Industry Insights: How production music licensing is changing

How does the increase in purpose created content for social platforms change production music?

“Until very recently, you heard music for trailers/commercials/promos come out of a speaker on your TV. It was supposed to keep you from ignoring the message while you went to the bathroom, checked on dinner, whatever. Now, people are watching content on a device or computer, and often on headphones, which is physically a very different environment. You don’t necessarily need – or want – blasting sounds to hook people immediately,” said Koch.

“With the increase in social media licenses, requests are growing for shorter cuts and edit points, sometimes even as short as 7 or 8 seconds,” noted Hall.

“Everything has the potential to change production music; whatever is trending musically, the message of the project, the targeted audience. Social media is a powerful platform capable of reaching the masses, and in most cases the younger demos, that were formally dominated by traditional broadcasters,” said Agent.

“It highlights the need for all production music catalogs to stay on top of the current music trends, and, if anything, makes the case even stronger for the one-stop licensing that production music provides,” said Arnold. “The pace in which content is now created – and social media is a perfect example of this – means that music needs to be quickly searchable and easily licensable.”

“Social platforms, and the content created for them, are just a new and additional use of music in the marketplace, and therefore a potential new and additional source of revenue. The reach of web productions is potentially much greater than traditional broadcast,” added Agent.

“As more and more content and advertising is created for social media platforms, the need for easy-to-clear, affordable production music will only increase,” said Mendelsohn.