Click on any link below to read all the articles in the four-part January 2006 SONIC SEMIOTICS series exploring the author's musicological development of a personal branded theory for sound.
1. Say It In 1.25 Seconds
2. Bumps, Bugs, Beats and Brands
3. The Message In Merrill Lynch
4. Packaging Vs. Branding
* * *
Like this topic? Explore these four other articles from the Critical Noise Archive, exploring the relationship between Sound and Symbol and Sonic Branding:
1. This Is Where The Story Ends (March 1, 2003)
2. The Ur-Song (February 1, 2002)
3. Branding With Audio (March 30, 2001)
4. HBO ZONE: Creating a Sonic Identity (October 01, 2000)
Friday, January 06, 2006
Wednesday, January 04, 2006
Music Packaging Vs. Sonic Branding
In 1996 I was asked to serve as a lead music supervisor on the 1996 NBC Olympics, a project spearheaded by Elias’ special projects lead, Audrey Arbeeny, who turned out to possess a preternatural talent for maximizing the entertainment value of broadcast sporting events. My future business partner, Michael Sweet, also worked on the project programming a precursor to iTunes, which would serve as an onsite digital library for NBC’s location based producers.
My own responsibility was to listen, select and identify music –and edit points– for possible license. In this capacity I personally selected and categorized approximately 3000 pieces of music by sport and mood, so that, for instance, Victorious Track and Field different from a music selection suggestive of defeat, but Victorious Track and Field would be distinct from Victorious Swimming or Victorious Gymnastics. Categorization coupled with the digital interface allowed on-site NBC producers instantaneous access to a music bed suitable for any event or situation.
It was by this process that I soon realized how music could thread connected but different events (the activities), within an overall multi-experiential event (NBC's Olympic Broadcast).
While the Olympic Project taught me a good deal about music identification and selection for a broadcast, it also changed the way I think about branding. In fact, I hesitate to think of this work as 'Branding', which I admit goes against the grain given its use in this manner by many music supervisors I meet.
Heres why:
My personal standard for what is and isn't branding starts with a uniquely identifiable mark.Certainly, branding has evolved beyond the limitations of mere mark, but nevertheless, a distinct mark embedded with symbolic data continues to serve as a valid lens through which we may create branded experiences and other related assets.
As it happens, there's nothing distinct about licensing music from the same pool of work which others do, notwithstanding the argument that the music selection in conjunction with the picture creates a unique experience.
Moreover, a winning athlete doesn't need my jubilant rock selection to brand the event victorious. He or she has defined the occasion by virtue of their own efforts. My music selections for the Olympics,then, provided a utilitarian function to enhance (or focus) mood and maximize the entertainment value of those who are spectators to the event.
One could argue a DJ spinning a uniquely and specifically conceived playlist for a given venue is in fact branding the environment. I agree in the general sense of the term, but I still think some other nomenclature is on order.
Wrapping an in-store experience or hotel lobby up in a bundle of musical works specifically composed for an event or the venue itself reminds me more of producing a score for film and TV.
Is a soundtrack a Branded playlist?
Even I'm guilty of labeling such things BRAND MIXES, which is what I called them (and continue to call them) when I first started pitching them to clients in the mid nineties.
But when my company, Blister Media, was recognized by the television industry with the 2000 Gold Promax award for Best Original Music & Sound Design for Network Packaging (HBO Zone) I realized then that the concept of 'Packaging' film and video entertainment could be applied to any media platform, and even environments, and have made the distinction ever since.
Although, lately I've been thinking of retail and hospitality environments as volumes of space (which they are) and therefore maybe 'packaging' isn't quite right because it's something we apply to the outside, when in fact, we fill a space with music from the inside out.
Regardless, it may sound like an arbitrary distinction, but here's how I distinguish between Branding and Packaging:
Branding is the transmission of uniquely distinctive signification in order to convey a client's position for the purpose of creating a bond with an audience, user or consumer. Branding may thus be said to be: The art and science of composing a semiotic construction for the purpose of business-to-consumer communication.
In contrast, a Packaging assignment implies the utilitarian design and construction of mood enhancers for the benefit of participants or spectators, and which may or may not compel a specific action (or inaction).
For instance, the music provided by a DJ in a hotel lobby is meant either to entertain you or float through the air like a kind of aural wall paper, but nary a single track is necessarily identifiable as representing the hotel. Granted, some venues do make effective use of music to brand an environment, but if entertainment is the client's primary purpose, then any brand statement is going to be compromised, or at the very least suffer from potential dilution, as the message of one piece of music fades into the potentially contrasting content of another.
Audio for devices provides a great opportunity for the production of branded assets, although in practice it is more likely a signature 'tone' will be identified as the logo, and the rest of the sounds, though they belong to the same 'family' or 'palette' simply serve to provide confirmation of physical execution.
Perhaps it is better not lump all applied audio as sonic branding or packaging, but simply to speak of the need for utilizing sonic signification for a specified purpose.
In the meantime, I continue to think of audio branding the commission of an original mark (embedded with a message), and packaging as a curated collection of sounds created for a functional purpose. And that utility may –and often does– include the intent to entertain or inform, as each circumstance requires.
So as Branded Audio is to a single ray of light, Packaged sound is the reflections bouncing off a mirror ball.
My own responsibility was to listen, select and identify music –and edit points– for possible license. In this capacity I personally selected and categorized approximately 3000 pieces of music by sport and mood, so that, for instance, Victorious Track and Field different from a music selection suggestive of defeat, but Victorious Track and Field would be distinct from Victorious Swimming or Victorious Gymnastics. Categorization coupled with the digital interface allowed on-site NBC producers instantaneous access to a music bed suitable for any event or situation.
It was by this process that I soon realized how music could thread connected but different events (the activities), within an overall multi-experiential event (NBC's Olympic Broadcast).
While the Olympic Project taught me a good deal about music identification and selection for a broadcast, it also changed the way I think about branding. In fact, I hesitate to think of this work as 'Branding', which I admit goes against the grain given its use in this manner by many music supervisors I meet.
Heres why:
My personal standard for what is and isn't branding starts with a uniquely identifiable mark.Certainly, branding has evolved beyond the limitations of mere mark, but nevertheless, a distinct mark embedded with symbolic data continues to serve as a valid lens through which we may create branded experiences and other related assets.
As it happens, there's nothing distinct about licensing music from the same pool of work which others do, notwithstanding the argument that the music selection in conjunction with the picture creates a unique experience.
Moreover, a winning athlete doesn't need my jubilant rock selection to brand the event victorious. He or she has defined the occasion by virtue of their own efforts. My music selections for the Olympics,then, provided a utilitarian function to enhance (or focus) mood and maximize the entertainment value of those who are spectators to the event.
One could argue a DJ spinning a uniquely and specifically conceived playlist for a given venue is in fact branding the environment. I agree in the general sense of the term, but I still think some other nomenclature is on order.
