Warner Music Group has had a fabulous summer of syncing music to huge sports moments, so we sat down with Carly Reid, Senior Director of Sync, Warner Music International, to discuss how her and her team have seen such great success in sport this year.
Carly heads up international Sync creative within Warner Music Group’s (WMG) London-based international Sync team (for recorded music). She works closely with a broad set of international clients and WMG’s recorded music affiliates outside of North America.
This year WMG has landed some pretty significant syncs in sport, what has made this summer different from others?
“We work across all of Warner Music Group’s international recorded music labels, so one of the key challenges is to remain across so much new music while continuing to serve everyone to our high standards and find them the very best sync placements.
This year, we’ve set up a regular creative meeting where the sole focus is on new music, looking at marketing plans around new music, analysis of current opportunities that are available within sync, and a strategy for what opportunities we should be creating for our artists that correlate with their releases.
We are more proactive than ever in reaching out to clients ahead of release with ideas, rather than waiting for inbound music searches, and feel this approach starts an idea with a client before conversations have been opened up to other labels. Alex Hill and Georgie Hughes in our creative team have also been incredible at ensuring we have all the needed assets for the quick turnaround with our sports clients’ work.
“Their proactive initiatives and amazing teamwork are the reason we’ve seen such success in sport this year.”
They have even created new platforms just for our sports clients to access our catalogue, where all tracks included have been checked for blanket TV use, so clients know they can just download and use them without issue. Their proactive initiatives and amazing teamwork are the reason we’ve seen such success in sport this year.”
What’s different about syncing music to sports compared to, say, film or advertising?
“All areas have their own intrinsic value. Advertising’s currency is typically high monetary value and impact, whereas film has the type of longevity where consumers will continue to be reminded of the placement in years to come.
“Sport in general has such authentic and large loyal fan bases […] that one sync placement in a huge game could be watched by millions”
Sports, especially in the UK with the TV blanket, has a mass audience that, if timed with an artist’s release schedule, can really help elevate a marketing campaign. Sport in general has such authentic and large loyal fan bases, typically with lots of emotions and passion, that one sync placement in a huge game could be watched by millions and launch that artist to an entirely new audience.”
We know music and sports go hand in hand, especially when it comes to fandoms and sports moments carry huge emotional weight. So, how do you choose tracks that can match (or elevate) that intensity and passion?
“Authenticity within fandom is important, especially in music and sport. We track what sports and teams artists support, then actively reach out and try to create moments that align with their interests where we can. Tracks that naturally build with emotion always lend themselves to sports, but when we can pair that with knowledge of who the artist supports, it really elevates the pitch.”
The Biffy Clyro x EFL sync feels like a natural stadium anthem moment, while Camille Berthollet x Wimbledon is unexpected. How do you balance the obvious “crowd-pleasers” with the surprising classical pairings?
“We strongly believe in finding the right track that a moment is trying to evoke. We even have an initiative called ColourCues, which is based on synaesthesia and includes playlists based on emotions and feelings rather than genres.
“We like to always include songs that fit a brief, but we’ll also throw in a few curveballs to try to show how an unexpected song choice can actually have a bigger impact”
We’re super lucky to work across all of WMG’s recorded music catalogue, so the size and depth of the catalogue means that we can always cover the obvious choices, but we have so many gems that aren’t obvious. We like to always include songs that fit a brief, but we’ll also throw in a few curveballs to try to show how an unexpected song choice can actually have a bigger impact on the viewer.”
Dua Lipa, Charli XCX, and Sonny Fodera soundtracking the Women’s Euros created a big cultural moment. How do you spot when music can push the story forward, not just complement it?
“It’s been incredible seeing the increased support for women’s football. During the Women’s Euros, we noticed that brands wanted to focus on using female artists to help champion women across the coverage, which has helped the Women’s Euros create its own huge cultural moment.
It was the highest viewership, with increasing fan engagement, but in tandem we’re also seeing an increase in British artists going global, like Dua and Charli, receiving global recognition and their own elevated moments. Even Sonny Fodera, who is Australian but works with a lot of British singers like Clementine Douglas and blythe, maintained a connection to British culture.
“It’s not only authentic, it’s allowing both moments to amplify each other”
When paired with a huge cultural moment such as the Euros, it’s not only authentic, it’s allowing both moments to amplify each other.”
What has been the biggest challenge over this summer with syncing for sports?/ What goes into making these incredible syncs work?
“The sheer scale of new music is a challenge, as we’re competing against so many labels and an unprecedented level of releases. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed going onto a DSP – any supervisor trying to choose one song for placement has a hard job. We try to be as selective as possible when sending track ideas, and we’ll often send thought-out context behind songs to try to connect the client with the artist or song.”
Do you face challenges with rights, timing, or even artist approvals when syncing for massive sporting events?
“Naturally, we face some challenges with timing releases around events, but we try to keep an open conversation with our labels about upcoming sporting fixtures.
If there is flexibility to bring a release forward to pair with a sporting moment, we’re able to lean in heavily and go full send with the artist and label. We want to have those conversations as early as possible, as there’s always a lot to consider. For example, broadcasters need writers and labels to register shares on PRS or PPL, so our team is across a lot of admin work typically outside of our roles to ensure the admin processes aren’t going to hold up any big moments for our artists.”
How do you think sport syncs shape public perception of both the sport and the artists?
“There are huge new audiences that will potentially discover a song or artist whilst watching coverage of a sport.
For an artist, there isn’t really any downside in being associated with a sport, whereas there might be in some cases with licensing a song to certain brands. The placements can be a low-risk win for the artist.”
Do you see more opportunities for artists to “own” sporting moments, like how certain tracks become forever linked to certain tournaments or teams?
“Fans organically resonate with certain songs and they become entwined with certain teams. The biggest opportunities for us tend to fall with titles music, and the one which seems to have the most impact is the Premier League.
The long-running use of “Stop This Flame” by Celeste has put that song in front of millions of viewers every week for 5 years now. It helps the Premier League by having a theme that people can quickly associate with them too, but it’s also the same win for the artist for the exposure they get.”
Finally, what has been your favourite sports sync moment of the summer?
“I might have two! First would be Camille Berthollet for Wimbledon, as she’s an incredible musician and it’s great to have landed a classical musician in such a huge spot. There was a crazy article I read recently saying that a third of all tracks uploaded to Deezer are AI generated, so it’s nice to see one of our classical musicians land the recognition that they deserve in a primetime spot.
Second would be Panic Over ‘Actor’ for the World Cup Qualifiers Closing Montage. We run a small boutique publisher within our team called W Songs, and so Panic Over are a relatively new signing from Ireland who we felt worked for sport and signed them on the hopes we’d secure them a spot. Within months we’d got the closing montage for the World Cup Qualifiers.
“Getting an upcoming artist in such a key placement shows that ultimately, it’s about the right song for the moment and not as much about going with what is in the charts.”
Getting an upcoming artist in such a key placement shows that ultimately, it’s about the right song for the moment and not as much about going with what is in the charts.”
