Sync Licensing in Saudi Arabia: Music for Film, Television, and Advertising

Sync licensing — the process of licensing music for synchronization with visual media including film, television, advertising, video games, and digital content — represents one of the most underdeveloped yet highest-potential revenue streams in Saudi Arabia’s music industry. While the live event and streaming segments have attracted the most attention and investment, the sync licensing market is quietly assembling the components needed for rapid growth: a domestic film industry emerging from a decades-long cinema ban, an advertising market spending $1.6 billion annually on entertainment alone, a gaming sector with $38 billion in government investment, and a recorded music catalog that is expanding at unprecedented speed.

The structural conditions for a sync licensing explosion in Saudi Arabia are now in place. What remains is the development of the institutional infrastructure — the licensing intermediaries, rights clearance processes, and industry relationships — that connect music rights holders with visual media producers efficiently and at scale.

The Foundation: MDLBEAST Records and Telfaz11

The most significant development in Saudi sync licensing to date is the partnership between MDLBEAST Records and Telfaz11 for music licensing across Telfaz11’s feature films and original productions. This collaboration creates a direct pipeline between the Kingdom’s most prolific record label and one of its most prominent content production companies.

MDLBEAST Records brings a catalog of 159 singles, four albums, and nine EPs, with work from over 110 artists including 30-plus Saudi artists, 37 international artists, and 43 regional MENA artists. The label’s genre range — from underground deep house and techno to EDM and Afrobeat — provides a diverse sonic palette for visual media producers. Plans for sub-labels focused on various sounds will further expand the available catalog.

Telfaz11, as a film and original content producer, represents the demand side of the sync equation. The company produces feature films and original productions that require music for their soundtracks, score underscoring, and promotional materials. The partnership with MDLBEAST Records streamlines the licensing process by creating a pre-existing commercial relationship and catalog access framework.

This partnership model addresses one of the primary friction points in sync licensing globally: the time and complexity involved in identifying, negotiating, and clearing music rights for visual media use. By establishing a standing relationship, MDLBEAST and Telfaz11 can execute sync placements more quickly and cost-effectively than the traditional track-by-track negotiation model that prevails in mature markets.

The Cinema Resurgence and Soundtrack Demand

Saudi Arabia’s cinema industry provides the most visible demand driver for sync licensing. Cinemas were banned in the Kingdom from the 1980s until 2018, when the ban was lifted as part of the Vision 2030 entertainment sector liberalization. By 2023, cinema revenue had reached $240 million — a remarkable figure for an industry that did not exist five years earlier.

The growth of domestic film production creates direct demand for sync-licensed music. Every feature film requires music — from the opening title sequence to underscoring dramatic scenes to end credits. Saudi films targeting domestic audiences benefit from incorporating Saudi and Arabic music that resonates culturally, creating a natural market for the growing catalog of Saudi-origin recorded music.

The regulatory environment for music in visual media involves compliance with both the General Authority of Media Regulation (GAMR), which oversees audiovisual content, and the GEA’s broader entertainment standards. Music used in films distributed in Saudi Arabia must comply with content guidelines, which may affect the selection of tracks with explicit lyrics or themes. This regulatory layer adds a step to the sync licensing process but is manageable for producers familiar with the compliance framework.

International films distributed in Saudi Arabia also represent a sync licensing consideration. While the music in international productions is typically licensed prior to Saudi distribution, the localization of marketing materials — trailers, promotional content, and advertising — may involve additional music licensing for Saudi-specific campaigns.

Advertising and Brand Partnerships

The advertising market in Saudi Arabia represents a substantial and growing sync licensing opportunity. Consumer spending on entertainment exceeds $1.6 billion annually, surpassing other GCC nations. Brand partnerships in the music space are growing at a 13.33 percent compound annual growth rate. MDLBEAST’s partnerships with PepsiCo, Visit Saudi, and Zain demonstrate that major brands are actively investing in music-associated marketing in the Kingdom.

Advertising sync licensing covers a range of use cases. Television commercials, radio spots, digital video ads, social media campaigns, and in-store audio all require licensed music. The shift toward digital advertising creates additional sync opportunities, as digital campaigns are more frequently refreshed and targeted, increasing the volume of music placements.

The Riyadh Season brand, valued at $3.2 billion, generates extensive marketing content that requires music licensing. The 100-plus festivals and exhibitions within each Riyadh Season edition produce promotional materials, event highlight reels, and social media content that collectively represent a substantial volume of sync licensing transactions.

