52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Dave Kropf
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About This 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.
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Recent Episodes
S2026E273 Dave Answers Your Production Music Questions
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…
S2026E272 Inside a 52 Cues Cue Breakdown
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…
S2026E271 Is Using Loops "Lazy?"
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…
S2026E270 Brutally Honest Advice from a Library CEO (Chuck Henry, 10 West Music)
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…
S2026E269 Stop Pitching and Start Building Relationships
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…
S2026E268 Can AI Help Get Your Cues Signed? (with Alan Lazar)
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…
S2026E267 Composers, You Need a Second Brain
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…
S2026E266 Why Good Music Isn’t Enough in Sync
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/7ARhc9dohm4Support for…
S2026E265 Stop Using Spreadsheets for Metadata with Cuemonic
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…
S2026E264 Inside the Production Pipeline of Warner Chappell
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…
S2026E263 What It Takes to Score a Network Game Show
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…
S2026E262 How Do You Actually Go Full-Time in Production Music?
In this episode Dave is joined by Steven McDonald to talk about how he went from posting music on YouTube to landing major placements, why he writes fast and doesn’t throw ideas away, and the honest…
S2026E261 The Biggest Sync Mistakes We’ve Ever Made
In this episode, Dave and Jeff LaPlante share some of the biggest sync mistakes they’ve made, from technical blunders and bad deals to mindset traps and missed opportunities.Watch this episode on…
S2026E260 What Non-Drummers Get Wrong About Programming Drums
In this episode, Dave is joined by community ambassador and drum educator Michael Reschke to break down the biggest mistakes non-drummers make when programming drums.Watch this episode on YouTube:…
S2026E259 How Do Composers Find New Libraries?
In this episode, Dave and Jeff break down practical strategies for finding new production music libraries, building relationships, and pitching in a way that gets you taken seriously in the sync…
S2026E258 TV Composer Reviews Your Production Music Cues Live!
In this episode I review cues from the 52 Cues Community!Watch this episode on YouTube! https://youtu.be/1hgYh8PZaRgSupport for the 52 Cues Podcast comes from ReelCrafter, the professional way to…
S2026E257 Let's Talk Trailer Music (with Randon Purcell)
In this episode, trailer composer Randon Purcell breaks down what it actually takes to write modern trailer music, from massive structure and signature sounds to trends, placements, and surviving in…
S2026E256 Do I Just Suck at Workflow?
In this episode, me and 52 Cues mentor Mary Shaw unpack why “bad workflow” is often a misdiagnosis and how simple project management tools can make writing and delivering cues feel far more…
S2026E255 What New Composers Get Wrong About Sync
In this episode, Jeff Hargrove and I talk about the early mistakes new composers often make when stepping into production music – from chasing plugins and genres to overlooking the fundamentals that…
Building Better Work-Life Balance
This week, Greg Fellman and I talk work-life balance and how routines, boundaries, travel, burnout, and community can actually recharge you instead of distracting you.Watch this episode on YouTube!…
Frequently Asked Questions
52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast has published 299 episodes since January 2021, covering topics in Arts, Education.
52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 48m.
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