Sync now generating £20 million for UK biz

Income from music placed in British TV programmes, movies, adverts and video games has been accelerating. In 2012, it was worth £18.2 million (Australian $37.9 million), then had a 3.2% rise in 2013 to £19 million ($39.6 million).

Last year it rose by 6.4% in 2014, according to Music Week. It quotes figures from the trade body BPI (British Phonographic Industry) that was equivalent to revenues of £20 million ($41.6 million) for major and independent record labels.

Placement of songs and compositions by UK writers in 2014 increased by 44% to licensees outside the UK. Music publishing accounted for over 25% of the UK music industry's £2.2 billion ($4.5 billion) export value in 2013, Music Week said.

The story came just as a 40-strong British music industry trade mission heads next week to Los Angeles to meet with Hollywood studios and ad agencies as part of the 11th Los Angeles Sync Licensing Mission to grow revenues.

The mission is the initiative of BPI, the Music Publishers Association and UK Trade & Investment.

In Britain, fees can go up to £50,000 ($104,000) for a 30-second ad running in Europe for one year. Major corporations will pay up to £2,000 ($4,164) per track for internal audiovisual productions

But US film studios are willing to pay up to US$250,000 (A$336, 580) for the right song for a scene.Sony Pictures even rewrote an entire episode of Breaking Bad around the 1972 hit Horse With No Name by America because it was key to the plot. Thanks to music ID apps as Shazam, viewers can immediately identify a song and artist used on a TV show and converted it into sales.

According to the BPI, a US blockbuster can pay up to $8,000 for a background placement and up to $75,000 for a title track. Independent films are obviously less, but can offer up to US$15,000 for a music soundtracking the opening or closing credits.

Queen (pictured) were the most synced act of last year. Their songs were used by the Tesco supermarket chain (I Want It All, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, We Are The Champions),Furniture Village (Somebody To Love) and holiday operator Thomson (Bohemian Rhapsody).

According to adbreakanthems.com the most synced artists for 2014 were, after Queen, Bonnie Tyler, Ed Sheeran, Apparat, Kool & The Gang, Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Lily Allen, Little Richard, London Grammar, Lovin’ Spoonful andRun DMC.