New Models for the Use of Production Music

The following article regarding the acquisition and usage of library music appeared in the February 2008 issue of Televisual. We hope it might be of interest to some of our readers. For more information about Televisual or to subscribe, go to: www.televisual.com.

Clearing rights to use production music used to be a tortuous process. The record company had the recording rights and the publishing company had the publishing rights, and each reported back to the composers. Then libraries started to emerge that owned both the recording and publishing rights with everything licensed through the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (MCPS). It paid members when music was made publicly available through broadcast or performance but the appearance of more channels and shows for international sale made licensing music increasingly difficult.

Buyout Libraries
Andrew Sunnucks and Robert Hurst wanted to make it easier for producers and so launched their own subscription model outside the MCPS via their company Audio Network and recorded all their own music from scratch. It can be used in any territory and on any media and producers pay a one-off fee to access its entire catalogue.

"We wanted to be the producer's friend. We didn't want to make money off them as we could do that from the PRS," says Sunnucks. Broadcasters pay a fee to the Performing Rights Society (PRS) to play music on TV, and the more production music used on each channel, the higher the production library's percentage of the PRS. Audio Network's model proved popular with the TV production industry but wasn't well received by the music industry, with claims it devalues composers' work.

In the US there is no equivalent to the MCPS and all business is done in a similar way to
Audio Network.

 

QI DVD GAME
AGENCY: ORIGINAL CONCEPT
PRODUCER: JUSTIN GAYNER
MUSIC: AUDIO NETWORK

Music from Audio Network's catalogue was used in QI and in the show's recent interactive DVD game, Strictly Come Duncing. "We like interesting projects. It was fascinating getting the music to work interactively with the choices made by the game's players," says Andrew Sunnucks, co-founder of Audio Network.

Writer and producer of the game, Justin Gayner, approached Audio Network as he needed music that was ready to use so the DVD could be sold without clearing complicated rights. With over 350 questions, the game needed a different piece of music for each one.

"Audio Network's music library was the best option for us - it was inexpensive and offered a variety of tracks that could be precisely matched to the theme of each question," says Gayner.

The catch for Audio Network is that, with too many clients on its books its music may get overused. They counter this by continually trying to produce enough new material to feed the market.

MCPS Music Libraries
The MCPS route provides the producer with the choice to use all libraries within it. However, Jenny Thornton, production music manager at JW Media, an MCPS library, recognises buyout libraries like Audio Network have made competition fierce. "We can't compete in price so we have to compete on production values and picking the right artists to record," she says.

Recent trends in production music include folk, classical music with a modern twist and 'quirky' tracks. JW Media believes traditional music libraries follow fashions in music without infringing copyright, creating a pastiche of what is popular commercially. Specialised libraries are also continuing to emerge, such as urban music library Camboso. It uses a model that aims to be more immune to market change, offering writers better performance royalties of 75% instead of 50% while the company retains the upfront fees from clients. "This means writers don't lose out and we can operate with no effect from the changing market," explains Camboso and Norman Cambridge.

Delivery Methods
Libraries need to keep up to speed not only with musical trends but delivery methods. Some such as Audio Network feel CDs are becoming irrelevant whereas others still spend a lot of time designing their packaging. Many Iibraries now also provide tracks to editors on hard drives. JW Media puts its music, along with five other libraries, on what it calls a MyDrive. This plugs directly into a PC or Avid, removing the need for thousands of CDs. Even so, production music manager Jenny Thornton is confident that CDs will continue to be sent out for at least another year. "Clients want an object they can look at and hold," she says. "We can't just abandon the medium and, in any case, CD manufacture is now very cheap."

Libraries' websites are also a valuable tool for producers when looking for suitable music. Music libraries are joining forces online through distribution platforms such as Ricall, which has deals with six independent libraries. The Ricall website, which is primarily for tracking down the copyright holders of commercial music, now provides search results including production library music and unsigned artists.

