Rapperiya Baalam's "Shoorveer" came out six years ago. This year it turned up in Mirzapur: The Movie. No new recording, no film-studio commission. An existing Rajasthani folk-rap track simply got licensed into a big screen project, the way songs in Western shows have been placed for decades.
That example opens a long piece in The Established (October 9) on sync licensing in India, and it's worth reading in full if you own your songs. We've pulled out the parts that matter most for the independent and regional artists we work with.
What a sync deal is
A sync (synchronisation) licence lets a production pair your existing song with visuals: a film, a web series, an ad, a game. The licence spells out how long it can be used, where, and in which media. You don't hand over the song itself. That's the big difference from the old Bollywood model, where music was commissioned for one film, the artist got a flat fee, and the label or producer controlled both the recording and the composition.
According to music supervisor Rahul Kannan, quoted in the article, sync placements in Indian OTT shows and films started showing up around 2021 and have picked up gradually since. A few examples the piece mentions:
- Kamakshi Khanna and OAFF's "Duur" (2021) was placed in Netflix's The Fame Game and in Lionsgate Play's Jugaadistan, both in 2022. Its listening numbers peaked after that.
- Taba Chake's "Walk With Me" (2019) was used in a Centre Fresh ad in 2022 and licensed again by Hinge in 2026. Same song, two paydays.
- Prateek Kuhad's "Kasoor" (acoustic) went into the Netflix film Dhamaka a few months after release.
- "Makhna Ve" by Ashwin Adwani, Vaibhav Pani and Vivek Hariharan went into the Netflix film Best of the Best through a sync deal, even though, Pani says, a buyout would have paid more upfront. He took the licence because he keeps the song.
What the money looks like
Don't expect film-hero numbers. Ritnika Nayan of Music Gets Me High told the publication that Indian ad sync has typically paid ₹50,000 to a lakh just to use a song. Kannan estimates overseas placements pay three to ten times what a comparable Indian deal does. And he says ad and branded-film budgets are being cut, with some brands assuming that using a song from Instagram's library is good enough. It isn't. That library is licensed for personal, non-commercial use. A brand using your song in a paid campaign needs a licence from you.
On top of the upfront fee, there's performance income through IPRS when the film or show airs or streams, and smaller social-media income that flows through your distributor and Content ID.
Where artists get burned
The lawyer quoted in the piece, Sandhya Surendran, lists the clauses that quietly widen a deal: exclusivity, perpetual terms, "all media" grants, royalty waivers, and limits on your own use of the song. Most films and shows ask for a perpetual licence, Kannan says, so they never have to renegotiate if you get bigger.
Buyouts are the other trap. A buyout can give the buyer broad rights over your song, and Nayan says that can stop you from even putting it on your own album or EP.
Surendran also points out that since the 2012 Copyright Act amendment, authors of music used in films keep a right to royalties for uses outside the cinema hall, and that right can't be signed away except to legal heirs or a copyright society. In practice, standard-form contracts and slow enforcement mean many artists never see it.
What we'd tell an independent artist this week
Sync only works if you can prove you own what you're licensing. We see the opposite problem all the time at RMX: a Bhojpuri singer who paid a studio for the track but never got anything in writing about the master, or a Haryanvi duo where the lyricist isn't credited anywhere. A music supervisor won't touch a song with messy rights.
So, before anyone calls:
- Keep the master under your own name or your own label. If a producer or studio made the recording, get a simple written agreement now.
- If you wrote or composed it, register with IPRS. That's the only route to the performance money a placement can generate. Our IPRS registration guide walks through it.
- Credit everyone properly in your metadata. Lyricist, composer, featured artists. Here's our metadata checklist.
- Get your catalogue live and findable. Supervisors look for songs that already exist and already have listeners. A devotional album that's only on a pen drive can't be discovered.
- Read every sync offer for the clauses above. If a deal says perpetual, all media, worldwide, and asks you to waive royalties, that's a buyout dressed up as a licence.
"Shoorveer" waited six years for its placement. Older songs in your catalogue can still find one, but only if they're out there with clean ownership.
Where RMX fits
At RMX Music, you release under your own label name, you keep 95% of your streaming royalties, and your songs go out to 95+ platforms, with YouTube Content ID available to protect the recording. More than 3,000 artists and 2,200 labels already use us. The Label account is a one-time ₹4,500 for life, with unlimited releases and artists.
If you want your catalogue in your own name before the next opportunity shows up, you can create your RMX account here.
*This post summarises public reporting. It isn't legal advice; get a lawyer to read any sync or buyout contract before you sign.*