Value in Sound

Over the past five years I’ve done thousands of music searches. Yes, thousands. Whether looking for music for a television promo, commercial, or film trailer there are some very consistent ideas that come across from my clients. One of those is build.

Music that builds is key in advertising of any kind (for a product, film, or show) because the goal is to tell a story, hopefully an interesting one, and do it in limited time.

Granted like any other rule there are exceptions to this one, generally speaking though it holds true. Take a listen to some of your most recent songs and ask yourself – is this going anywhere? Watch a few trailers, commercials, and TV promos and ask yourself “if I put my music under this, would it help drive the story along?”

Perhaps the best question you can ask yourself is: Does my music tell a story on it’s own? Where’s the beginning, middle, where’s the end? Even better try asking your friends to identify it for you and see what they say.

If your songs do build you’ll have a much greater chance of getting licensed than if they’re fairly static or even-keeled, which means you’ll have a better chance at making some money and getting great exposure with your music.

If you’re a musician you’re use to living in patterns. iii-vi-ii-V-I, circle of fifths (or cycle of fourths if you prefer), and so on. Patterns literally surround and encompass everything musically and help give loose structure to the art form. This structure can be manipulated, modulated, changed, transformed and broken altogether for the sake of making a great new sound.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about what advice musicians should take to heart; how to get the most bang for their buck when it comes to all the questions that entail getting a song licensed or expanding their audience.

In the end, it comes down to recognizing patterns in everything you do and improving them. Music practice applies to everything in life – business, health, success and failure in general. So what can you learn from yourself? What lessons might you already know?

Approach every problem or obstacle in your life like practicing your craft. Identify the goal of practicing (is it notes in a particular phrase? a complex rhythm? or do you just want to improve your fluency in a given key signature?), set out the tasks to help you improve at it (slowly go over notes, break down complex rhythms, identify scales/chords/passages in the key), and most importantly get started.

Even if what you decide to work on or how you start to solve a problem doesn’t turn out to be the most efficient, you’ll still learn a ton – both about yourself, and the problem at hand. Set a goal, make a plan, and get started.

At the BBMiA conference waaaay back in June I was simply blown away by Kid Rock. Not having really listened to his music (other than not really liking Bawitdaba’s radio domination years ago) I wasn’t sure what to expect.

What I heard at his keynote was:

1) A guy who has worked his butt off from day 1.
2) Someone who’s taken the time to learn ALL aspects of his craft (creative, business, etc).
3) A very down to earth individual with a fantastic outlook on life.

…and more. I was able to record some of the Q&A at the end of the session with my phone and I’m posting it here. I hope you enjoy it!

Kid Rock at Billboard Music in Advertising

While it’s definitely been a great summer with a lot of big changes for me I haven’t been able to write as much as I would have liked about current issues in copyright and the music industry.

However, some big news! I’ve got a panel proposed for the 2011 iteration of South by Southwest! I’m very excited to have the opportunity to share with artists some really great details about getting music used in advertising, TV, and film. However, I need people to vote for it first! The following is a link to my panel and it’s description so give it a read and then give it a thumbs up!

Click here to check out my panel for SXSW 2011!

Note: You do have to be registered on the SXSW 2011 Panel Picker, however it’s completely free, and very fast. To find my panel, you can also copy/paste the title into the search box after you’ve registered.

Thanks for your support!

Just wanted to drop a quick note to let you know that I’ll be at the Billboard Music in Advertising conference for the next two days. Keep your eyes here for thoughts on the keynotes!

Perusing Adweek as I often do to keep up with what’s going on in my clients’ world I came across a pretty cool ad Y&R recently did for Craftsman:

The music in the ad was obviously created by editing video of people doing various things with Craftsman products. The composer/editor in this case was Kutiman (the internet sensation from a while back who created music from various YouTube clips he put together).

