I used to compose and record music for TV ads back in the nineties. That was when it was fun and the ads were actualy good. Mind you there were only three commercial TV stations back then so the budgets and production values were fabulous. But then along came satellite TV with its 200+ channels and of course the ad agencies had the same budget for the 200+ channels as they did for the three previously. Something had to give, hence the proliferation of ads these days that all sound the same and look cheap and nasty, mainly because they are. I stopped doing TV ads in early 2000 mainly because in the 90s I used to be competing against maybe two other composers for the job but I now found myself competing with ten or twenty other composers. Of course this not only meant that the demo fees all but disappeared (I was often asked to demo for free) but the agencies now had way too many musical ideas which led to too much choice and nobody at the agency willing to make a decision for fear of losing the client. It used to be that clients took the advice of the agency and the composer - after all they were paying for their expertise - but now the client was King and ad agencies were essentially too scared to come up with anything original. The final straw was when I heard one of my demos blatantly ripped off by another composer who was obvioulsy told to "Copy that but not too closely and we'll pay you £500.00 - it's all good for your CV!"I composed and recorded TV ads for Levis, Reebok, Ford, Saab, Mercedes Benz and so on, along with the entire catalogue of ads for SEGA and BMW and many more besides. It was fun, challenging, and lucrative. Now it's like banging your head against the wall. I loved writing to picture and when given a brief I would always compose to that brief but also compose something that I personally thought would work (inspired by the film) and submit that as well. Invariably it was my piece that won the pitch. Try that now and you'd be off at the first hurdle.It's rare to hear inspiring music on TV ads these days, especially since the record companies and publishers found their revenue depleting due to online streaming / piracy. They soon saw a lucrative opening in licencing existing tracks for ads with the added bonus that they didn't have to do anything apart from collect the royalties, Easy money for them but boring TV for us.
Chris Blackwell ● 1743d