Wrapping an in-store experience or hotel lobby up in a bundle of musical works specifically composed for an event or the venue itself reminds me more of producing a score for film and TV.
Is a soundtrack a Branded playlist?
Even I'm guilty of labeling such things BRAND MIXES, which is what I called them (and continue to call them) when I first started pitching them to clients in the mid nineties.
But when my company, Blister Media, was recognized by the television industry with the 2000 Gold Promax award for Best Original Music & Sound Design for Network Packaging (HBO Zone) I realized then that the concept of 'Packaging' film and video entertainment could be applied to any media platform, and even environments, and have made the distinction ever since.
Although, lately I've been thinking of retail and hospitality environments as volumes of space (which they are) and therefore maybe 'packaging' isn't quite right because it's something we apply to the outside, when in fact, we fill a space with music from the inside out.
Regardless, it may sound like an arbitrary distinction, but here's how I distinguish between Branding and Packaging:
Branding is the transmission of uniquely distinctive signification in order to convey a client's position for the purpose of creating a bond with an audience, user or consumer. Branding may thus be said to be: The art and science of composing a semiotic construction for the purpose of business-to-consumer communication.
In contrast, a Packaging assignment implies the utilitarian design and construction of mood enhancers for the benefit of participants or spectators, and which may or may not compel a specific action (or inaction).
For instance, the music provided by a DJ in a hotel lobby is meant either to entertain you or float through the air like a kind of aural wall paper, but nary a single track is necessarily identifiable as representing the hotel. Granted, some venues do make effective use of music to brand an environment, but if entertainment is the client's primary purpose, then any brand statement is going to be compromised, or at the very least suffer from potential dilution, as the message of one piece of music fades into the potentially contrasting content of another.
Audio for devices provides a great opportunity for the production of branded assets, although in practice it is more likely a signature 'tone' will be identified as the logo, and the rest of the sounds, though they belong to the same 'family' or 'palette' simply serve to provide confirmation of physical execution.
Perhaps it is better not lump all applied audio as sonic branding or packaging, but simply to speak of the need for utilizing sonic signification for a specified purpose.
In the meantime, I continue to think of audio branding the commission of an original mark (embedded with a message), and packaging as a curated collection of sounds created for a functional purpose. And that utility may –and often does– include the intent to entertain or inform, as each circumstance requires.
So as Branded Audio is to a single ray of light, Packaged sound is the reflections bouncing off a mirror ball.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
The Message In Merrill Lynch: A Lesson in Sonic Branding
In 1995, if memory serves correctly, it was Steven Cohen, the senior vice president and management supervisor on the Merrill Lynch account at Bozell Worldwide, who tapped his car keys on the glass coffee table before him and declared:
"This not the sound of Merrill Lynch."
And with that one sentence, our demos were dust.
The specific spot Cohen was referring to was alternately titled 'Privatization' and 'South African Leaders' (Titles change as spots evolve from storyboard to broadcast). And it was produced by Paul Gold and Jean-Claude Kaufmann, who was then the Director of Broadcast Production at the New York office of Bozell Worldwide.
Both Kaufmann and Gold were not only among our most important clients, but their passion for the work, and the humanity they brought to the game, always made them enjoyable to work with. They also both belonged to a group of advertising professionals that I considered role models for best-of-breed creative producers.
And it helped that both men seemed to share a parallel musical aesthetic with the creative direction produced by our music team. So, even though we worked hard, it was generally easy to get on the same page, which is not always the case with every client.
Indeed, the process from demo production through revisions and an eventual narrowing down of selections to two or three suitable options proceeded as efficiently as one can hope for any project.
But only when the New York agency’s creative team were fully satisfied that our music score options fully satisfied the story objectives required by the footage, did they send the music down to the Merrill Lynch account execs, which were based in Princeton. Naturally, we were surprised when word came back that they were definitely not impressed. As head of music production, I was especially none too pleased to see what had at first seemed a finely executed project return to the studio as a full blown crisis. Gold and Kauffman informed us that an emergency meeting was requested and we made the necessary arrangements (i.e., vacuumed the floors and ordered food from a really nice restaurant).
MESSAGE IDENTITY TONALITY
Some days later, a black and gray suited swarm of Bozell and Merrill Lynch representatives filled our studios looking like Federal Agents securing a location, so that the doors were blocked, calls were held and the facility felt like if was on lock-down.
It was only when Cohen arrived that we learned the reason for the Senior VP’s concern. He demanded that not only the soundtrack enhance the story –as was the usual rote instruction for every project– but also that the tonality of the music score itself reflect the Identity of the financial institution. In effect, Cohen demanded that the score, absent of picture, would be identifiable as unique branded audio asset for the company.
In hindsight, it seems like a perfectly reasonable request. But in 1995, most scores for TV commercials in 1995 did not do that. By the way, most commercial scores in 2006 don’t do that either. Then and now, most clients commission music that either works as a bed or simply “supports the story”, exactly in the same manner as a film score enhances a movie cue, but say with a bit of audio pixie dust for a product or logo reveal. The task of creating original music and sound design for TV and Radio commercials did not –or only rarely– require a brand analysis.
We were already familiar with the notion of creating a project specific ‘palette’ of sounds for other classes of projects, such as broadcast network or cable channel packaging, but that was considered a different kind of media animal.
Anyway, Cohen shook his head and played our military snare parts back to us on the table (again using his keys). We were puzzled by his criticism. We felt we had presented a regal fanfare that any financial institution would have been happy to have. And yet, Cohen's arrangement for car keys and glass coffee table, intended to mimic our score (and possibly belittle our intelligence) sounded rather tinny and funereal on playback to me, which was his point.
It did not help matters that a delicate white bowl holding perfectly balanced exotic fruit from Indonesia rattled in sympathetic unison with the rat-a-tat-tats.
'Beyond being symphonic, what was Merrill Lynch supposed to sound like, anyway?'–I wondered.
I know what my colleagues –award winning composers all– were thinking:
'Merrill Lynch be damned, the music works!'
We were frankly befuddled, and Cohen’s departure was followed by internal argument. However, after some discussion, it eventually did click and make sense:
The music we had initially produced supported the narrative just fine, in the cinematic way that a film score enhances a movie experience, however the music did not actually convey anything about the client's Identity or immediate communication objective –the Message– beyond the action and emotion evident in the footage.
When I say 'Message', I mean:
The symbolic transmission of a client's brand attributes.
And if we felt that any financial institution would have been happy to have the track, perhaps it was because our arrangement wasn't specific to any one brand! We had composed symphonic works for other financial institutions before, and it was then that I realized that prior to 'Privatization', melody was the only differentiating element that separated music for one bank from music for another.
We resolved the musical issue and delivered two arrangements that not only ‘enhanced the story’, but were arranged in such a manner that they uniquely conveyed our client’s brand attributes.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
I never approached another project again without the knowledge I gained on from that project. In fact, when Kaufmann and Gold would later that year commission us with the the production of another score for the Bahamas Board of Tourism, we certainly approached that campaign with a newfound branded sensibility. At the time we called it 'Identity' and not 'Branding', and in hindsight, I think Identity formation is closer to what we were doing than branding, even if the latter word also includes the other today.
