While the vast majority of entries on SHOOT’s “Top Ten Tracks” quarterly charts perennially consists of original music and sound design by advertising professionals, there has been considerable buzz about the growing industry prominence of licensed music and for that matter music from young, up-and-coming bands and musical acts.
Sometimes spot and ad content scores are adapted from existing music. Sometimes music is created by these promising artists/performers specifically for commercials and other fare for advertising clients and agencies.
In light of this marketplace dynamic–which has been well chronicled in SHOOT–we asked commercial music house execs/artisans as well as agency music producers to share their takes on the merits of original music by commercial pros.
We posed the following multi-pronged query to a cross-section of industry folk:
Will this original fare continue to be viable? How do you see original music & sound houses adapting (some are diversifying into licensing, etc.) to inroads made by hot bands/performers, both emerging and established, in the commercials arena? Is your company diversifying? Please feel free to cite examples of recent notable projects you were involved in if it helps to answer the question.
Here’s a sampling of the feedback we received:
Stephen Arnold, president, Stephen Arnold Music, Dallas, New York, San Diego, Santa Fe
While licensing an indie track may have its place, if the purpose of everything going into a spot is to actually build a strong brand, then original music is essential. The advertisers using licensed music may have good ears, but they may also be overlooking the age-old principle that great advertising delivers a simple and consistent message to the consumer.
The key fundamental elements to a sonic brand are consistency and frequency. There is an art and a science to creating a sonic brand that quickly evokes an emotional response — something that makes your brain say, “Get ready for this” or “You need do that.” (For example, the sound of thunder makes you go inside. The sound of “I want my baby back ribs” makes you want to go to Chili’s.)
So, is licensing an indie band’s song really building a sonic brand? There’s a big difference between doing that, and creating a sonic signature that communicates the brand in seconds. Done right, original music specifically reflects the brand’s identity across all media platforms with a melody — and an effective sales message — that lingers long after the commercial is over.
Lyle Greenfield, president, Bang Music, N.Y., and national board president of the Association of Music Producers (AMP)
In the first years of my career I was a copywriter, then creative director on the agency side, so I inevitably think about music for ads in terms of its effectiveness in getting the message across and telling the story memorably. When licensed music does that–whether a famous song or from an up and coming artist–it may accomplish the goals of the advertiser. So, mission accomplished!
In so many cases, however, those choices can seem arbitrary, overused, or simply contrived to deliver a “coolness” factor. Original music, commissioned specifically for the spot or campaign, has the unique ability to help brand the brand…be as intrinsic to its identity and “story” as its logo, or the look of its advertising. (i.e. ‘I’m lovin’ it’, FreeCreditReport.com, “Five Dollar Foot Long”…) That’s what I think creative and brand people might keep in mind as they develop their message today.
Analogy: Think of successful TV series, famous films–their original music themes will occupy space in our brains till death do us part! From Seinfeld, The Colbert Report, Friends, Sex And The City to Cheers–nightly news programs, networks ID’s…
Interestingly, not so many years ago brands like Bud, Miller, Pepsi and Coke were using famous and not-so-famous artists to make music for their commercials–but that music was owned by the brand, the brand’s name and themes imbedded in it. So, yes, it was “cool,” but it was also “sticky”–stuck in your head. You knew whose message it was. In today’s world of unprecedented clutter, I think that’s more important than ever.
So what’s a modern day music house to do in a world where all music has been released from its traditional confines and cages?
Hmm–try this question first: Today, stock film libraries offer more than 10 times the volume of motion content than they did a decade ago–does that mean we need fewer film directors? Hardly. There are over 15,000 directors registered with the DGA–a nearly 50% increase since 1990!
To the composer/music house, I’d say this: As the musical universe expands exponentially, be at the center of it, not at the marginalized edges. Be the tastemaker…the music “creative director,” helping clients sort it out and get it right. At Bang we not only create original music when commissioned, we do song and “style” searches on request, assist with licensing and negotiations, explore our own catalog for inspiration, create pneumonic sound designs for brands… One thing you can’t download for 99 cents is a great idea.
Jan Horowitz, VP, DHMA (David Horowitz Music Associates), New York
Well, music is what we do, so of course it’s quite important! (And, all music is “original.”)
Seriously, we’ve always been in the music business and passionate about creating music.
There are many commercial messages that require “custom music”–music created precisely for the film and meaning … for most of our recent assignments you wouldn’t just rent a CD track because it would be like the end credits of a movie (your song here) instead of the main theme of the movie (memorable–even haunting–songs and scores).
At any rate, we don’t draw distinctions between “advertising music” and “other.”
