile. I trust their advice and highly recommend using them for any music searches or licensing you need.”
Zoe Rixon, Senior TV Producer, M&C Saatchi, Melbourne
WHAT WE DO
FEATURED WORK
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
What is music supervision and how can Music Mill help with your project?
Music supervision involves finding and licensing the right music for a project. Specifically, it is the process of finding, selecting and placing music within various forms of media, such as film, television, video games, and advertising. At Music Mill, our team specialises in working with advertising agencies to deliver songs for advertising campaigns. We work with producers, creatives, and suits to help you find the right music track for your campaign. We liaise with global publishers and record labels and handle all the licensing negotiations and legal issues so that you don’t have to. This will save you time, shield you from complex and industry specific agreements, therefore, reducing the risks of making costly mistakes and also ensuring that your creative has the best possible soundtrack for the best possible deal.
What does a music supervisor do, and how does it differ from a composer or artist?
A music supervisor’s role is to work with film directors, producers, and creatives to identify the appropriate music for a given project and negotiate licensing agreements with record labels, publishers, and other rights holders. This is different from a composer, songwriters, or artist who writes and creates the music. Music supervisors work with record labels, publishers, producers, and composers to find the right music for a film, TV show, or advertising campaign. They handle the licensing and legal issues and ensure permission is secured from all appropriate parties, and that royalties are paid to the songwriters, composer, performing artists and any other parties. A music supervisor can negotiate a sync license for their clients for either the entire original song (so the master and publishing copyright) or just the publishing copyright (i.e. the music score and lyrics only) which could be used for a rerecord. A Music Supervisor would also negotiate and get approval for any lyric changes an advertiser might want to make to the song lyrics to re-record for their campaign.
How can Music Mill find the perfect music track for your project and handle licensing and legal issues?
Music Mill can find the perfect music for your campaign by working from a brief provided by the advertising agency. We call this a Music Search. Often the Creative teams would write the brief, and it would usually include an overview of the creative idea, a preferred music genre, tone or era, and they may be looking for a particular theme in the song – a word or emotion. Sometimes they would include reference tracks if they have a song in mind, but they do not have the budget for it or we know that song can’t be licensed. We then source a thorough list of possible songs from our global network of music publishers and record companies – these are relationships that we have nurtured over many years. We understand the industry and can handle licensing and legal issues that may arise, we navigate the minefield of music licensing and royalties, ensuring that your advertising project is compliant with copyright laws. This can save you an immense amount of time and ensure that the music selected for your campaign not only enhances your creative idea and production, but we also ensure that the sync license for your music is water tight and all your selected media for your campaign is ticked off within the license. This is absolutely critical, especially these days as media channels have become more and more fragmented and complicated. Missing something could be very costly for you and your client.
How much does a music Licence cost in Australia?
There is not an exact answer to this question. The cost of a music license in Australia varies greatly as there are many different factors that will determine the cost of a music license in Australia. Essentially, the major factor that you need to consider with determining the cost of a music license in Australia is firstly, the success of the music track you want to license i.e. how well known (or otherwise), is the track. For example, a massive Queen or Rolling Stones song is going to cost MUCH more than a local unknown Indie artist. But then, you also need to determine the other parameters that will form the price of the copyright license such as, in the case of an advertising campaign: the Territory the campaign will be run (National, or just NSW for example); how long the campaign will run for (the Term); all the media that will be used, and the length of the advertising executions (the Durations). The cost of the license will also vary depending on whether you want the full Master and Publishing rights, OR just the Publishing rights. This is really just a top level outline of the variables that will set the cost for a music license and some detail would change again if licensing for a TV show, film or event, so it can be very complex. It is important to understand how synchronisation licensing works, so we recommend you work with a reputable music supervision company to ensure that you are covering all the legal requirements and also getting a fair price for the use of the music you wish to use.
Why is it important to work with Music Mill to ensure the best music track for your advertising campaign and avoid potential pitfalls?
Music Mill specialises in music supervision for advertising. We have been doing it for over 22 years, so we are experts in the complexities of negotiating music licenses for advertising campaigns. We can source songs to meet your brief and provide free advice on the feasibility of tracks that you may already have in mind. We have nurtured long term relationships with a global network of music publishers and record labels, so we can provide song advice and raise any potential red flags for songs quickly and professionally. Music Mill has extensive experience in navigating the copyright approval process and we have stringent processes to ensure all aspects of a music license for advertising is covered and ticked off. We’ll shield you from the hassles along the way, whilst always keeping you informed – this added service can save you time and money and provide peace of mind. Music Mill makes the whole sync licensing process a whole lot easier and smoother, so you can focus on delivering the best ad for your client.