synch licensing

24 Nov 2025

Futures Music Group & 8 More Labels Strike Sync Licensing Deal With Chordal

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Chordal has onboarded Futures Music Group and eight additional music companies to its sync licensing platform, the company tells Billboard. The new deals follow major alliances with TikTok and Kobalt Music Group, both of which became Chordal clients over the summer.

Futures, an indie label collective co-founded by Neon Gold’s Derek Davies and Avenue A’s Dave Wallace, has a roster that includes Mt. Joy, Phantogram, Cavetown, The Knocks and Barns Courtney. The other new label partners include Nice Life, Phoenix Music International, Jazz is Dead, Unity Group, Pravda Records, San Juan Music Group and In Real Life.

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Cristela Alonzo

Chordal’s technology, including its pre-cleared licensing system InstantClear, is designed to streamline sync licensing for songs with multiple rights holders — making it easier and quicker for rights holders to approve their respective shares while also easing the process for brands and producers.

“Futures was built from the ground up to empower our artists and labels with access to the most innovative technologies and partners across the music and music tech ecosystems,” said Davies, co-CEO of Futures Music Group and founder of Neon Gold, in a statement. “Chordal is bringing new clarity and connectivity to the licensing space, pushing the sync industry forward faster than any other company and we’re thrilled to be a part of the amazing work they’re doing to streamline and maximize sync opportunities for artists.”

“We’re proud to welcome these incredible new partners to Chordal,” added Tilo Dell’Oro Maini, co-founder and head of catalog at Chordal. “Each new company that joins our platform helps us move the industry closer to a smarter, more connected, and more creative licensing ecosystem.”


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09 Oct 2024

Big Machine Label Group Launches Synch Division Led by Maria Alonte

Big Machine Label Group (BMLG) has launched a synch licensing division dubbed Big SYNQ and tapped Maria Alonte to lead it as senior vp of synchronization, the company tells Billboard. The new division will oversee all aspects of synch licensing and placement for Big Machine Label Group and its publishing division Big Machine Music, as well as work with HYBE North America, SB Projects and Quality Control Music.

Alonte is based in Los Angeles and reports to Big Machine Music president Mike Molinar and BMLG’s executive vp of label operations Clay Hunnicutt.

Prior to joining BMLG, Alonte was owner/president of music publishing and synch representation company Maria Alonte Music & Media. She also previously held roles including senior vp of music at MNRK (formerly eOne/Hasbro), senior vp of film & TV synchronization at Universal Music Group’s East Coast Labels (Republic, Island, Def Jam and Verve), and senior vp of film & TV at Prescription Songs.

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Also added to the BMLG team is sync coordinator Ariana Vargas, who will work alongside current director of synchronization Nicole Krolicki. The hires are part of HYBE America’s recently announced label-services division, which will provide labels and artists with end-to-end solutions in distribution, marketing and promotion.

“The growth of the team reflects the priority we are placing on sync and other offerings like creative original catalog,” Molinar said in a statement. “We are excited to aggressively grow the representation for Big Machine Music, Big Machine Label Group and our affiliated companies and offer bespoke music created by our writers and artists.”

“I am honored and thrilled to join Scott Borchetta, Mike Molinar and Clay Hunnicutt and everyone at HYBE, Big Machine and Quality Control in launching BIG SYNQ,” Alonte added. “There are endless creative possibilities ahead with these powerhouse rosters. Plus, the opportunity to work with such a dynamic and talented team is incredibly exciting!”

16 Apr 2024

Startup That Wants to Ease the Synch Licensing Process Announces Public Launch

The Rights, a synch licensing clearance platform, launched publicly on Tuesday (April 16) following a beta test period that involved participation from two major music companies, Kobalt Music Group and Believe. Founded by a team of synch and licensing veterans with funding from a motley cast of investors, executives and entrepreneurs, the company is trying to build a better mousetrap that simplifies a time-consuming process and, possibly, reduces the threat from emerging technology.

Created in partnership with Dequency, a blockchain-based synch licensing company, The Rights purports to be a useful tool to handle the increasingly high volume of synch licensing requests from small productions like limited-release films, podcasts, content creation and concert footage. The goal is to make the process easier at scale by allowing a track with multiple rights holders to be cleared in a single transaction.

“We can match the agility of production music libraries and one-stop catalogs, yet offer the pricing flexibility, consent rights and customized terms required to maintain the premium value of commercial music,” said Tres Williams, founder/CEO of The Rights, in a statement.  

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Williams is a former executive vp of business affairs at iHeartMedia who had similar duties at Thumbplay, a subscription music streaming service acquired by Clear Channel — later renamed iHeartMedia — in 2011. Williams is joined at The Rights by president Keatly Haldeman, who is founder/CEO of Dequency as well as co-founder/CEO of Riptide Music Group; and chief business officer Scott Marshall, another former executive at both iHeartMedia and Thumbplay.  

The Rights has raised $7.5 million to date from the likes of film and TV production company Spyglass Media Group; Endeavor Entertainment; venture capital firm Borderless Capital; blockchain developer Algorand; Grit Capital Partners; iHeartMedia chairman/CEO Bob Pittman; and Elon Musk’s siblings: entrepreneur Kimbal Musk and Tosca Musk, the latter a filmmaker and co-founder of video streaming platform Passionflix.   

Despite an explosion in opportunities for placement in streaming content, synch license revenue has grown at a slower rate than subscription streaming royalties. The global synch license market, as measured by the IFPI, grew 4.7% to $632 million in 2023 — a figure that covers recorded music only, not music publishing, and excludes production music libraries. That’s less than half the 11.2% growth in subscription revenue. In the United States, synch revenue grew 7.4% to $411 million last year, according to the RIAA, well behind the 10.6% growth in subscription revenue.  

Now, synch licensing faces a threat from the sudden rise of artificial intelligence-created music. The Rights warns that AI-created music could grow into a multi-billion-dollar business in less than a decade, “siphoning revenue away from the artists and writers of the world’s most-desired songs,” it said in a press release. While technology has transformed everything from music distribution to marketing, the process of clearing synch licenses remains “untouched by tech efficiencies,” Haldeman said in a statement. “Our goal is to create infrastructure for the industry to make the clearance process smooth for both rights holders and licensees.”