Sourcing Music Ethically Brings Integrity to Your Brand
Integrity, morality, and ethics can be difficult to define whether you are an individual or a company. People know when something goes against their personal idea of what is right and wrong, but being able to categorically define it can be quite challenging. And it doesn’t just apply to big business anymore. It’s particularly relevant in the music industry, namely where sourcing music is concerned.
How Music is Used in Advertising and Brand Integration
Advertising uses music as a powerful force to help guide the emotional response of the consumer to a product. A radio music bed or a powerful stinger can help cement an ad in a potential customer’s mind. However, the music used in an advertisement is often one of the last considerations in promotional development. As a result, decisions about background music are frequently done without much thought, and often on an abbreviated timetable. Thus, decision makers do not always take the time to make ethical considerations about music sourcing.
Every piece of music in every ad, song, radio bed, or movie soundtrack was composed and recorded by musicians. They put a lot of time and effort into their craft. However, because of the expedited timelines for advertising music and a lack of proper budgeting, many new companies are cutting corners with their music. The lack of consideration toward the artists responsible for a track is an unethical practice.
What Sources for Music are Available
Taking the time to consider the music that will accompany your brand is the first step towards ethical music sourcing. Consider whether you want to use something popular, something classical, or something custom-built by a professional production music company. Pop music can be expensive and frequently takes more time to acquire the rights of use. Classical music can be recognizable and tends to have a very specific demographic and use. Production music is a faster, less expensive option which offers more choices, but will not have the same recognition.
If you model your advertising around a specific popular music track, there are still ways to ethically source your music without the added expenses and time needed to acquire music licensing from a major music corporation. Consider using that pop music song as a reference track, then using the catalogues from a production music provider like us to find a song that matches the theme, tone, and energy of the song. Using our production music, we can sidestep a lot of the hassles and legal issues associated with using other sources.
The Pitfalls of Non-Ethically Sourced Music
Time constraints and the expense of production music means that it is easy to cut corners and simply use a song from a royalty-free music site, or include a pop music song without proper licensing. In the short-term, these solutions might seem reasonable. But there are serious ethical and legal issues with improperly sourced tracks.
Creative commons and royalty-free services are quick and inexpensive ways to get music. However, that music comes with some serious caveats. The production quality is often poor, the libraries are sparse, and the best music from the libraries is often overplayed. The lack of cost for the tracks reflects the lack of reimbursement for the artists who created the songs as well. Because of the thin margins on stock music, any independent musician involved in the creation of the music is often poorly remunerated.
Ethically Sourced Production Music
Production music companies like us are committed to fair remuneration of music artists for their work. As a result, the music quality is higher, the production values are better, and there is a greater variety of genres and styles represented in their libraries. We are committed to supporting young artists and creatives, giving them an opportunity to earn income for their compositions while they work to perfect their craft and become established artists on their own. Using Level 77 Music for your brand promotion comes with the knowledge that you have selected music with integrity, and that you are supporting musicians and composers.