After that however, I can also tell you that out of hundreds of projects before and after Merrill Lynch –with the exception of network packaging and tourism board commissions– McDonald's is the only other client I recall whose every spot arrived with a precise sound schematic (this during the French Fry wars of the mid nineties).
Today, anyone who has been in the business of commercial audio for some time will not be surprised by this revelation. Music often represents the final step in the production process before a campaign goes to air. It is arguably part of the post-production process, although clients will sometimes invite participation during pre-production to discuss storyboards –possibly ten to twelve weeks before the shoot. But the conversation where everyone discusses how to communicate a sales objective within parameters established by brand values? That happened twelve months ago, without you, the composer, present. At that stage, your opinion (as the audio/music vendor) was considered irrelevant (by the client). Too bad, because I think 'branded arrangements’ would serve some clients much better than simply an old fashioned movie score.
For the most part, music production is often squeezed into an absurdly short development period (assuming quality is also to be considered). Did we tell you that you had a two weeks? Well, now you have two days; can we hear demos this afternoon?
There were times when I literally had 24 hours to produce a forty or fifty piece live orchestra performing a fully orchestrated original piece of music (which of course had to be first vetted by several layers at the ad agency) –including revisions. You'd be surprised with all year to prepare, how many Super Bowl spots are still in production right down to the wire, and how often the music is commissioned with only days to go before the big game.
So, when exactly does the sonic brand conscious composer hope to execute his or her brand analysis before beginning work?
The reality is that most of the time, clients afford music teams a fifteen-minute conference call and then you’re off; and it’s a mad dash to get approvals and finish before the air date.
Notwithstanding this circumstance, however, I still believe that if this is how you want to practice your art, then you do need to develop an aptitude for developing marketing, message (brand attributes ) and story objectives into semiotic audio strategies that work on both the micro and macro levels (for the spot at hand AND for the brand).
No one said it was easy.
"This not the sound of Merrill Lynch."
And with that one sentence, our demos were dust.
The specific spot Cohen was referring to was alternately titled 'Privatization' and 'South African Leaders' (Titles change as spots evolve from storyboard to broadcast). And it was produced by Paul Gold and Jean-Claude Kaufmann, who was then the Director of Broadcast Production at the New York office of Bozell Worldwide.
Both Kaufmann and Gold were not only among our most important clients, but their passion for the work, and the humanity they brought to the game, always made them enjoyable to work with. They also both belonged to a group of advertising professionals that I considered role models for best-of-breed creative producers.
And it helped that both men seemed to share a parallel musical aesthetic with the creative direction produced by our music team. So, even though we worked hard, it was generally easy to get on the same page, which is not always the case with every client.
Indeed, the process from demo production through revisions and an eventual narrowing down of selections to two or three suitable options proceeded as efficiently as one can hope for any project.
But only when the New York agency’s creative team were fully satisfied that our music score options fully satisfied the story objectives required by the footage, did they send the music down to the Merrill Lynch account execs, which were based in Princeton. Naturally, we were surprised when word came back that they were definitely not impressed. As head of music production, I was especially none too pleased to see what had at first seemed a finely executed project return to the studio as a full blown crisis. Gold and Kauffman informed us that an emergency meeting was requested and we made the necessary arrangements (i.e., vacuumed the floors and ordered food from a really nice restaurant).
MESSAGE IDENTITY TONALITY
Some days later, a black and gray suited swarm of Bozell and Merrill Lynch representatives filled our studios looking like Federal Agents securing a location, so that the doors were blocked, calls were held and the facility felt like if was on lock-down.
It was only when Cohen arrived that we learned the reason for the Senior VP’s concern. He demanded that not only the soundtrack enhance the story –as was the usual rote instruction for every project– but also that the tonality of the music score itself reflect the Identity of the financial institution. In effect, Cohen demanded that the score, absent of picture, would be identifiable as unique branded audio asset for the company.
In hindsight, it seems like a perfectly reasonable request. But in 1995, most scores for TV commercials in 1995 did not do that. By the way, most commercial scores in 2006 don’t do that either. Then and now, most clients commission music that either works as a bed or simply “supports the story”, exactly in the same manner as a film score enhances a movie cue, but say with a bit of audio pixie dust for a product or logo reveal. The task of creating original music and sound design for TV and Radio commercials did not –or only rarely– require a brand analysis.
We were already familiar with the notion of creating a project specific ‘palette’ of sounds for other classes of projects, such as broadcast network or cable channel packaging, but that was considered a different kind of media animal.
Anyway, Cohen shook his head and played our military snare parts back to us on the table (again using his keys). We were puzzled by his criticism. We felt we had presented a regal fanfare that any financial institution would have been happy to have. And yet, Cohen's arrangement for car keys and glass coffee table, intended to mimic our score (and possibly belittle our intelligence) sounded rather tinny and funereal on playback to me, which was his point.
It did not help matters that a delicate white bowl holding perfectly balanced exotic fruit from Indonesia rattled in sympathetic unison with the rat-a-tat-tats.
'Beyond being symphonic, what was Merrill Lynch supposed to sound like, anyway?'–I wondered.
I know what my colleagues –award winning composers all– were thinking:
'Merrill Lynch be damned, the music works!'
We were frankly befuddled, and Cohen’s departure was followed by internal argument. However, after some discussion, it eventually did click and make sense:
The music we had initially produced supported the narrative just fine, in the cinematic way that a film score enhances a movie experience, however the music did not actually convey anything about the client's Identity or immediate communication objective –the Message– beyond the action and emotion evident in the footage.
When I say 'Message', I mean:
The symbolic transmission of a client's brand attributes.
And if we felt that any financial institution would have been happy to have the track, perhaps it was because our arrangement wasn't specific to any one brand! We had composed symphonic works for other financial institutions before, and it was then that I realized that prior to 'Privatization', melody was the only differentiating element that separated music for one bank from music for another.
We resolved the musical issue and delivered two arrangements that not only ‘enhanced the story’, but were arranged in such a manner that they uniquely conveyed our client’s brand attributes.
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
I never approached another project again without the knowledge I gained on from that project. In fact, when Kaufmann and Gold would later that year commission us with the the production of another score for the Bahamas Board of Tourism, we certainly approached that campaign with a newfound branded sensibility. At the time we called it 'Identity' and not 'Branding', and in hindsight, I think Identity formation is closer to what we were doing than branding, even if the latter word also includes the other today.
After that however, I can also tell you that out of hundreds of projects before and after Merrill Lynch –with the exception of network packaging and tourism board commissions– McDonald's is the only other client I recall whose every spot arrived with a precise sound schematic (this during the French Fry wars of the mid nineties).
