Production Music - Introduction

Introduction

Unlike popular and classical music publishers, who typically own less than 50 percent of the copyright in a composition, production music libraries own all of the copyrights of their music. Thus, it can be licensed without the composer's permission, as is necessary in licensing music from normal publishers. This is because virtually all music created for music libraries is done on a work for hire basis. Production music is a convenient solution for media producers—they can be assured that they will be able to license any piece of music in the library at a reasonable rate, whereas a specially-commissioned work could be prohibitively expensive. Similarly, licensing a well-known piece of popular music could cost anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, depending on the prominence of the performer(s).

Production music libraries typically offer a broad range of musical styles and genres, enabling producers and editors to find what they need in the same library. Music libraries vary in size from a few hundred tracks up to many thousands. The first production music library was set up by De Wolfe Music in 1927 with the advent of sound in film. The company originally scored music for use in silent film.

Library music is frequently used as theme and/or background music in radio, film and television. Well-known examples of British TV series whose themes were sourced from library catalogues include Ski Sunday ("Pop Looks Bach" by Sam Fonteyn), Dave Allen At Large ("Studio 69" by Alan Hawkshaw), Mastermind ("Approaching Menace" by Neil Richardson), the original theme for the BBC's Grandstand ("News Scoop" by Len Stevens), Crimewatch ("Rescue Helicopter" by John Cameron) and Grange Hill ("Chicken Man" by Alan Hawkshaw). Arthur Wood's "Barwick Green", written in 1924, still serves as the theme for long-running BBC Radio soap The Archers. TV comedy series such as The Benny Hill Show and Monty Python's Flying Circus also made extensive use of production library cues (many sourced from the De Wolfe catalogue) as background or incidental music.

American TV has also utilized British library music, most notably with the themes for Monday Night Football ("Heavy Action" by Johnny Pearson) and The People's Court ("The Big One" by Alan Tew). Another notable example is the Nickelodeon animated series The Ren and Stimpy Show, which used both well-known classical music excerpts and a wide range of pre-1960s production music cues—including many pieces familiar from their use in earlier cartoons—which were chosen for their ironic and humorous effect.

Library music composers and session performers typically work anonymously and have rarely become known outside their professional circle. In recent years some veteran composer-performers in this field such as Alan Hawkshaw, John Cameron and Keith Mansfield have achieved cult status as a result of a new interest in production music of the 1960s and 1970s, notably the 'beat' and electronica cues recorded for KPM and other labels, which have been widely sampled by DJs and record producers. In recent years some of these British musicians have given public performances of their classic compositions under the group name KPM Allstars.