The biz’s brightest new talents tell their stories, this week we meet Warner Music sync exec Ruth Wyatt.
How did you break into the biz?
In the summer after my first year of university, I found every email address I could at labels and publishers, and fired out an overly enthusiastic email asking if anyone needed an ‘extra pair of hands’. After accidentally emailing BMG’s LA office, it somehow got fed back to the UK and I landed myself a role working at BMG in their royalties department under Aidan Kenny, a total legend for taking a gamble on me! Then I worked at HotHouse Music at Abbey Road, where I was lucky to work across high-end films, assisting music supervision queens Karen Elliott (The Hobbit movies, Fantastic Beasts), Becky Bentham (Les Miserables, Bohemian Rhapsody) and Catherine Grieves (Killing Eve). It gave me the perfect opportunity to absorb as much as I could and get to know rights owners over email and, of course, at the Abbey Road bar. Now I find myself on the other side of the coin in Warner’s sync team.
Where would we be without sync?
I mean, you would have some very flat films… We’d regress to the silent film days! Joking aside, the acting in a particular scene or graphics across an advert can only do so much. At its most powerful, music is the glue that threads a moment together, it acts as a catalyst to heighten a feeling or message. Despite music budgets often being the smallest slice of the pie, few brands or cinematic moments would be as successful if not for the music. Sync also helps break artists. Without it there would be less of that, especially since there are so many platforms to tap into. The crazy quantity of content being uploaded online is a huge market yet to be fully utilised, so in that sense sync opportunities can only grow. The landscape is constantly changing, but lots of emerging artists I have spoken to want a Spotify playlist and a sync. It’s becoming more important than ever to artists and managers. And our killer team at Warner do our best to plug our acts’ music into as many creative moments and platforms as we can.
What should we know about sync?
The beauty of sync is, more often than not, about the music. It is about the feeling a song evokes or how it complements a moment. It is not all about stats, which I suppose makes it a very inclusive denomination of the music industry. People don’t often realise that.
What’s your best bit of advice?
Be yourself, it will get you further than you think. And keep learning, never assume you know everything, you don’t.
What’s your dream music job?
As it stands, getting to the top of my sync game and making waves to inspire more women to work in the industry.
RUTH’S RECOMMENDED TRACK:
