[Nick Griffin] "[Jack Gray] "At the lowest end, cost will win, so even the most generic stock music will do."
Yes, but. There are some producers who are looking for something better than generic crap"
I spent serious money for licensing the FirstCom library, and I have to tell you, it made up for itself many, many times over. Literally. I paid several thousand dollars a year for one of the lower-end packages, and in bid after bid, I had clients say, "I'm looking at a lot of good reels, but the music in yours stands out so far ahead of the others that I know you'll make MY projects stand out the same way."
Each job I won where the client specifically called out my music paid for my entire year's music license 5, 6, sometimes 20 times over - every single time.
Tip: unless your clients expect your clients to use something like this themselves, don't slam your reel together with the same electronica that everyone else does. I used snippets of video, edited to the ACTUAL MUSIC I used - when the said that my "music sounded better" - well, it DID. But it was also USED better.
The moral of the story: seriously, use music that will make the client feel good about themselves. The smart ones will care, and will apply their feelings about your music to their own needs - and they'll pay the bills for the dullard clients. This is always the case of course.
(BTW, big fan of Killer Tracks. They weren't as good a match for what I was doing at the time, but now that they're owned by the Universal Music Group, their music is anything but generic. Want Chuck D to record your hip hop beats? Done.)
[Nick Griffin] "And why are you limiting yourself to spots? Maybe it's because we're in the corporate/industrial business, but there's a lot more out there than spots and I avoid anything that only comes in 60, 30 and 10 second lengths.
One of my favorite things about the FirstCom library was an entire category of music called Underscores. Classical music is great, but the dynamic range is intentionally too wide to talk over. They offered recordings of recognizable pieces by "brand-name" world-class orchestras specifically recorded to be narrated over.
They did the same for other genres too. My point is support Nick's point that you need to think more broadly about music, and pay now for more than what you need now. Every investment should be made with the expectation that you will grow. Otherwise, why make it?
"Good production music is produced in such a way that editors can cut and overlap it to get what they want. They're the ones who customize, not you."
Cleverly cut and fade, ride levels, and you can do what you need to do, almost every time. Add some software that will change pitch or match beats as needed - lots of very affordable examples - and as you develop even a few skills, you can stick the landing every time.
Clients will notice. They'll pay you for it.
The beat goes on,
Tim
Tim Wilson
Creative Cow Magazine!
My Blog:
"Is this thing on? Oh it's on!"
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