Adweek’s Mark Dolliver critiques:

But the percussive sounds achieved here by using Craftsman tools in oddball fashion just don’t seem all that interesting. When a saw is used to create a rasping sound as it scrapes a cinder block, I feel like telling it not to quit its day job. No doubt some viewers will feel differently. But the self-consciously artsy approach seems like a mismatch for the audience of people who buy and use Craftsman tools.

While I agree the spot leaves something to be desired I’d offer up that the spot not captivating the viewer has less to do with trying to “artsy” but more because it’s lacking two simple components: build, and melody. It’s definitely edited well and the beat it creates is nice, but when a client asks me for music they typically ask for something that builds (or “goes somewhere”), is relatively positive, and then they’ll drill down to whatever specific sounds strike their fancy for the brand.

If you watch the spot again closely you’ll notice beats being layered throughout but the layering doesn’t really create a build, and serves to muddle sonically as more elements are added. When the spot ends you don’t wander away humming anything, just perhaps thinking “that was clever” or in Mr. Dolliver’s case something written with more @’s and &’s.

Since the spot is focused explicitly on creating music with tools, to my ears the error was made in not creating a more melodic soundtrack that “goes somewhere.”

For a final thought I’d like to throw out this old Nike commercial:

Even something as simple as the squeak of the sneaker allows you to create a melody – a very simple one no doubt, but listen carefully! There’s build, it sticks out above the beat of the rest of the commercial, and also the focus on the underlying beat was a more simple approach and doesn’t take away from the sneaker squeak. In fact when harkening back to this spot, I immediately started humming the rhythm sneaker-squeak melody.

Overall I think the Craftsman spot is still pretty cool and Kutiman definitely deserves kudos for his editing skill, but the music itself leaves a little something to be desired to really drive the commercial home.

Doing my industry reading like a good music biz employee today I came across an article by Paul Resnikoff on Digital Music News. The article – “What Coachella is Telling Us” – speculates that the economics of the current festival/live performance aspects of the music business could be highlighting a trend: Fans discovering music online as freebies causing a drive upward in concert revenue. He mentions that even in the face of the current economic situation ticket prices are still soaring – and selling.

I’ve never been a proponent of artists giving away music in hopes that exposure will grow, however now that I’ve been at my job for 5 years I can definitely see some interesting prospects for acts that are starting to gain a somewhat significant following (we’ll say 1,000+ followers).

While Paul seems to indicate that bands giving away free music could maybe might just somehow lead to increased ticket sales perhaps, I’d argue that music should still never be “free.” However fans can offer a value even if it isn’t in cold hard cash.

Bands looking to gain some sort of monetary value from their music can go about it in various ways and I feel one of those channels should definitely not be selling an album to the mass populous. Well, at least not at first. But what Paul suggests – giving music away can drive concert revenue – is actually getting close to not a bad idea. Let’s take it one step further though.

Value fans can give:

1) Free PR (Word of Mouth, Blogging, Twitter, etc)
2) Free Distribution (burning CDs, emailing files, etc)
3) Money (concert revenue, album sales, merchandise, etc)
4) Connections (Music supervisors, ad agency producers, etc)

I’m sure there are more but these are a good start. As a band on the cusp, I’d say the main goal is to generate money with music. That means doing two things: Live performances and Licensing. Fans can help do both though point 4 above is far less likely until points 1 and 2 have reached a tipping point.

After reviewing this info, a band might then post something on their website offering fans some sort of value (perhaps a few mp3′s or discount code for merchandise or concert ticket discounts) based on the following:

1) Email address entry (increase mailing list/following)
2) Material dissemination (some sort of referral program for the mailing list)
3) Money (naturally, paying for the tracks should always be an option – low cost at first of course. Also, buying them a track could earn them a discount on merchandise or concert tickets)
4) Professional introduction (I’m not sure exactly how this would work, but it could be a very lucrative opportunity for a band so the reward should be fairly high for the connected fan)

In all I think Paul definitely makes some valid points about how the industry is being more and more shaped towards live performances since that’s a great way to make money as a musician. However, giving music away for free, I think, is always foolish. Think about the value your fan-base can bring to you, and reward them for it – quid pro quo. Thousands of businesses do this already (Gilt Group, ING Direct, and more) and the sooner you start treating your music like a business, the faster you’ll start to generate income from it.

