Music

Music can make an advert what it is, adding a certain amount of creative depth that can help it become memorable and help it to be retained in the minds of its listeners. Music can be chosen depending on the target audience, with the varying factors including age, gender, interests and location.

There are laws in place that limit the extent to which music can be used. Nearly all music will be copyrighted, meaning someone cannot use it unless they obtain the necessary rights. This will mean buying the song for use from the artist/record company for a pre-determined length of time in which to use it. Some music may not be available for purchase, as the context in which it is being used or what product for may result in the artist/ record company refusing permission. Other music may be very old and therefore in the public domain, which means it would be free to use. Radio stations may already have a licence to play a certain song, but they would have to get a new license to be able to use if for commercial advertisement purposes.

A company can buy a license fee from the PRS (performing rights society) which gives the holder unlimited access to their members production music. A license fee also enables the holder to appoint a third party producer for their radio adverts. By holding a license fee, the PRS or a production company will not be required to be contacted to clear its use. The music will then be sent by the PRS to the production company. In companies with enough credit, they may be able to hire singers (perhaps even the original singers) to sing their song live, maybe adapting its lyrics to match the product/service they are selling. An example of this is from one from the loan provider ‘Wonga’. They changed the lyrics of the song ‘Mr Sandman’ to match their services. For example, the lyrics from the original song ‘Mr Sandman, bring me a dream’ were changed to ‘Mr Wonga, lend me some dough’ in the new one.’

A song may be used for an advert if it isn’t too obvious and isn’t entirely recognizable. This may mean using something such as an instrumental or beat. The voice actors may even refer to the song or sing a part of it without the actual music being played. Some radio stations use the ‘7 second rule’, which means that a song can be used in an advert if it played for seven second or less. This is not strictly legal and therefore the radio station would be technically infringing copyright law.

At our college, we have a student radio which has a library of licensed music. This enables us to be free to broadcast around the college without infringing any copyright laws. There is also a catalogue of sound effects, which were given to us by a community radio station. They are not protected by copyright laws, as they are almost always identical to others on the market.

Here is our college radio station’s music library, stored in the computer’s network. We use this for ‘E6 Radio’ broadcasts and for college work such as the creation of adverts and other work related assignments.

Within our college system, we also have a folder of royalty-free production music. These are in the form of radio jingles, which as mentioned earlier were given to us by Salford City radio and as they are just sound effects, they do not infringe any copyright law. These sounds will be used to create jingles, adverts and to be used for different reasons in other work. For example, one may be comically used during the post-production phase of a film shoot.