It’s no secret that distributing recorded music has changed. Even though some consumers get music by downloading it off of the Internet, plenty of people still buy CDs. Similarly, the world of production music libraries finds itself in a state of transition.
Randy Wachtler, president/CEO at 615 Music, Nashville, Tenn., says that his company’s Web site averages about 150,000 hits a month. "We offer streaming, searching and digital download," notes Wachtler. He adds, however, "I really have to say that downloading is still not the preferred way [to acquire tracks], but I do think it will be in the future."
Wachtler says that while people are slowly switching over to downloading, CDs are still widely used. "[People have to] get used to searching and downloading," he explains. "There’s a little bit of a learning curve. I talk to editors who say, ‘We still grab CDs off the wall,’ but I do feel that within the next few years, [downloading] will become the way it’s done."
When asked what styles are popular with spotmakers, Wachtler says that clients often want tracks similar to what’s on Billboard’s Hot 100. "Their tastes tend to reflect what’s being played a lot on the radio," he says.
615 Music opened in 1984 as a music house that serviced ad agencies and post facilities. About six years ago, the outfit opened a library, which currently offers 120 CDs, because of customer demand. (The 75 CDs in 615’s Platinum Series—which Wachtler describes as the library’s best material—is available for download.) 615 also carries a Paris-based library, Music Shop, which has about 40 CDs of commercial music, along with the French company’s Music Gallery, a five-CD collection of film and television music. Recent spots featuring music from the company’s library include EA Sports, McDonald’s and HBO.
Does Wachtler think that people are turning more to library music vs. licensing existing tracks? "In general, the answer would be yes," he says. "Library music seems to have gotten much better in quality, and to license a very popular song is so expensive that it’s a nice alternative."
Ten Music, Santa Monica, is not a traditional music library. "Major music companies have departments that represent their catalogue to the ad community," says Sarah Sciotto-Gavigan, creative director at the company, which launched in ’00. "We represent hand-picked catalogues to the ad community through our library."
Sciotto-Gavigan’s company represents about 20 record labels. They include Compost (electronica), Vanguard (country, bluegrass, blues, jazz and folk), ESL Music (downtempo), Musick (surf rock), and Bad Afro (rock). Recent Toyota Corolla and Nike Soccer spots have used tracks found via Ten Music.
In terms of delivery, Ten Music offers a searchable database, HANK, which contains about 2,500 songs; an update, HANK 4.0, is scheduled to launch next month, and will include about 3,000 tracks. (Ten’s roster of labels and publishers has about 15,000 tracks.) A number of major U.S. editorial facilities utilize the portable music library, including Final Cut, New York; The U.S. offices of The Whitehouse, which are in New York, Chicago and Santa Monica; MacKenzie Cutler, New York; bicoastal Cosmo Street Editorial; and Mad River Post, New York, Santa Monica, San Francisco, Dallas, and Royle Oak, Mich.
"A lot of the labels we represent don’t have the money to send out five thousand CDs," says Sciotto-Gavigan. "That’s really where the idea of HANK came from. We focused on editors because we feel that editors have so much to do with the pacing of the music. Why not give the music to the people who are going to be able to help integrate it into the whole process? So we started with editors and now we’re trying to find a more efficient way to get it to the creatives at the agencies on a job-by-job basis."
Editor Igor Kovalik of Inside/ Out, Santa Monica, recently utilized HANK for Ford Escape’s "Steam," directed by Nico Beyer of Chased By Cowboys, Venice, Calif., and Paris, via J. Walter Thompson, Detroit. The ad featured a track by the group Beanfiel. "[Kovalik] uses the database quite often to find tracks that he thinks work for the pacing of the edit," Sciotto-Gavigan says. "In that case, the client really liked it." The track was then licensed from Compost.
Downloads
Bicoastal Associated Production Music (APM) has been around for 20 years. According to president Adam Taylor, the company’s 175,000 tracks represent the world’s largest collection of production music. The entire collection is online, and Taylor says that APM has about 2,000 clients signed up for its Web site, which offers downloads of MP3 files.
"We represent a number of different libraries," says Taylor. "A lot of these companies tried their own search systems, so we had been operating under three different search systems. We are now consolidating all of the libraries, and within the next month or so, all of our music will be on just one system."
Taylor says that some people use MP3s in broadcast productions, but that others prefer to work with WAV files, which, unlike MP3s, are not compressed. Explaining the delivery of WAV files, Taylor says, "You can rip it off of a CD. We supply portable drives with WAV files on them, and we also have the ability to deliver a search-and-download system directly installed into a local editing environment. [Starting next year], we will be offering downloads at the uncompressed file level—the WAV file level. Our entire library will be available in WAV files."
APM recently acquired exclusive North American distribution rights to the U.K.-based Ded Good Music library, a collection of house, techno and electronica music. In addition, APM picked up a hip-hop collection that taps into the Los Angeles music scene from Vision Music Publishing.
What styles are clients asking for? "We get a lot of requests for hip-hop," says Taylor. "They’re using a lot of that for promo and trailer music. There’s quite a lot of interest in cutting-edge music trends not only in hip-hop, but in dance and house and pop-punk alternative."
Taylor notes that library music is being used more than in the past, in part due to the current economic climate, as well as the increased quality of the music. "We don’t use the phrase ‘stock music’ because that implies a lower level of quality," he says. "That’s maybe what it was thirty years ago, but [libraries now offer] the same composers and performers who do commercially released music. In our library, there is no distinction between what we have and what is commercially released."
APM’s music has recently been used in spots for Mattel, KFC, Pizza Hut and Tostitos. "We do a lot of national commercials," notes Taylor. "Some people might be inclined to think that a national commercial is going to need a custom song or something well known. It’s just not true. We have commercials that air on the Super Bowl."
EMI Music Publishing, headquartered in London, has a catalogue of about 1.5 million songs, and if multiple recorded versions of a song are included, the figure is well over 2 million. One division of the company, emi musicResouces, New York, works with the advertising world to find existing tracks or writers to compose custom music.
"The traditional CD is still very valid," notes John Melillo, VP/head of emi musicResources, "but we increasingly use our FTP server for delivery, or load to someone else’s server."
Melillo says that tracks can be downloaded into edit sessions at broadcast quality, but there are usually two steps in the process. "Traditionally, we work with higher resolution MP3s for ease of transmission in the early stages," he says. "Once songs are honed in on, we can continue the process at broadcast quality." More than a million EMI titles can be accessed via the Web.
When asked what the spot industry is looking for these days, Melillo says, "The trend is to dig deeper for music that works better with the creative, regardless of how well known it is."
Ron Mendelsohn, CEO of Megatrax Production Music, North Hollywood, also reports that CDs are still widely used. "Audio CDs remain the most popular form of delivery," he says. "However, we are seeing a steady increase in the number of digital downloads every year. All of our downloads are broadcast/CD-quality WAV files and can easily be imported into editing systems. In addition to audio CDs and digital downloads, we are also seeing increased interest in DVD-ROM and server-based delivery systems."
The Megatrax library has 150 CDs representing a wide range of styles. Recent commercial credits include Carl’s Jr., Petco, Crystal Geyser, AT&T and Nextel. Mendelsohn points out that the entire Megatrax library is available for searching, auditioning, licensing and downloading. He also says that other catalogues his company represents, like Amusicom and Intervox, are currently being digitized and are scheduled to be online by the end of the year.
What styles are hot these days? "Spots tend to follow trends in pop music and popular film soundtracks," says Mendelsohn. "Upbeat, youthful, contemporary styles are always in demand, in addition to retro, kitschy tracks."
