Shows / 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Hosted by working composer and long-time professor Dave Kropf, the 52 Cues Podcast takes you inside the real world of production music, library music, and sync licensing – breaking down cues, unpacking industry insights, and sharing candid conversations with fellow composers and publishers.
Weekly episodes deliver practical strategies, creative inspiration, and insider information to help you land more placements and build a sustainable career in sync.
Episodes
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Country Hip-Hop Hybrid Cue Review
Join me as I give critique and feedback on a country hip-hop hybrid cue by 52 Cues Community member, Jeff LaPlante (https://soundcloud.com/jeff303)! Watch this…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Demystifying the Cue with Dean Krippaehne
There's no shortage of YouTube channels about library and sync music but there aren't that many books about the production music industry. So when I had the…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Indie Pop Positive Cue Review
Join me as I give critique and feedback on an indie pop positive cue by 52 Cues Community member, Chris Moser (https://soundcloud.com/user-645451108)! Watch…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Musical Solutions to Mixing Problems
In this episode, we delve into the challenges of juggling both composition and production tasks, and uncover the 'composer first' approach that prioritizes…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Stomp Clap Cue Review
Join me as I give critique and feedback on a stomp clap cue by 52 Cues Community member, Mitchell Davis (https://soundcloud.com/mitchelldavismusic)! Watch this…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Q&A Live!
Join me for a special Q&A episode recorded live! I answer your questions about streaming royalties, loudness and mastering practices, sound design, referencing…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Kitschy Jazz Cue Review
Join me as I give critique and feedback on a kitschy jazz cue by 52 Cues Community member, Brian Morales (https://soundcloud.com/orphyas)! Watch this on…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Standing Out In The Crowd (with Jason Moss)
Join me as I sit down with Jason Moss, the co-founder of Bulletproof Bear, to unpack his journey from being a composer to becoming a music publisher. Jason…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Do You *Need* a YouTube Channel?
Is YouTube an essential part of the marketing portfolio for the modern production music composer? On today's episode, I unpack why you might want to start a…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
You Should Learn Guitar (with Mike Meiers)
As production music composers, we often find ourselves reaching for virtual instruments first, but we also know that recording live instruments can bring magic…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Who Writes Those Plugin Demos?
One of my favorite things to do whenever any new synth, sample set, or patch library comes out is to take a listen to the demos, but who actually puts these…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Let's Get Weird!
More and more libraries are starting to place a higher premium on uniqueness - that distinctive thing that you, as a human composer, can bring to their…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Hip-Hop for Sync with Anthony Clint, Jr
If you want to get into writing hip-hop for sync, then you want to be sure to learn from the best, and I can’t think anyone better than Anthony Clint, Jr of…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
The 5 Lies I Used to (and Still Do) Tell Myself
In the absence of facts, it’s human nature to substitute fears in place of truth, and it seems that no matter how much we grow up and how much we accomplish…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Left vs Right Brain Thinking for Composers
Lateralization of brain function is the idea that our cognitive processes are generally divided into the two hemispheres of our brain - the “left brain” being…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
How Gaming Makes Me a Better Composer
As a lifelong gamer, I've come to realize that the decades spent leveling characters, looting corpses, and stomping sentient fungus have led to real, tangible…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Sync or Swim Music with Robbie Hancock
Sync or Swim Music, hosted by songwriter, composer, and music supervisor, Robbie Hancock, is an online community focusing on virtual networking events. Their…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Overcoming and Avoiding Burnout
From pitches to deadlines to metadata, building a career as a production music composer can be a real grind that can seriously rob you of the joy of making a…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
PROs Explained
There are a lot of moving parts to getting paid when your music gets placed on TV and as production music composers, the majority of the money we make depends…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
How Can the 80/20 Rule Can Boost Your Career in Production Music?
The 80/20 rule, or “Pareto Principle,” is a concept that states that 80% of the outcomes in life can be attributed to 20% of causes, and as it turns out, this…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
From Sample Making to Filmmaking with Jon Meyer
We production music folks tend to have a lot of irons in the fire and I can’t think of a leader in our industry who best embodies this than Jon Meyer…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Production Music Q&A
It's another Q&A session this week where we cover a wide range of topics, from mastering alts and stems, AI tools, pitching to libraries, finding references…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Do Libraries Owe Us a Response on Returns? (with Michael Laskow)
Last week I posed a burning question: should libraries reach out to composers whose music was forwarded by Taxi but not selected? This ignited a spirited…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Is TuneSat Really Worth the $$$?
TuneSat can detect nearly any music placement on TV throughout the US and EU, and while it has its limitations, it can be a good way to see if your cues are…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
10 Piano VSTs Compared!
While I’m not a pianist, I’ve certainly done a fair amount of piano programming as well as lot of research looking for that perfect piano sound. On today's…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
What Do Editors Want? (with Josh Siegel)
It’s one thing to talk about what editors need, but it’s another to have the opportunity to hear straight from the source. So I was thrilled when I had the…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Waves Goes Subscription... Only?
With zero fanfare and not even a heads up email to their customer base, Waves has gone subscription… only. So we’re gonna talk about it, look at what’s being…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
5 Books That Changed My Thinking
On today’s show, I go over five books that have transformed my way of thinking and helped in my career as a professional composer, even though they’re not…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
My Own Mount Rushmore of Plugins
Regardless of mood, emotion, or genre, I keep finding myself dipping back into the same handful of plugins time and time again. So on today’s show I share the…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Do You Have What It Takes?
