What is a sync license?

If you want a known song in a paid ad, you normally need two permissions: sync for the composition and master use for the specific recording. Each owner sets its own fee and terms, which can cover the length of the campaign, the countries, the platforms and whether the use is paid advertising. For a popular track that can mean weeks of email and a fee out of reach for most small shops.

Do not assume that a sound you can add to a personal post is cleared for a paid ad. Read each platform's music rules for business accounts before you run anything.

A song written for you has no outside publisher or label to ask, so the question becomes what the tool's terms allow. On SingingAds you may use what you make in ads and on social media, websites, radio and podcasts, for your own business or a client's, with no royalties. The jingle does not imitate real singers, bands or songs, so it borrows nothing from anyone else's track.

Illustrative example: a made-up surf school, Saltline Lessons, wants a famous summer hit under its spring promo. The publisher answers after three weeks with a quote and a 90-day limit; the label has not answered yet. The school runs an original 30-second jingle about first waves instead, and keeps the song for its radio spot in the fall without asking anyone.

• Clearing the composition and forgetting the recording, or the other way round.
• Believing a few seconds of a song is fine. Length on its own does not give permission.
• Recording a cover and thinking that removes the need for a sync license. The composition still belongs to its writers.
• Letting a license expire while the ad keeps running. Put the end date in your calendar.

This is general information, not legal advice; for a specific song, ask a music lawyer or the rights holder.

For the wider picture, read music licensing for video ads and original jingle vs stock music. An original jingle sidesteps the sync question; see a Reels ad with original music and the example ads for how that looks in practice.