Meet Sync Master Dennis P. Coronel of Soulplusmind Music

Soulplusmind on Spotify

Managing to literally etch his sound in time, Dennis P Coronel (@souplusmind) of Soulplusmind Music joins us today to shares his experiences and knowledge working in the rapidly changing world of sync licensing in the music industry for the last 5 years. After landing countless sync deals ranging from the NBA, NFL, Saturday Night Live, Pepsi, even the 2019 World Series, he joins Exclusive Audio’s Julian Anthony to share his wisdom.

For those who do not know, a sync license or a sync deal is a placement in a commercial, advertisement, TV show, movie, or even broadway show. Basically, any audio being used in any audiovisual work that incurs profits or viewership involves a sync license.  At the end of a movie or TV show when they reel that long list of credits, plenty of those audio credits are sync deals in the making. 

With that crash course out of the way, there are tiers of producers and artists that work in sync licensing. Some work sync full time like Dennis and then there are others like Post Malone who can land a billboard hit from a Spiderman movie for breakfast like it was no big deal at all. However, Dennis is in fact a combination of a performing artist as well as a full-time sync master. The best of both worlds really!

After quitting his day job nearly 5 years ago to pursue the world of sync full time, there are now few accomplishments he hasn’t done. You’re about to learn Dennis’ best business advice he’s ever received, his best and worst business deals he has made, hear the inside story of how he landed a project with Damian Marley with his eyes closed, and pick up on his vast knowledge base in the world of sync full time. 

Q Who are your biggest music and/or life inspirations?

A: RZA - My teenage years were heavily influenced by The Wu and RZA's visionary mind. From business to music he was constantly pushing himself. He had a plan to flood the music industry by having every Wu member sign to a different label. How genius was that? No one was thinking that way then. To add to that, he's challenged himself musically. He produces for artists, he scores films and he just recently did a jingle for Good Humor. He even made a meditation album. Talk about pushing the limits.

Bruce Lee - I learned a lot from reading books about Bruce Lee as a kid. Honestly, he just looked at the world differently. He took the best things about everything he learned and made it his own. That's something I adopt in my own life. I love to learn about successful business practices and integrate them into my music business. Another thing that stuck with me about him was that he was all about "formlessness." Rigidity and being stuck in a form or pattern meant you could never look at a situation as a whole. You had one way of thinking and only approached an answer from that way. It was about moving, adapting and shifting like water. Detaching yourself and seeing things for what they truly were instead of from your bias. Honestly, I could go on forever about him.

Q What's your favorite TV and favorite sports placement & why?

A: Power - This is probably my favorite TV show placement because it was used in the opening sequence of the episode. No dialogue. Nothing. Just the song playing front and center. Power was such a great show and to be etched in time with it was amazing. Plus, the streams on that song exploded because of that episode. It was crazy to see how much a sync like that could change things. People can discover music anywhere now so that's why sync is so important.

 NBA Summer League Ad - This was completely unexpected. The company that placed the song had asked for the acapella months prior but since I never heard back from them, I didn't expect anything from it. Then, I was watching the NBA Finals one day while working on music and this commercial starts to play and I'm like "this song sounds familiar." Two seconds later, I hear the vocals and I'm like "oh, sh@t! This is my song!" I completely stopped everything and watched the ad in disbelief. It was insane. The NBA had been using my using for about 4 years at that point so this was a huge upgrade.

Q  What's your proudest sync deal and why?

A: I know this is going to sound cliche but every placement, big or small, makes me proud. I learned a long time ago to detach myself from my music. Not being precious about my songs or instrumentals has been a game changer. It allows me to continue to move forward without doubt or unnecessary anxiety and stress. I say this to everyone, I'd rather have a million $1 syncs than one $1 million sync. In the first situation, if one sync goes away, I still have $999,999 but if a sync goes away in the second situation, I have a big fat goose egg. That's why I'm proud of every sync. Foundation is important.

Q If it isn't too much to write out, whats the story behind landing the Damian Marley collaboration (love the track by the way)?

A: Firstly, thank you for the kind words. Secondly, and honestly, there isn't much to say. Haha. I had absolutely no part in the placement. With that said, I'm 100% grateful for Rellee and A-Team Music Group. They've done so much and collaborating with them has opened up so many doors. Crazy thing is, that beat is a few years old. I had no idea that they were even pitching it to people. An email came in out of the blue and said the song was getting released. You honestly just never know what's going to happen or when it's going to happen.

Q  When landing a sync deal - is the track inspired by the media source you're looking to land or by your own musical desires? Or a combination?

