Question about Music for TV/Film

[brock]

Hi all,I just got done watching the 7 part YouTube series featuring TAXI member Matt Hirt regarding music libraries.My question: Does anyone know of a good website/resource/etc for listening to samples of music from TV shows, commercials, etc? Yes, I know I could watch TV for 6 hours and hear examples. I was hoping for a more compact and easy-to-navigate source without all the distractions (i.e. the show). Thanks for your help!

[matto]

Brock,Sure, you can go to the website of any major music library and listen to some of their tracks. Most have samples of their entire catalog online, although they are usually montages, not the full length cues.Try this link for a nice overview of all kinds of different styles:http://www.megatrax.com/core/cddemo.cfm"Disc 1" is more of a traditional library overview, "Disc 2" has custom work they did.

[brock]

Matto,Thanks for replying. Allow me to clarify my question:I'm looking for a site/resource that allows you to listen to music that has already been used in Film/TV. I have visited many music library websites (including megatrax) and listened to their samples. Presumably, if a library puts a song in their catalogue, they assume it's marketable. I might be wrong, but I'm willing to bet many of those songs never actually get placed. This isn't necessarily because the music is "bad", but just because music supervisors et al are looking for something different. I was hoping to find something that allows me to listen to the music that has been placed as I would like to model my efforts after those songs. Perhaps such a resource doesn't exist (I couldn't find one when I searched).I appreciate your help. I am (mostly) new to the music for TV/Film thing and just want to maximize my efforts with the best resources.P.S. I apologize for not making my question clear in the first post.

[davewalton]

Quote:I'm looking for a site/resource that allows you to listen to music that has already been used in Film/TV. They're called "films" and "television shows". Seriously, a lot of TV shows use their music prominantly. Pick a couple of shows that use music that you'd be likely to submit. For example, "Dog The Bounty Hunter" mostly uses a single, certain identifyable style of music. Shows like "The OC" use a different, yet still identifyable style of music.I don't think there's any "we used this track" websites. You're right in assuming that any track in a quality music library has met the bar for potential placement... duh... it's in the library. Sites with 28 bazillion tracks are less selective so the quality might not be a good representation of what you really want to shoot for. Megatrax was a good suggestion because there's lots of tracks yet still high quality. In addition to Megatrax, if you can hunt down libraries that have smaller catalogs, you'll find that if they're actively placing lots of tracks (their credit list is a mile long), the tracks they do have in their library are exceptional.... "high bar" stuff. Generally those are "I want to be like that" tracks.

[brock]

Dave,Thanks for the reply. I understand that a company wouldn't create a website that specifically states "we used these songs" as there would be no practical value for them to do so. I was hoping for a fan site or something similar. It never fails to amaze me what people will spend time on when it comes to the internet/web sites. Since you brought up the "selective vs non-selective" libraries, do you perhaps have a few examples of the "hi-bar" libraries (we already mentioned megatrax)? I have visited many music library wesbites, but I was surprised to find that many of them don't list their credits (maybe they have none?) and/or are difficult to navigate.Thanks for your time.

[avillaronga]

Quote:I was hoping to find something that allows me to listen to the music that has been placed as I would like to model my efforts after those songs. Perhaps such a resource doesn't exist (I couldn't find one when I searched).Do you have a DVR/Tivo? What I do is, if a listing has specific shows as examples (or specific types of shows), I record a few episodes and then do what the boss suggested: "watch" the shows with your back to the TV. You'd be surprised how many pieces of music get "lost" in the story: you can't hear it if you're paying attention to the TV but it is there. I sometimes try doing something else like reading a book or taking notes to make sure I am not unconsciously paying attention to the dialog. It's not served on a silver platter as in a web site of the kind you were suggesting but I find that the extra work pays off. HTH,Antonio

[guscave]

Most libraries use thier site as a way to advertise themselves to tv and film supervisors, not to songwriters, so it's more productive for them to mention on the site what shows and movies they've worked on rather than what songs they've placed. They could probably do it as a little something extra to throw in, but then you're looking at higher bandwidth cost. Like others have said, your best bet is to record a few shows then listen to the audio only.

[anne]

I went to IMDB.com to look up credits on movies to find the composers, then googled those composers to find thier websites and listen to what they wrote. A long way of doing it, but for me it worked well. I was trying to find the music for HOMICIDE and listen to it alone, as its nearly impossible for me to watch the show and not get sucked into the story itself.

[matto]

Quote:I have visited many music library websites (including megatrax) and listened to their samples. Presumably, if a library puts a song in their catalogue, they assume it's marketable. I might be wrong, but I'm willing to bet many of those songs never actually get placed.Hi Brock, first of all, that's why I pointed you to Megatrax' demo reel. You can be sure that if it's on their demo reel it's either been used multiple times or it's brandnew and they're just about 100% sure it WILL get used.Secondly, you might be surprised by this, but most of the real quality libraries have a pretty good batting average when it comes to placements. Remember these companies usually pay someone to write and produce their cues, and they wouldn't pay for something unless they were reasonably sure it would get used. These are people who have been in this business for decades and have an excellent feel for what gets used and what doesn't.As a result these types of libraries usually don't carry a lot of dead weight, and modelling your writing after their catalog is gonna give you as good a shot at success as modelling it after a bunch of songs that you know have been used.I actually think listening to the catalog on a quality library's website is a lot better than listening to actual tv show or film underscores, as the two are not necessarily identical. It will give you a much better idea of the stylistic breath of the music that libraries are looking for.Hope this makes sense...matto

[brock]

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my posts. I appreciate your assistance. Matto: I think that the songs that I heard that sounded like "dead weight" to me were probably not from the most selective libraries. I listened to the megatrax reel and everything on it was very high quality. I will try to model myself after the "hi-bar" libraries in the future.Anne: Thanks for your suggestion about IMDB.com. Ill give that a try.