The confluence of advertisers seeking a patina of hipness through cutting edge music in their commercials and unknown bands—who make that kind of music—aggressively chasing exposure through television spots, has thrust an already thriving music licensing business into hyper-drive during the last couple years.
The lessons of the campaign Deutsch LA came up with for Mitsubishi Motors—creating virtual music videos featuring bands that instantly went from unknown to hot—have not been missed by many in the ad business, and certainly not by the companies that compose original music for commercials. Music houses have always had to contend with advertisers who wanted to license a nostalgic tune or hit song. Prohibitive cost often led to original music instead. But if agencies and their clients are now in love with unknown songs offered at more reasonable prices by eager bands, what’s a music company to do?
One course of action that some companies are taking is to accept the new reality—that the boom in licensed music isn’t going away soon—and get into licensing as well as original music. Companies that have gone that route include: HUM Music+Sound Design, Santa Monica, Calif.; bicoastal JSM Music; Machine Head, Venice, Calif.; and stimmüng, Santa Monica.
"I see the potential of what’s going on with licensing," says Joel Simon, owner/president of JSM, "and rather than being pissed off about it, I’m embracing it."
About eight months ago, Simon forged a working relationship with Lloyd Simon (no relation), principal of Production Advisors Inc., who had already been leasing space from Joel Simon for years. The two companies don’t have an ownership overlap, but they position themselves as a team. "We’ve seen a bunch of agencies together," Joel Simon says. "Other times, we market ourselves independently and talk about each other to our respective clients. We can negotiate the rights to the song, but we can also produce the arrangement if they don’t want to license the master."
In Simon’s eyes, licensing has evolved into agencies looking for what is "next" in music, rather than what is "now." JSM and Production Advisors just completed a typical deal for Michelob’s "Library," directed by Tony Kaye of bicoastal Minder Media for Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. "They were looking for an under-the-radar band," Simon relates. "Lloyd and I worked together and came up with a guy named Freddy Fresh. [We] put that deal together for a song called ‘Used to Be Used."
Radio Days
HUM is a music house with a somewhat similar set up for licensing through its co-owned SubZero, a company that was formed three years ago to work directly with recording artists, license existing tracks and commission new work for commercials. "To be successful, you have to change with the times and anticipate the trends," says Jeff Koz, creative director/composer at HUM. He relates a conversation with a New York creative director who said there wasn’t a client at the agency to whom he could make a compelling argument for original music versus licensed music. "As a business person, I need to be able to offer him something," Koz says. "I don’t want to fight that. I want to provide that."
The idea behind SubZero was to provide clients with more music options. "Clients come in considering all three routes: licensing an existing tune, working with a band or artist, or commissioning a song from a HUM composer," Koz says. "That happens all the time."
To enhance SubZero’s access to breaking bands, Koz brought Tricia Halloran in last year as creative director to oversee music research, production and music supervision. She came over from KCRW, a Santa Monica radio station known for its eclectic play lists. "We have solid relationships with all the major labels," Koz says, "and Tricia gets mail from over two hundred music sources per week. SubZero is positioned somewhere between a consulting and services company for the advertising side, and an outlet for record companies, managers and artists to help them expose their music through advertising."
Not long ago, Rubin Postaer and Associates, Santa Monica, came to SubZero to find music for a Honda Element campaign comprising the spots "Snow," "Ocean" and "Mountain." "[The agency] had some ideas, and we came up with some bands," Koz relates. "Tricia presented, among many options, the band Kinky, and everybody really loved their music and thought it had a great feel for what they were going for in the campaign. Kinky came into our studios over a number of days and worked with us to create the music. Originally, it was going to be Kinky for one spot and two other bands or artists for the other two spots, but after working with Kinky on the first one, [the agency] decided to do all three with these guys."
More than a year ago, Santa Monica music house stimmüng also looked to KCRW, signing a deal with well-known DJ and on-air personality Liza Richardson to head a music research, licensing and music supervision arm. "Liza has what seems to me to be an inexhaustible supply of songs that I’ve never heard," says stimmüng owner Reinhard Denke. "When Liza does her research, she does about three CDs worth, and each CD has about seventeen tracks on it. I can’t believe the scope of it. She, as a DJ, has total access to all this stuff."
Having Richardson on board makes stimmüng a full-service music house, Denke says, and agencies are coming to stimmüng for her expertise. Each job develops differently, he relates. "Some start out, ‘We want licensed music,’ and then when they exhaust all their choices, they say, ‘Hey, maybe we can get some composed music.’ Then we bring one of the composers in, and he’ll knock it out. Other times, the composer starts something, they decide to license a track, and Liza comes in. A lot of times I’ve found us doing both at the same time. That gives them even more options."
