What resources do you guys like to use for stock music?

Hi, just wanted to open up a discussion with those of you who use
music of any kind in your small-to-medium sized multi-media (web, tv/
film, video, software/games, marketing, PPT, etc.) projects.

Do you just use an existing library of CD/DVDs you've invested in, or
do you go find something for instant download/licensing online for $30
or less? Or do you commission musicians to write things? If a combo of
all these, which do you prefer and why?

For online stock music, what do you like or dislike about what's out
there if you use it? Seems like there are a lot of sites, but wonder
how well they meet your creative and budgetary needs.

 

I'm not sure how many people even pay attention, but one of the first
things I notice about a documentary or video project is the music. Most
of the the time, it's easy to spot the generic-sounding library music.
After a while, it starts to gnaw at you.

Some people will say they don't care. I can't believe that people
don't, on some level, respond to the kind of vacuous blandness of it.

If what you're doing isn't important, it's probably not an issue. If
you want your work to stand out, go hunting for some of the local
musicians who are always hungry for work and capable of creating and
recording some original music tailored for your production. It would
almost certainly cost more. Maybe not as much as you think, since a lot
of musicians have their own mini-studios in their homes and can play
multiple instruments. Is the additional prestige it adds to your work
worth it? Maybe.

 

I agree with you, but it's not just the direct costs, but also the time.
First, you may need to locate the musicians, then you can spend many hours
listening and tweaking.

With little budgets, production music is sometimes the only choice...

 

I'd agree too. So is there a happy medium in there between the
"canned" stuff and the original music approach? i.e., is a service or
website that offers a collection of high quality clips that could be
customized to a dregree help cure the blandness of the generic library
music sound? I know some sites offer alternate variations of their
clips, but what if this went a step further: Say you find a clip
that's close to what you need for a project in style, tempo, texture,
etc., and you download it in it's original form for comp purposes.
Then, working with the very musicians who actually wrote/recorded the
music clip, you "customize" it to your specification. It wouldn't be
commissioned music starting from scratch, so the cost and time
requiements would be less.

Is this a better scenario, or if we back up here, is the real need
just to have a better selection and higher quality (real instruments)
music available online and in CD libararies? Not the prestige of a
Hollywood film, but more professional, nonetheless...

I ask because I've been interested in creating a stock music service/
library online, but don't want to just reinvent the wheel. I want to
know what people desire, who don't have Hollywood budgets.

 

How so? The composer would still have to spend time 'customizing' the
music. The arrangments (unless you're in Nashville) would have to be
written. A studio and engineer would have to be hired. The musicians would
have to return to the studio, at least some of them. Now, instead of from
$20 to $150 per track a producer could be looking at well into four figures
or more, unless everyone's working for free.

I find that there is a wonderful variety licensable music available. Much
of it using real instruments. Admittedly much of it all electronic, too.
And dreadful. But, if one cares to look among the many, many libraries
there is quality music to be had. For me, the real cost of a good library
music track is in my time spent making the choice .

I've heard a few sound tracks created by "my neighbor's kid has a rock band"
types. The recordings were not something that would add any prestige. Much
the opposite, in fact. My experience is that composer-arranger-musician
types who can create tasteful, high impact scoring for film and video are
about as scarce as proverbial hen's teeth. Add to the desirable qualities
of such a person the ability to work to a deadline, and they become even
more rare than that. I know a few. They are awesomely talented. They have
fortunes invested in high-end music making and recording equipment. And,
strangely enough, they want to be paid comensurate with their talent and
tools. Such people are absolutely the right people to call if the project
has very long legs, that is, when the video will be seen by either very
large numbers of people or by a smaller audience of highly influential
people with the expectation that the film or video will have a large,
positive monetary impact on its sponsor. With this kind of project, I
begin at the earliest stages discussing music and sound design with the
client. I have often pointed out with good effect that the typical
corporate video budget includes more for cast, crew, and client
representative meals than it does for the sound track. I find that budget
allocations made early are easier to protect than if considered later in the
pre-production and budgeting process.

Steve King

 

Amen on the hen's teeth. We do have one or two of those guys here in
Baltimore. I just did a session last week for a corporate show where we used
a karaoke version of Baba O'Rielly and relyriced it for the sponsor. We also
had several short "stab" cues and a 4:40 original rock piece.

