Client Feature: FiXT Talks Building a Memorable, Authentic Brand in the Sync Industry 

FiXT is an independent, artist-owned record label, music publisher, and merchandise company serving a roster of diverse and forward-thinking artists from across the globe. The company releases new music every week and has garnered over 3 billion online streams, connecting with a core audience of gamers and sci-fi/cyberpunk fans. In our interview, FiXT Vice President and Co-Founder James Rhodes shares some history of the company and speaks on building a fan-recognizable brand that has led to increased sync activity.

Listen to FiXT on SourceAudio Here

○ How did FiXT first begin? What did the business look like in the early days?

I went from being a fan of Klayton’s project Celldweller to his first employee around 2003-2004. In 2005 I moved to Los Angeles for a job offer with his manager Tyler Bacon’s publishing/sync licensing company Position Music. Coming from small-town Iowa to L.A. I only stayed a year, and when I moved back home in Jan ’06, I co-found FiXT with Klayton. 

The first few years were basically the two of us figuring things out, doing everything from the ground up. 

○ Have FiXT’s mission and vision been the same since the beginning, or did they gradually take shape?

For me the mission has pretty much been the same—to help great artists reach their potential—which is why I started as a volunteer street team member for Celldweller in the first place. I was able to help Klayton build his artist career and start the label, and now we’re helping 30+ artists. It has come into so much more clarity though in the past couple years as we got our staff behind putting our vision into words and sharing it with the whole company. Getting our culture right took a lot of work over the years, but having a written mission, vision, and set of company values has brought alignment to everyone working in the organization.

○ What kinds of sounds or genres have been most in demand from your clientele recently?

We have had success by doing a few core things really well. Our general vibe is high energy, futuristic/sci-if inspired rock/metal and electronic music. Our biggest success both commercially on music streaming platforms, and press outlets, along with sync licensing, has been specifically around our electronic-rock and synthwave releases.

○ Is there any specific customer sector that’s experiencing rapid growth right now?

We’re seeing the most growth within the independent video game sector. We’ve had five game developers reach out in the last couple years to have us power their whole game soundtrack or a music pack within the game. I think there are more and more game developers understanding how to license music now, and with 99% of the catalog being one-stop, we keep it easy for them to clear it all in one relationship.

○ Where does FiXT source its material? Are you currently looking for new composers?

We focus on being a public-facing record label, building FiXT as a brand/label. We do a combination of active outreach to artists we find through lots of online research, as well as accepting ongoing submissions through a great A&R submission platform called Label Radar. Spotify’s massive platform of data has expanded our ability to identify relevant, legit artists to pursue by at least a factor of 10.

○ What’s the best way to get a music supervisor to listen to your tracks?

The cliche answer is that whether it’s our direct relationships or working with a sync rep or pub admin team that also pitches for sync—it comes down to relationships. We try to think long-term and built authentic relationships. A lot of licensing for us is actually inbound where creatives are already fans of our artists and coming to us specifically because of the brand the artist has already built.

○ Any advice for up-and-coming sound designers, composers, or recordists striving to create professional, industry-quality tracks?

Create, create, create. Put your work into the world and find your audience and opportunity. Too many creatives talk a big game and never deliver a product. Real artists ship their work, as Seth Godin would say. 

Build on quality, not on being the cheapest. The tools to create have been democratized. Everything is so accessible and affordable now that more people can get in the game than ever. But that means there’s more competition than ever, so you also have to be unique and in demand and doing something that not just anyone else can do. Even if your music itself was just on par with something else, give your customers the best service they’ve ever had—people may pay more to have a better clearance/custom experience with you!

○ Any upcoming releases or exciting plans at FiXT that you can share?

We’ve got a huge year ahead with some big signings to announce, plus new albums coming from some of our front-line roster, including: Fight The Fade, Daedric, Scandroid, The Anix, and Fury Weekend.

○ Any all-time favorite placements?

Having our tracks synced in VR music rhythm games like Synth Riders, Smash Drums and BoomBox where fans can feel the music come to life has to be at the top of the list. We’ve had over 50 tracks licensed in these games and hope to add more titles to the list in 2023 and 2024!