Introducing Syncbubble, The Unique Online Music To Picture Search Engine

Quick pitch – how would you sum up Syncbubble in a couple of sentences?

"Syncbubble is a unique online music to picture search engine that has the ability to upload your film, audition an enviable collection of tracks immediately to picture, upload music from your own collection, create a presentation page and share your results with anybody online. What's even more impressive is the content, as never before have record and publishing companies, artists, bands and film composers shared such a platform - it's a collection second to none."


Eclectic's Simon Elms has spent the past six years creating a revolutionary tool for the creative community, custom-made to aid users navigate their way through the aural maze of melodies – Syncbubble. Combining an intuitive user-interface and flexibility found in the likes of ubiquitous tech giants like Amazon and YouTube with the proficiency and music-savoir-faire of experts in the field, Syncbubble is precisely constructed to guide the user through the tricky process of finding, testing and buying music for campaigns. To simplify the process of finding the perfect track, the system allows users to control standard parameters like tempo and genre, as well as exploring more emotional cues like mood. Indeed, a selection of 35 carefully panel-curated 'moods' tags are available to choose from, allowing those with the most limited of notation know-how to find what they're after in their own terms. What's more, all of the tracks can be tested against the uploaded footage – even ones not on the already full-to-the-brim system through a nifty 'use my music' function. A few clicks later and the track is bought and ready to use. Simple!

We were delighted by the endeavour and intrigued by its creation, so caught some time with Simon to discuss what makes the bubble pop.



Where did the concept for syncbubble come from? When did you spot the gap in the market?

"Not so much a gap but more of a gaping hole. It seemed obvious to me, and I'm sure many others that to build a website where clients could align their film with music in one place and then populate that place with music that wasn't cynically written to sound like something famous but was written by artists who 'meant it' was going to be a good thing. Weirdly, syncbubble still stands alone."

What's your background?

"In short - music. I completed a music degree at Sussex University and took Trumpet lessons at the Royal College of Music. Around that time I met my writing and business partner, Colin Smith, who was studying music at Guildhall. We spent the next few years as professional musicians; playing in bands, orchestras, doing sessions, arranging, writing, drinking before joining a music production company called Amber Music as a composing team. We spent the next 15 years at Amber, where we met Cliff Wilson, and in 2008 we all left the company to establish Eclectic Sounds Ltd [www.eclectic.tv] which is a London based music production company."

Can you talk us through a few of the services key features?

"As previously mentioned, Syncbubble has the ability to interrogate a wide variety of music immediately in sync with your picture. As well as the usual search parameters - genre, era, pace, key lyric etc - Syncbubble provides you with a carefully chosen selection of 35 moods to help you to find that elusive track. The more buttons you hit the more refined your search becomes. Each and every track on the engine is listened to, edited, tagged, and discussed by our astute team of composers and music supervisors. The result is a collection of brilliantly eclectic and very filmic music. A collection that we've spent a life time collating.

Syncbubble has a few other neat features help you with your search. Tracks can be moved left or right on the timeline to line up the synchronisation perfectly, if there's a particular cue you need to hit. You can also upload your own music (say from iTunes) and sync that – very useful if there's a track you've sourced that you think really works. Need a specific lyric in the track? We have a key lyric feature, which allows you to find tracks containing specific themes or words.

Ultimately though, where Syncbubble comes into its own is the ability to showcase your work and share with others. All your work is organised intuitively into playlists & projects in your own personal space, so all your music searches are recorded to be called upon at any moment. Anyone you choose to share your work with can add comments (or not if you so choose) so a dialogue can take place between everyone working on the project – all online."

How's the data collated? How did you choose the specific mood filters?

"Having worked to music briefs for the last 25 years, I have found that there are a number of emotional cues that regularly crop up, and others that maybe don't appear quite as often, but are extremely descriptive for characterising a piece of music. We spent a long period of time with many a lengthy discussion on getting these words right; many have changed since we started out. Our team combines experience, youth and a real passion for music for picture and we feel that the mood board really reflects this."

The service allows you to test the tracks alongside the video. How vital was it to integrate that? How easy is it for users to provide their footage?

"It was essential for us to integrate this.

This particular part of the site took a considerable amount of time and energy to get working in the way we wanted it to, so now to see it working with clients responding so positively brings a sense of achievement.

We believe we've hit on a game-changer; Syncbubble introduces a refreshed sense of enjoyment to the music search process. Being able to try out ideas immediately against your video, with (almost) no bounds, we feel will lead to much better, more thought provoking music placements."



The system incorporates sharing, commenting and simplicity in purchasing – all standard practices when it comes to consumer-aimed sites but lacking within industry examples. Was that a key factor in developing the service? Do you think that a slick UX is lacking elsewhere in the industry?

"Yes, we think so. Hopefully what we bring is slightly more clarity to how music is selected – a highly useful platform where the whole process, from conception to placement, is simplified without compromising on quality."

What's your favourite mood in the system? Got some top tracks?

"I haven't got a favourite mood as such but I still marvel at how well the engine filters [even though we're the ones who have spent years putting this thing together] - how quickly it throws up tracks that just work.

There are so many amazing pieces of music. So many amazing artists and bands. For example we've recently signed work from film composers like Alexandre Desplat [Kings Speech, Fantastic Mr Fox] Cliff Martinez [Drive] and Clint Mansell [Filth]. A real coup."



Are there any secret elements of the service that first-time users might overlook?

"The ability to load music from your own collection. You don't have to listen to any of our tracks if you don't wish to. Load up your film, load up the tracks that you want to sync, save and share."

Have you got any plans for the future of Syncbubble? Where could it go next?

"Phase two is already in development, we're always looking ahead to improve the engine. We're also collating the client feedback and constantly enhancing the user's experience. More long term we firmly believe the future of Syncbubble is limitless and we have exciting plans in place to expand."

www.syncbubble.com