Rant: Music (Un) Supervised - When Bad Music Happens To Good People

Please put down the Chalupa!

I not sure what to think about the person who selects the music tracks at live sporting events (ya know, the music that happens in between plays) . . . but if I hear "Pump Up The Jam" or "Paradise City" or "Enter Sandman" one more time . . . I will commit ritual seppuku. 

Sure, you were in a high school rock band, maybe even the #1 DJ at Camp Manatawanda . . . but just because you have an iPod now like the rest of us that you listen to on your morning commute doesn't make you a music maven.  When it comes to public and professional projects, enlisting the help of a good music supervisor is often times a really good idea.   

Solid music supervisors have access to and command of a vast catalog of music, have musical knowledge and experience, are keenly aware of emerging and popular trends and TASTE.  Their job, day in day out, is to help you find and narrow down an appropriate selection of music for your film, television show, advertisement, video or live events, and their most important job is to make you (their client) look great!  

Now, I am not advocating not conducting your own music searches.  For those of us who have the time and love being involved in the creative process (and that's most of us), combing through the online music search tools and auditioning tons of library tracks are terrific ways to jumpstart the music selection process . . . but when you start getting a sense of the creative direction . . . that's a great point to bounce it off the people who live and breathe to help you make decisions on music.  Moreover, share the music that you found in your search with them as its always a good way to help them get on the same page so they can nail it for you! 

m2c 

Nike Boom! (and the importance of splits)

Don't hate the playa . . . love the game:

Music libraries that don't have splits for their music tracks significantly limit your creative choices and limit your mix possibilities.

If you have to take it off the shelf, chance are you will have to make compromises. So be wary.

Quality music catalogs have splits available on most tracks and getting splits on music tracks allows you to turn up, turn down, add or take out instrumentation or vocals and, in general, gives you creative flexibility so you can get a tight fit to your picture and great results.  Importantly, it allows you to customize the track if you need to add (or take out) that extra special somethin' somethin'.

How do I know whether or not the music track that I like has splits available? 

(just ask the music library supervisor and they will let you know . . . )

Does Size Really Matter?

When it comes to choosing a production music library does size really matter?  If you are in film, television or advertising production chances are you've hit the google search before to see what pops up when you enter stock music or music licensing and it's an overwhelming digital ocean of choice and claims . . ."900,000 Royalty Free Tracks" . . . "The Biggest Music Library in The Universe Ever Created" . . . "500,000 Music Tracks in 400 Genres" and so on.  Yikes! How is a creative professional supposed to navigate all of this to find what they need?

Chances are, you are looking for the right track and chances are you need one piece of music in that moment.

Unequivocally, our vote is to choose QUALITY over quantity every time.

Two reasons:

1) Music Search Fatigue.  There are some libraries out there with 100,000 tracks but only a fraction that are even worth a listen.  More likely than not, you need to sift through lots of subpar tracks in order to find anything decent and that takes way too much time.  The result, you either settle for something less than great, convince yourself you found something better than you have because the search is taking so long or wind up giving up altogether because you cant find what you need.  Exhausting. 

Good libraries have a deep bench of well meta-tagged tracks.  Search should be easy, quick and the quality high (even fun!).  You shouldn't have to weed out bad tracks to get the one you want, rather come away with a few choices and options that you feel great about. 

2) The Human Touch. Most large music libraries are music mills.  They are run by webmasters and not music supervisors or creative professionals, they are automated and lack meaningful human input and might as well be selling toasters, socks or books.  Robots don't make music.  Composers do.  Databases don't care about your project, but a high quality music library will go out of their way to help you make it amazing.  Smaller and mid-size libraries typically have a terrific staff of creative professionals standing at the ready to assist you.  These people live and breath their music catalogs and often times have the right music knowledge to help you find the gems that fit your project.  Hug a music supervisor (we hug back)!           

m2c