The Sound Library Puzzle: While still more comfortable with CDs, some clients are asking for broadcast-quality sounds online, and these canned music and effects companies are worried about cost and security

Post, Feb, 2002 by Edmond M. Rosenthal

"It boils down to doing what you do best," says Westar's Nimens, "and they're better in tune to sell over the Internet."

VideoHelper expects to have its entire library downloadable in broadcast quality within a few months and is currently beta testing a system. Saba says his company will have a secure, password-protected area, using Fresh Ground Music Cart software.

Gene Michael Productions has not yet opted for broadcast-quality Web delivery. Ort is sticking with his current offering, a search engine that allows clients to search through some 2,000 cuts of music, all compressed to eight-bit mono files and allowing customers to view them and submit an online order for a mailed disc. As for new product, a recent Gene Michael offering is the Adshop series of cuts aimed for national spot use. Ort says, "We use high-end composers with cutting-edge music in every contemporary style." This work can be leased, used on a needle-drop basis or bought out at $80 per disc. The library now does surround sound-capable mixes for custom work Meanwhile, two of its cuts were recently placed on MTV's Tough Enough.

New at Valentino is the Millennium library, consisting of 25 CDs and offered as a buyout at $1,200. Its range of contemporary music includes hip-hop and new dance styles. A new licensed library is Evergreen, with 113 CDs. It ranges from $2,000 to $2,500 a year, depending on market size. It covers a spectrum of contemporary music, period music, all forms of dance, dramatic music and single-instrument pieces.

Valentino reports an upsurge of feature film applications, including Zoolander, Mystery Men and Bowfinger. He comments, "What producers need are libraries recorded with full orchestras. They don't want to buy music made by synthesizers."

Metro Music has made a longterm deal with Hungarotone, a Budapest-based record label, for a large classical-through-modern library ranging from Gregorian chants through European ethnic music. Coodley says cost will be in the same range as Metro's normal needledrop licensing fees.

"The national recession is working in our favor," he adds. "For example a Saturn commercial is using our music instead of a custom underscore. This is expensively recorded music that can compete with custom music but is less expensive."

Westar has an updated audition CD-ROM with a sampling of all of the librarys music, which is sent free to clients. It has also released two new sound effects packages, each at a $250 buyout. Crash & Burn features explosions, crashes and other impact sounds. The Thunder Series is a collection of thunder and rain sounds. Each package consist of two CD-ROMs. Recent users of Westar music are the TV series ER and Malcolm in the Middle.

All Your Beat Are Belong to Us is the ungrammatical title, inspired by an Internet-insider joke, of a dance music collection from VideoHelper. Saba comments, "We wrote music that will inspire people to make edits instead of just putting the music into the background as an after thought." This is available via annual licensing or needle-drop. VideoHelper's music has been used recently on newscasts of CNN, ABC News and NBC News as bumpers and in-show themes.