How To Brief Music For PR and Marketing Folk

Ahead of tomorrows thupr event on music and PR, Gareth Cousins, Composer and Producer of Music for Advertising, Film and TV,  has given us the lowdown on commisioning music for PR purposes:

Gareth Cousns

It is pretty much taken for granted that music is an important part of any advertising, marketing or branding campaign. (Ed – just think of Right Here, Right Now in the Socialnomics viral video that does the rounds) The practice of using music in film and television has long since passed into common practice for all moving image media, from films to commercials to websites and everything between. But despite this it can be very hard to find information on how to find and brief a composer, the rights that you will need, or the costs involved.

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Music Rights

Image via Wikipedia

Once you’ve worked out what budget you need for music in your PR or marketing campaign, what rights do you need? From the outside it seems like a thorny and complex issue, but composer Gareth Cousins explains:

1. a.               Music Rights Explained

Whenever a piece of music, or other creative work, is created, it becomes the Intellectual Property of the creator. This is true whether the music created is a three second sting (such as the Intel mnemonic), a pop song or a huge orchestral work.

In the UK, music rights are assigned to the PRS so that performances can be kept track of and the composers fairly compensated for their performances. The amount of royalty the composer receives depends on the length of the music and the medium is broadcast on.

This is a very well established operation and has been going for over 100 years. The royalties gather provide an essential stream of income without which the music industry (and composers in particular) would struggle to survive.

There is commonly confusion about how PRS royalty payments are made, and who makes them. Production companies or advertising agencies sometimes believe they are responsible for them, but this is never the case. These payments are the sole responsibility of broadcasters (such as BBC and ITV) or content providers (such as YouTube) who play a levy (called a blanket license) to the PRS based on the amount of music they use in a given period of time.

For this reason, composers are not able to give a 100% buyout of all of their rights to a piece of music they have composed, as is sometimes requested by clients. This is not possible while their music is controlled by the PRS (or by the associated companies abroad such as ASCAP or BMI). But it not necessary in any case, as explained above, the costs of broadcasting music are not borne by the composer’s clients, but by the broadcaster of the music.

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HOW TO BRIEF A COMPOSER

Gareth Cousins

You’ve identified a need for music in your PR campaign content, you’ve found the composer – now: how on earth do you brief them?

Composer Gareth Cousins explains:

Assuming you have now decided that you would like to commission original music for your campaign, and you have chosen a composer, how do you brief the composer so that they write the music you need?

1. Tell the composer about the project. Who is the client, what is the brand? What is the purpose of the marketing campaign. Is it aimed at a specific demographic? What keywords have been used to describe the product or service?
2. Pass on any materials that you have such as storyboards, scripts, photos, sketches etc.
3. If you have any music references that the client has approved, or if you know what direction you’d like to go on in, provide mp3s or YouTube links for the composer to listen to. It is important that the music brief is for what is needed to make the marketing campaign work, rather than to ask the composer to come up with something that reflects your personal current musical taste. It needs to be relevant.
4. How much music is needed – how long will it be, and will more than one piece be needed?
5. What territories and media will the music be used in?
6. If you do not have a pre-conceived idea of how the music should sound, that’s fine! Let the composer make some suggestions and see what approach most excites you.
7. If you require a demo of the composer’s ideas, expect to pay something for this.
8. Discuss the budget with the composer. Let them know how much you have available for the music. You may find the guidelines later in this article useful for helping work a music budget out.
9. Be clear as to when you expect to hear the first version of the music, and when the project will need to be completed by.
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FINDING THE MUSIC YOU NEED

Gareth Cousins

Following on from ‘Why does my Campaign Need Music?‘, a post from Gareth Cousins, musician, on finding the music that you need for a PR?marketing campaign – ahead of Friday’s thupr event on music

Once the need for music has been established, you will need to choose whether to commission a composer to write music for your specific purpose, or to choose music that already exists as production or library music, or as music already released by an artist or band.

Using music that already exists will be dealt with later in this article.

a.     How Do I find A Composer?

If you choose to use a composer, what is the best way to commission original music?

Commissioning music means paying a composer to write a composition for a specific purpose. Anyone can commission a composer, and any type of music can be commissioned.

There are many ways to find composers:

1. Word Of Mouth – If you are commissioning a composer for the first time, this is probably the best way to choose a composer. Ask around, and if your contemporaries have had a good experience with a composer, the chances are good that you will too.
2.  References – You can check for references on LinkedIn, for example, to see who recommends that you work with a particular composer. Or screen credits can be verified on IMDB.com (the Internet Movie Database, which includes some TV credits). This will help you establish the credentials of the composers recommended to you.
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