Music for advertising is not such a simple proposition anymore. With record companies and recording artists increasingly interested in gaining exposure via the ad world, agency music producers have more choices than ever, such as licensing, original tunes by recording artists, and tracks from commercial music production companies.
In this week’s Music and Sound Design Series, SHOOT queried several agency music producers, asking them the following questions: What are the biggest trends right now in music–e.g., more licensed tracks, working with well-known artists on original songs, use of music throughout branding, not just on TV, etc.? What’s the most exciting recent–or upcoming–project you and the agency have worked on? Here are their responses.
Paul Greco
Executive music producer
Young & Rubicam, New York
Licensing is still going strong with no real let up in sight, but I have recently seen a little bit of a spike in the number of “jingles.” I have noticed Campbell’s tomato soup, and Lay’s, and have personally done several for our Campbell’s ( not Tomato soup) client and Fisher Price. I think some people are a little more open to it now [especially] if it sounds like it could be a licensed song. But the jingle still has a long road back.
It also seems like re-mixes and mash-ups are starting to gain in popularity. I also feel like there will be opportunities for advertising and music in podcasting.
We recently finished a great campaign for Chevron Corp. Music played a huge role in the creative. The campaign featured very provocative spots with a cinematic feel–it was directed by Joe Pytka of Venice, Calif.-based PYTKA. Music needed to reflect that cinematic characteristic. There were four music companies involved: Wildvine Music (“Wind”); Mutato Muzika (“Stroller”); Big Foote Music (“Dipstick/Mahole”); and Wojahn Bros. Music and composer Mark Mancina (“Bike”). We are also in the middle of a project for Dr Pepper that relies heavily on music for their new TV and radio campaign for 2006. Thwak Music, is producing the tracks.
Gregory Grene
Music producer
Foote, Cone & Belding, New York
The outstanding development has been in licensed tracks, where the paradigm has radically shifted from a buyer-seller model to a strategic marketing cooperative, with the licensors embracing licensing as one of the strongest possible partners in marketing. The shift has powered licensed tracks into a major part of the scene, in a way that couldn’t have been imagined before.
This has been fueled in part because the labels’ normal income flow has been so challenged by the current market, but also because the view of licensing in advertising has shifted from guiltily capitalizing on a track for money, to a potentially extremely artistic and cool medium for new music.
In truth, real satisfaction can come with smaller assignments as well as the biggest ones; [the agency] just finished creating some tags for Kraft, and really loved the way they turned out. And partially because it was, relatively speaking, a smaller project, the pressures were much less, and consequently there was much more freedom to explore some really cool, inventive approaches. On the other hand, of course there is always going to be a huge thrill when you work on a flagship project and manage to make something that seemed impossible happen, for instance placing the BodyRockers’ track [“I Like The Way”] on the Diet Coke commercial “Loft,” and being the avatar for launching the U.K. hit in the U.S., a full month before the label did so.
Rob Kaplan
Director of music production
McGarry Bowen, New York
Agencies are now starting to successfully work with the mainstream music industry in a similar manner to the way other forms of media have worked with artists, labels and publishers for years. Advertising is now seen as a legitimate means of breaking new artists and promoting new music by established artists, much in the way radio, television, MTV and print media traditionally have. As a result, emerging artists will come to agencies to play showcases, labels will waive or significantly diminish licensing fees for spots that tie into the marketing of new music, and recognizable artists will appear onscreen. Saturday Night Live and Clear Channel have enjoyed these privileges for years. But, for agencies and clients, the ability to utilize artists for a fraction of the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars that would have been charged even two or three years ago speaks to the change in how the music industry views our media. I have no specific information, but I can only guess that Apple paid nowhere near as much for U2 to sing “Vertigo” onscreen in an iPod ad, as what they have paid even lesser known artists in the past to license existing material. It is reasonable to assume U2 viewed appearing in an iPod ad as valuable a promotional tool in setting up their record as appearing on David Letterman, granting an interview to Rolling Stone or playing an in-store concert at a major record retailer.
Of course, this only speaks to the change in how the labels and publishers will license new material when it makes strategic sense. It has to be a combination of the right product, the right artist and the right timing. For catalog material, the publishers will still insist on what they perceive to be market rate.
John Keaney
Director of JW2 music/audio
JWT, New York
Licensed tracks are still a big trend, but we still contract a considerable amount of original composition here at JWT, New York. What we have also seen (and are trying to facilitate more of) are independent recording artists composing for advertising, which is something artists seem to be more open to than in the past.
We are currently in the middle of producing a really cool project for DTC [the Diamond Trading Company]. It is a narrative told through TV spots, radio spots and webisodes on the Internet that carry aspects of the story through the different mediums. We are currently in the music selection process, so more on that later, and the sound design is being done by our in-house sound magician, Alan Friedman. Our challenge is to keep the continuity of the sound design across the different spots, and to use sound as an identifier. It’s been a really fun campaign to work on.
