soundlounge has today announced that CEO and Owner, Ruth Simmons, has been honoured with the Outstanding Contribution Award at last night's Music Week: Sync Awards.
Ruth was selected as the first recipient of this prestigious prize because of her contribution to the creation and evolution of the sync industry. It’s not hard to see why. When Ruth established soundlounge (then Songseekers International Ltd), she didn’t just launch a new company, she pretty much established a new industry.
Working with brands and music publishers, she helped develop the first sync licenses and the legal framework that would ensure that artists could collaborate on brand marketing campaigns. Today the sync industry is worth $2 - $4 billion annually.
"We wanted to honour someone who has not only had a successful career, but has also influenced, shaped and helped grow the modern sync market," said Tom Pakinkis, Editor, Music Week. “Ruth is a true pioneer. She has helped to define the industry and establish best practice when there were no rules or precedents."
35 years and around 700 global brand campaigns later, soundlounge has been responsible for licensing over 4,000 tracks and earned approx £120 million in revenues for Rights Owners.
"When researching potential nominees for the award, we spoke to senior executives at publishers, record labels and sync supervisors and the same name kept on coming up. That name was Ruth Simmons," said Tom.
The Music Week: Sync Awards were held on Thursday 15th October at the Bloomsbury Ballroom in London. The Outstanding Achievement Award was presented by Nigel Elderton, President of Peer Music, a former Chairman of the MPA and a close friend and lifelong business colleague of Ruth’s.
“35 years ago my husband put the idea of licensing music for commercials into my head,” said Ruth Simmons, CEO and Owner, soundlounge. “What started as a seed of an idea is now a multi-billion dollar industry. The industry has come a long way in the last 3 decades and it is a great honour to be recognised for my role in helping it grow and evolve.”
Here are just a few of the milestones that Ruth has helped the music and advertising industries achieve:
1980 - Songseekers opens. Conceives and drafts modern advertising sync licenses
1985 onwards - Gains the confidence of superstars with growing list of first ever licenses - Beatles, Madonna; David Bowie, Duran Duran; The Who; Iggy Pop; Cream; Radiohead
1987 - Undertakes first ever analysis of a music catalogue according to emotional engagement
1990 - Develops first master sound sync license
1994 - Creates first dedicated Music Supervision service for Advertising Agencies
1999 - Conceptualises the ‘sound of the brand’
1999 - Hosts first ever Advertising meet and greets with the Music Industry Conference
2000 - Introduces the ‘great jukebox in the sky’ re tertiary licensing opportunities
2001 - Introduces new Music Indemnity insurance policy with Hiscox, which covers licensees for any terms which couldn’t be guaranteed by the Licensor
2005 - Songseekers becomes soundlounge
2009 - Helps create first ever Audio Branding Association
2010 – Moves brands forward from licensing of tracks to procurement of musical assets
2012 - Works with WPP and Millward Brown for first ever use of Facebook for Music Advertising Consumer Research
2014 - Publishes ‘Music Matters’, a study of how Brands are using music and sound in the current synch market
Present - Introduces Music Mapping, a digital music platform that will facilitate music briefing, increase licensing revenue and banish ‘I’ll know it when I hear it’ as a success measure