The world of music is infinitely assiduous. From composing the music and recording to finalizing the mix and publishing the results, a sustainable music career requires unfaltering focus and drive. It really is a tough business to survive in and so is the visual media industry. The systems and organizations are so complex and unstandardized that understanding the relationship between all the elements becomes difficult.
Individuals with prodigious minds and thorough knowledge of music and visual media continuously explore new ways to minimize the laborious and costly elements of media creation. They endeavor to simplify the industry to help it function better through the development of innovative technologies. Lionel Lodge (CEO and Co-Founder, SyncLodge) is one such innovator, implementing his creativity in building user-friendly, industry-supportive technologies.
Admirable History
Lionel comes from a long line of innovators and this born creative entrepreneur has a career filled with exploration and curiosity. His family tree has many creative and innovative branches including his great grandfather, Sir Oliver Lodge, who is recognized to be the first to prove wireless transmission was possible.
Born in Scotland, as a child Lionel was always in pursuit of finding ways to generate revenue in a positive-impact way. By the age of 11, he successfully started his first venture with an eco-friendly manufacturing and wholesale business. Having a heart for creativity, Lionel has always had a deep interest in music, learning different instruments, and performing. In his early 20s, he founded and managed a live music venue, Lionel’s, and then a booking agency, UK Bookings, that managed live appearances for hundreds of artists across the UK.
Moreover, Lionel held the position of Senior Editor and Co-Publisher of a UK-based entertainment magazine—NOW Magazine UK. He also served as Founder and Managing Director of a music sync licensing agency—Vienna Calling Music Network. Exploring his musical side, he’s written and co-written hundreds of songs as well as arranged and engineered recordings, produced albums, and performed thousands of shows in many countries.
The Inception of a Powerful Music Ecosystem
40 years of dedicated involvement in diverse sectors of the entertainment industries, Lionel recognized the flaws and pain points in the music synchronization licensing sector of the visual media industry. With the mission to replace the friction and barriers of entry with ease of flow for all in the industry, SyncLodge was established to help music supervisors, visual production teams, and copyright holders. It took over three years to build and refine the state-of-the-art, business-to-business set of tools. By studying and researching the international industry, the company has succeeded in a solution that alleviates the problems.
Inclusivity on a Global Level
It is easy to come up with a catchy tagline, however, it’s really hard to stand behind it. The SyncLodge tagline is “Pulling together so we all move forward”, and it really means all, on a global level. The tools SyncLodge has built help the creative workflow by providing robust music syncing management solutions. In-depth research and valuable advice from many key industry professionals have helped SyncLodge produce solutions. The company offers a complete system and innovative tools, with no membership, no subscription, and no sign-up fees, allowing full global inclusivity. Their intuitive ecosystem boosts clarity, efficiency, and creativity for all industry stakeholders.
Core Focus on Industry Needs
SyncLodge’s central focus is on the needs of the sync licensing music supervisor and their teams. They are the gatekeepers and the center of the industry. SyncLodge polled hundreds of music supervisors regarding their concerns which allowed the team to focus on the most beneficial tools to bring ease to this complicated industry. Its quintessential platform delivers a complete ecosystem simplifying the whole process, automating the monotonous tasks, and allowing the music supervisor to focus on the wonderfully creative process of bringing musical emotion.
Part of the puzzle was to enable fluidity and ease within the complete sync licensing workflow to help the visual media production teams. An innovative sync project management system integrates the requirements of all members of the project team. Moreover, to halt the pre-SyncLodge asset leaks that have plagued the industry, the file sharing and teams’ private communications security aspects have been implemented including extensive control over team member access permissions.
Music Administrative Advantages
The SyncLodge portal for copyright owners/administrators and composers provides many sync management tools. With SyncLodge working globally, membership really does expand the sync licensing and global reach of a catalog or composing service. When a music work is considered for sync placement in any territory of the world, clear and secure access is given to communicate directly with the copyright holder and/or composer. This builds direct relationships between the parties empowering many careers.
In A Time of Need
A journey from physical music production purchases to subscribed streaming services has brought a decimation of the independent artists’, labels’, and publishers’ revenue streams. The industry is in a perilous position as the existing models to generate a reasonable income force the creator to adjust their creative inspiration to current top playlists or Tik Tok viral video characteristics.
The only standing option for creators is sync licensing. When music supervisors are asked for advice on writing and producing music for sync placement, the answer invariably is “Don’t produce for sync! Authenticity is what works best for sync. Your story, your sound, your creative inspiration is what we are looking for.” Not only is a sync placement a great revenue generator it also has the potential to bring substantial marketing leverage to the artist.
Lionel and the SyncLodge team have realized the potential and creative freedoms sync brings to the future of music. If music is suitable for a placement, it should have equal opportunity to be considered regardless of where the creator is in the world, their level of fame, their financial leverage, or their number of likes on social media. This view is built into the DNA of the company and the structure of the system.
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