THE ART & BUSINESS OF COVER SONGS - SYNC LICENSING
Cover Songs play a huge part in the sync landscape for important reasons. Creatively, a fresh take on a familiar song adds the perfect relationship between familiarity and surprise to a scene in a film, a moment in a show, or the introduction of a brand experience. On the business side, a cover often costs less to clear than an original--and thus indies gain more opportunities. Two cover placements came out of our sync class over the last two rounds for some of our students, for instance.
Our guest in Placing Songs in TV, Film, & Commercials class Scott Simons flips covers for a living, reimagining songs you know well so that the version he arranges will not only reveal essential aspects of an artist, but it will have an immediate impact on an audience. As Assistant Musical Director for America's Got Talent and having also MDed for two more of the Simon Cowell shows where singers sing covers, it's Scott's joy and job to find the essential connection between the original song and the emerging artist who comes to offer their take. He's going to pull back the curtain on what he listens for and show us how to do that ourselves. And we'll talk about the craft implications for writing our original songs.
