A hold means your song made the shortlist, or has already been cut into the edit, and the supervisor wants you to keep it available while someone above them decides. It is not a placement, not a license and not a promise of money. No fee has been agreed, nothing has been signed, and the song can still be swapped out at any point until the episode, film or ad is final. Most holds do not turn into placements, and that is normal.
It is still very good news. A supervisor who puts a song on hold has listened past the first thirty seconds, liked it against picture and decided it is worth defending to a director, showrunner or brand. Your job for the next few days is simple: confirm the song is available and fully cleared, have every file they might ask for ready to send within an hour, and then stay quiet. The rest of this post covers what a hold usually looks like, how it turns into money, and the mistakes that kill a hold that would otherwise have landed.
Most sync placements move through the same five stages. Knowing which one you are in stops you from celebrating too early or panicking too soon.
| Stage | What it means | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pitch | You sent songs against a brief or a general request | Nothing. Wait. |
| 2. Hold | Shortlisted or temped into the edit. Still competing with other songs | Confirm availability and clearance. Prepare files |
| 3. Quote request | They want to know what it costs for a specific use | Reply with a fee for both sides, or accept their offer |
| 4. License | A signed agreement for the use, term, territory and fee | Check the terms, sign, invoice |
| 5. Air and cue sheet | The use goes out and is reported to the performing rights organisations | Check the cue sheet lists your song, writers and PRO correctly |
A hold usually arrives as a short email: "We have this on hold for episode 4, can you confirm it is one-stop and available?" Sometimes it is even shorter. In advertising, a hold occasionally comes with a written first-refusal window or, more rarely, a small hold fee. In TV and film it is almost always informal.
There is no standard length. As a rough guide:
If no timeline is mentioned, it is fine to ask once, in the same reply where you confirm availability: "Happy to hold it. Do you have a rough date for a decision?"
If the song survives the edit, you will get a quote request. It describes the exact use, and the fee depends on each part of it:
Many TV requests arrive with a fixed budget and an MFN (most favoured nations) term, which means the master side and the sync side are paid the same, or that every song in the project is paid the same rate. Independent writers usually do better saying yes to a fair offer quickly than negotiating hard, because the next song on the shortlist is ready to take the slot. For what these fees typically look like, and where the backend royalties come from, see how sync placements actually pay.
And if the hold is released, or simply goes quiet, do not read it as a verdict. Songs are cut for budget, for a director's taste, for a scene that was removed entirely. A supervisor who held one of your songs has told you your catalog fits their work. The best follow-up to a released hold is a strong answer to their next brief.
Holds often lead to a second request from the same supervisor, sometimes on the same day: "Anything else with this feel for the next scene?" Pitchkit is built for that moment. It indexes your local music folder, reads tempo, key, energy, brightness and danceability straight from the audio, optionally transcribes lyrics with Whisper on your own machine, then ranks your whole catalog against a brief you paste in and copies the songs you pick into a named pitch folder.
It does not send pitches, negotiate quotes or track holds. It answers which of your songs best fit the request in front of you, fast enough to reply while the supervisor is still at their desk.
Related reading: how to answer a sync brief in under an hour, music pitch email templates, what a sync brief is and how to read one, and how to find sync placements.
No. A hold means the supervisor wants to keep the song available while the edit, the director, the network or the brand decides. It is not a license, no fee has been agreed and nothing is signed. The placement is real only once you receive a quote request, agree terms and sign a license, and even then it is only final once the episode or ad goes out with your song still in it.
Anywhere from a few days to several months. Advertising holds are often short, because campaigns move fast and the client decides within days or a couple of weeks. TV and film holds can run until picture lock, which can be weeks or months after the song was first cut in. If nobody gives you a timeline, it is fine to ask once when they expect a decision.
Usually yes, because most holds are informal and non-exclusive. The exception is anything you agreed to in writing, such as a first-refusal window or a category exclusive for an ad. What you should not do is license the song for a conflicting use without telling the supervisor who holds it. If a second offer arrives, tell the first supervisor honestly and give them a short, specific window to confirm.
Once. If they gave you a decision date, wait until a few days after it. If not, two to three weeks is reasonable. Keep it to two sentences in the same email thread, confirm the song is still available and cleared, and ask whether the project is still moving. Silence after that usually means the song was replaced, which happens to most holds and says nothing about the song's quality.
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