There are a lot of things needed to begin using your music to generate cash, but obviously some are more important than others. In order to elimintae barriers you can take a few steps each day to begin making immediate progress. Those steps are: Make a phone call, make a mistake, make a list of questions, and then repeat.

When making phone calls for the first time you will undoubtedly hang up the phone and want to hurl yourself into a ravine head first. That’s the beauty of this strategy – you know perfection will elude you, and you’re setup to turn these often times defeating experiences into something you can learn from.

Your mistake could be any number of things so have a legal pad and pen or some way of immediately recording any thoughts or perceptions you have about the call.

Mostly these notes will be missing an opportunity to ask a key question that gives you some insight into whom you’re approaching, their job, or the company’s current needs and goals. The more calls you make, the better you will become at asking questions and that will begin to foster strong relationships with the right people.

Keep your questions in front of you so you’re sure not to miss anything crucial in conversation with someone in the future.

So who do you call? That’s easy – call any company responsible for using music where you think your sound would be a good fit! The more you call and ask, the more you’ll know!

Tuesday evening I had the privilege of being a panelist at SPONY again. This go around I was joined by Mike Boris of McCann Erickson and Tim Joyce of Cherry Hill on the panel, and it was webcast. Before my recap, I just want to give a shout out to Joy Novie who runs SPONY. She continues to work to improve all the aspects of SPONY including format, education, and even the website. She’s done a great job so be sure to drop her a thank you note if you appreciate all her work.

There were a lot of great points to take away for me personally at the event, being that I was on a panel with someone who would be a client of mine (Mike), and someone who does something similar to my job for a different music publisher. But from my perspective, I think there were a lot of similarities in what we were all listening for and I’d like to point those out to aspiring song-writers:

Musical Points:
+ All of us were listening for songs that went somewhere. It was described as an “ah-ha” moment, as telling a story, tension and release, and so on. To get a good idea of what this means take a listen to some film trailers, TV promos, or of course ads on TV. You need not write something that’s only 30 seconds long, however your song should ALWAYS be moving somewhere.

+ There was definitely an appreciation for songs that were sonically and musically interesting. That is, those who have been writing music for a while and can speak the language of music more fluently than others really stood out.

+ Lyrical subject is irrelevant, however lyrical craft is highly desired. Often times the music was relatively strong but lyrically it was unthoughtful and seemed almost secondary. Lyrics are great, but if you’re going to write them: edit, edit, edit!

+ Energy. This was Tim’s big thing but looking back it should definitely be emphasized. It sort of ties into my first point, however, you most often won’t hear tender, slow ballads in ads or video games. Keep it moving.

+ Ad basics. Mike pointed out that mostly in advertising things need either to be relatively positive, or, if they’re negative, it is often due to humorous context.

Business Points:

+ Depending on who you contact, production value can matter more or less. However, I will say that a decent production value will go a long way in making you stand out. It just means you worked that much harder on the song.

+ Be respectful of the people you’re contacting. Mike mentioned not liking getting mp3′s via email, and we all want metadata on the CDs we get. At any rate, it’s best not to flood us with info. Just send a nice introductory email with a link or two, or send us a CD. The more professional you are, the better the chance we won’t hit delete (or toss your disc in the trash).

+ Add value. How can you make it 100% easy on the people you’re submitting to? How can you learn about the person? How much do you know about how you can best help them? As I said on the webcast, Google goes a long way!

I hope everyone who has a chance to check out SPONY takes away as much as possible about how to get better at their craft, and at selling their craft!

Just a quick post to let you all know I’ll be one of the panelists with SPONY this evening. The event is at:

NY Women in Film & TV offices
6 E. 39th Street
12th Floor

4/6/2010
6:30 PM

For more information, click here.