My bill for studio services was close to $600. I don't know what the
composer/player got. He built all the tracks with a demo e. guitar track and
MIDI drums. We used my BFD drum and sample software here. We mixed here and
they also paid a quite good electric guitar player to replace the demo guitar
sounds on the 4:40 piece. We recorded him here. Then mixed.

I think you have to go into that sort of thing knowing there's a guy who can
do the job and then figure out how much you want to spend.

If you want to talk to my guy, he's David Zee. http://www.davidzee.com/
Don't let the web page fool you. He's really good and has been doing the
corporate music thing a long time in addition to his own personal music and
playing out. He's a full time musician.

5Alarm music is what I'd use otherwise.

I think I still have a list of stock music vendors up in my OnLine Archive.
Hang on.....

Ah, a bit dusty (some of these folks are gone) but here they are.

Regards,

Ty



Music And
SFX
Libraries:

Abaco Music Library
www.abacomusic.com

Advance Audio Productions
203.459.0869

AirCraft Music Library
162 Columbus Ave.
Boston, Mass. 02116
Mr. Mark Cuddy
(617) 482-7447
1 800 343-2514

Airworks
Edmondton, Alberta
Canada
404.424.9922
www.airworks.com

Alan Ett Music Group
818.955.7010

Arcade Music Productions
602.582.1107

Arpeggio Self-editing music library
800.250.3657

Associated Production Music
6255 Sunset Blvd.
Ste 820
Los Angeles, CA 90028
800 543-4276
(213) 461-3211

Audio Action
4444 Lakeside Dr. Suite 340
Burbank, CA
91505
800 533-1293

Audisee
Susan McArthur
1011 Western Ave. Suite 506
Seattle, WA
98104
(206) 283-4733
Sells music drops& SFX from APM,

Axcess Broadcasting Services
4801 Spring Valley, Suite 105-B
Dallas, TX
(800) 766-2033
(214) 386-6847

Backtracks
255 Glendora, Unit 1
Long Beach, CA
90803
(800) 258-7570
buyout $69/disk

BLC Productions
448 Lafluer
Vaudreeuil, Quebec
Canada j7V 6N4
(514) 424-2827
buy out

The Blue Ribbon Soundworks, Ltd.
1605 Chantilly Dr., Suite 200
Atlanta, GA
30324
(404) 315-0212

Brian Bennett Music
818.789.9100

BRG Music Works
610.971.9490

Broadcast Music Library
Richard Loth (Julie) Gerry Mosby Cr.
Dir. Players Music
Suite 300
216 Carlton St.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
M5A 2L1
800.387.3030

The Broadcast Results Group
Pennsylvania
The Positioners
Drop in spots with skits and all
Andy Mark
(800) 600-6165

Brown Bag Productions
4134 S. Eudora St.
Englewood, CO
80110
(303) 756-9949
Market Exclusive:

Cambium Development, Inc
P.O. Box 296-H
Scarsdale, NY
10583
(800) 231-1779
100 CD-ROM library
Wav and MIDI

Canary Productions, Inc.
PO Box 202
Bryn Mawr, PA
19010
800 368-0033
Buy Out CDs
Andy mark

Capitol Production Music
6922 Hollywood Blvd., Suite 718
Hollywood, CA
90028
(800) 421-4163

Cathedral Sound Productions
PO Box 3474
Capitol Heights, MD
20791 (301) 350-3181

CD Underscore
972.931.1130

Century 21 Programming-(214) 934-2121
CD Prod library 30, 60, sfx
Laser lightning 30, 60 for rock stations

Chameleon Music
Heawam, MA
413.789.1917
(800) 789-8779 ??
buy out CDs

Chess Media Unlimited
800.344.TRAX

Chicago A/V Studios-(312) 280-9433
Market exclusive
Signature Series

City Tunes Production Music
311 Austin Rd.
Mahopac, NY
10541
(914) 628-7231
Buy Out 17 CDs

