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.
52 Cues - A Production Music and Sync Podcast
Latest Episodes
How Hard Is it to Make a Living in Production Music?
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
What's going on this week at 52 Cues? | 2026 Week 28
Weekly Feedback - Week 28https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-28Free Workshop! From Sketch To Screen (with...
How Sketching Makes Writing Cues Easier
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/xX...
Our Most-Used Plugins for Production Music
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.
How to Learn Orchestration Without Feeling Overwhelmed
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 performanc...
