Music libraries reflect the zeitgeist of the larger music culture ‘ technology has made them prolific as well as proficient, easily distributable, protean, and increasingly niche-oriented. In short, it’s not your father’s music library anymore, and how they’re made and used underscores this shift.

Executives at some of the dozen or so largest libraries estimate that there are literally hundreds of music library producers and aggregators out there, most fueled by the accessibility of digital audio systems. That’s not to mention thousands of independent bands and recording artists who have noticed the increased use of “unsigned” music on television and have sensed that the world of needle drops might be a good alternative market to a mainstream record industry that continues to ignore most of them. Some libraries now “spice” tracks with But-I’m-Big-in-Japan classic rock names; London-based library producer Extreme Music has released tracks with Dweezil Zappa and Dave Stewart, and once ran an “Extreme Idol” contest seeking new talent for music libraries.

Music supervisors have been inundated with music, and some assert that much of it has been made in a creative vacuum in which projects’ needs and composers’ ambitions rarely intersect. Music library executives have noticed. “The market has reached a saturation point in terms of music,” comments Richard Manfredi, director of media relations at library developer and marketer SmartSound. He and other library managers encourage feedback from end users, particularly as pop tastes morph more quickly. “Tastes can swing from hip-hop to Handel in the blink of an eye,” says Randy Thornton, president of NonStop Music.

There are more libraries and library music than ever before, and sound editors and designers are putting it all to good use. Frank Serafine, known for his sound design and editing work on The Hunt For Red October, Star Trek and Tron (Tron 2 is underway), has become fond of using library music as an effect in sound design. For a recent Disney audio logo, he pulled an orchestral drop from a Vienna Music Library disc and combined it with an effected cymbal that he ran through a ring-modulation plug-in on his Logic digital audio software.

“The sound we were going for was a laser cutting through something followed by a spray of pixie dust,” he explains. “Instead of creating a synthesized orchestral track, I used a library track, which does two things: it cuts down on the amount of time needed to create the sound design, and it provides a very organic-sounding counterpoint to the effected cymbal, so it’s not all sounding like one big sound effect.”

Serafine points out that the proliferation of library music has created a massive pool from which to pick. “And the quality of it keeps going up,” he says, noting that the pool is swelled further when scoring composers ‘ himself included ‘ bring unused or outtake music to sound libraries to rep along with their own creations. “This is something all the major scoring composers are doing, especially now that they have their own recording studios,” he says. “So there’s so much great music out there to use.”
Serafine adds that he also uses more individual sound elements from music and virtual instrument libraries, such as East West, to layer over artificial sound effects. “We did this ‘Comic Sonic’ sound catalog and I would use less-common instruments to create sounds, such as marimbas for cartoonish blinking eyes,” he explains.

The idea is catching on. “Over the past few years I’ve have been using ‘elements’ CDs to not only accent existing music but also to create new unique music beds ‘ it’s not unlikely to see a trailer that consists entirely of sound design elements,” says Angel Mendoza, sound supervisor at Buddha Jones Trailers. But searching through this huge and expanding pool of music takes work. While companies like mSoft provide management tools, sound editors still create their own filing systems. “Digital files are definitely my preferred way to go with library music,” Mendoza says. “When it’s encoded with the proper metadata, searches are made much simpler, using programs like iTunes and Soundminer. Sound design has become a very popular realm for libraries.”

Julia Trainor, music supervisor at Craig Murray Productions, says her department’s workflow is at an interesting point, with some editors avidly using digital management resources on the Web or on hard drives, while others prefer to be hands-on with CDs, using descriptors on the jewel case spines as their guides. “We’re trying to ease everyone into an all-digital workflow for the future,” she says.

Trainor says auditioning the slew of new libraries on the market can be arduous, but it has its rewards. She’s particularly fond of some of the more cutting-edge work available, such as the 300 Years Later disc compiled by DJ BT and programmer Nick Phoenix (http://www.300yearslater.com). They’ve released two CDs and a DVD ‘ which features tracks in 24-bit/44.1-kHz definition ‘ and Trainor says such unconventional needle drops help promos, bumpers and trailers stand out from the crowd. “I can’t stop putting that CD into my editors’ hands,” she says.

The proliferation of niche categories in library music – SmartSound is about to release a disc of generic hymns to feed what their spokesman calls “a niche market, but a huge niche” – suggests that there are slots in post-production that have been underserved by conventional libraries. Trainor feels that way when it comes to the bouncy, light tracks she needs for the extensive work the company does for Disney. “There’s more music out there now, but a lot of it tends to be electronic-based, which is not the lightest music in the world,” she declaims. “I’d like to see more of the Fatboy Slim type of tracks out there. Fun music. I think it gets overlooked.”

Lean tracks get a workout at Fox’s On-Air Promotions division, which creates promos for most of the Fox network’s prime-time line-up, including Prison Break, The Simpsons, Cops and Bones. The use of library music is driven as much by budget matters as anything else, says Steve Celi, a Fox music supervisor. However, that doesn’t preclude techniques from the consumer world, such as mash-ups. “Sometimes we’ll take a basic track from one library and layer it with a cue from another,” he explains. “For American Idol promos, we might take a piece of a library cue and use it as a ramp into an a capella sung by a contestant, then use it again as an outro to the spot. It creates an interesting contrast.”
Mamie Coleman, director of music production at Fox, says library music fits budgets far better then licensed tracks these days. “We typically pay $7,000 to $10,000 per week for a popular song versus library music, which costs less ‘ approximately $400 per needledrop, so you do the math,” she says.

Finally, library music could be a sociologist’s dream tools, a barometer of the culture. Coleman says the demand for hip-hop tracks has soared ‘ Fox recently used Jay Z and Talib Kweli for several drama promos – yet the libraries seem to be behind the curve. “A lot of the rap artists are using samples in their songs. which can be very expensive and time-consuming with clearances when clearing for multiple campaigns,” she explains. “We've had to create major campaigns with this type of sound in order to bring that type of audience to watch our network TV shows. So some of the music libraries are now hiring top music producers to create hip-hop library music for them.”

The music business might be hurting, but the music-library business is on a roll.