Comprehensive Video Supply
800.526.0242

Clean Sheets:
1501 N. Vermont
Royal Oak Mich.
48067
(313) 544-0405

ConTempo Music Library
888.687.4285

Crank City Music
Columbus Ohio
800.547.6547

Creative Sound Design
206.441.7421

Creative Support Services
1950 Riverside Dr.
Los Angeles, CA
90039
Buy Out (800) 468-6874

Otis Connor (214) 386-6847

DAV David Walker (818) 918-2438

Davenport Productions
3610 Piney Grove Rd.
Chalotte, NC
28212
800.951.6666
buyout

DeWolfe Music-(212) 382-0220
25 W. 45th St.
New York, NY 10036
Marcie Jacob/*Fred Jacobs/Andy
R.Mariam
Mitch Greenspan
(800) 221-6713

Digital Programming Inc.
PO Box 8008
Van Nuys, CA
91409
(818) 780-9780

Dimension Music and Sound
P.O. Box 992
Newnan, GA
30264-0992
(800) 634-0091

Disney IDEAS
407.560.5600

Don Great Music
800.321.6967

DSM Productions
212.245.0006

Earwax Productions
415.775.8561

East West Communications
800.833.8339

ELS Productions
801.265.1552

Energetic Music
PO Box 84583
645 S. Massachusetts
Seattle, WA
98124
(800) 323-2972
(206) 467-7101
Buy Out

Eye and I Productions
408.945.0139

Fandango USA
800.979.8922

Films for the Humanities and Sciences
PO Box 2053
Princeton, NJ
08543-2053
(800) 257-5126

Firstcom/Chappell
13747 Montfort Dr.
Ste 220
Dallas, TX
75240
(800) 858-8880

First Son Productions
Kingsville, Texas
512.595.0036

Flying Hands Production Music
800.536.6007

Fresh Music Library
80 South Main St.
Hanover, NH
03755
603.643.1388
www.freshmusic.com
(800) 545-0688

From The Top Productions
602.623.9161

Gefen Systems
Hagai Gefen
6261 Variel Ave.
Woodland Hills, CA
91367
(818) 884-6294
(800) 545-6900

Gene Michael Productions
Buchanan, MI
49120
(616) 684-0633
(800) 955-0619
Buy out

GMI Media Group
206.839.9414

Golden Plains Publishing
800.392.5539

Greytsounds
805.650.8800

Headspace
650.696.9414

Manhattan Production Music
800 227-1954

Hollywood Edge
7060 Hollywood Blvd.
Ste 1120
Hollywood, CA 90028
(800) 292-3755
Buy Out

Hollywood Film Music Library
11684 Ventura Blvd.
Ste 850
Studio City, CA
91604
818.789.3487
Buy out & lease

Horizon Music
Cape Girard, MO
314.651.6500

Impact Music
P.O. Box 67
Dale, WI
54931
(800) 779-6434

Innovative Media Corp.
217.544.4614

Invision Interactive
415.812.7380

Jam Media Productions
Dallas, Texas
214.388.5454

James & Aster Inc.
115 East 23rd St., 3rd floor
NY, NY
10010
(212) 982 0300
(800) 572-2236

Killer Tracks
6534 Sunset Blvd.
Hollywood, CA
90028
(800) 877-0078

Leonardo Software
12421 W. Olympic Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
90064-1022
(310) 820-2868 $495.00

David Lieder Music Library
800.4 buyout

Liquid Audio
Redwood City, CA
415.562.0880
www.liquidaudio.com

Loud Neighbors Music
888.400.2149

MPT
1349 Regal Row
Dallas, TX
75247
(800) 527-2514

Manchester Music Library
6 Halfmile Rd.
Norwalk, CT
06851
888 846-3745

Manhattan Production Music
P.O. Box 1268
Radio City Station
NY, NY
10101
(212) 333-5766
(800) 227-1954

Mark Haffner News Packages
818.503.5240

Match Production Music
800 MATCH01

Media General 1 800 527-2514 Zack
Hernandez. Carl Reynolds National
Sales Manager. 2714 Union Extended,
Memphis Tenn. 38112. Network
FirstCom Century 21. Three CD
Libraries

Megatrax Production Music
888.MEGA.555

Metro Music Productions
645 West End Ave.
NY, NY 10025
(800) 697-7392
(212) 799-7600