And in still another raid on KCRW talent, Machine Head has partnered with DJ Jason Bentley—who is also a remixer/music supervisor and consultant—and his producer/music supervisor Mark Burgoyne. Machine Head owner/creative director/sound designer Stephen Dewey has no qualms about getting into licensing. "The throughput of music licensing jobs elevates the interest in our composers," he says. "Sometimes, when people realize the track they would like to have [is too expensive], it just flows naturally into a composition assignment since there is a dialogue ongoing with us, and we’re acquainted with the script and the dynamics of the story."
Machine Head producer Vicki Melanson, who often coordinates the roles of Bentley and Burgoyne with the shop’s composers and clients, says jobs go in all different directions. "Clients come to us because they know Jason has great taste in music, especially for an up-and-coming young audience in the electronica world," she says. "They come to him to find something in that world to fit the direction of a script. Then, as we start searching for things, sometimes it can become not a track by an artist, but getting this artist to work on something, or a composer who can write something like this. We’ve had situations that have done all three."
Dewey notes that sometimes if a desired track is too expensive, Bentley can lead a client to another artist with a similar track. And clients will often buy the more affordable publishing license, rather than the master, and ask Machine Head to do an arrangement.
Bentley, who was music supervisor on The Matrix and its two upcoming sequels, is bringing considerable business in from advertisers doing tie-in campaigns with the films.
Another unusual job that came in through Bentley was a Motorola campaign from Ogilvy & Mather, Los Angeles. "They came to us and said, ‘We want to make some adverts for Motorola featuring legitimate DJs as themselves in various scenarios,’ " Dewey relates. "Jason was hired to consult in the casting. We brought the parties together to get it organized, and show the agency why these were the right people to represent a product, what their position was in the music market and give context to the names." The spots, "Paul Van Dyk," "Colette" and "Felix Da Housecat," are named after the DJs they feature. Nick Gordon of Academy, London, directed the ads.
Bentley and Burgoyne also got Machine Head into the high-profile Mitsubishi realm with the spot "Ground Floor" for the Endeavor, featuring the tune "Horndog" by Overseer. Jason Smith of bicoastal Bob Industries directed the spot via Deutsch LA.
Originality
Elsewhere in the ad business, music people seem accepting of—but not necessarily enthusiastic about—the idea of music houses getting into licensing. Josh Rabinowitz, associate partner/music producer at Young & Rubicam, New York, likes the idea of "one-stop shopping," but he says big agencies with their own music departments are more likely to pursue licensing on their own. "These music houses are responding to the market," he says, noting that since licensing is a big part of spots now, it makes sense for music houses to diversify into that arena.
Gregory Grene, music producer at FCB, New York, is one of the few people who believe the surge in licensed music may be more a cycle than a continuing trend. "I don’t think anything is here to stay in advertising," he says, adding that as far as going to a music house for licensing, it would depend on what was being offered, and how amenable the client was to the idea. "Licensing music is a whole different ball game [from] looking for a music house. I don’t assemble the two in my mind," notes Grene.
Music house executives note that the trend toward licensed music is accompanying a general downturn in the ad business. Jeff Rosner, president/executive producer at Sacred Music, New York, and current president of the Association of Music Producers (AMP), says that while he has no problem with music houses adapting to a difficult market, he also has no plans to add a licensing function at Sacred Music.
"If a music company can provide a service like that, that doesn’t hinder their original creative process—it’s another business model," Rosner notes. "It’s a strange place to be. You’re providing something that isn’t what you intentionally started out to do. But as a business model, if it works for your company in establishing ties—and you provide a service—it’s still music, and that’s what we’re about."
Dain Blair, owner/executive creative director of Groove Addicts, Los Angeles, isn’t sure agencies need a middleman to negotiate licenses. "If it works, more power to them," he says. "Music licensing has changed the landscape dramatically."
Blair believes licensing is here to stay in commercials, but that the use of unknown songs and bands may have peaked. "Now it’s almost become a cliché," he says. "I have a hard time differentiating between car commercials."
Machine Head’s Dewey sees some positive impact of licensing on commercial music. "I find that the quality of music on TV is much more diverse," he says. "It’s elevating the quality of original music. It’s not letting people get complacent, which was starting to happen. Our composers are stimulated by it."
Rosner thinks that while licensed music will continue to play a major role in commercials, it’s prevalent use could encourage clients to try originality again. He notes, "There are clients who are saying, ‘You know what, let’s do something different; let’s create an original piece of music,’ and I think that’s kind of funny. I hope it’s somewhere we can go."
