A game-changing new venture is reinventing the original music composition model for agencies, brands and composers.
Revolutionising the original music model for agencies, brands and composers alike, expat Englishman Matt Hayward has devised an online service that connects award-winning screen composers with creative agencies and brands around the world, simplifying the scoring and licensing process.
Streamlining the entire process of scoring original music, AdMusic invites agencies to submit musical briefs online before opening them up to the service’s roster of professional screen composers around the world.
From there, AdMusic guarantees to deliver a minimum of three free demos, although on average they will supply agencies with eight to 12, all with a choice of three simple worldwide licences.
“The industry has changed radically over the past five years, and shrinking budgets have determined to a large degree the way we now do business,” Hayward said.
“With multiple award-winning screen composers at our fingertips who are happy to pitch for work, and agencies and their clients looking to have original music scored on tighter budgets, we’ve simply moved the business online, and in doing so, have removed two of the primary overheads associated with running a traditional music company, namely real estate and full-time support staff.
“This in turn has allowed us to eliminate the main barrier to having original music scored on a tight budget, which is cost.”
For agencies and brands, the entire process has been boiled down to a simple three-step process. Firstly, agencies are invited to upload their brief online before it’s delivered to AdMusic’s handpicked team of professional screen composers.
AdMusic will then deliver a minimum of three free demos from its composers within 48 hours. There’s no obligation to use or license any of the demos, but if one is selected, the agency then picks from three simple licenses before, if required, revising and finalising the track.
Each license includes the costs of the required revisions and guarantees worldwide usage, with full usage of the original score in perpetuity costing as little as $12,000.
| Price (A$) | Type | Length |
| $3,000 | Online Only | 12 months |
| $6,000 | Any Media | 12 months |
| $12,000 | All Media Plus | Perpetuity |
Hayward and his team have created a platform that makes it possible for brands and agencies to own an original composition but on a budget that’s competitive to a library track.
“In recent years, brands have been spending less on big brand TVCs and increasingly more on multiple content productions with much smaller budgets, usually for use across multiple channels,” he said.
“Just because your music budget is tight, it doesn’t mean you should have to settle for library music. In our opinion, scored music raises the creative bar 99 per cent of the time on projects where music is required.”
Instead of syncing a library track, agencies can now have exclusive use of an original composition for worldwide usage for 12 months, or forever in the case of AdMusic’s All Media Plus licence, with no rollovers, no repeat fees and no ongoing administration costs.
For the composers on AdMusic’s roster, there’s no obligation to respond to any brief. They’re able to remain entirely anonymous, allowing them to continue working their day job or, in the case of many freelancers, continue to market their own brand whilst pitching for AdMusic briefs – earning 60 per cent of the fee and retaining 100 per cent of the publishing.
Whether it’s for the agency, the brand, or the composer, the demand for a more convenient and affordable process – with a more equitable payment structure for composers – is the disruptive service’s long-term goal.
“This is a new model and accordingly we expect that it’ll pivot over the course of the next couple of years as the industry continues to morph and as we receive feedback from both agencies and composers alike,” Hayward said.
“However, what will never change is our core belief that original music composition, or rather the craft of scoring music to picture, is an essential element in bringing any film that requires music to life, no matter what the format.”