Multimedia Soundtracks
770.271.2024

The Music Bakery
660 Preston Forest Center
Suite 300
Dallas, TX
75230
800 229-0313

The Music Bank
14567 Big Basin Way
Saratoga, CA
95070
(800) 995-1645
(408) 741-4780

Music Services Media Group
610.687.4433

Musicrafters, Inc.
PO Box 595
Montgomeryville, PA
18936
(800) 468-8863
(215) 368-7488 Buy Out

Musi-Q Productions
Sunrise, FL
305.572.9276
(800) 749-2887 ??
Buy Out

Narrator Tracks
303 E. 4th St.
Marshfield, WI
54449 (800) 448-6467 Buy Out

Network Music
11021 Via Frontera
San Diego, CA
92127
619 451-6400
Bruce Tucker
619.451.6400
800 854-2075 ??

Network Sound Productions
345 Sprucewood Rd.
Lake Mary, FL
32746-5917
(800) 487-7746
(407) 321-3702
Buy Out

NFL Films
609.778.1600

Non-Stop Music Library
800.554.6462


Northstar Productions
503.760.7777

Nuestro Ritmo
800.334.9801

OGM Production Music
Hollywood, CA
213.461.2701

Omnimusic-(516) 883-0121
6255 Sunset Blvd, Suite 803
Hollywood, CA
90028
or
52 Main St.
Port Washington, NY
11050
(800) 828-6664

OneMusic
Nashville, TN
800.858.8880

Onyx Music
514.849.0714

Opus 1
818.955.7010

OSC
480 Portrero Ave.
San Francsico, CA
94110
(415) 252-0460

Philadelphia Music Works
PO Box 947
Bryn Mawr, PA
19010 (800) 368-0033

Polygram Records
732.287.0008

The Producers Sound Effect Library
8033 Sunset Blvd., Suite 289
Hollywood, CA
90046
(800) 826-3379 Sound effects only Buy Out

Production Garden Music Library
2411 NE Loop 410, suite 126
San Antonio, TX
78217
(800) 247-5317
Buy Out or lease

PROMUSIC
Alain Leroux
407.995.0331
(800) 322-7879
www.promusic-inc.com

Prosonus
2820 Honolulu Ave., Suite 268
Verdugo City, CA
91046
800.999.6191
Music Bytes for windows and MAC

Q Up Arts
PO Box 1078
Aptos, CA
95001
(800) 454.4563 Buy Out

QCCS Productions
PBTM Music
1350 Chambers St.
Eugene, OR
97402
(541) 345-0212
Buy Out

Rarefaction
415.333.7653

Radio Potato
(800) 468-6874

Raymond Scott Archives
201.653.1063

Redman Productions
407.648.8666

River City Sound Productions
PO Box 750786
Memphis, TN
38175-0786
(800) 755-8729
(901) 274-7277

The Rubber Dubbers
626 Justin Ave.
Glendale, CA
91201
SOUND Effects Only
(818) 241-5600

RTV Communications Group
954.922.8020

Saturn Studios
213.661.0259

The Raymod Scott Archives
PO Box 6258
Hoboken, NJ
07030
(201) 653-1063

Scharren Studios
419.241.5432

Screen Music
11684 Ventura Blvd., Suite 850
Studio City, CA
91604
(818) 985-9997

Second Generations Productions
217.728.7532

Signature Music Library
PO Box 921
Chesterton, IN
46304
(800) 888-7151
buy out

Sonic Boon
2453 East Virginia Ave.
Anaheim, CA
92806
800 735-4366
714 535-3344 SFX Only

Sonic Science
119 Spadina Ave., Suite 767
Toronto, Ontario
Canada
M5V 2L1
(416) 351-9100
(800) 26-Sonic Sound effects

Sonoton Recorded Music Library
APM
6255 Sunset Blvd. Suite 820
Hollywood, CA 90028
310 397.5499

Sopersound Library
PO Box 498
Palt Alto, CA
94302
800 227-9980
www.sopersound.com
Buy Out or Blanket

