Advertising Agency Jingles Music
By: Barry Volk
I can only speak from experience. I am finding that more and more advertising agencies are utilizing the magic of jingles and music to brand their clients products and businesses.
A classic example of a jingle that launched a successful long term campaign worldwide in the public consciousness was created by my teacher at UCLA and Academy Award winning songwriter Al Kasha.
In 1972, after reading about one of the worst airline crash disasters in history, Al wrote "Fly the Friendly Skies of United" and approached the beleagured airline with a positioning statement and catchy melody that would position United Airlines as the leader in security and air safety for nearly thirty years. Even when they dropped the music, they continued with the positioning statement "The Friendly Skies". It was, and remains a clear cut stroke of Branding genius.
Another very popular agency tactic in recent years is to secure the rights to popular songs and utilize the familiarity factor to generate correlation and familiarity with the product.
The cost to secure broadcast rights can vary. I have heard of rights for single market broadcast usage going for as little as $4000 and as much as $40,000 and up... These rights are negotiated with publishers as copyright owners. The agency will then hire someone like me to record a version of the song as a "sound-alike" or to give it an original twist.
Securing the rights to a song does not grant the user the rights to the recorded work. If you are interested to getting the rights to a recording performed by an specific artist, you need to negotiate with the publisher AND the record label. Two seperate negotiations and a very expensive proposition. It can become even more than two negotiations when you have a song that was written by three or four co-writers. I am working with an agency who was trying to secure the rights to the song "What a Wonderful World" and had to deal with three publishing companies before they could secure the rights to usage.
Some music is just flat out not for sale. In those cases I am finding more and more agencies asking me to create sound-alike music and songs... This is where I have to be careful.
To create a sound-alike song I have to re-write the melody and music so that it doesn't infringe on the original creation and yet it needs to retain the elements of the original that generates the same feeling and creates a sense of recall to the original. The following link: http://soundad.com/audio/MrGarageDoor/Mr%20Garage%20Door%20Smash.mp3
...will take you to an example of a sound-alike jingle I wrote & produced for Mr Garage Door that incorporated elements of the group Smashmouth without infringing on any of their copyrights.
Mr Garage Door also commissioned me to write & produce a blues jingle that they are currently using that has the feel of: a little bit Bonnie Raitt, a little bit Bonnie Tyler with a sprinkle Stevie Ray Vaughn guitar thrown in for good measure: http://soundad.com/audio/MrGarageDoor/MrGarageBlues/MrGarageV2Mix1(m).mp3
So I can tell you with certainty that music is thriving in the business of advertising. As my good friend, co-writer and talented singer/songwriter Harold Payne says in his soon to be classic song Music Speaks:
"Music Speaks louder than words
It's the only thing that the whole world listens to
Music speaks louder than words
When you sing, people understand" c2006
Barry Volk is a former producer/staff songwriter for ABC, MCA & Screen Gems-EMI Music Publishing, a 20th Century Fox solo recording artist, Musical Director for the West Coast Theater Company and National Director of Marketing for Metro Networks/Westwood One. His music production company, Barry Volk's Sound Advantage http://www.soundad.com creates and produces jingles and custom music and comedy spots for radio and TV advertisers worldwide from small market to national in scope.