Wedding Photographers and Music Houses
Stay with me on this folks. No, I haven’t been smoking anything or drinking adult beverages. The following occurred to me when I recently saw some spectacular photos of a wedding that I attended. There are numerous similarities to choosing a wedding photographer and a custom music house. Why? Here’s 5 reasons why… 1. They both should have the skill sets to communicate and evoke emotion. Both are art mediums. 2. Framing the shot = Creating the musical arrangement. 3. The photographer can make multiple adjustments to lighting and color in editing just as the music house can do with balances, pans and equalizations in the final mix mode. 4. [...]
Freedom: An Audio Branding Package from Aircast Custom
This branding package was created originally for WTVC (ABC) in Chattanooga by Megatrax’s custom scoring division, Aircast. Are you looking for a new audio identity or branding package? Check out more work from Aircast on their YouTube channel and contact Randy Hart and Aircast to see what they can do for you!
From the Vaults: 5 Tips for a Successful Scored Promo
We are fortunate to work with a wide variety of clients with needs ranging from a musical brand for their animated logo (about :04 long) to longform songs related to a specific subject. However, much of our work is providing a local station with a music soundtrack or scored promo to enhance a marketing initiative. Our depth of experience in doing this allows us a unique perspective from which we can offer some tips for a client to keep in mind throughout the process of creation and production. Many of these ideas are related to a good lyric, but comments related to sonic quality apply to a music bed, too. [...]
New work from Aircast Custom Music
When you’re in the market for custom scoring, imaging elements, jingles, audio branding, etc, you couldn’t do better than our Aircast Custom music division. Under the guidance of Randy Hart, a talented musician whose career has spanned a lot of the music business, Aircast has produced stellar work for news teams around the world, new theme music for the Grand Ole Opry, and so much more. Here are a few samples of what they’ve been up to lately. You can find them at AircastMusic.com to find custom music solutions for your needs. This sports theme (audio only) is used across the entire GLR (Grupo Latino de Radio) network worldwide. This [...]
Demystifying Sound-Alikes
Through the years I have had some interesting conversations with creative directors regarding their inquiries to me about doing a re-recorded version of a popular song. In many cases what they think they need is not necessarily what they are asking for initially, so I thought I’d present a basic “I Want Something That Sounds Like (fill in the song title here) 101” here. If a client wants to use not only a popular song, but also use a previously recorded version of that song, they need two different sets of rights granted to them. The first would be from the publisher(s) of that song, for synchronization rights. There is [...]
5 Things to Know When Licensing Custom Music
Short and sweet, based on my many years of producing and licensing custom music for both broadcast and non-broadcast entities, here are 5 points to keep in mind when having a custom score produced. 1. KNOW YOUR RIGHTS – By that I mean do you need both synchronization and performance rights? Will it be local, regional, national? Depending on what your role is in the production chain as well as your usage, you may or may not need performance rights. Do you need a license to cover a short amount of time (13 or 26 week cycle), longer or even in perpetuity? 2. KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “IN PERPETUITY” AND [...]
A Peek Behind the Production Curtain
While recently at a client’s office and studio, I was seeing and hearing how they were using the music that had been created by Aircast Custom Music. The thought occurred to me that they had no idea (and had no reason to) of the multitude of decisions that went into production their :30 image spot. They simply needed a piece of music written for a specific application and were posting it to their video. It reminded me of the food show, “Unwrapped” or the program, “How It’s Made”. Of course, we as consumers, take a lot for granted when it comes to all of the consumables we use. It really [...]
CBS Affiliate gets a new Image from Megatrax’s Custom Scoring division, Aircast!
Check out this great image piece Aircast Custom did for KGAN, a Sinclair Broadcast-owned CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids, Iowa!
For Broadcast Production, Now the Promotional Fun Begins!
The party’s over. Over the holidays, you may have gone through all of your emails and deleted ones that you thought were too important to toss before 12/31. Your hard copy file folders perhaps went on quite a diet, and your shredder probably got a good workout, too. Now the fun begins. For all of you in broadcast production, a new year brings a new slate of initiatives to promote. Granted, they may be similar to the ones you had last year but with different personnel or program names and/or times. But if you don’t promote it, who will– Right? The good news is there’s no formula for a great [...]
The Joe Smith Collection
As we go through the holiday season, particularly the days following the big day (you know the one), we sometimes need a moment to reflect and be calm. If you find yourself in one of those I-need-anything-other than-another-Christmas-cookie moments, may I suggest this fascinating, but rather unknown website. But, first, the story… Joe Smith was a music executive with a career beginning in the 1950s, holding the presidency of three major record labels: Warner Bros., Elektra/Asylum and Capitol/EMI. During his career, from time to time, for business purposes mainly, Joe would conduct interviews with the great recording artists of the day. He interviewed artists such as Bo Diddley, David Bowie, Paul [...]
