52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Hosted by working composer and long-time professor Dave Kropf, the 52 Cues Podcast takes you inside the real world of production music, library music, and sync licensing – breaking down cues, unpacking industry insights, and sharing candid conversations with fellow composers and publishers. Weekly episodes deliver practical strategies, creative inspiration, and insider information to help you land more placements and build a sustainable career in sync.
Episodes
- Weekly Feedback - Week 31
https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-31 - Office Hours
https://my.52cues.com/posts/103906733 - Orchestral Chat Club
https://my.52cues.com/posts/102528677 - Live Feedback and Critiques (Tuesday)
https://my.52cues.com/posts/103575429 - A Little Chat with Shannon and Dave
https://my.52cues.com/posts/87969750 - Live Feedback and Critiques (Thursday)
https://my.52cues.com/post...
In part two of their response to Anne-Kathrin Dern's brutally honest career advice, Jeff and Dave look at the money, the workload, the lifestyle, and the growing guru culture, to answer the question every production music composer eventually has to face: is production music worth it?
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/L9gJYZC8330
A Rant About Brutally Honest Career Advice by Anne-Kathrin Dern
https://www.y...
- Weekly Feedback - Week 29
https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-29 - Office Hours
https://my.52cues.com/events/office-hours-103906725 - How Hard Is it to Make a Living in Production Music? | 52 Cues Podcast #278
https://my.52cues.com/posts/how-hard-is-it-to-make-a-living-in-production-music-52-cues-podcast-278 - Live Feedback and Critiques (2hr Session)
https://my.52cues.com/events/live-feedback-an...
In this episode, Dave and Jeff use Anne-Kathrin Dern’s recent composer reality-check video as a jumping off point to discuss how hard it really is to make a living in production music.
Watch this episode on YouTube
https://youtu.be/-owQEUH26js
A Rant About Brutally Honest Career Advice by Anne-Kathrin Dern
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y06R6sOc5bs
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional w...
- Weekly Feedback - Week 28
https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-28 - Free Workshop! From Sketch To Screen (with Jeff Hargrove)
https://my.52cues.com/events/from-sketch-to-screen-with-jeff-hargrove - Live Feedback and Critiques (Tuesday)
https://my.52cues.com/events/live-feedback-and-critiques-103575379 - A Little Chat with Shannon and Dave
https://my.52cues.com/events/a-little-chat-with-shannon-and...
In this episode, community mentor Jeff Hargrove explains why a simple piano sketch can make writing cues easier before production takes over.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xXiCWzwo3TU
Be sure to join us for Jeff's free Sketch to Screen Workshop, July 13 at 4p ET!
https://my.52cues.com/events/from-sketch-to-screen-with-jeff-hargrove
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pit...
In this episode, Dave and community mentor Jeff LaPlante share their most-used instruments, tools, plugins, and effects to help production music composers build a dependable toolkit without wasting money on plugins you might not really need.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_pIAgPHp760
PLUGINS, SOUNDS, AND LIBRARIES DISCUSSED
SOUNDS AND LIBRARIES
In this episode, Philip Johnston returns to explain how Orchestration Recipes makes complex concepts more practical, what Volume 6 brings to everyday orchestral writing, and where AI may fit into the future of composition and virtual performance.
Orchestration Recipes Vol. 6 is out now!
https://orchestrationrecipes.com
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your production mus...
In this episode Dave and community mentor Jeff LaPlante break down production music deliverables, including mixes, stems, cutdowns, file naming, metadata, loudness, and the common mistakes that can make an accepted cue harder for libraries and editors to use.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yIXUIyolKRk
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your production music and know ...
In this episode, Dave answers your production music questions including generative AI, following up with libraries, pitching albums professionally, recovering exclusive cues, building a sustainable sync catalog, and why the tools you use matter when revisions and deliverables are part of the job.
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your production music and know exactly when your cue...
In this episode, Dave pulls back the curtain on 52 Cues with a look inside a cue breakdown, showing how composition, structure, arrangement, and production choices all work together in a finished cue.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YfOLFtiPIig
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your production music and know exactly when your cues are heard.
Start your free trial at R...
In this episode, Dave and Jeff discuss whether loops and samples are lazy, how samples can be transformed into original production music cues, and why legal usage still doesn’t always protect you from Content ID headaches or library concerns.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PFoHpTAsHbo
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your production music and know exactly whe...
In this episode Chuck Henry, founder and CEO of 10 West Music, shares brutally honest advice for production music composers on pitching libraries, preparing clean deliverables, avoiding lazy loop usage, and writing cues that actually serve editors and supervisors.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/4m7ZUa0aPaw
Links:
Support for the 52 C...
In this episode, Dave and community mentor Greg Fellman share five practical networking tips for production music composers, from building real relationships to following up and being ready when opportunities show up.
Denver Composers Collective - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1433710441750662
Sync Meetup Austin - https://www.facebook.com/syncatx
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/MAHozCY7fRk
Support for the 52 Cues Podc...
In this episode, I’m joined by composer, library owner, and PMA vice chair Alan Lazar to talk about ethical AI, production music submissions, and whether tools like TrackTrove.ai can help human composers get their cues heard.
https://tracktrove.ai
https://alanlazar.com
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/FatgvGSr9_s
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your producti...
In this episode, Dave is joined by 52 Cues mentor Mary Shaw to talk about building a “second brain” for composers, getting ideas and tasks out of your head, and creating systems that help future-you stay focused, organized, and more productive.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/z9xOGoM7CnQ
Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte: https://amzn.to/42GFZEg
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, t...
In this episode, Dave and Jeff LaPlante talk about the non-musical skills that can make a huge difference in the sync business.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/7ARhc9dohm4
Support for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to pitch your production music and know exactly when your cues are heard.
Start your free trial at ReelCrafter.com/52Cues!
Join the 52 Cues Community! – https://my...
In this episode, Dave is joined by Jesse Carrigan to talk about Cuemonic, the metadata tool he’s building for composers and publishers, and why this unglamorous part of the business matters more than most of us realize.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lRdh5l8OhxM
Use code 52CUESPOD and get 1 month free each year you stay subscribed to Cuemonic, which means 12 months for the price of 11.
...
In this episode, Dave sits down with Warner Chappell Production Music’s Dave Milne to talk about what libraries really look for in composers, how the production pipeline works behind the scenes, and what it takes to turn great cues into truly usable, professional music for clients.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/PvFd3b2yT78
https://www.davemilnemusic.com
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8687247
https://www.lin...
In this episode, I’m talking with Timothy Andrew Edwards and Tim Mosher about how they landed the music for Nate Bargatze’s Greatest Average American and what it really takes to score a network game show.
Watch this episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/dP71SNhtENo
Greatest Average American on ABC: https://abc.com/show/a0f061ad-bc3e-49f4-926f-40f80f8c7090
Evil Genius: https://www.facebook.com/groups/877961...
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