"Libraries are keen to do deals with us, moving users to a single online system where they have a larger palette of music and do not need passwords for each library when searching for music," says Phil Bird, VP of commercial development at Ricall.

SKY MOVIES IDENTS
AGENCY: DUNNING ELEY JONES
PRODUCER: MARIO FILLO
MUSIC: HUM

Dunning Eley Jones produced Sky Movies' new idents when it re-packaged its portfolio of 12 movie channels by genre. Animation based on multiple film projector beams was choreographed to reflect the movie genre being depicted. Hum was commissioned to compose music for the idents, with each ident's score being different. Some reflected the film score's musical style whereas others were more emotional, expressing concepts such as 'scale' for HD and 'a sense of occasion' for Premiere.

"Hum has created music that is powerful, emotional and truly evocative of the cinema," says Marcus Jones, Creative Director at Dunning Eley Jones.

Hum's MD Joe Glasman believes scoring to picture gives the client something unique and ownable, showing emotional change throughout the visuals. This wouldn't happen if he wrote the music first as "it goes backwards and forwards between the client and the composer and evolves during the process."

New Rates
Audio Network shook up the production music market by charging just £3k a year for a blanket licence covering all territories and platforms to use its whole catalogue on TV productions. In response, the MCPS launched a new easier-to-use rate card in early January, with reduced per-programme rates. A producer now pays £350 to use music in a programme of up to 60minutes duration to be broadcast in Europe only. The equivalent cost of this last year was £1,200. If producers want to sell a programme outside Europe, the licence is calculated as a percentage of that sale.

When a piece of music is licensed from the MCPS it's a one-off cost, with rates set according to the production type and territories in which it will be shown. Production music used to be licensed per 30seconds used and although this is still an available option, per-programme structuring makes music easier to licence for different territories.

The MCPS has also introduced an Independent Production Companies (IPC) blanket licence to make it simpler for multi-platform and multi-territory use. "IPC means individual clearances are no longer required," says Andrew Shaw, MD of broadcast and online at MCPS-PRS Alliance. "You have blanket clearance for all types of uses worldwide and only pay for the rights needed and music used."

But Michael Shaw, head of media at music library Boosey & Hawkes, argues: "The IPC still has restrictions on overseas usage – producers have to pay more if licencing a programme into America," he says. "I think the licences need to be even simpler, including world rights for library music."

Scoring to Picture
It's a much more expensive option than library music but specially composed music is likely to be the most appropriate choice for producers requiring something unique to exactly fit visuals.

Many composers work independently but companies such as Felt offer a bespoke service representing a group of composers it matches up to clients depending on the brief. The key, says Felt, is for brand managers to communicate with the composer as early as possible.

"The brief can go through the brand manager, the creative, the producer, the music company and then to the composer and get quite diluted," says Jo Sharf, music consultant at Felt.

Brand managers can find it difficult to articulate what they are looking for in a piece of music so Adelphoi, a company which specialises in scoring to picture, constructed a form to help producers decide what they want by filling in information such as guide tracks and tempo. "This makes a brief that is wide open and much easier for us to work from," says Greg Moore, a composer at Adelphoi.

 

UEFA EURO 2008 MAGAZINE SHOW
AGENCY: INPUT MEDIA
PRODUCER: STEVE CLUNE
MUSIC: RICALL

Steve Clune, a producer at Input Media, recently worked on the official UEFA Euro 2008 magazine show, which was a series of eight programmes for international distribution. His budget wouldn't allow him to contemplate opting for commercial music and he didn't want to use library tracks.

Ricall had previously recommended using unsigned bands for a documentary and he found it to work very well, providing a "breath of fresh air to the piece". So, for the Euro 2008 project, Ricall located and licensed 20 tracks by unsigned artists such as smallwhitelight and DJ Harpo.

"You're dealing with bands who are a step away from being signed but you're not paying huge fees," says Clune. "They need exposure and as a producer you're after quality music that's reasonably priced."

