No Gatekeeping Allowed: How Eric Campbell Is Demystifying The Sync Space With DISCO and CTRL Camp
Eric Campbell is a songwriter, producer, and recording artist with deep roots in the sync space. Now based in Tucson, Eric has placed music on shows like Peacock’s Bel-Air, OWN’s Greenleaf, and NBC’s Chicago Fire. He’s also written music to appear in ads from brands like Nissan and BMW. He’s also a sync agent himself, running the agency, A&R, and production office Sus3 Music.
Eric is likewise the founder of CTRL Camp, a dedicated space to teach songwriters not only how to compose music for sync, but how to understand the industry as a whole. “It took me a while to find sync as a way to monetize music, and I struggled for a long time,” Eric tells DISCO. “There was no clear explanation for how things worked. I realized that I could help a lot of people by making it a lot simpler for them.”
Find out more about how Eric Campbell works to demystify the sync industry by educating songwriters at CTRL Camp, and why he includes DISCO in the curriculum as the industry standard for artists looking to successfully interface with music supervisors.
What CTRL Camp Teaches Its Students About The Sync Space
The online community of CTRL Camp has the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the sync industry, from Sync 101 courses that teach the fundamentals and Eric’s “Sync Playbook” that breaks the process down according to format (film, TV, advertising, etc). “We have a directory of agents and music libraries,” Eric says. “So people know who and how to pitch to as they get their music and catalog together.”
“DISCO Is What I Consider To Be The Industry Standard”
When he started CTRL Camp about five years ago, Eric introduced DISCO as one of a few options for songwriters looking to streamline their music presentation to sync agents. Now, Eric says DISCO is the only tool he recommends. ““I'm always hesitant about recommending tools, and I don't do any sponsorships, [but] DISCO has become what I consider to be the industry standard. Most of the music supervisors that I know expect it,” he says.
No Email Attachments: Why Supervisors Prefer DISCO Links
Eric says that one of the fundamental no-nos of sending music to supervisors is attaching files straight to an email. “A key thing that most supervisors want is a link that is both streamable and downloadable,” he says. “That’s a big red flag — people sending out MP3 attachments.”
Eric adds that sending streaming links is better, but sending a DISCO link allows supervisors to easily save those files to their account — or download them, if they prefer.
The More Metadata You Include In Your Tracks, The Better
The next fundamental Eric says he teaches CTRL Camp students is the importance of track metadata, which is all of the information music supervisors need to clear a track for licensing.
“I've heard numerous supervisors tell stories about songs that they loved. It could have been a song that they received five years ago in an email somewhere. And when they needed it, they could not track down and remember where it came from because there was no contact information in the metadata, and they had to let it go. That could have been a placement for somebody.”
“You can generate instrumentals from something that was made 30, 40 years ago”
Supervisors are not always looking to place songs containing lyrics – sometimes they’re just going for pure vibes, whether it’s a mood or a particular time in history. And sometimes an existing track was recorded so long ago that it doesn’t have an instrumental version readily available. To that end, Eric emphasizes the helpful nature of DISCO’s Instant Instrumentals tool, which uses AI to create instrumental versions of tracks in under a minute.
“One of the secret, in-demand areas of sync licensing are throwback, retro tunes, like things that were actually created in the ‘90s or in the ‘80s,” Eric says. “To be able to generate an instrumental from DISCO is huge. You can generate instrumentals from something that was made 30, 40 years ago. Now you have everything that a supervisor might need.”
“DISCO is always trying to make the product better”
If a technical issue does come up, or if you have any questions about how to use the platform, DISCO’s customer support is here to help. “I’m a big fan of the platform across the board, and part of the reason is the team behind DISCO,” Eric says. “I love the chat mechanism. Someone gets back to me within the same day, or within a few hours. I love the responsiveness of that. I've not had any problems that have not been helped.”
Eric adds: “I really liked how on the tech side, I feel like DISCO is always trying to see how they can make the product better. There are things that come out that I feel like I didn't ask for, but now that it's available, I'm like, “Oh, that is just awesome.’”