Today, anyone who has been in the business of commercial audio for some time will not be surprised by this revelation. Music often represents the final step in the production process before a campaign goes to air. It is arguably part of the post-production process, although clients will sometimes invite participation during pre-production to discuss storyboards –possibly ten to twelve weeks before the shoot. But the conversation where everyone discusses how to communicate a sales objective within parameters established by brand values? That happened twelve months ago, without you, the composer, present. At that stage, your opinion (as the audio/music vendor) was considered irrelevant (by the client). Too bad, because I think 'branded arrangements’ would serve some clients much better than simply an old fashioned movie score.
For the most part, music production is often squeezed into an absurdly short development period (assuming quality is also to be considered). Did we tell you that you had a two weeks? Well, now you have two days; can we hear demos this afternoon?
There were times when I literally had 24 hours to produce a forty or fifty piece live orchestra performing a fully orchestrated original piece of music (which of course had to be first vetted by several layers at the ad agency) –including revisions. You'd be surprised with all year to prepare, how many Super Bowl spots are still in production right down to the wire, and how often the music is commissioned with only days to go before the big game.
So, when exactly does the sonic brand conscious composer hope to execute his or her brand analysis before beginning work?
The reality is that most of the time, clients afford music teams a fifteen-minute conference call and then you’re off; and it’s a mad dash to get approvals and finish before the air date.
Notwithstanding this circumstance, however, I still believe that if this is how you want to practice your art, then you do need to develop an aptitude for developing marketing, message (brand attributes ) and story objectives into semiotic audio strategies that work on both the micro and macro levels (for the spot at hand AND for the brand).
No one said it was easy.
Monday, January 02, 2006
Bumps, Bugs, Beats and Brands
Between 1994 and 1996 I was lucky enough to be participate in a producer capacity in the development of several network launches or re-launches, –ESPN2, Comedy Central, PBS and SCI FI among them. This work can be summed up as enhancing animation with thematic material. The common commission required everything from three minute themes to three second logo 'bugs'.
Although well experienced producing :30s and :60s for TV commercials, we were all relatively new to the process of creating network packaging and therefore treated each individual promo, bump, etc –whatever the length– as unique asset, requiring that it be composed from scratch. Once we gained experience composing packages for ESPN and ESPN 2, we were able to modify our process by creating long format works from which we might extract a multitude of smaller assets.
Our creative director, Alex Lasarenko, was first to suggest that each five second sting (the memorable end of the track, often used as a sonic logo) should be constructed as an extractable tag from a longer asset, perhaps a :30 or :60.
I was responsible for budget control, and so it fell on me to maximize our profit. And that being the case, I picked up on Lasarenko's idea and expanded on it, suggesting further that it would be exponentially more efficient to produce everything from one long masterwork –when possible.
Understand that in those days we were still dumping Synclavier sub-mixes to 2" tape. It was an arduous task and it fell on production to plan well ahead and make sure every individual asset and version could be accounted for as we went to tape, even within the limitations of of 23 tracks (+1 for Time code), with the core masterwork being the longest version of the theme required by the cable channel or network (a minute to 3 minutes in length).
But as we were wrapping up a package for Comedy Central, Larry Alexander, the engineer famous for mixing everybody, happen to tell me about this new portable ProTools rig he had. He explained to me what he could do with it, and that since it was relatively new, he was pretty excited to use it. So, we hired Larry to mix and edit entire audio portfolios, and it turned out he could do in a day with that rig what it might have once taken us a week to do.
Mind you, his 'portable' rig was not a simple single laptop. The rig arrived by truck and just about doubled the amount of equipment stuffed into her our studios.
Larry's the first person I knew that had what was a full-on Pro Tools set up in those days. So, whenever I specifically hired him to do a session with the rig, it was considered a specialty request only few could accomplish, and we had to have a pretty decent budget to afford it.
But all worth it!
Larry is the type of engineer who will mix down an orchestra with a conductor's score splayed out across the console, like Leonard Bernstein, except instead of holding a baton; he wields massive amounts of technology at his fingertips. I know that all of us who stepped within five feet of Larry's work space would always try to look over his shoulder and pick up a tip or two, compression settings, for instance –always the man's coveted compression settings– that sort of thing.
From the perspective of pure communication, I found the five-second units –the 'bumps'– most interesting because, in practice, a five-second edit generally necessitated the inclusion of a two-second reverb tail and fade, meaning that only three seconds of actual music could be allotted to actual communication of the network logo –the 'sting'.
As it turned out, Larry, who was famous for working the epic song cycles of the some the world's most baroque pop stars, also proved exceptional at whittling the fat off sixty second main themes and carving out terse, tasteful, three-second stings.
The final results provided by producing network packaging impressed upon me the power for audio beyond its ability enhance a story line. In fact, it was with such small deliverables as bumps and bugs that I was beginning to realize, that (in contrast to scoring for film) sound just might be the most efficient means -barring a graphic symbol– to convey a MESSAGE, and so, here I was beginning to evolve my thinking of music production not merely as a means to enhance story, but to deliver a message, and how that philosophy might be applied to the construction of sonified signification and brand asset portfolios.
Although well experienced producing :30s and :60s for TV commercials, we were all relatively new to the process of creating network packaging and therefore treated each individual promo, bump, etc –whatever the length– as unique asset, requiring that it be composed from scratch. Once we gained experience composing packages for ESPN and ESPN 2, we were able to modify our process by creating long format works from which we might extract a multitude of smaller assets.
Our creative director, Alex Lasarenko, was first to suggest that each five second sting (the memorable end of the track, often used as a sonic logo) should be constructed as an extractable tag from a longer asset, perhaps a :30 or :60.
I was responsible for budget control, and so it fell on me to maximize our profit. And that being the case, I picked up on Lasarenko's idea and expanded on it, suggesting further that it would be exponentially more efficient to produce everything from one long masterwork –when possible.
Understand that in those days we were still dumping Synclavier sub-mixes to 2" tape. It was an arduous task and it fell on production to plan well ahead and make sure every individual asset and version could be accounted for as we went to tape, even within the limitations of of 23 tracks (+1 for Time code), with the core masterwork being the longest version of the theme required by the cable channel or network (a minute to 3 minutes in length).
But as we were wrapping up a package for Comedy Central, Larry Alexander, the engineer famous for mixing everybody, happen to tell me about this new portable ProTools rig he had. He explained to me what he could do with it, and that since it was relatively new, he was pretty excited to use it. So, we hired Larry to mix and edit entire audio portfolios, and it turned out he could do in a day with that rig what it might have once taken us a week to do.
Mind you, his 'portable' rig was not a simple single laptop. The rig arrived by truck and just about doubled the amount of equipment stuffed into her our studios.
Larry's the first person I knew that had what was a full-on Pro Tools set up in those days. So, whenever I specifically hired him to do a session with the rig, it was considered a specialty request only few could accomplish, and we had to have a pretty decent budget to afford it.
But all worth it!