On today’s show, I share the 8 things I think it takes to be successful in the production music industry, with the understanding that most of these I’m still…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
The Four Stages of Competence
When you’re just getting started, you don’t even know what you don’t know, but when you learn a little then you know what you don’t know. You continue this…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Let's Talk Metadata
Wrangling keywords and mood terms across spreadsheets, PDFs, and submission forms, can feel pretty soul sucking at times, but metadata may be the important…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Expanding Creativity Using Ableton Live with Christina Horn
On today’s show, I welcome composer, educator, and certified Ableton Live guru, Christina Horn, who talks about how she uses the non-linear and expansive…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Inexpensive and Easy-to-Play Instruments for Your Cues!
The best way to add realism on any track is by adding some kind of recorded instrument, but what if you don’t really know how to play a lot of instruments or…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
A Chat With ReelCrafter
When you peak behind the curtain of companies who have become household names, you realize these businesses are run by real people with a real passion to help…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
The 10 Commandments of Production Music
So much of this gig is wildly, frustratingly inconsistent, but I’ve found there are some overarching guidelines which can help govern a lot of our choices. So…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Is One Cue Per Week Really Enough?
I’ve said before that you need 100’s of cues to make a living in the production music industry, but is one cue per week really enough? Today I’m going to…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Read the @#$%& Brief! (Anatomy of a Taxi Listing)
I’ve started my Year of Taxi, and I thought it’d be a good idea to start by talking about the anatomy of a brief and discuss how everything we need to know is…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
2022 In Review (and What Comes Next!)
We’ve come to the end of another year here at 52 cues, and it’s been a great one with lots of growth, opportunities, and challenges. So this week I wanted to…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
How I Use Sketching for My Cues
On today's episode I want to talk about compositional sketching and talk about how I use a Logic Pro "sketchbook" to help capture ideas and buoy my creativity…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Getting Into Game Music (with Adam Fligsten)
If there’s one side of the music industry I’m the most curious about, it would have to be game music! That’s why I’m excited to welcome Adam Fligsten, founder…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Why Do We Do This and Is It Even Worth It?
No script or curriculum today. Just a frank exploration of why any of us would really want to write production music. Plus, we take a listen to "Stealth…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Bebop Killed Jazz: A Cautionary Tale for Media Composers | 52 Cues Podcast, 2022 Week 48
On this week's episode, I welcome our resident music historian, Shannon Kropf, to discuss the rise of jazz's popularity, the cultural reasons it formed the way…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Am I Wrong About Stock Music? (with Steven Beddall)
I recently had a chance to sit down with Steven Beddall of the Production Music Academy who’s found great success with stock music, and we discussed his…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
4 Things You Can Do With Your Unused Cues
The deafening silence of rejection can be cruel compensation for the hours we spend toiling away trying to make it in this business, but what if I told you…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud with Anne-Kathrin Dern
It’s not always easy to against the grain and break through glass ceilings, but every now and then someone comes along with the courage to say the quiet parts…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
PMC & Taxi Road Rally Review
Within the past six weeks I've attended both the Production Music Conference and the Taxi Road Rally, and today I give my unbiased and honest thoughts while…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
5 Ways to Stay In the Creative Flow State
When we’re composing, we strive to maintain this creative flow state, but some days that feels harder than others, so on today’s episode, I unpack 5 things you…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Do We Really Need a Web Presence?
As production music composers, how much attention should we give to having a website, Instagram, or Tik Tok? To help me answer this, I’ve invited Shannon Kropf…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
(Yet) Another Q&A Episode!
How do you discover new plugins? How is Taxi dispatch different than regular taxi? What exactly are “neutral tasking” cues? What types of cues are most in…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Writing Cues for Sports (with Rob Aster)
On today’s episode, I sit down and chat with Rob Aster of RRHOT who is one of only a handful of publishers for CBS Sports. His over 35 years in the business…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
What's Luck Got to Do With It?
How big of a factor does luck play in our careers? On today’s episode we turn to the research of Dr. Richard Wiseman, Professor of Public Understanding of…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Make Your Publisher's Job Easy (with Michael Laskow)
When we pitch our cues to libraries, we want to make the process as smooth and painless as possible, so on today’s episode, I sit down and chat with Michael…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
How is Production Music Different than Film (and Other) Music?
There are some key differences that separate production music from other careers like film music, game music, and even songwriting, and today I want to discuss…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
4 Ways to Jumpstart Your Creativity!
We’ve talked about how important sustainable creativity is for the production music composer, but what happens when you got nothing or a deadline hangs over…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
The Inconvenient Truths About Production Music
Being a production music composer is not always lollipops and sunshine, and truth is, there are some pretty sobering and inconvenient truths about this…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Collaborations and Conferences with Tracey and Vance Marino
On today’s episode, I sit down and chat with Tracey and Vance Marino, authors of “Hey That’s My Song," and we discuss their experiences in navigating the…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
5 Steps to Starting Your Career In Production Music
It used to be the TV industry’s best kept secret, but more and more composers are getting hip to how they can carve out a career for themselves writing…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
We Need to Talk About Waves Plugins
Fair warning: today’s podcast is a little ranty because we need to talk about Waves, their marketing strategies, and what you should know before you start…
- 52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
The Many Ways I Make Money Making Music
Nearly every composer I know doesn’t just compose for a living. They often find themselves cobbling together a career from many different aspects of the…