Chapter 22 Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners

Chapter 22

Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners

Music in AdvertisingChapter Twenty-Two

Start Thinking . . .

1. What are some unique characteristics of music for advertising commercials?

2. What should the writer of lyrics for a commercial keep in mind?


Chapter Goals

• Gain an understanding of how music is created and produced for broadcasting to sell goods and services.

• Study the role of the advertising agency in producing music for broadcast advertising.

• Learn the special vocabulary used by individuals working in the broadcasting and advertising industries.

• Become knowledgeable about artists’ unions and their attempts to control payments to their members who work in broadcast advertising.


Music in Advertising

• Jingles, commercials, and spots

• Radio: sounds create a “theater of the mind”

• TV: pictures + sounds = sales

• Value of music words to songs aid memory music enhances pictures music acts as clutter-breaker


Influences on Style

• Current styles utilize the music trend of the day high-energy, fast-paced, audacious production styles slower-paced spot can make an effective contrast but . . . preferably music springs from the spot’s concept

• Advertising agencies looking for unusual sounds merging of organic and synthetic sounds


Jobs

• Writing music and lyrics for commercials composition + commerce one of the most lucrative forms of music employment fierce employment competition

• Hit songwriters offered huge fees

• Local level: low budgets but chance to learn the business and showcase emerging talent


Music Uses

• Form in the listener’s mind a memorable association of the music with the product

• Underscoring dramatic action

• Borrow music from another source • keep the melody but change the lyrics

• “Star-based” commercials offer “testimonials”


Music Budgets

• Vast budget range local spotso a few thousand dollars

elaborate national campaignso up to a million dollars (or even more)

• Low-budget spots may still require unique theme music or aural product logo

• Small-budget TV commercials may use canned music


Station Branding Logos

• Station logo or ID gives an outlet a brand image or identity

• Radio and TV stations hire an independent production company create a musical “trademark” or fragment of sound for use

with call letters duration varies—a few seconds to a full “song”

• Image-type logos function as theme songs can be broadcast full-up or in the background


The Agency Role

• Advertisers prefer using agencies1. agencies negotiate low ad rates by aggregating buying

2. agencies can better support overhead costs

• Compensation varies; not just traditional 15% rate

• Large agencies offer wide array of services on an à la carte basis

• The various media buys are determined by budget

• Agency farms out what it cannot handle in-house


The Agency Role

• The Internet has speeded up and smoothed out the production process Uploaded work can be done in multiple locations

• Agency recommends how and when the spots should be placed

• Agency instructs its media buyer to purchase advertising and the campaign launches


Spot ProductionWriting Copy

• Recommendations for copywriters:1. Mention the advertiser’s name as often as you dare

2. Be economical with wordso in radio, let the music say ito in TV, let the pictures “talk”

3. Use simple language

4. Express one idea—again and again

• New school of thought: Sometimes less is more


Spot ProductionScoring Music

• Arrive at briefing session with sample tracks

• Amount of instrumentation determined by budget

• Music for commercials: everything written out improvisation reserved for rhythm section goal = front line stay out of way of singers or speakers

• Stay out of the way of the words!


Spot ProductionProduction Companies

• TV and radio commercial production companies often separate from online advertising suppliers

• Production company staff: full-time and freelance

• TV production company studios: own or rent

• Small radio production company studios


Spot ProductionProduction Companies

• Production companies offer complete programming services music library services

• Commercial beds neutral tracks fronts, bridges, and tags predictable radio format from 1950s onward

• Production companies also offer “lifts”


Spot ProductionArtists and Fees

• Agencies pay creative fees for music and texts

• Composers generally work for agencies on a buyout basis

• Fees are paid in a number of ways

• Advertisers often seek package deals

• Music production house engaged for a flat fee for national campaigns

• Agencies may seek gifted songwriters for specific campaigns


Spot ProductionArtists’ Contracts

• Singers, instrumentalists, arrangers, and copyists members of respective unions

• AFM contract governs instrumentalists, leaders, contractors, orchestrators, music librarians, and copyists—not composers

• Leaders generally receive double scale

• Use of synthesizers treated as overdubbing



• Employer signatory to AFM contract pays employees at contract scale pays into the AFM-EP Fund pays additional payments for extended or new use

projects

• Local spots pay less than national spots often non-union, often straight buyouts



• SAG-AFTRA obtains payments for each type of use of members’ recorded work

extended-use payments can provide huge incomes

• Singers drawn from a select pool of vocal artists sing any style sight-read perfectly excel at clear diction


Spot ProductionProduction Sequence

1. The agency’s creative director decides on a concept

2. The creative department creates a storyboard for the advertiser’s approval

3. The agency develops a detailed budget

4. A number of production companies or composers are invited to submit appropriate music; favorite is selected

5. Cattle call issued and cast is approved by advertiser


6. Creative fee paid for music; publishing rights negotiated

7. Budget determines size of orchestra; recording date set

8. Composer reserves recording studio and engineer

9. Union contractors contacted

10. Music preparation services deliver copies to studios

11. Orchestra records takes



12. Singers record takes with prerecorded music

13. Producer and music director attend final mix

14. Musical director, producer, and account executive select the best take; deliver to agency

15. The producer has filmed all visuals, created final edit, and lip-synched actors with the musical track

16. The agency files reports with all unions; issues payroll checks



For Further Thought . . .

1. What payments will be made by an employer who signs an AFM contract?

2. What do production companies offer?

3. What contribution does music make to the advertising industry?

4. Is the growth of online media a threat or an opportunity to advertising music?


Documents

Chapter 22 Music Business Handbook and Career Guide, 10th Ed. © 2013 Sherwood Publishing Partners