A: It really depends on the situation. Sometimes you have to play fortune teller and create songs that you think will work for sync. Obviously, there's research and certain "rules" you can follow to give you better chances (I can definitely expand on this more if you'd like or we can save it for future posts). There are places like TuneFine and iSpot.TV that tell you what's getting used and what shows / ads they're getting used on. On the other hand, I receive briefs fairly regularly that tell you what they're looking for, sometimes they'll give you references and sometimes they'll even give you a scene description. Having the briefs really help you create the best song possible and you know it's getting pitched to something specific.

Q What motivates you to wake up and do what you do daily?

A: Freedom. Doing sync full-time has allowed me to travel the world and see things most people only dream about. I'm able to create music and pitch my music anywhere and everywhere. I live on my own terms and not some general blueprint society says I need to live by. It's opened up the doors to so many new experiences and I wouldn't have it any other way. In addition to that, I've been able to help artists / producers and open their eyes to the possibilities of sync, all while making them a bunch of money in the process.

Q At what moment did you finally start to feel like you were on the right path professionally? 

A: My defining moment was when I started to realize my day job was getting in the way. At first, it was taking up hours that I could have been using making music. That's already with me producing during lunch and sneaking in producing at my desk when there was downtime. The straw that broke the camel's back was when I was asked to speak on a panel at A3C. My job wasn't going to approve my time off so I said fuck it and put in my two weeks. Sync had exponentially increased in the last year and I took a leap of faith. It definitely wasn’t easy but I've never looked back and thankfully, I've never had to go back to a day job. That was over 5 years ago.

Q What's your dream collaboration and/or project?

A: Sure, I'd love to produce for all the big names, past and present, but honestly, my dream collabs would be with the artists that see value in lifting each other up and helping each other succeed. Who doesn't want to get rich with their friends or people they value? That's always been one of my biggest goals with sync. I want to show people that the music industry isn't the only way to win and that we don't need to shit on each other on the way up. Community over competition. 

As for dream projects, I'm still looking for that Target or car ad placement. While I'm at it, I'll take a Microsoft, Google, or Apple ad placement too. Please and thank you, Universe.

Q How has 2020 impacted your career moves and what have you had to do to continue growing as an artist and brand?

A: Not at all. I always feel shitty for saying this but my life has gotten exponentially better (aside from not being able to travel). I've gotten back to a routine that works best for me. I meditate and exercise daily, work on music, and have found the inner peace that I had been struggling to find towards the end of last year. Yes, the industry has slowed down but when things start picking up again, it's going to be balls to the wall since everyone needs to catch up and release content. Patience is everything. I've always had this long game mindset so this blip in time is just another way to find answers in places I wasn't looking.

Q How would you describe your style of music? 

A: I'm a genre-bender. I love all types of music so I try to incorporate whatever I can when I make music. 808 and cinematic drums or happy pop chords with dirty Hip-Hop drums. I'm all over the place. This goes back to what I was saying about what I learned from Bruce Lee. I try not to let form (i.e. genre) hold me back. I do what feels right as long as it makes the end result the best it can be. There really is no need to overthink things.

Q Best personal and/or professional advice you've ever received?

A: Make other people's lives easier. That 100% has gotten me so much more business. People continue to come back to me because I'm taking the extra step to make their lives easier. A close second would be do the things that other people aren't willing to do. I once made 100 cues in a month for a TV show. I literally stopped everything in my life for a month and dedicated myself to making these cues and it paid off. The show took notice of my catalog and started using even more of my music than they were before.

Q Best & worst business deal you've ever made and the take away from it

A: I don't really have a worst business deal where I lost a ton of money. I'm fortunate in that sense. A lot of my bad business situations were from artists using me and taking way too much of my time. When I first started, I would bend over backwards for artists (aka trying to make their lives easier) but it wasn't being recognized or they thought they could keep using me. Their egos made them think they were the boss instead of being a team effort.

Best business deal for me so far has been inking a deal with a major library in the sync world. They're repping an instrumental music catalog that me and my business partner created, which will see our music distributed to all their clients around the world. I'm a business owner as well as one of the producers / composers, so I'm maximizing income. We should definitely be seeing the fruits of our labor from that very soon.

Q When's your next project and what do you want your fans to know about you coming up in the near future? Rollin' out the red carpet for ya

 A: I'm so tapped into sync now that I want to give other artists opportunities to get placements. There is a lot of demand for Hip-Hop / Rap and Indie Pop and I know with the right artists, the placements will come in. There are a lot of "gurus" out there selling information that can easily be found online. I want to push those boundaries and take them much further. I'm providing actual opportunities. I would produce the song and pitch it to any and all opportunities. In addition, the artist will walk away with a song to do whatever they want with it (within reason and non-sync related, of course).

Be sure to follow Dennis on all of his socials below. Thank you for joining us today, be sure to join our mailing list if you learned something, and having a great day!

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