OK, a song search needs to happen for your approaching ad campaign. Who will do it? What is the creative brief? Who has the final say about the song choice? It is the client, the in-house marketing department, or the Creative Director? What is the budget? When does that choice need to be made? And, when does it need to be cleared by?
Before streaming services, music supervisors and producers would go to retailers likes Tower Records, spend hours, days and a lot of cash buying vinyl records, tapes, CDs, etc.; collect what they thought they’d need for an exhaustive search and submit their choices to their client. Obviously, this took time with multiple trips to music stores, as well as asking labels to send submissions. (Many times it was faster just to go to a retailer, rather than waiting for the label to send over tracks.) As a music supervisor working through this period – (1985 to about 2005) – conducting searches for clients was lucrative, but to my mind, it truly was a thankless job. After studying the creative briefs and coming to an understanding about what the Creative Director was looking for, I’d start the hunt for the most appropriate, imaginative, knock-out song I could find. I’d make a playlist, put everything on a DAT (and then onto CDs, send eveything by FedEx or currier service) and present my choices to the creative team – usually an in-house marketing department, or sometimes to an agency. Out of a list of twelve or so songs, I knew that at least two of them would be perfect: the right vibe, lyric (if applicable), right tempo, groove, vocal style, demographically appropriate, brand appropriate, zeitgeist appropriate, etc. I knew that those two songs (at least) would be stellar. I also knew how much creative directors want to be the one to choose the song, so I’d hide the really good songs near the bottom of the playlist so that they could be “discovered” by the Director.
Many times, the response to the submitted songs went something like this: “None of these songs work. Do you really understand what we’re looking for? We want something compelling, something fresh, somethingno one else is doing…” “OK,” I’d say, “let us take another pass at it and we’ll get back to you…on Wednesday?” And the process would begin again. Because people listen differently, depending on their mood and level of concentration, there were times when we’d re-submit a song from a previous playlist, hoping that someone with fresh ears would really HEAR it and hear why we thought it was so good for the project. Sneaky, but many times it did pay off.
Let me explain what I meant by saying that doing song searches is a thankless job. No matter what, the creative director invariably,will only want to pursue a song that she/he/theyfound – not some music super. This is the well-documented, huge ego of the advertising executive. Not to say that this was always the scenario. Depending on the client – many were more open to suggestions than others. As the music supervisor, I just wanted a decision to be made because the clock was ticking and I knew how long a clearance could take, especially for complex copyrights and tricky talent negotiations, (for example, doing the time-intensive work of dealing with Estates of dead singer/artists).
Song searches are fun when you have good people that like doing them and are really good at it. I was lucky to find such people and still have great people doing this work. These are people with good ears and love music, but don’t let their own likes and dis-likes get in the way of finding what is appropriate to the creative objectives. This is harder to do than you might think; because if your love music, you are going to naturally have biases to work around. You need to drop your cultivated “good taste” and find the right song!
Frankly, when Spotify and others streaming services came along, I was relieved. Because of the ease in which to do focused song searches, this suddenly became part the producer’s job description, and not necessarily the job of the music supervisor. They would search, and we would clear. Simple. There was only one major problem with this way of working. When the creative director found a song and became completely attached toit, without any kind of vetting to learn about say, sample issues, publishing issues, or availability issues (due to other brand’s exclusive uses) – everything would come to a halt.
Now whenever we do song searches, wesimultaneously pick the best songs creatively, but also research songs for any anticipated problems – anything from conflicts with other brands and products, to knowing that the lead singer, for example,might ask for a fortunein talent fees, etc. Part of our research is conducting a thorough history of advertising uses of whatever song is in consideration – finding out who used it and when and for how long; also to see if there are any current uses that would immediately take it off the table. We never would submit a song to a client, knowing that there could be licensing problems, no matter how creatively perfect it was for the campaign. It’s a balancing act of wanting to please the creative director, finding that killer song, but also finding that that killer song can be licensed within the client’s budget and within the given time restrictions.
So today, here’s where my company finds itself: We’ll do the song search and present the client with great choices that are also available within their budget and have been thoroughly researched; OR let the client find the song they love and then hand it over to us to see if it’s clearable. Many times, I suggest that they send us their preferred song(s)during their search process, before they get too married to any particular song or artist. This way we can vet songs in tandem with the creative team so there’s no big surprises at the end of the process. From the very start, my first question (even before budget) – is, what is you start date for airing and/or exhibition? And then we work backwards from there. The next big challenge, after a song is chosen, is negotiating the singer’s talent (AFTRA) fees to see what’s left over in the budget to pay for publishing and master rights, and musician’s (AFM) obligations. Of course, to be taken seriously by the music licensors, all these moving parts need to be addressed simultaneously by the music supervisor. The licensors will need to send the quote requests out to their approval parties: writers, artists, lawyers, Estates, managers, etc., while at the same time, the music supervisor is beginning talks with the singer’s reps regarding negotiation of talent fees. Hopefully all these moving parts come together at about the same time.
The advertising song search is technically easier these days – (no day trips to Tower Records and assembling playlists on CDs!) – and of course, the easy availability to every kind of music imaginable, (or not imaginable), makes for a lot of very rich listening and thousands of choices. There are indeed infinite choices and resources to find music for your project today.In addition to the major labels, Independent labels are everywhere and have so much great material available. This is all good for the creative side.
I used to tell clients, when we’d have problems clearing some little indie label track with twelve writers and eight publishers, and samples from who-knows-where; that the easiest thing in the world is clearing a big-time standard song, known for generations, on a major label. It was simple, all the publishers are in place, the label is on board, everyone knows who the singers are, all the samples are identifiable. Easy, just bring a lot of money with you! What’s problematic, is clearing a track from an unknown artist, unsigned to a reputable label and managed by her uncle Jimmy, and finding out that no one has bothered with publishing percentages and PRS registrations. That’s where it gets complicated, messy and time consuming.
Generally, music streaming services are a great tool for both producers, creative teams and music supervisors. There is now so much music at our finger tips. The challenge still, is finding the right song and artist that’s fits your target audience and is clearable, in budget, andall that rights can be secured within your time line.
Happy searching!
Michael Welsh is founder/CEO of Michael Welsh Productions, Inc. – a company specializing in music licensing and supervision for advertising only, for over 30 years. You can send your questions on related issues to info@michaelwelshprods.com. www.michaelwelshprods.com.