For Saudi artists and labels, advertising sync placement provides both revenue and exposure. A track featured in a major brand campaign reaches audiences who may not actively consume music through streaming platforms, creating a discovery channel that complements the TikTok-to-streaming pipeline. The alignment of a Saudi artist with a respected brand also confers credibility that can accelerate career development.

The regulatory considerations for music in advertising mirror those for other visual media: content must comply with GEA and GAMR standards, which may restrict certain lyrical content or visual associations. Brands operating in Saudi Arabia are typically well-versed in these requirements and factor compliance into their creative development process.

Gaming and Esports: The Next Frontier

The gaming and esports sector represents the largest emerging sync licensing opportunity in Saudi Arabia. The government has invested $38 billion in the sector, which is projected to contribute $13.3 billion (SAR 50 billion) to GDP by 2030 and create 39,000 jobs. The Public Investment Fund holds strategic stakes in Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive Software — three of the world’s largest game publishers that each require extensive music licensing for their titles.

Game soundtracks represent one of the most lucrative sync licensing categories globally, as a single game title may incorporate dozens or hundreds of licensed tracks. Sports games, open-world titles, and music-centric games like rhythm games all rely on sync-licensed music. As Saudi Arabia develops its domestic game development industry, the demand for music licensing will increase, with a natural preference for regional content that resonates with the target audience.

Esports events, which combine competitive gaming with entertainment programming, also create sync licensing demand for walk-on music, broadcast underscoring, highlight reels, and promotional content. The scale of Saudi Arabia’s esports ambitions — evidenced by the government’s investment level — suggests that this demand will grow substantially in the coming years.

Virtual concerts within gaming platforms represent a hybrid between sync licensing and live performance licensing. Artists performing as virtual avatars within game environments require music licensing arrangements that do not fit neatly into traditional sync or performance categories, creating new licensing models that the Saudi market will need to develop alongside global industry standards.

The DAZN Broadcasting Ecosystem

DAZN’s exclusive broadcasting deal for all Riyadh Season-sponsored events creates a significant sync licensing ecosystem. The production of broadcast content — including pre-show segments, interval programming, highlight packages, and promotional trailers — requires licensed music. The exclusivity of the DAZN deal centralizes this licensing demand, creating a single point of negotiation for music rights holders seeking placement in Riyadh Season broadcast content.

The scope of the DAZN deal encompasses concerts, sporting events, award ceremonies, and other programming across Riyadh Season’s 14 zones. The diversity of content types requires a correspondingly diverse music catalog, from high-energy tracks for sports broadcast to atmospheric underscoring for cultural programming.

For Saudi music rights holders, the DAZN partnership represents an opportunity to place music in broadcast content that reaches international audiences. DAZN’s global streaming platform extends the reach of Riyadh Season content beyond the Kingdom, providing international exposure for Saudi music that sync placements in domestic-only media cannot match.

Rights Clearance and Licensing Infrastructure

The practical mechanics of sync licensing in Saudi Arabia are still developing the institutional infrastructure that mature markets have built over decades. In the United States, for example, a sync license clearance can involve the Harry Fox Agency, the relevant performing rights organization (ASCAP, BMI, or SESAC), the record label, the publisher, and potentially the artist directly. In Saudi Arabia, these intermediary functions are not yet fully developed.

Esmaa, the music rights company that has partnered with MDLBEAST, represents the most developed rights management infrastructure in the Saudi market. The partnership ensures royalty payments for music performed at MDLBEAST events, but the extension of this infrastructure to cover sync licensing across the broader entertainment industry remains an ongoing development.

The Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) provides the legal framework for music copyright protection, with emphasis on fair compensation for music use. However, the translation of legal protections into efficient commercial licensing processes requires additional institutional development — standardized licensing agreements, published rate cards, clearance timelines, and dispute resolution mechanisms.

For international music rights holders licensing content into the Saudi market, the process typically involves direct negotiation with a local representative or through international publishing companies that have established Saudi operations. The growing volume of international music use in the Kingdom — from Soundstorm headliners to Riyadh Season performers — is driving the development of more streamlined international licensing channels.

Revenue Potential and Market Sizing

Estimating the total sync licensing revenue in Saudi Arabia requires triangulating from multiple data points. The cinema industry’s $240 million revenue suggests a soundtrack and sync licensing market in the low tens of millions. The advertising sector’s spending on entertainment-associated campaigns adds a comparable figure. Gaming, broadcasting, and digital content add further layers.