Larry is the type of engineer who will mix down an orchestra with a conductor's score splayed out across the console, like Leonard Bernstein, except instead of holding a baton; he wields massive amounts of technology at his fingertips. I know that all of us who stepped within five feet of Larry's work space would always try to look over his shoulder and pick up a tip or two, compression settings, for instance –always the man's coveted compression settings– that sort of thing.
From the perspective of pure communication, I found the five-second units –the 'bumps'– most interesting because, in practice, a five-second edit generally necessitated the inclusion of a two-second reverb tail and fade, meaning that only three seconds of actual music could be allotted to actual communication of the network logo –the 'sting'.
As it turned out, Larry, who was famous for working the epic song cycles of the some the world's most baroque pop stars, also proved exceptional at whittling the fat off sixty second main themes and carving out terse, tasteful, three-second stings.
The final results provided by producing network packaging impressed upon me the power for audio beyond its ability enhance a story line. In fact, it was with such small deliverables as bumps and bugs that I was beginning to realize, that (in contrast to scoring for film) sound just might be the most efficient means -barring a graphic symbol– to convey a MESSAGE, and so, here I was beginning to evolve my thinking of music production not merely as a means to enhance story, but to deliver a message, and how that philosophy might be applied to the construction of sonified signification and brand asset portfolios.
Say It In 1.25 Seconds
In January of 1994, Hunter Murtaugh, then Music Director for Young & Rubicam, commissioned our company to produce an International Long Distance Connection Tone for telecommunications giant, AT&T –'World Plus', as they then called the short work.
Our mandate was to convey a friendly internationality in less than two seconds. In fact, the length of the tone was to be precisely a second and a quarter in length. We produced multiple variations, and in the end a submission constructed by the company's staff orchestrator, Louis King, was selected the winner.
Louis is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, and he also studied privately with Danny Troob. No surprise then, that given his immense talent, Louis won against the more experienced composers that he had directly been competing against.
So, what did Louis score exactly?
• A branded audio asset for AT&T: A telephony logo, a Sonic or Tonal ID
• Emotional feedback to the caller: This process is easy
• A message to the consumer: Our technology is friendly
• A confirmation of a task: Your request has been executed
In short, Louis used sound to deliver a MESSAGE. He did this not by composing a miniature score but by creating a bit of sonic signification: a bit of ear candy whose encoded information would be unpacked by the brain's of each caller. No doubt, an intuitive sense of semiotics was as important to the success of this work as was his knowledge of music or production.
However, as it happens, the deployment a connection tone was never motivated by any technological necessity. By 1994, telephony technology allowed for an instantaneous long distance connection. The use of tone to bridge a call was solely conceived as an opportunity for AT&T to remind customers of its presence and service.
After we delivered the final asset to the client, it occurred to me that if story enhancement made up the essential part of the Twentieth Century commercial composer's tool kit, that Twentieth First Century sonic artisans might increasingly abe called upon to also demonstrate expertise with signification processes, a heretofore irrelevant subject (for a musician).
Of course, composer's have long understood the emotive power of music. but why not also employ sound to convey encoded information, as this AT&T project made clear to me was a very real possibility?
Our mandate was to convey a friendly internationality in less than two seconds. In fact, the length of the tone was to be precisely a second and a quarter in length. We produced multiple variations, and in the end a submission constructed by the company's staff orchestrator, Louis King, was selected the winner.
Louis is a graduate of the Berklee School of Music, and he also studied privately with Danny Troob. No surprise then, that given his immense talent, Louis won against the more experienced composers that he had directly been competing against.
So, what did Louis score exactly?
• A branded audio asset for AT&T: A telephony logo, a Sonic or Tonal ID
• Emotional feedback to the caller: This process is easy
• A message to the consumer: Our technology is friendly
• A confirmation of a task: Your request has been executed
In short, Louis used sound to deliver a MESSAGE. He did this not by composing a miniature score but by creating a bit of sonic signification: a bit of ear candy whose encoded information would be unpacked by the brain's of each caller. No doubt, an intuitive sense of semiotics was as important to the success of this work as was his knowledge of music or production.
However, as it happens, the deployment a connection tone was never motivated by any technological necessity. By 1994, telephony technology allowed for an instantaneous long distance connection. The use of tone to bridge a call was solely conceived as an opportunity for AT&T to remind customers of its presence and service.
After we delivered the final asset to the client, it occurred to me that if story enhancement made up the essential part of the Twentieth Century commercial composer's tool kit, that Twentieth First Century sonic artisans might increasingly abe called upon to also demonstrate expertise with signification processes, a heretofore irrelevant subject (for a musician).
Of course, composer's have long understood the emotive power of music. but why not also employ sound to convey encoded information, as this AT&T project made clear to me was a very real possibility?
Sunday, January 01, 2006
Backstory in Audio Branding
Back in 1996, every film editor with stock sound library fancied him or herself a sound designer. In 2000, every kid with a turntable called himself a DJ, and every DJ called himself a producer. And today, it seems like every music production team lists 'Sonic Branding' as one of their capabilities. And who knows really.
The first person I ever heard speak about sonic branding was, Scott Elias, in 1991 or 1992, except that he used the phrase ‘Sonic ID’ instead, and later simply, 'Identity'.
Scott was not himself a musician, but he was the closest thing to a visionary that I knew of. He was also a poet and a businessman, and along with his brother –record producer and film composer, Jonathan Elias– co-founded Elias Arts.
In my career I’ve met only two people in advertising that I can unequivocally call futurists, and they were Scott Elias and Robert Greenberg of the acclaimed Interactive production company, R/GA. I was lucky to spend six years working for the former; and produced several audio projects for the latter over the course of a decade.
For all of Scott’s foresight, however, Elias (then Elias Associates) didn’t win many projects that lent themselves to sonic branding during my tenure ('91-'96). This is by no means a slight against the company, but rather to call attention to the fact that such jobs were few and far between. Nor did there seem to be many commercial composers who actually filtered their assignments through a brand strategy.
As a result, I have a pet theory that music production companies didn't start providing sonic branding because advertising agencies and brand consultants asked them for it, but because music production houses sat down with agency heads and brand strategists and said, 'Look, you guys are overlooking something here'.
Anyway, as with every other music house up through the nineties, Elias’ bread and butter was composing soundtracks –jingles and underscores– for television and radio commercials. The traditional attitude of marrying music to picture held that first and foremost the sound track should ‘help tell the story’ –Which unless explicitly stated, generally meant,'support the narrative' and punctuate the edit. Since advertisements are often thought of as mini-films, this way of thinking about music for ads, –however limited in retrospect– made complete sense for the time.
I left Elias before the company made substantial forays into sonic branding, before branding was even really in the popular consciousness the way it is now. However, while I was at Elias, I worked on several projects that would eventually serve to shape my own developing concepts regarding audio as an instrument of marketing, which I categorize as a branch of semiotics (an idea which I'll examine further in subsequent posts).
