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Music is an integral part of TV advertising and can greatly enhance an advertiser’s image and appeal. I’ve done a lot of music for TV commercials; If you're thinking about getting into the business of producing TV ad music, here‘s some information you might like to know.
TV ad music is derived from three sources:
- Music that’s custom-made for the advertiser. It’s composed by production companies and can either utilize vocals (as in a jingle) or be completely instrumental.
- Established hit songs that are licensed for use by the advertiser. Sometimes the original artist’s track is used, other times the song is re-sung.
- Incidental (background) music that is obtained from music libraries or other sources.
Custom-made music
Production for TV ads is often handled by advertising agencies. The creative department of the agency conceives the TV spot and decides the type of music they want for the ad. If they want original music, they call an advertising music composer and/or producer to do the track.
The music the agency requires can be a full-sing jingle, a partially sung jingle, or a particular type of instrumental. The composer will either pre-produce or post-score the music, depending upon the client’s requirements.
Pre-production consists of writing and producing the music track and delivering it to the client, who places it with the video. If the spot is to be post-scored, the composer is supplied with the video in advance and scores the music to fit what’s happening on screen.
In my case, I require a Quicktime movie file of the video for post-scoring. I import it into my music software (Digital Performer) which syncs the video to the music tracks, allowing me to create and produce the music accordingly.
Instrumentation depends upon the clients’ requirements. They may want a straight track with a memorable sung line or they may instruct the composer to come up with something quirky and offbeat. In every case, all involved strive to achieve the highest quality outcome regarding arrangement, production and excellence of sound.
But advertising can be a strange thing. Sometimes local advertisers write and produce their own jingle, often sung by someone like the company owner’s daughter or his wife’s niece who happens to be able to carry a tune.
These jingles are often terrible from a production standpoint. But I decided something a while back: irritating as they are to my ear, they probably work for the advertiser. They are so bad that people remember them and thus remember the name of the client. That’s a big part of what advertising is all about.
Established hit songs
In the mid 1980s, advertisers began licensing popular hit songs for their TV advertising. This brought about some controversy among music purists who believe that popular music and commercial objectives shouldn’t mix.
But advertisers came to realize that the marriage of the two worked well with much of the public, especially young people. Handled correctly, a popular song can go a long way towards successfully branding a product.
Background music
Background music, or incidental music, has long been used behind voice-over announcers for TV advertising.
The advent of electronic music production made it easier and cheaper to produce this music and many online music libraries have come into existence. They offer an inexpensive way for advertisers to have “essence of music” in their TV ads.
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