Post Magazine

K nown for the quality of their catalogs, music and sound libraries today are giving custom tracks a run for their money.They are expanding with more "authentic" music, real songs by singer/songwriters with a following, and collections tailored to promos and films. As these libraries grow and migrate their offerings online, they're developing more sophisticated search engines for fast, efficient, refined Web searches with more usable results. B U R N , O M N I - F X Por t Washington, NY-based Omnimusic (www.omnimusic.com) is busy adding a contemporary dance, hip-hop and rock collection, which will probably be marketed under the name Burn, to its youth library.The new tracks will "not be a corporate version" of these genres, says founder/creative director Doug Wood. "It used to be a company that wanted hip-hop music didn't want real hip-hop music but a 'safe' interpretation of that style. Now sensibilities have changed, and [customers] can afford to be more aggressive and cutting edge. They're not trying to homogenize hip-hop for their listeners." The addition of true hip-hop brings to Omnimusic a new coterie of com- posers who haven't written for libraries before, he notes. "A lot more com- posers will be getting exposure." The Burn collection will likely release with 12 CDs; several will be added an- nually.The music will also be available online. It will feature two- to three-minute tracks with versions featuring different lengths and instruments, a "pretty stan- dard practice" these days, according to Wood. "Many times people want the minimal mix.The point is to make it work for them." Omnimusic is also working on a song library, available online only, which it hopes to debut by NAB. "It's not a new idea," Wood concedes. "I thought song libraries might be a fad but they've only gotten stronger. A lot of corporate and smaller video productions tend to follow network trends where songs are featured as par t of a program's story." All words in a song's lyrics will be data- base searchable. Omnimusic has added youth and song libraries at the request of clients, he points out. "We always listen to customer feedback. Some may only have one li- brary, so it's a heavy responsibility to make sure they have what they need." The company's Omni-FX sound effects librar y is growing by three more CDs, too. "Most are real-world effects, including high-tech sounds that would be hard to find," says Wood. Omnimusic was quick to recognize that the Web represented "a very pop- ular way for clients to get their hands on librar y music," he recalls. Today, ever ything in the librar y is available for download as high-quality MP3s or .WAV files, which are "packed with metadata for better management and or- ganization of tracks." Wood says the company strives to "describe the music in ways people under- stand," since musicians and producers speak different languages.Tracks are classi- fied so users can find what they want quickly with the Website's search engine. When a search category gets too big, triage is performed to select the best pieces for audition. "It's wor thless to do a search and get a thousand results back," notes Wood, especially if a customer is looking for tracks just minutes be- fore their client is due. "You don't want to overwhelm them with choice but offer just enough of what they need." To help refine searches, Omnimusic offers a system that classifies tracks nu- merically with six being "in-your-face, very aggressive" and one being "practically asleep," he says. "Clients have found it to be very useful.They can quickly refine a search by saying, 'Just show me the sixes.'" Wood, who has founded the group Grassroots Environmental Education with his wife, is glad to see online music gaining popularity so the environmental impact of CDs can be reduced and eventually eliminated. "As soon as possible we expect to phase out CDs," he says. "It can't happen soon enough." DA R K F LY, R OA D S I D E C O U C H & M O R E In Dallas, FirstCom Music (www.firstcom.com) released the first installment in its Dark Fly promotional library last year.The second collection of 250 titles was due out at press time "We've had a very good response to Dark Fly," repor ts senior VP/executive producer Ken Nelson. "A lot of broadcast clients and clients working for broad- cast entities and the Internet found it easy to use and said it created the specific moods they needed. It's especially useful to promo producers because each track is about one minute long and made up of several sections so editors can easily take segments out of the front of the track to do :05, :10, :15 or :30 promos." The library's promo styles include personal profiles, investigative repor ting, spor ts, news and action. Last year FirstCom released Volume 3 of its Roadside Couch Records collection, which is positioned like a record label. It features well-known LA singer/songwriter Nadia Fay, who has done a lot of commer- cial work, says Nelson. "Roadside Couch features songs by singer/songwriters and independent writers which we have the rights to for film, TV and post production. This isn't music created for the library but for real artists, so now when projects call for an authentic song with lyrics or a cer tain lyric line, clients have a really good source." Nadia Fay's CD has already been used in Europe for a high-profile Fiat spot and on Dancing with the Stars. FirstCom recently added expanded its Evo instrumental production library, which is a favorite for spots. DJ Producer features ver y contemporar y R&B while Wall of Guitars has a rock/indie rock sound. The company plans to increase its collection of orchestral scores this year and will record an orchestral collection geared for documentary producers in Europe. It is also looking to add a Latin catalog. FirstCom developed a proprietary search engine before launching its Web- site early in the 1990s and sought ways to make audio manageable over dial-up and ISDN lines. Now its Website has close to 186,000 downloadable tracks, in- cluding versions and mix outs. New to the Website is QuickTrax, which the company has been providing with its traditional audio CDs. It takes the stereo music master and divides it into www.postmagazine.com March 2009 • Post 37 FirstCom's Roadside Couch collection features LA-based singer/songwriter Nadia Fay.

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