Even before projects got started, there were other tasks required to the preparation for a given job that also shaped my evolving understanding that film scoring and branded audio might be two individual disciplines.
For instance, pre-ProTools, our composers worked on Synclaviers whose mini-computer cores offered severely limited disc space by today's standards: one composer might transfer 8 to 10 MB of sampled audio from 9 or 10 floppy discs before other composers complained about the hog using up all the hard drive space. The result being that a composer had to decide which specific sounds he or she wanted to use before beginning any project.
As I gained more experience as a producer, and earned the trust of our senior creatives, I was eventually able to suggest sounds for certain projects, or specific cues, the same way one might suggest using a specific session musician.
And as it turns out, performing such mundane tasks such as the selection and categorization of individual sounds into palettes and libraries (for use on a specific project) is not a bad way towards tuning the ear from a purely cinematic skill set to a cognitive filter suitable to the construction of branded audio.
* * *
Click on any link below to read other articles from the five-part January 2006 SONIC SEMIOTICS series exploring the author's musicological development of a personal 'brand mythology' applicable to sonic assets.
Thursday, December 01, 2005
A Plugged In Culture
Over the years I've invariably changed the way I analyze projects regarding applicable audio needs. My initial review of any given project has evolved from straight forward story analysis in my early years, to a thorough consideration of brand strategy -even when a client does not explicitly request it.
Depending on the project, there may be a story to be scored. But in tandem to scoring issues, I've realized we must also be concerned with what palette or combination of sounds is not just right for the score, but right for the brand.
At the same time as my ideas on music production changed –along with the culture, I would like to think–, I observed the emergence of the word 'branding' in the public forum, so that by 1999 it appeared to be upon everyone's lips.
Much like the phrase 'World Wide Web', with which it shared a similar linguistic trajectory, it entered the popular conversation with an abrupt entrance. –And though it may not be true, at the time it seemed to me as if the cult of Brand was most obsessively heralded by the principals of the design company, The Attik, with whom I worked off and on during the latter part of the nineties, and from whom I also learned a great deal on the subject (and art).
The result is one hears differently. The ears tune to a new frequency –the transmission of deliberate, inherent symbolic properties layered onto a music or sound design commission, in an attempt to go beyond the mere enhancement of a story and actually communicate a message through sound.
It almost sounds subliminal, but subliminal advertising assumes a naive audience, whereas branded advertising communications generally rely on intelligent consumers who may also happen to be participants of the brand culture. That is why it works, because both brand and consumer speak the same language, and part of that language is identification of a common semiotic alphabet, which is as musical as it is word and graphic based.
From the inner sanctum halls of a master marketers, to the common parlance of teenagers who are hip to the pitch, it was a tectonic paradigm shift, however it was introduced. One now only need take note of the musical offerings released by celebutante Paris Hilton to recognize that branded music isn't just for TV commercials anymore. It's for everybody, with nary an obstacle to distribution except the inherent possibility that there might not be an contemporary audience for a given concept, as it is framed by its author.
The Cult of Product has unleashed Branded Entertainment upon our now particularly plugged-in culture; and it would be simply horrific to witness, if it wasn't also so damn enjoyable to watch.
Depending on the project, there may be a story to be scored. But in tandem to scoring issues, I've realized we must also be concerned with what palette or combination of sounds is not just right for the score, but right for the brand.
At the same time as my ideas on music production changed –along with the culture, I would like to think–, I observed the emergence of the word 'branding' in the public forum, so that by 1999 it appeared to be upon everyone's lips.
Much like the phrase 'World Wide Web', with which it shared a similar linguistic trajectory, it entered the popular conversation with an abrupt entrance. –And though it may not be true, at the time it seemed to me as if the cult of Brand was most obsessively heralded by the principals of the design company, The Attik, with whom I worked off and on during the latter part of the nineties, and from whom I also learned a great deal on the subject (and art).
The result is one hears differently. The ears tune to a new frequency –the transmission of deliberate, inherent symbolic properties layered onto a music or sound design commission, in an attempt to go beyond the mere enhancement of a story and actually communicate a message through sound.
It almost sounds subliminal, but subliminal advertising assumes a naive audience, whereas branded advertising communications generally rely on intelligent consumers who may also happen to be participants of the brand culture. That is why it works, because both brand and consumer speak the same language, and part of that language is identification of a common semiotic alphabet, which is as musical as it is word and graphic based.
From the inner sanctum halls of a master marketers, to the common parlance of teenagers who are hip to the pitch, it was a tectonic paradigm shift, however it was introduced. One now only need take note of the musical offerings released by celebutante Paris Hilton to recognize that branded music isn't just for TV commercials anymore. It's for everybody, with nary an obstacle to distribution except the inherent possibility that there might not be an contemporary audience for a given concept, as it is framed by its author.
The Cult of Product has unleashed Branded Entertainment upon our now particularly plugged-in culture; and it would be simply horrific to witness, if it wasn't also so damn enjoyable to watch.
Sound of the Year: 2005 – Mother Nature's Howl
No doubt, international politics proved as turbulent as ever this year; the war in Iraq rages on; and stories of horror and tragedy continue to emerge from all corners of the globe.
For many American sports fans, the big story of the year was the the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series for first time since 1917. But although the crack of a wooden baseball bat might make for a fine snare sample in an Eco Disco Music (EDM) track, the 2005 Critical Noise Sound of the Year belongs to:
MOTHER NATURE'S HOWL
First, the year began with the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which rolled onto South Asian Shores in late December 2004. The tsunami took over seventy thousand lives and left tens of thousands injured.
Later, at the close of Summer in the northern hemisphere, Hurricane Katrina capped off a record season of 27 named storms, surpassing the record of 21 set in 1933, and killed more than a thousand in 4 US. states,
But though Katrina blew in with violent vigor, it was more than a mere storm, it became a metaphor for everything gone wrong with US government. And as Washington D.C. goes, so goes the world, which also means that any fauz pas by an American administration makes for a grand statement, indeed. Depending on one's politics, the statement was either 'We don't care' or 'We're not prepared'.
Either way, a big story, a global embarrassment and a shock to the system.
Finally, although much of the disaster posed by Katrina on New Orleans can be directly attributable to an inadequate levy system, the event will nevertheless live on as an indicator to the increasing background hum presented by climate change and global warming.
So, perhaps 2005 presented a record year for Hurricanes, but it may very well be that very soon in the future, 2005 will also be framed as the year when freaky weather became normal.
+ + +
HOW THE SOUND OF THE YEAR IS SELECTED:
The Critical Noise Sound of the Year goes to that sound source, event, entity, happening or concept which so effectively produces wide response and reaction, whether intentional or not, such that it stirs collective emotion, inspires discussion, incites action, or otherwise lends itself to cultural analysis and resonates across the globe.
