Beth Urdang has launched Agoraphone, a music supervision and production company based in Brooklyn, N.Y. Urdang most recently worked at Wieden & Kennedy, Amsterdam, building a creative research department and setting up an internal music library.
The premise behind Agoraphone is to provide music consultancy to agencies that are looking for ideas about which music to choose for a particular spot. Depending on the suggestion Urdang makes, whether it’s a new band or an existing piece of music, the agency can either commission Agoraphone to expedite the production of the music, or go out and hire a music house. Urdang has an extensive music library and Agoraphone is out to steer its clients towards new bands or lesser-known, pre-existing tracks.
"Agencies don’t want something that sounds like everything else so I’m digging deeper into pockets and finding more bands and it’s good for agencies because it gives them more interesting music than what they might just hear on the radio or on MTV," said Urdang, who refers to herself as an outside music resource.
Urdang started in this vein at Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, Ore., where she was initially hired as a temp to proofread copy. In between making corrections, Urdang talked about music with creatives and soon people were coming to her for suggestions about what track should be put with what spot. At the time, executive producer of broadcast production, Bill Davenport, who is now managing director at Wieden, recognized Urdang’s vast knowledge of music and promoted her to the creative research department as a music supervisor. Urdang can be credited with putting The Verve’s "Bitter Sweet Symphony" on the Nike spot "I Can" and for producing a punk version of the ABC Sports World theme played by the band The Delinquents for ESPN.
"What she is doing is so valuable and unique partially because it’s her that’s doing it. The combination of what she knows and her ability to articulate and interpret problems gives people like us more choices. Her likes and influences are wide and less commercial, yet her recommendations are well edited and appropriate," said Wieden & Kennedy, Portland, creative director Todd Waterbury, who worked with Urdang on the Diet Coke spot "Video Dating."
Although Urdang could be seen as direct competition to commercial music houses, the fundamental idea behind Agoraphone is different enough to have its own niche. While a music house has a core group of in-house composers that create original pieces of work at the suggestion of the agency, Urdang is helping the agency to come up with that initial suggestion. In the event that a band is hired to create an original piece of music for a spot, Urdang will be responsible for bringing the band and the agency together and sitting in on the session.
"I work with indie bands and smaller labels because it’s what I like, but it doesn’t preclude me from finding anything. I have relationships with big labels too," said Urdang.
In addition to "Video Dating," Fallon McElligott, Minneapolis, has recently tapped Urdang to come up with a sound for a Qualcomm campaign that is still in development through Fallon’s New York office.