Commercial Tracks
Commercial tracks can do a lot to enhance a production, whether broadcast or a commercial, as they are instantly recognisable to the viewer. The downside, though, is they can often be expensive to licence and typically have more issues than library tracks in terms of where they can be used.

Boosey & Hawkes' Shaw thinks the challenge is getting to a point where the MCPS is a one-stop shop where producers can clear music from the commercial sector as well as production music libraries. But Barbara Zamoyska, head of film, TV and media at Universal Music Publishing, doesn't think it would be possible to introduce a commercial music rate card as there could be no fixed price as each artist and track has a different value.

It's a good idea to set aside a hearty budget if contemplating using commercial music, although it isn't always expensive to license: "There have been times where bands have not approved commercial uses of their tracks but will approve it for a charity, for next to no money," says Zamoyska.

Commercial artists are also composing traditional libraries, realising not only its financial reward but enjoying the freedom to venture into more creative avenues. Scott Doran from commercial band Eskimo Disco produces tracks for independent production music library West One. "Commercial music can be quite limiting as you often stick to one style; meanwhile production music is a good way of experimenting and working on something different and exciting," he says.

The Unsigned Route
With sites such as MySpace providing easy access to the work of unsigned bands, producers are increasingly opting to use unsigned music in their projects. Bespoke music service Felt represents some unsigned acts, finding it can be an affordable option as their work is unpublished. Felt negotiates rates with the bands directly to decide on a figure it thinks is appropriate depending on the territory, media and how long the programme will run.

Ricall is also linking up with 7digital and Bebo to develop the site's unsigned artist area.

"Unsigned comes into its own when people can't afford to use commercial music but want some cutting edge material," says Bird.

The Future of Production Music
Production music is evolving and many libraries are busy investing in things such as upgrading their audio studios to enable them to bring out catalogues in 5.1. Enhancements to MCPS rates have also made licensing music in a multi-platform and multi-territory industry easier but it still has some way to go. It's difficult to achieve a model where producers find music easy and affordable to licence, libraries get returns for their investments and composers' work is valued, but the MCPS believes the market will determine the outcome.

"The best composers will ensure they make their music available in a way that will generate an appropriate level of royalties," says Andrew Shaw, MD Broadcast and Online at the MCPS-PRS alliance.

It will be interesting to see if other MCPS libraries choose the buyout route and, like Audio Network, offer their entire catalogue for a one-off price.

"Audio Network can sustain its model if only a few companies do it because the rest of us create an ecosystem for those who choose to give it away cheaply to exist," says Boosey & Hawkes' Shaw.

In addition to its MCPS library, commercial and bespoke music composition service, Universal is introducing a separate catalogue that will operate outside the MCPS, which could be an indication of where the production music industry is heading. Steve Cole, head of production music at Universal, thinks Audio Network's catalogue has been overused so is offering a similar model with what he believes is more choice.

"Our annual licence library is not being introduced in a panic scenario," he says. "Some people's budgets won't allow them to use MCPS music and this is what we are addressing." In addition, he says, by the company making this move it is "plugging gaps where we normally wouldn't be able to do business."

 

ST TRINIAN'S
AGENCY: FRAGILE FILMS
PRODUCER: BARNABY THOMPSON
MUSIC: UNIVERSAL PUBLISHING PRODUCTION MUSIC

Universal Publishing Production Music Library has five pieces of music in the British comedy St. Trinians, taken from the MCPS library division of the company. Christopher Simmons, music consultant at Universal, was contacted by Ian Neil, music supervisor at Fragile Films, to find suitable music.

Music was required for various scenes, including a dance track, a classical track and some game show music. Universal was briefed as to what the scene was and the style of music required. For each instance, three tracks were sent for the client to listen to. The producer selected which they felt best suited the brief and visuals.

Tracks used include Candy Bar and Midnight Bossa.

 

07-10-08