Media Music Blog

An infomercial is an advert that is longer in length than the usual 30-second advert you see on TV. The length of an infomercial is in minutes rather than seconds and can be the length of a programme.

The point of an infomercial is to educate the viewer whilst having a strong bias on advertising / selling a product or service. A great example can be found on shopping channels such as QVC.

Music and voice-overs can be used to enhance an infomercial.

High quality royalty free music can be suitable for an infomercial, however, if a brand message needs to be communicated or if you require exclusive use of original music, you may wish to hire a composer to write a custom piece.

Voice-over, high quality royalty free music & custom written music is all available on Media Music Now

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At 20:30, 26^th May 2008 the Composer Directory officially went live and opened its virtual doors.

The Composer directory is a fresh approach to the conventional style of an online directory. You will not find huge lists of composers in alphabetical order. The Composer Directory, hosted on Media Music Now is concise and limited in numbers. Currently we have 42 registered members, 27 already on the site, and I see no reason to over crowd the listing. The directory is a good mix of different types of composers and producers ranging from hip hop to classical to orchestral. We will only source new members if we experience a shortage in a particular genre or skill.

We aim to make our money by adding a modest project management fee to each project. For this, we will add maximum value by helping every step of the way from initial enquiries to creating a brief, through to the production schedule, dealing with payment through our ecommerce system and delivering master recordings with the necessary licensing.

For the client, we will be a secure, professional and reliable way to source top class composers and producers. For the composer, the directory will be quite exclusive due to the limited number of members and intends to provide a steady flow of enquires and commissions.

As an addition to our current business model of high quality royalty free music, voice over and audio editing service, the custom music element to Media Music Now adds an exciting new dimension and endless possibilities for the future.

To view the Composer Directory click here >

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The Composer Directory already contains some amazing talent; however, when the directory goes live, we plan to create a promotional audio demo in the style of a film trailer. I will be personally doing the editing & production on this and hope to create a fast-paced demo encompassing as many of the great demo tracks that we have on our composer directory profiles.

There will be a film trailer style narration throughout the demo from a professional voice-over and the trailer demo will be published on the main directory page to demonstrate the skills and talent of the composers. It will also serve as a great promotional demo for sending to companies and potential clients. I will try to incorporate a snippet of each composer’s work into the demo. It is going to be freakin’ cool!

I am going to wait until the composer directory is launched before doing this as by then, everybody will be onboard and all the demo tracks will be in. Yes, that is right… no more registrations after launch day! Once the directory is live, it will be rare that new composers are added; the only time this will be considered is if we have a shortage in a particular genre. If you are on the fence, thinking you will wait until it is launched to see what it is like or you may join if it is good, then the unfortunate news is… come launch date, 26th May 2008, only a week from this Monday, it’s too late! You need to join the Composer Directory before the launch date, otherwise you will miss out.

The range of talent that we have onboard so far is excellent, from hip-hop to orchestral and loads in between. I am looking forward to the directory going live so that we can get started on the demo! Yippeee!

P.S. There are still places, click here to register.

P.P.S. Don’t forget…from the 26th May 2008, there will be no registrations and no more places.

Here are links to all composer directory information to date.

http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/blog/2008/03/27/information-about-joining-the-composer-directory/

http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/blog/2008/03/28/the-composer-directory-is-in-development-let-me-show-you/

http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/blog/2008/05/03/this-is-an-update-for-you-about-the-composer-directory/

http://www.mediamusicnow.co.uk/blog/2008/05/13/bbc-media-city-inspire-new-composer-music-producer-directory/

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Running a royalty free music business, I have become somewhat of an authority on the subject of music licensing. Although, having said that, this post is not directly about music licensing, it is an observation on the illegal / inconsiderate use of copyrighted material on the web and how you, as an independent composer / producer, band or artist need to protect your assets and your ability to sell your music.

In brief, I strongly believe that you should use an audio watermark on any of your music that you publish to the web. If you don’t, it could well be used without your consent or knowledge, and you could be losing out on valuable licensing fees, which I am sure would contribute to your continued creativity.

There are numerous ways that people can steal your music on the web and once they have it, they are very likely to spread it on peer-to-peer or social network sites as free to use music. These people may not even understand that you spent many hours composing and producing this music and that you earn an income from it. Other people may understand but have no respect for it. I have experienced this first hand too many times!

An un-watermarked track is easy bait to a thief so protect yourself against it. Not only are there a number ways of recording music from a web browser, there are many scraper sites out there that find mp3s on other people’s websites and use it on their own.

To negate the possibility of this, you can take the very simple measure of getting a voice-over to record a professional sound file as a watermark that you can mix into your music track.

All you need is a couple of lines… something like “This audio is copyright… for more information please contact www.MyWebsite.com”. You can include your own name, band name, company name, telephone number, whatever you like really.

Once you have this sound file, simply use your audio editing software to create a protection track. This is just a silent track with your voiceover sound file repeated every 10 seconds or so. You can then mix it into your music track(s) that you are planning to publish to the web and create a watermarked version. People can now download and share this as much as they like, it will be clear that the track is copyright and the cherished property of a talented artist / producer.

If they really want to use your music without the watermark, they won’t mind contacting you and paying an appropriate fee. And if they use it with the watermark, just see it as free advertising.

You may be thinking that you can’t afford a voice-over and editing software. Well, there is an open source editing software that is free, called Audacity, for mixing your protection track and music and as for a voiceover, my colleague, Anthony Richardson, a talented UK voice-over, can record you a simple two-line sound file for just £12GBP+vat when you mention this blog post or my name, Lee Pritchard.

“A very small price to pay for peace of mind.”

Anthony’s site is www.overvoice.co.uk

Get Audacity Here >

Click here to see a previous post about Audacity

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PRESS RELEASE

From: Media Music Now
Contact: Lee Pritchard
Tel: +44 (0)845 652 2173
www.mediamusicnow.co.uk

*** For Immediate Release ***

MANCHESTER, UK, 13th May 2008

Media Music Now is about to launch a new service aimed at TV, Film and Digital Media professionals. The new service, known as ‘The Composer Directory’, is a select group of trusted music composers and producers available to be commissioned for custom music projects. The online service is set to open its virtual doors on 26th May 2008 and was inspired by the news of BBC departments heading to Media City, Salford Quays.

With the news of many BBC departments heading for Manchester, Lee Pritchard, a local entrepreneur and founder of Media Music Now, decided that it was the right time to integrate a Composer Directory into their already established music services business.

The directory is purposely designed to comprise of a select number of trusted composers. To maintain the quality and service, all composers are auditioned before inclusion and production projects will be managed by Media Music Now.

“Although the Composer Directory service will be available globally via the web, having a physical base in the city of Manchester makes the prospect of networking exciting, especially with Manchester set to become the home of the BBC in the North. Although still being built, Media City promises to be an excellent venue for media companies and I plan on Media Music Now having a strong presence at Media City.” explains Lee Pritchard.

In a digital online world where there is an abundance of fragmented choice, ‘The Composer Directory’ promises to offer a refined selection of composers & music producers in a variety of genres with a focus on quality & service. Already trading online since 2005, Media Music Now offers high quality Royalty Free Music, Audio Editing Services, a Directory of Voice-over artists and coming soon, ‘The Composer Directory’.

Companies interested in chatting about any aspect of the imminent directory are encouraged to contact Lee Pritchard through the Media Music Now website www.mediamusicnow.co.uk

At this time, there are a few composer places left, for details go to www.mediamusicnow.co.uk and navigate to the Composer Directory.

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