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
314 episodes
What's going on this week at 52 Cues? | 2026 Week 34
Weekly Feedback - Week 34https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-34Office Hours
We Asked Anne-Kathrin Dern About Her Brutal Composer Advice
In this episode, film and game composer Anne-Kathrin Dern joins Dave to talk about her recent brutally honest composer advice, how her own career has evolved, and how she actually gets hired.Watch this episode on YouTube:
What's going on this week at 52 Cues? | 2026 Week 33
Watch this on YouTube: https://youtu.be/72TYUpvBsysWeekly Feedback - Week 33https://my.52cues.com/posts/95668894
I Wrote 8 Cues in a Week and Didn’t Burn Out
In this episode, Dave reflects on what he learned from spending an entire week focused almost exclusively on writing music, and how simplicity, flow state, and avoiding constant context switching helped him finish eight cues without feeling com...
What's going on this week at 52 Cues? | 2026 Week 32
Weekly Feedback - Week 32https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-32Office Hours
Have You Outgrown Your Composer Workflow?
In this episode, Dave talks with Pibox founder and CEO Ivan Talaichuk about the point where Dropbox, email, and spreadsheets stop being enough and what production music composers can learn from the way professional music teams manage feedback, ...
What's going on this week at 52 Cues? | 2026 Week 31
Weekly Feedback - Week 31https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-31Office Hours
Is Production Music Worth It in 2026?
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 ha...
What's going on this week at 52 Cues? | 2026 Week 29
Weekly Feedback - Week 29https://my.52cues.com/posts/weekly-feedback-weekly-feedback-week-29Office Hours
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...
Your Cue Got Accepted! Don't Blow the Deliverables.
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 ...
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 sync catalog, and why the tools you use matter...
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 cue.Watch this episode on YouTube:...
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 from Content ID headaches or library concerns.
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 usage, and writing cues that actually serve edit...
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 opportunities show up.Denver Composers ...
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 composers get their cues heard.
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 stay focused, organized, and more productive....
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/7ARhc9dohm4
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 most of us realize. Watch thi...
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 what it takes to turn great cues into truly u...