We’ve always been diverse, musically–maybe more so in the past few years… In January we did a sitar piece for a GE commercial shot in India; a Warner Bros. cartoon score for AT&T; and a patriotic anthem for the U.S. Army Officer Corps. David [Horowitz] is working on a cello etude and a concert for Italy this summer…
I would say that our studio is at the center of how we work–real artists and performers creating musical chemistry. Sometimes we work with bands or artists that the client has selected–BB King or Queen Latifah, reggae artists you haven’t heard of…some independent artists book our studio too, because of the vibe. (That’s music talk.)
That’s why we also do records, films and even concerts–we’re music-centric! I don’t think that goes out of style. There’s just less to go around in advertising at the moment.
Cost–ROI–is sometimes the reason we are called. We can deliver an original score for a :30 “little movie” at a fraction of the cost of licensing a Hollywood or CD property. And the music will belong to the client–they even receive publisher royalties. The more the music is used, the more equity, and now the “cost per use” is falling while the value to the brand is rising.
John Keaney, director of operations, JWTwo, New York
Creative directors often ask our music producers at JWTwo (JWT N.Y.’s in-house production facility) for music that “doesn’t sound like ad music.” In those scenarios it often takes an existing/licensed piece to satisfy the raw or “real” quality the creative director is looking for.
However, regardless of the source–whether it’s licensed or original–it will always take a commercial pro to make the music work within an ad spot. Generally, non-commercial musical artists do what they do, and the the music is everything. In the commercial world, music tends to play a supporting role to the visuals and the message of the spot. It ultimately needs an audio pro steeped in the ad dynamic to make the audio elements work, and with original music, a skilled music producer to translate direction from the CDs into language composers can understand and act on. Music houses would be smart to continue to work directly with artists, and to use their professional sound designers/audio engineers to help guide them into the commercial space.
The integration of audio and music services at JWTwo gives us the unique capacity to marry the worlds of licensed music and commercial professionalism. The “Charter” spot we did last summer for Royal Carribean Cruise Lines is a great example. We licensed a great track from Mates of State (“For The Actor”), but realized it didn’t work throughout the whole spot, and that something was missing. We approached Alan Friedman, JWTwo’s sound designer, for a solution, and he composed a musical overture for the top of the spot that beautifully set up the Mates of State track, and made the flow of the whole spot work.
Elizabeth Myers, partner/composer, Trivers/Myers Music, El Segundo, Calif.
Music for advertising has become its own art form with its own set of criteria. It has to get attention, sound like a killer master recording, convey the right emotion, and most importantly get the WORD across. There is obviously a skill set that goes with creating successful music for commercials. Composers who do it all the time are a lot better at it than singer songwriters who are creating music as their own personal self-expression.
Licensing can be fun, possibly sexy if there’s a celebrity involved, and has immediate gratification rather than requiring tedious revisions and collaboration. It’s also rather expensive and can send the wrong message to the consumer if you’re not careful. (We bought the band’s CD but we didn’t remember the credit card company’s name.) Clients also like to own music and you can’t do that with a license.
If there is a story to tell in the commercial, then original music will still do it best.
Josh Rabinowitz, senior VP/director of music, Grey Group, New York
There will always be a place for original music in ads, but more and more it will likely be enlisted from non-traditional ad music composers–what I think you’ll find is that music creators, who maybe five to 10 years ago would have been trying to craft music exclusively for release on albums/CDs, will now be a bigger part of the original compositional music mix.
Music houses have already adapted and rep these nuevo-ad-music-creators, however the budgets that they’re accustomed to getting will be lower, and emerging creatives, producers, music sups, and music producers at agencies, who have been weaned in digital, will seek out more and more music from even more untraditional sources like band’s web pages, rogue licensing sites, band’s myspace pages, and the like. Many music houses are creating such sites, ala Pump Audio model which was sold to Getty Images for several million dollars–and some are having a nice success with volume sales of existing tracks.
My feeling is that there is certainly a place for this mode of music procurement, but there’s nothing, nothing, nothing at all like a great piece of originally composed music created specifically for and in tandem with a great piece of creative–we are in the creative business, no?
We have several projects in progress here at Grey that are either utilizing emerging bands, and/or having lesser known acts create original musical content for our campaigns.
Brian Yessian, chief creative officer, Yessian/Dragon Licks, New York
At Yessian/Dragon Licks, we don’t think of it as original music vs licensed music. For us, it comes down to finding the right sound for a brand. As music providers, we have to adapt to the changing landscape of the market and create an audio experience that will best achieve the overall objectives of any client.
