The Perils of Premium Beats
Over the past few weeks in isolation I have been documenting how the over saturation of stock music has resulted in certain specific tracks being used in multiple commercial spots. The track in question has been used for multiple financial institutions and food products and within the past year I have actively discouraged clients from using said track. Well, for everyone’s listening enjoyment I have found the track and highlighted it below. The track in question is called ‘Funny Story’ by Haim Mazar and surprise surprise is from the Premium Beat’s catalog. Premium Beats is a low cost music vendor that is one of the most used (or overused ;)) music libraries on the interweb.
Stock music can be a valuable asset for a creative team. Over the past 15 years the quality of stock music has increased dramatically. What use to be associated with elevator music is now of extremely high quality, written and recorded by talented musicians and instrumentalists. It’s not uncommon to find tracks written by grammy winners and notable producers. Haim Mazar is actually a Hollywood based film composer and Berklee music grad. Stock music can be a great resource for audio professionals as well, as it gives us a way to monetize the music archives that we would otherwise be sitting on.
The non-exclusive nature of stock music inevitably leads to unforeseen conflicts. One of the most notable times I noticed an example of this was in the summer of 2017. One night as I binged multiple episodes of Bachelor in Paradise, I noticed that there were two commercials in the same block that had the same music. The first was a commercial for Dare Real Fruit Bars. The spot was one of those first hand experiential commercials that filmed the ‘authentic’ reactions to people trying their product. The spot is light and fun and doesn’t take it self too seriously. The next spot was for Petsmart Dog food. Thats right, dog food. You now had two supposedly distinct spots one for a human food with the same music as one for dog food. Now, I would love to say that I saw these spots play sequentially one after another but that would not be true. I did however see them serve as book ends between another unrelated commercial.
There has been a transformation for music since the mid 90s and the creation of MP3 and compressed audio technology. Technological advances like Napster, the apple store and now streaming sources have driven down the price of music. Peoples expectations on the price have music have lowered. If you, in your personal life, can have access to millions of songs for $10 a month your expectations for music in a commercial purpose would be lowered as well.
One of the things that have helped in the rise of stock music is also the lowered cost of technology. Up until the mid to late 90’s it was actually quite difficult to record music. Barriers to entry were quite high. You needed a professional recording studio with an engineer capable of recording on multitrack tape. As recording technology has moved from the studio to the basement it has allowed musicians who would have traditionally not had the ability to record and produce tracks to publish their music online. There is an entire cohort of bedroom music producers who actively write music for stock libraries and this is their primary source of income.
Stock music is not the devil. There is definitely a time and place for it. What I must advocate however is that brands and agencies take the time to appreciate the importance of the proper musical elements on their spot. Creative teams painstakingly obsess over the minute details of copy and art. When it comes to music these decisions are not always given the same weight. Choosing low cost music diminishes the importance of all the hard work that has already been put into the project before it. It’s the antithesis of lipstick on a pig. If anything it’s like gilding a lily - putting something cheap on something that is already beautiful.