Music, Music, Music

Jim Stinson
January 2004

There are four different routes to legitimate tracks:

• Obtain rights to individual pieces.
• Buy royalty-free pieces or packages.
• Mold musical phrases to your exact needs.
• Build songs from audio loops.

Of course there is a fifth route: compose and perform an original composition, but we're not going to cover that complex topic here.

At different times, we've discussed each of these options (see the accompanying sidebar for listings), so let's stand them all side-by-side to compare the pros and cons. We're going to find that each type of music making has much to recommend it, in the right situation, of course.

First off, you can rent the rights to countless thousands of songs, from hip-hop to Gregorian chants. To do so, hit the Web sites of ASCAP, BMI or SESAC and follow the instructions. You'll end up with the right to use your rented piece in a specific program that's intended for a specified purpose.

This route has several benefits. You can match the musical flavor to the program exactly, because you have so many thousands of pieces to choose from. You can enhance your show with the world's finest compositions, performed by the most talented artists and mixed by the best engineers. You can increase audience identification as viewers recognize famous tracks.

Now the down side. First, the rights to some pieces are unobtainable, at least by small-scale entrepreneurs, and the costs of others may be prohibitive. You want the Lohengrin Wedding March recorded in 1953 by the Lower Slobbovian Radio Orchestra? No problem! Paul Simon's Graceland? That's different.

Second, you're pretty much stuck with the length you get. You can fade pieces in and out and sometimes adjust length by cutting or by carefully doubling musical elements, but that's about it.

Nevertheless, there are times when only one piece of music will do. My niece just got married to a Wynton Marsalis performance of the Trumpet Voluntary by Jeremiah Clarke. When I edit her wedding video, you better believe I'll go after the rights to that track!

Royalty-free music composed specifically for videos is often far more practical. To get it, you purchase a package of tracks – anywhere from a single CD to a huge music library – for a one-time fee that gives you the rights to unlimited uses of all the tracks, within the scope defined by your license. For one-time use, you can often pay for and download individual tracks.

Royalty-free music has many advantages. For one thing, it is tailored for specific genres of programs, such as commercials, weddings, corporate videos and training aids. Each track is titled to explain its use, which can result in some pretty funny names like "Corporate Tadaaa!" and "Bright Digital Future."

Most discs have pieces in different lengths, ranging from five-second "stings" and wrap-ups, to three- or four-minute compositions for underscoring. The more complete libraries contain each length in multiple orchestrations (e.g. "with piano solo" or "light orchestral"). Some also supply alternate styles, such as New Age, Bluegrass or Soft Rock.

If you buy a large package, you can frequently get a database of every single cut, searchable by all sorts of key words. But such packages are usually for production departments or houses that may need dozens or even hundreds of tracks for their many programs.

Perhaps the most attractive features of buyout music are cost and ease of use. Though prices vary among the many stock music houses, individual cuts are usually inexpensive to rent. If you regularly produce one type of program – weddings, say, or training videos – a royalty-free package of tracks is often a true bargain. When you need a cut, simply choose the emotional effect, the length, the orchestration or perhaps the musical genre and lay it in.

In the minus department, the compositions are still not exactly the same duration as your project, forcing editing compromises and improvisations. Finally, most (though not all) library music sounds like what it is: canned and pervaded with a faint aroma of elevators. It's great for underscoring and other unobtrusive program support functions, but you won't want to let it call attention to itself.

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