Eric Korte
VP/music director
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
The biggest issues and trends in our business right now revolve around the changing relationships between ad agencies, record labels, publishers and music production companies; the changing business models for many of these companies, and the blurring of the lines between what functions and services they provide.
Because of the increase in licensing and the amount of competition, most of the top commercial music production companies have had to re-think, expand and change in pretty dramatic ways in order to survive. These companies are hiring music supervisors to help agencies with licenses, creating their own libraries of licensable tracks, developing work for new media forms such as games and ring-tones, and forming their own relationships with independent artists. At the same time, many young artists, who no longer see the major label contract as the only (or even the best) career path, are trying to broaden their exposure by various means–Web sites, digital downloads and licensing (or creating) music for film, television and commercials.
The major labels and publishers have also changed. They often aggressively pursue ad placements for many of their artists and even encourage them to get directly involved in ad and branding campaigns, re-working existing material, writing original songs as demos, etc. They’re very aware that the right ad–aired at the right time for the right audience–can be tremendously helpful in breaking a new artist, and often study ad media schedules the way they used to study radio station demographics.
Because of all these developments, our jobs as agency music producers have become more complicated and more demanding. There are now so many options open to us on any given project, that the amount of research, legwork, and negotiation can be overwhelming (which may be why some agencies are staffing up, or adding the position). Probably the most common question I’m asked during meetings with agency creatives these days is “hmmm…, well what do you recommend we do?” And it’s not always an easy question to answer.
Saatchi & Saatchi has been creating a series of ads for the Center for Disease Control’s ‘Verb’ anti-obesity campaign, which encourages kids and teens to get outside and be more active. The latest TV spot, called ‘Sun’, features a licensed music track called ‘Step Into the Sun’ by a somewhat unknown U.K.-based electronica artist called Solid State Revival (a.k.a. Des Murphy). We found the track through Dan Wilcox, music supervisor with Ten Music in Santa Monica (and a former producer at KCRW Radio). Apparently the track-and the spot- has resonated so well with viewers, that the CDC has received numerous e-mail inquiries from kids wanting to know where they can get the song. We always love to hear that.
Josh Rabinowitz
Senior VP/director of music production
Grey Worldwide, New York
I’d say that it’s a matter of time–months, maybe a year–that an original song, recorded and created specifically for an ad, will become a number one hit in the US. Said song will be a tune most likely heard on a broadcast TV commercial bolstered by a “heavy” media buy, televised mainly during primetime, and transmitted predominantly on network. The hook of this tune will be to lodge itself into the auditory and cognitive region of our beings, and set up a permanent residence. Unlike the classic jingles of yester year, this will be known as the Brand X song, (maybe it’ll be Apple, or Microsoft, or the Gap, or Panasonic), but it won’t mention the brand, nor the product. This tune, and others to follow, will be owned, not rented by Brand X. Additionally, it will be downloadable, for a fee, as prompted by either a super, a chyron, or a voiceover on the ad, from the brand’s proprietary website.
It has become quite clear that the music industry has taken a shine to the ad side of the biz. Major publishers are generating their largest percentage of profit from synchronization licensing fees for ads, thus they and the record labels have strategically staffed up on their film, TV and ad people to service this profit center. Music supervisors for ads have multiplied exponentially. Although a majority of ads have original music on them, sync licenses are not sparse.
There will definitely be great songs coming out of brands, but it is about the concept and idea first, and not the music. A song can be the seed for an idea, but more times than not, the song needs to enhance an idea…And that’s the model, that’s what the artist needs to know, that’s what label execs need to know, that’s what brands need to remember. And it is the creative process, the birthing of good ideas, that makes the ad world tick. The licensing craze is a nice fix for an industry that’s trying to prevent people from filtering them out–what they will need to do is to put forth better ideas and better new “brand-ownable” music, to keep people’s attention. That’s the challenge, that’s the mission.
Two projects that are really exciting are Kmart and Tanqueray [see separate story, p. XX]. For Kmart, we recorded Darryl Worley, formerly of Dreamworks/Universal Nashville. We took an existing track called “I found Love in a Kmart Store,” and had country singer Darryl Worley perform it. He did is as a “jingle” for the 10-week run for Kmart’s fall sale campaign. It is in heavy rotation as :15 spots…Concurrently we had him do a full length “single” version, based on the hook of the tune, in Nashville, and printed up several thousand units. … The song is on in-store radio at all 1,400 stores nationwide and Kmart is exploring options for distribution. There is no music industry label. In essence, I am the Music Producer & the A&R guy, with the agency serving the role as the label for the client Kmart.