Sound Dogs
LA, CA
www.sounddogs.com

Sound Ideas
105 West Beaver Creek Rd., Ste 4
Richmond Hill
Ontario, Canada
L4B1C6 (800) 387-3030 (905) 886-5000
Buy Out SFX Only

The Sound Patrol Ltd.
6 East 39th St.
NY, NY
10016
(800) 766-4748

Sounds Interesting Productions
508.947.7387

Soundstage Music Inc.
800.321.0047

Southern Library of Recorded Music
213.469.9910

Sweetsong Productions
304.428.7773

Sweetwater Sound Inc.
219.432.8176

Techsonics
804.547.4000

Toby Arnold Productions
3234 Commander Dr.
Carrollton, TX
75006
(800) 527-5335

TM Century, Inc.
14444 Beltwood Parkway
Dallas, TX
75244
(800) 937-2100
(972) 406.6800

Tone International
810.626.1194

TRF Production Music Libraries
747 Chestnut Ridge Rd.
Chestnut Ridge, NY
10977
(800) 899-6874 (music)


Tunedge
800.279.0014

Unapix/Miramar Productions
800.245.6472

Valentino Inc.
Tom Valentino
500 Executive Blvd.
PO Box 534
Elmsford, NY
10523
(800) 223-6278
Buy OUt SFX, Lease Music

Vertical Music Library
425 42nd St.
Brooklyn, NY
11232
(718) 436-1587
Buy Out

Videohelper Inc.
212.633.7909

Voyetra Technologies
800.233.9377

Well-Tempered Music Library
617.354.7012

Who Did That Music
800.400.6767

Josef Weinberger Ltd.
12-14 Mortimer St.
London
W1N7RD
4471-225-1829
Buy Out

Windswept Studios
P.O. Box 1095
Springfield, VA
22151-0095
(703) 256-3279

Wink Music Group
Chicago, Il
312.787.8863
www.winkworldsounds.com

Wolfetone
1010 Huntcliff, Suite 1350
Atlanta, GA
30350
(770) 992.7500
CD, CD_ROM buy out

World Sounds
800.501.2328

WFMU
Montclair, NJ.
201-678-4277. http://wfmu.org.

Zedz Music-
The Production Music Boutique
49 Hanover St.
Malden, MA
02148
(617) 324-1989
Buy Out


--Audio Equipment Reviews Audio Production Services
Acting and Voiceover Demos http://www.tyford.com
Guitar player?:

 

Fair enough. I know a lot of musicians, so I have an advantage. The
musicians I know also happen to write music, and are capable of
developing an idea, improvising, etc., and recording to very good
digital equipment.

If you don't know people in that area, it would be more difficult.

But every time I hear generic background music, I think it's worth it.

 

All sounds very corporate and institutional to me. If that's what you
feel you need to go to to feel safe, so be it.

However, the idea that you need a studio, a producer, and engineer, and
a team of session musicians is ridiculous. That's what you do if you
have lots of money to spend and want to take a committee approach. It
certainly doesn't guarrantee that the resulting product will by any more
distinguished than downloadable tracks.

I know some local musicians-- and this is not a big town-- who have
their own digital eight-track recording equipment and are highly capable
of creating distinctive original music with a bit of flavour and
personality to it. All of the money you could put into having the
arrangements "written" and hiring an engineer and producer could buy
these men and women more time to develop their work.

If I was doing a lot of productions in this area, I would develop some
relationships with these people.

But I grant you, it might be possible to find some interesting music
available in the libraries if, as you say, you avoid the electronica,
and spend enough time searching and listening.

 

Reading my own message over again, I think I sound annoying. Don't mean
to. Let me just say that I think you can work with local musicians, but
Steve is right to point out that there are advantages and disadvantages,
and it might depend on if you're lucky enough to know the right people.

I do like the idea of supporting local musicians where you can because
life is better when we nurture our own communities.

