Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Weather Channel tunes out ‘elevator music’

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting the Weather Channel has opted to stop playing smooth jazz-type music during local forecast segments.

The music, which was apparently popular enough to warrant a CD release of a sampling of the tunes, will replaced with soft rock.

“I think we’ve been doing an injustice to our viewers playing, for the lack of a better word, elevator music on the segments for all these years,” Geoffrey Darby, the cable network’s new executive vice president of programming, told the AJC.

The Idolator blog, meanwhile, has list, complete with sample tracks, of the June 2009 lineup.

Darby also mentioned the new tunes won’t be thematically intrusive. So don’t expect the Doors’ “Riders on the Storm” with the next tornado alert, says the AJC.

MSNBC debuts new music with new HD look

Along with its new HD look, msnbc has also rolled out new music. Unlike CNN, MSNBC has never had a memorable musical signature. MSNBC’s last dayside theme was developed in-house by a MSNBC staffer and a guitar. The theme worked well with its graphics package, but did not convey the urgency of the news and always had the same beat.

Today, MSNBC debuted an updated music brand with the new theme heard above. At times the music sounds almost like a piece of Videohelper production music, and it very well could be since MSNBC uses much of the VH library during its programming, but at times it also sounds like a custom piece developed specifically for them. We hope to find official word on who composed it along with an extended sample.

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Congrats to 615 Music

Congrats to 615 Music on 3 Daytime Emmy Award nominations in the category of “Outstanding Original Song, Main Title and Promo” for:

“Why I Love Today” for Today Show on NBC
“There’s More Today, Everyday” for Today Show on NBC
“Be There” for NASCAR on Speed TV

The awards will be handed out this August in Los Angeles, for more information and sound clips view 615’s latest newsletter.

‘Face the Nation’ following on heels of ‘Evening News’ graphics

The New York Post is reporting that CBS’s Sunday morning political show “Face the Nation” will be debuting new graphics on this Sunday’s show. Also coming will be a new version of the show theme music.

Springfield, Mo. station gets makeover

Mission Broadcasting’s KOLR-TV, part of a Nexstar shared service aggreement with Fox affiliate KSFX-TV, debuted a new set, graphics, music and voiceover talent yesterday.

The station’s site has the details, as well as a promotional video (though as of this morning, an ugly watermark appears over the picture making it hard to make out what the new look is like.

Killer Tracks turns 20

This NAB, Killer Tracks, the production music power house, celebrated its 20th anniversary.

Killer Tracks would like to thank “our clients, composers, partners & supporters” for sticking with them for the past 20 years and through the next.

Megatrax launches AirCast Production

Megatrax has recently launched a new division for custom music and scoring called Aircast Music. The company creates custom scores, custom image campaigns, program theme packages, news music and ringtones.

“Aircast is a music and media production company that specializes in custom scoring, imaging and theme packages.”

As part of the company, Aircast Production has acquired the news music packages composed by In The Groove Music, including: Heart Of Our City, Hometown Community and Pride Collection.

“Aircast Production does one thing very well - it helps you get your point across. Whether it moves in the background underneath a voiceover, its front and center for a theme or transitioning from one song to anther on the radio, it does its job.”

For more information and samples visit Aircast Production.

Killer Tracks launches Vitamin A in U.S. market.

Killer Tracks has rolled out a new Australian based music library entitled Vitamin A, complete with 6 CDs of radio-friendly commercial vocal tracks with edits and instrumentals.

The tracks include male vocal rock anthems, simple drama grooves, sassy female rock, peaceful guitar atmospheres and Latin-vibe rock. The majority of tracks include vocals and an alternate underscore version with no vocals. The library also includes standard breakdowns.

Overall, the music sounds nice from the demo NewscastStudio was provided. We had the chance to samples 10 full songs which ranged in styles. Out of the 10 we had a change to sample, “Take it to the Limit” was our favorite and would work well any most commercials and promos. It could even work as a news promo campaign.

For more information on Vitamin A and Killer Tracks visit killertracks.com

5 Alarm Music to launch Sonicfire Pro 5 at NAB

5 Alarm Music announced today that they will introduce Sonicfire Pro 5 as part of their NAB 2009 presence.

“A landmark innovation in music customization, Sonicfire Pro 5 is an easy to use program that allows film and video producers to marry tracks from 5 Alarm’s First Degree Music Library, the first library enabled with the technology, with their content - whether audio, visual or web.  The exclusive needledrop distributor of Sonicfire Pro 5, 5 Alarm music will be hosting demonstrations of the program and giving away free software throughout the 2009 NAB Show at booth #SL9105 in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Sonicfire Pro 5 enables users to seamlessly edit the timing of any track and fully customize the tempo, mood and even arrangement of any piece of music.  With key features including music timing controls, Mood Mapping® and Sensory Searching™ tools, the program is the most comprehensive music scoring software available.  Producers just click on a beat and drag it to a point in their content, and the software automatically adjusts so the length of the score is not compromised. In addition, users can tweak the tempo of the track to fit the scene. The combination of 5 Alarm’s world class library and Sonicfire Pro’s supreme software saves time and money, providing studio-quality results and enabling producers of all budgets to have professional sound in a few simple clicks.”

For more information about 5 Alarm Music, visit their web site.

Non-Stop to unveil ‘Frequency News’ at RTNDA@NAB

Non-Stop Music will be unveiling its newest syndicated news music package “Frequency News” at RTNDA@NAB. The package contains a new five-note logo and includes NewsTools. NewsTools allow stations to mix the package to their needs and create their own sound.

This package will bring Non-Stop’s offerings to 15 syndicated news music packages. Stay with NewscastStudio for complete coverage of the 2009 NAB Show including RTNDA@NAB.

615 composes new Web site

615 Music, the Nashville-based news and production music company, has unveiled a new Web site completed with a new branding direction.

The new site’s design is based around their new image of music composers and figures, featuring a bold picture of a score conductor on the homepage from their Score Stage Series. The site retained most of the same content as their old site, with some tweaking still to be done. It appears some old information was reverted to, as some packages are now labeled their previous names.

The site also has more original music samples including over 75 samples of various works from trailer scoring Today show music.

Check out the new site and see if 615 Music is right for you at www.615Music.com

‘4 New York’ updates news image campaign with fresh visuals

WNBC-TV in New York has revived their “We’re 4 New York” brand and along with that have this new image campaign.

The campaign features unique camera angles, wide shots, lots of news action and a catchy theme. Continue reading to see the former version.

Update: This is the news branding, the new “We’re 4 New York” image will roll out in spring.

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