Our company has actually been offering an integrated hybrid audio experience for years now by combining licensing, remixes, covers, edits, re-records in addition to original music and sound design. By integrating popular music or indie bands with our worldwide roster of composers, we encourage our clients to completely customize the work even when we license something so the brands have some kind of ownership and equity of their own in addition to the borrowed equity of a big name…plus it’s about half the cost of licensing a master recording. This is one of the most exciting times to be in the music industry and in our view, the ability to adapt licensed material and to hire emerging or well known artists enables us to offer more options to our clients. Our talent pool has expanded and our global reach has afforded us the opportunity to work with a wide range of agency and entertainment partners around the world.
The changes in the industry have primed marketers to explore new ways to move forward with the use of audio. Every brand has a message to convey, so for us the ultimate question is, what does that message sound like?
Loren Parkins, executive music producer, BBDO New YorkWill original music continue to be viable today and well into the future?
Absolutely. While the use of licensed music from up-and-coming bands and musical acts is prominent–reflecting popular culture and the astronomical rise of access to new music via sources such as iTunes, social network sites, blogs etc.–the need for and advantage of original music and scoring will never be entirely replaced for the following reasons:
1)Each project must serve the given brand and individual creative execution, and not all commercials (or films for that matter) call for the styles/genres of music that tend to be predominated by up-and-coming/unsigned bands
2) Original music is entirely owned by the brand. It’s not borrowed equity and merely leased for a particular term.
3) While some commercials and great films exemplify how using licensed music can be beneficial to the project, songs and existing music cannot always provide the kind of emotion, change in style, arrangement and storytelling that is inherent in original compositions (think of Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, Psycho without their indelible scores).
4) Music companies continue to expand their reach by using composers outside of established commercial composers. Many composers of music for commercials are accomplished artists, bands, film composers and sound designers who do not regularly compose for commercial content, but do so on a job by job basis. This gives us a means to achieve a current sensibility along with a sensitivity to the needs and dictates of commercial media production.
Bryan Rheude, co-owner/composer, Comma Music & Sound Design, Chicago
When it comes to advertisers licensing an existing track, whether an identifiable ‘hit’ or an up-and-comer from an indie-band, our attitude is the same as when we are writing original music: is the music serving the specific message of the spot or campaign and, maybe more importantly, is the music serving the overall positioning of the brand? You see, few companies seize the opportunity to use music in a way that fully exploits its power to build a brand. Instead of defining a unique musical identity, no different than they would with their graphic images, most companies take more of a hodge-podge, spot-to-spot approach. To us, more of an integrated strategy, whether with a common mnemonic or merely a defined style, is an essential part of the overall marketing of a brand that will help it connect with consumers.
There are unique pitfalls with using licensed music. Usually, no one is well served when a writer wants to use a “cool” band for the sheer personal excitement of it, or when the agency hangs an otherwise lackluster campaign on the borrowed equity of a star.
It’s pretty well documented that in the latter case, the only entity being served is the star. One recent study highlighted that this hoped-for coupling of the brand with the star rarely benefits the brand or the campaign. And in the former case, the only thing served is the creative’s ego (which is why the practice isn’t going away any time soon!).
But there are instances when a song strikes the perfect emotion and message for a spot, and then it becomes a matter of economics. Is the price worth it? Oftentimes it isn’t or the negotiating process becomes too cumbersome, and we are brought in last minute to pursue a different direction.
In the face of this trend, we do see a continued vibrant roll for custom music. The real power of what we do is how we are taking all the disparate factors at play concerning the brand and the specific campaign from the very start. It has always been our job to stay current and produce music of authenticity, so this challenge is nothing new. We wouldn’t be in business if we weren’t able to deliver music that is emotional and stands on it’s own. And while the trend of licensed music has changed the craft of scoring (it’s no longer “cool” to score cues obviously…we constantly get asked to make it sound like it was “accidently” scored, as if “we just randomly put a track up against it”), we think the majority of spots still need the music to fit the shape of the commercial in a custom way.
There are also plenty of examples of a licensed track in need of adaptation, to fit the specific commercial. It’s common for us to do that kind of arranging and producing.
Since this is a trend which is here to stay, we are fortunate enough to have a true expert at all aspects of licensing as our executive producer, Bonny Dolan. So in that sense, we HAVE diversified to accommodate this new reality. We frequently pursue an original music direction while she is pursuing a licensed music direction on a parallel path (via Fix, our sister company that Ms. Dolan runs with music researcher/supervisor Morgan Thoryk).
One benefit of artists becoming more accepting of their work being utilized in commercials is the increased collaboration and co-mingling we’ve seen between them and companies like our own. For example, we regularly have both new and established artists coming through our studio to perform showcases for select clients, and rubbing elbows like this is as good for us as composers and producers as it is for our agency clients looking for new music ideas.