For many American sports fans, the big story of the year was the the Chicago White Sox winning the World Series for first time since 1917. But although the crack of a wooden baseball bat might make for a fine snare sample in an Eco Disco Music (EDM) track, the 2005 Critical Noise Sound of the Year belongs to:
MOTHER NATURE'S HOWL
First, the year began with the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, which rolled onto South Asian Shores in late December 2004. The tsunami took over seventy thousand lives and left tens of thousands injured.
Later, at the close of Summer in the northern hemisphere, Hurricane Katrina capped off a record season of 27 named storms, surpassing the record of 21 set in 1933, and killed more than a thousand in 4 US. states,
But though Katrina blew in with violent vigor, it was more than a mere storm, it became a metaphor for everything gone wrong with US government. And as Washington D.C. goes, so goes the world, which also means that any fauz pas by an American administration makes for a grand statement, indeed. Depending on one's politics, the statement was either 'We don't care' or 'We're not prepared'.
Either way, a big story, a global embarrassment and a shock to the system.
Finally, although much of the disaster posed by Katrina on New Orleans can be directly attributable to an inadequate levy system, the event will nevertheless live on as an indicator to the increasing background hum presented by climate change and global warming.
So, perhaps 2005 presented a record year for Hurricanes, but it may very well be that very soon in the future, 2005 will also be framed as the year when freaky weather became normal.
+ + +
HOW THE SOUND OF THE YEAR IS SELECTED:
The Critical Noise Sound of the Year goes to that sound source, event, entity, happening or concept which so effectively produces wide response and reaction, whether intentional or not, such that it stirs collective emotion, inspires discussion, incites action, or otherwise lends itself to cultural analysis and resonates across the globe.
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
How To License Your Songs
While browsing forums for music or production professionals, I often come across queries from young people asking how they might get their music licensed in commercials. Should they send their demo tapes to music supervisors? Should they create a MySpace page? Would it be a good idea to make electronic press kits? All of the above, of course, but what people really want to know is if there's a way to beat the system? With tongue only partly in cheek (because so much of this is real advice), I submit the following plan of action:1. Make 10-20 CD demos with cool kitschy artwork. No band/mug shots unless you re a female. If that is the case, slather your nude and deftly Photoshop-ed body across the cover. Apply sticker that reads:
Includes the Number One Hit Single As Heard On Myspace.com!
Or Facebook, or whatever the hot web site is at the moment, okay? Remember Six Degrees? We all know Myspace is so over, anyway.
2. Create mock letterhead with a trendy sounding name for your non-existent management company. You know, something that sounds completely plugged into pop culture. Feel free to use HARAJUKU WORLDWIDE. I made it up and it can be our little inside secret. 'Dude you have a Japanese management company? That's so cool!' Blah blah blah.
Now, writing from the perspective of a manager, write a cover letter, which gives the misleading impression that you are actually who you say you are –a manager, possibly Japanese–, and that among your roster of fabuloso acts, one of your artists has a knack for writing such ‘cinematic’ sounding tracks, that when Clive Davis heard them, even he said:
"Wow".
3. Messenger or Fed Ex your CDs to local editors of film/TV editorial companies. You could in fact email MP3s, but in my experience real managers send out real press kits, and often with swag, like a T-shirt maybe or a signed autographed picture of the artist. Who would want an autographed picture of you? You'd be surprised. Any number of New York diners and pizza parlors, for instance. You might also mention that you read about the company on "some European branding blog”. Whatever you do, don’t forget to scrawl –Requested Material– on cover of package. That said, if you really want someone to give your music serious consideration and if you're ready to be treated like a professional: Then forget express shipping, and messenger the CD over in a Gift Basket – I’m talking gourmet cheese and chocolate truffles.
You are going to be a star, my friend.
4. Please tell me that you were smart enough to send the CDs to specific people whose names you found by scouring the Internet (Google: Association of Independent Commercial Producers, Award Winning Commercials, Commercial Editorial Houses or Commercial Post Production –and go directly to the CLIO and AICP sites and find out who the past award honorees were). You will be particularly interested in collecting the names of –and finding the contact info for: Producers, Art Directors and Copywriters who work at advertising agencies; Commercial editors and Broadcast Designers who work at editorial firms and Post Production houses respectively.
If you also want to get hired as a freelance composer you can also gather the information for music and sound design houses and send your demos to them, as well. You can actually initiate a career as a freelance composer following this same outline and pitching yourself as a writer to music and sound design firms, or simply as a sound designer to film/video editorial companies who frequently keep such a person on staff, stuffed in a closet next to the machine room but nevertheless nicely furnished with ProTools and a bowl of candy. However, for now, let's focus our limited resources on you the songwriter getting a commercial editor interested in a song or track that you've already written and recorded.
Once you know your demo package has been delivered, call these people every two or three weeks and pester them, but in a pleasant way. The first time you call them, be truthful about who you are, and why you want them to listen to your music. But when they ask you how you heard about them, lie and tell them that 'the cool folks at HARAJUKU WORLDWIDE' suggested you call and oh yeah, “they said great things about your work.”
Not your work of course, but the work of the person to whom you're speaking, okay?
Eventually, a film editor will listen to your music, dig it, and cut a TV commercial using one of your precious songs. Their client –the ad guys– will love your indie vibe, and after it goes live you can feel a smug satisfaction in having known all along that you're a genius, babe. More importantly, and more likely, you've come a lot cheaper than the agency paying a local Jingle Haven to rip you off. But don't actually impress upon them how cheap you are, because later you'll be increasing your rate –like in no time.
5. Therefore, when asked how much it will cost to license the track, you just say that:
“I have to check with my management, but I’m sure whatever you have budgeted is fine.”
Since you don’t have a track record, you might even let them use your Magnus Opus for free. Of course, you can still register the track with ASCAP or BMI and collect publishing.
6. So, now your romantic ballad, 'Love You Forever' has been used in a feminine hygiene spot. Great, so do yourself a favor and make a fresh batch of CDs and press kits, only this time, attach a sticker on cover of the jewel box that heralds your budding genius. It might read something like:
'Love You Forever' – As Heard on the Hit Carefree TV Commercial
7. Repeat this process ad infinitum in new markets – that means send your material out to other people/companies that you couldn’t afford to contact the first time around. But now you can because, of course, you're collecting publishing. That should at least cover stamps.
If you didn't send your CD to established music production companies the first time around, now would be a good time to do so. Nothing gets people interested in working with you like already being successful. Also, if you want to write original music for commercials and not just license songs, you'll either need to start your own production company or work through another party.
The reason for this is that major advertising companies want to work with vendors that carry an insurance policy called ERRORS & OMMISSIONS. This protects them in case YOU sold them music that turns out to infringe on someone else's copyright, whether by accident or as a result of conscious plagerization. And since people will sometimes ask you to write a track that is modeled on another track, you'll need to insure yourself against your own stupid mistakes.
However, if you choose to freelance or go on staff with a music house, you won't have to carry this insurance policy yourself.