 

I like that idea, too. Unfortunately, I don't have the luxury of hanging
out with my musician friends in the hope that they can come up with a score
that lifts my video to another level. The likelihood of success seems
pretty slim to me. My perspective is influenced by my own experience. I
spent almost ten years of my life as a recording studio engineer in Chicago.
The studio I worked with was busy. We did jingle commercials all day and
R&B and R&R all night. The day-clients, commercial music producers,
typically booked one hour of set-up, one hour to do music tracks (often with
larger groups with percussion, horns & strings), and one hour to do vocals.
Mixes took one to two hours. The composer/producer, the musicians, and the
singers were thorough professionals. Often the music house received an
assignment one day and recorded the next. As a contrast, I have spent
countless hours watching bands struggle in the studio to work out
arrangements and to get their "sound" from live performance to jell in the
studio. The percentage that came within a country mile of the skill-level
of the commercial music producers and the session players was very small.
So, for commercial film and video projects, where it makes sense, I try to
get the budget from my clients for original music. Then I go to people who
do that for a living. On the other hand, I recently worked with some
friends on an independent short feature. For that the producer did put the
arm on a bunch of musician friends and a studio owner. We spent the better
part of two days trying this and trying that, playing footage over and over
in the hopes that it would inspire wonderfullness. For the most part that
didn't happen. In the final edit about three-quarters of the film score
ended up being created from library music. It might have happened
differently. But, it didn't. So, I remain a skeptic. My advice to video
producers, if one cannot afford professionally produced original music,
still is to rely on library music. And, to spend enough time in the
selection process so that the dreadful stuff can be avoided.

Steve King

 

You're right. Point well taken. I can see this happening very easily,
especially with younger musicians.

I would think the feature director might have had better luck with older
musicians, especially with some jazz grooves.

And I do remember being shocked, when I was a young teenager, to hear
that Dylan had recorded an album in Nashville using session musicians.
The article I read pointed out that these guys were cracker-jack pros
who would appear at 3:00 in the morning, if called, in a pressed suit
and tie (!), wait patiently to be called in, and then lay down the
superb tracks quickly and efficiently. I believe one gentleman played
bass and horns on the same take.

As an aside, there's a great story about a long Dylan song, "Sad Eyed
Lady of the Lowlands", which apparently was recorded in one take after
practising just a few verses. All the session musicians thought it
would be verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus. It went on for
13 minutes! You can hear the band going into a big finale at the end of
every verse after 3 minutes, then, surprised, continuing into the next
verse.

 

So, that said ("that" meaning everything mentioned above about the
reasons and obstacles faced when hiring musicians for original music),
if you're going to use the alternative and spend time searching for
some decent and workable library music, what about that process could
be made easier for you? Since it's time-consuming to wade through
endless samples, is there anything that might make it faster or more
efficient? Is it just about having to wade through the crap to find
the gems? Or is the challenge more about wading through crap AND
quality, but finding just the right track(s) that will work
creatively? It just sounds like the biggest problem with this option
is the time it takes...

If you could create your ideal music library site, what are some
things you'd look for that would keep you coming back again and again
and refer others to it? Lots of questions, I know, but I'm genuinely
interested in what everyone's looking for when using stock music.

 

BIG SNIP

I have found that an old-fashioned telephone call to the staff people at
music libraries is the most effective search tool. "I'm looking for a piece
of music similar to that used in X movie during the 'falls off the cliff'
scene. The scene I have to cover is 43 seconds long. Whaddaya got?" It's
low tech, but nothing replaces the brain of someone who has listened to
every cut in a library. There was once a time, when I had a strong sense of
every cut in the DeWolf library, a library the studio I worked for owned in
its entirety. My music searches went far more quickly after I'd worked with
the library for a couple of years, which was nice for clients but of mixed
blessing, when the studio charged by the hour ;-)

Steve King

 

Hi Steve,

Thanks for mentioning the DeWolf library.
When this topic was originally raised I was hoping to see some mention of specific libraries. I'm not sure anybody else has been specific so far?
I have looked(/listened!) at the stuff at http://www.smartsound.com/, but wasn't *that* impressed.
So, any other specific pointers would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Gareth

 

Dunno if you found these...

Using Music and Sfx Libraries.
http://www.dplay.com/tutorial/muslib.html

Reviews and contact info for music libraries
http://www.dplay.com/tutorial/libcards.html

Jay has likely worked with as many music libraries as anyone,
and he took the time to publish some info/learnings.

 

Hey, thanks for that. Looks like some very useful links!
Cheers,
Gareth