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The document that tells your PRO what played, so you get paid performance royalties: what it contains, the usage codes, who files it, and what to do when yours is missing.

Most favored nations in plain words: side MFN, cross-song MFN, a worked example, when it helps you, when it caps you, and how to answer a quote that says MFN.

One agreement covering both the composition and the master. What supervisors mean by one-stop, a five-question check for your own songs, and four things that quietly break it.

A hold is a shortlist, not a license. How long holds last, what to do in the first 24 hours, how a hold becomes a quote request, and the mistakes that lose one.

What each deal takes from you, why retitling and Content ID cause trouble, the contract clauses to check, and how to decide song by song.

Why a pitch of twelve performs worse than a pitch of three, how long supervisors actually listen, the order to put your three in, and how to cut a shortlist down without guessing.

You own the master of your cover, not the song. Why a mechanical license does not cover sync, how cover placements pay, the public domain exception, and the five steps that get a cover through clearance.

Instrumental, TV mix, clean edit, cut-downs and stems: which versions to build before you pitch, which to make only when asked, and the file specs editors expect.

The ten fields every pitched song needs, where each one actually lives in the file, why WAV files arrive with nothing on them, and a five minute audit for your catalog.

Every field a split sheet needs, when to sign it, the percentage conventions writers actually use, and why sync buyers ask about one-stop clearance before anything else.

Briefs do not arrive by accident. The five routes they travel, what each one costs, the scams to skip, and how to become the writer briefs flow toward.

Where sync placements actually come from, pitch services, music libraries, supervisor relationships, direct briefs, and how to keep a steady pipeline.

If you pitch sync briefs, your catalog organization is costing you placements. Here's the system that fixes it.

Briefs aren't standardized. Here's how to decode them fast and find your best-matching songs every time.

BPM, energy, mood, lyric theme, genre, here's what drives sync searches and how to make sure your songs show up.

A practical comparison of catalog platforms, brief matching tools, and royalty software, and which ones working songwriters actually need.

Step-by-step: getting access to briefs, reading them correctly, searching your catalog, building a pitch folder, and the tools that make it faster.

"Sounds like Billie Eilish" isn't a tag. Here's how AI sync software translates artist references into catalog matches, and why it changes everything.