Music Libraries and MP3's

[guscave]

I have always submitted my tracks to libraries as wav or AIFF files, but recently I've notice a few libraries asking for mp3 (196kps or higher). Two libraries that get me decent placements have recently told me it's ok to submit them mp3 instead of wav files.

Is this something that's becoming more standard? I would think that libraries would want the highest quality for their clients.

[richmstudios]

Good question .

I don't know the answer for this since I've not got a song placed just yet, but I wonder if maybe the music libraries in question are looking to post your MP3s online for clients to listen/audition via streaming; MP3s are more suitable for this. Perhaps once a placement is made and your song is needed for production use you would be contacted and asked for higher quality WAV/AIFF's.

Just guessing, but if anybody has any experience please chime in...

[guscave]

Hi Rich, I know that some libraries will first ask for an MP3 then once approved they will ask for the wav file, however the 2 libraries I mentioned have actually placed the mp3 on different shows.

I recently had a placement on MTV in which the library only has mp3 of my work. Another library has another one of my tracks on a couple of CMT shows, and I know that I only submitted them the mp3 version. I never got around sending them the wav file for that particular song.

[Casey H]

Hi Rich, I know that some libraries will first ask for an MP3 then once approved they will ask for the wav file, however the 2 libraries I mentioned have actually placed the mp3 on different shows.

I recently had a placement on MTV in which the library only has mp3 of my work. Another library has another one of my tracks on a couple of CMT shows, and I know that I only submitted them the mp3 version. I never got around sending them the wav file for that particular song.

I'm really a stickler for very high sound quality when my music is deeply buried under dialogue while some toddler struts her tiara or some woman in Bumfork, IL finally breaks her addiction to eating floor wax...

Just joshin' around...

Casey

[richmstudios]

Crazy. Thanks for the update & clarification. I never woulda thought...

[Mic1984]

I agree with some of the similar posts where they get the MP3's to approve then request the higher quality when approved. The format I am seeing most is the 48k 16bit. I usually have a conversion tool running that I can easily translate into the different audio requirements.

[mazz]

When I was writing for a very famous daytime talk show (now off the air), they were doing a special for MLK's birthday a few years back, and we all submitted our demos as mp3s, as usual. Also, as usual, we were writing up until the last minute (not the composers' time management problem, BTW!). We never heard back whether anything was accepted and on the night of the special, we were surprised to hear that our demos were used to score the show! In fact, I landed the promo for the show and they used my demo mp3 for the promo.

The lesson here, along with the reality that productions are not afraid to use mp3s for broadcast, is: don't ship a shitty sounding demo!

Mazz

[pboss]

Adam Weitz (former VP of Film & TV Music at Taxi) stated this past summer on one of the Taxi Live shows that a 320k MP3 is acceptable to many supes and is used for shows. The show is archived if you're curious about the details. He was on about 3 times, and talked about stems, metadata, and within that had mentioned the whole deal with the MP3's used as the actual deliverable for shows.