As the entertainment industry grows from $2.46 billion toward the projected $6.10 billion by 2033, the sync licensing market will scale proportionally. In mature markets, sync licensing typically represents 5 to 10 percent of total recorded music revenue. Applied to the Saudi market’s trajectory, this would suggest a sync licensing market reaching hundreds of millions of dollars by the end of the decade.

The growth drivers for sync licensing are structural: more films being produced, more advertising spending, more games being developed, more broadcast content being created, and more digital content requiring licensed music. Each of these sectors is in a growth phase in Saudi Arabia, creating compound growth dynamics for the sync licensing market that sits at their intersection.

Practical Considerations for Sync Licensing in Saudi Arabia

For music rights holders and visual media producers operating in the Saudi sync licensing market, several practical considerations apply. Content compliance review should be integrated into the sync licensing workflow, as tracks selected for visual media placement must meet GEA and GAMR content standards. Pre-cleared catalogs — where compliance review has already been completed — offer efficiency advantages for producers working under tight deadlines.

Local representation is valuable for international rights holders seeking sync placements in the Saudi market. A Saudi-based licensing representative who understands both the regulatory environment and the commercial landscape can identify opportunities and navigate the approval process more efficiently than remote management.

Exclusivity terms in sync licensing agreements should be carefully structured to account for the unique characteristics of the Saudi market. The concentration of major events under the Riyadh Season umbrella and the DAZN broadcasting monopoly creates a market structure where exclusive placements carry different strategic implications than in more fragmented markets.

The relationship between sync licensing and live performance licensing in Saudi Arabia is particularly close, given that many sync licensing opportunities arise from content associated with live events. Music featured at Soundstorm may appear in festival highlight reels, DAZN broadcasts, social media content, and promotional materials, each requiring separate licensing clearance unless bundled agreements are in place.

The MDLBEAST Records Catalog

MDLBEAST Records has built the largest sync-licensable catalog of Saudi and regional music. With 159 singles, 4 albums, and 9 EPs featuring over 110 artists — including 30+ Saudi artists, 43 regional MENA artists, and 37 international collaborators — the label’s catalog provides sync supervisors with a diverse library of pre-cleared Saudi music. The label’s partnership with Telfaz11 for music licensing across feature films and original productions demonstrates the commercial viability of domestic sync placements and establishes workflows that can scale as the Saudi visual media industry grows.

The label’s plans for sub-labels focused on various sounds — from underground deep house and techno to EDM and Afrobeat — will expand the sonic diversity of the sync-licensable catalog, providing options for a wider range of visual media contexts. Each sub-label’s catalog will be optimized for different sync applications: ambient and atmospheric tracks for documentary and dramatic scoring, high-energy electronic music for sports and action sequences, and Arabic-influenced productions for content seeking authentic regional character.

The Gaming Opportunity

The gaming sector represents one of the largest potential sync licensing markets in Saudi Arabia. With projected GDP contribution of $13.3 billion by 2030 and $38 billion in government investment, the Saudi gaming industry will require extensive musical content. The PIF’s investments in Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, and Take-Two Interactive Software create potential pathways for Saudi music in globally distributed games. Recording studios developing capabilities in game audio and interactive music production will be positioned to serve this market.

Sync licensing in Saudi Arabia is a market at the early stages of institutional development, with enormous growth potential driven by the simultaneous expansion of multiple visual media sectors. As the entertainment market grows from $2.46 billion toward $6.10 billion by 2033, sync licensing will scale proportionally — potentially reaching hundreds of millions of dollars by the end of the decade. The organizations and individuals who build the licensing infrastructure and commercial relationships now will be positioned to capture disproportionate value as the market scales. As the Saudi Music Commission develops the Kingdom’s music workforce and the copyright framework matures, sync licensing will become an increasingly significant revenue stream for Saudi artists and rights holders — transforming music from a performance art into a commercial asset with applications across every dimension of Saudi Arabia’s expanding media landscape. The Riyadh media city — a multiservice media ecosystem purpose-built to support content and talent creation — will serve as a hub for sync licensing activity, concentrating the creative, legal, and commercial capabilities required for efficient music-to-visual-media licensing in a single location. As Saudi Arabia’s film, television, gaming, and advertising sectors all enter periods of rapid growth simultaneously, the sync licensing market sits at their intersection — positioned to capture value from every creative industry’s expansion.