So, who should you freelance for? Where should you start looking for a job? Well, you can start by knocking on the doors of people who belong to this organization:
Association of Music Producers
In a year or two the cover on your CD should look something like this:
8. Get ready cause your career is about to take off: Eventually the newbie director of the very first commercial that used your music is going to get his or her big Hollywood break and be given the opportunity to make a feature film. No doubt, you've got so much buzz happening yourself, that Hollywood will definitely want you to contribute your breakthrough unreleased single to the soundtrack. Upon the picture’s international smash release you’ll finally get signed to a major label –and on your terms, assuming of course you read every item in the 500 page contract they give you. Oh, who cares about creative control or money anyway, when you're going to be FAMOUS!
9. You've been signed! Your album is slated for immediate release two years from now. Finally, the big moment you've been waiting for: Go ahead and Login to one of the Music Industry message boards, like the Velvet Rope for instance, and tell the world how you're so like the next big thing. It feels good, doesn't it? Of course it does. But, like, leave after you post that and never go back because they'll shred you into little bitty pieces –entertainment forums are notorious for giving a platform to blood thirsty sharks– and it's no fun reading that bitter dreck. And your album will probably get shelved, anyway.
10. Regardless, from here on out, absolutely no mention of your past work in advertising. Sure, it was cool when it happened, but now you're an artist. Of course, you can keep the cover art from your original demo –if you still think it's any good– but why not at least change the sticker to something that promotes the fact that you've arrived, something awesome like:
As Heard On The Hit Movie 'Las Mamas Mas Sexy de Nueva York'
10. One last piece of advice: If you do write a hit song and if the track actually does chart –congratulations darling, here's an invoice for my consultation fee– ditch the sticker all together: we all know that movie rode to box office history on your coat tails, not the other way around. And while you're at it, tell the director to get lost because, really, these days there’s only enough time to thank God and your mom at the Grammies.
DIY, licensing
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Creating Value By Licensing
So, someone wants to use your song in a TV Commercial. What now?
A fair price for a one-time license for a non-hit song from a no name is: whatever the artist is offered, or whatever your agent can negotiate without alienating the interested party. If the song has extended uses, other offers will follow. That's how you make money on licensing.
Songs –or anything for that matter– do not have any value until there is a market for them. You need to create a market. Like anything else, one accomplishes that by selling below cost and undercutting any potential competitors, which allows you to gain traction, publicity and some leverage on subsequent deals and transactions.
If a big agency knocks on your bedroom door and wants to use your song on a commercial that will increase your exposure, and which will also give you a platform to further market yourself –and if you are currently an unknown– don't mess it up by listening to a 'pal' who says your genius is worth more than what the offer is.
I can't tell you how strange it is to me that an unknown artist will give away their entire catalog on the Internet, but then claim it has extraordinary economic value the first time someone expresses interest in licensing a tune.
The prudent thing to do is to go with a reasonable* license for the present, and if the song is as catchy as your mother thinks it is, then other offers will follow (which is where you'll negotiate an ever escalating rate for your material, because now you have value).
*Reasonable means: Non exclusive use or limited exclusivity, for a limited time, in limited media; such as, 12 months for a designated TV/Radio/Internet Campaign, with an option to renew at the same rate, or a rate to be negotiated in good faith.
By the way, if the placement is for the theme of a TV show rather than for a TV or radio commercial, you can expect an equally low fee. Unlike advertising, however, the publishing on a hit show, especially if it goes into syndication will likely make any sum you negotiate very much worth your while. Even established composers scoring an original theme for a piece of TV entertainment will accept a low 'front end' figure betting on a series of fat paychecks on the back end. If the show gets knocked off the air you'll still end up with a bit of work you can use to promote yourself further.
Subsequent interest in your work –if there is any– will enable you to negotiate better terms as you establish a track record.
While it is unlikely several different advertisers will all want to use the same track at the same time in a given territory, sometimes they do. One piece of music can sustain simultaneous advertising licenses negotiated for use in different markets by industry or territory; and also win placement on a variety of entertainment projects, such as movies, games, TV shows.
A determined artist can certainly work the odds if they also learn how and who to pitch material to. But that's a career in and of itself. Do you want to be a music supervisor, or play guitar?
If you think of yourself less a performer and more as a composer, then one song –already favorably placed on a national campaign with a major advertiser– is a great way to introduce music supervisors with the rest of your catalog; and prospective clients in need of original music to your talent. Lots of music production companies were essentially built by one composer/writer who won a prominently placed track that he or she sold or licensed for next to nothing.
A fair price for a one-time license for a non-hit song from a no name is: whatever the artist is offered, or whatever your agent can negotiate without alienating the interested party. If the song has extended uses, other offers will follow. That's how you make money on licensing.
Songs –or anything for that matter– do not have any value until there is a market for them. You need to create a market. Like anything else, one accomplishes that by selling below cost and undercutting any potential competitors, which allows you to gain traction, publicity and some leverage on subsequent deals and transactions.
If a big agency knocks on your bedroom door and wants to use your song on a commercial that will increase your exposure, and which will also give you a platform to further market yourself –and if you are currently an unknown– don't mess it up by listening to a 'pal' who says your genius is worth more than what the offer is.
I can't tell you how strange it is to me that an unknown artist will give away their entire catalog on the Internet, but then claim it has extraordinary economic value the first time someone expresses interest in licensing a tune.
The prudent thing to do is to go with a reasonable* license for the present, and if the song is as catchy as your mother thinks it is, then other offers will follow (which is where you'll negotiate an ever escalating rate for your material, because now you have value).
*Reasonable means: Non exclusive use or limited exclusivity, for a limited time, in limited media; such as, 12 months for a designated TV/Radio/Internet Campaign, with an option to renew at the same rate, or a rate to be negotiated in good faith.
By the way, if the placement is for the theme of a TV show rather than for a TV or radio commercial, you can expect an equally low fee. Unlike advertising, however, the publishing on a hit show, especially if it goes into syndication will likely make any sum you negotiate very much worth your while. Even established composers scoring an original theme for a piece of TV entertainment will accept a low 'front end' figure betting on a series of fat paychecks on the back end. If the show gets knocked off the air you'll still end up with a bit of work you can use to promote yourself further.
Subsequent interest in your work –if there is any– will enable you to negotiate better terms as you establish a track record.
While it is unlikely several different advertisers will all want to use the same track at the same time in a given territory, sometimes they do. One piece of music can sustain simultaneous advertising licenses negotiated for use in different markets by industry or territory; and also win placement on a variety of entertainment projects, such as movies, games, TV shows.
A determined artist can certainly work the odds if they also learn how and who to pitch material to. But that's a career in and of itself. Do you want to be a music supervisor, or play guitar?
If you think of yourself less a performer and more as a composer, then one song –already favorably placed on a national campaign with a major advertiser– is a great way to introduce music supervisors with the rest of your catalog; and prospective clients in need of original music to your talent. Lots of music production companies were essentially built by one composer/writer who won a prominently placed track that he or she sold or licensed for next to nothing.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)