Tech Focus, Part 2: Music Libraries

With broadcast sports’ explosive growth, there’s increased demand for sports music, and producers seeking library and production music and cues have more choices than ever before. Here are some of the leading ones.

APM Music
The joint venture of EMI Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing supplies a comprehensive collection of music for sports-entertainment broadcasters (ESPN, Turner Sports, HBO Sports, NFL Network), professional franchises (Yankees, Dodgers, Braves, Giants, Steelers, Knicks, Grizzlies, Devils), and collegiate groups (Alabama, Notre Dame, South Carolina, Georgia). More than 400,000 tracks by award-winning composers, top session players, and today’s indie trendsetters are available in every genre. A mainstay in sports culture providing songs like the Monday Night Football theme and catalogs like the NFL Films Music Library and MLB Music Library, APM Music aims to be a complete resource for sports programming, offering its online database, Music Director Service, and its boutique custom division, Resonate Music Group. www.apmmusic.com sports music: http://youtu.be/VzVND-efKCg

5 Alarm Music
Offering 200,000+ tracks from 80+ music libraries around the world, 5 Alarm has working with Grammy Award-winning composers to score music for such sports teams as the Los Angeles Dodgers, Los Angeles Lakers, and New Orleans Saints. The company is a full-service music house, offering 24-hour custom-music turnaround, a state-of-the-art search engine, and on-staff music directors to send music solutions as they are needed. The company says it doesn’t just deliver music. it delivers music that makes people want to listen. www.5alarmmusic.com, sports reel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NGgFYHQ0PI&index=21&list=PLf3YrYg5JFSnuxv-4qHnUS5JfPH2WMizG

FirstCom Music
Established in 1980 and headquartered in Dallas, FirstCom Music offers 30 music catalogs that contain more than 176,000 copyrights and are updated six times a year. Among tools provided are MusiQuick Online, an online production-music–delivery Website launched in 2000; LiquidTrax, allowing editors to remix or create surround soundtracks from FirstCom libraries; MusiQuick SQL, a hard-drive search and delivery systems for clients onsite. The company also offers a surround-sound series on DVD audio/video/ROM. www.firstcom.com, sports-related links:
www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=74, www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=335, www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=533, www.firstcom.com/#/themed-playlists.aspx?playlistId=596

Killer Tracks
Killer Tracks’ offerings comprise more than 2,000 digital albums from 21 global libraries with original works from such award-winning composers and producers as Chuck D, Lamont Dozier, Alex Band, Rev Theory, RedZone Entertainment, Ennio Morricone, and Christopher Franke. Sports clients include ESPN, Fox Sports, and NFL Films. Features include complimentary music-supervision services and music access online and on interactive hard drive.  www.killertracks.com, sports-related links: action sports bit.ly/KWc7pi; dramatic sports http://bit.ly/JO1zFh

Megatrax
Megatrax offers more than 70,000 tracks, including alternate and underscore versions and complete edits. New Website is designed for ease-of-use interface and provides an improved search system. A portable hard-drive update system enables faster music updates and accurate metadata. Other capabilities include full-time tech support and music supervisors with live chat. Online Spanish and Portuguese translations are available. Payment options include the ability to do radio and TV barter deals. Custom scoring is available via the company’s Aircast Custom Music division. www.megatrax.com, sports-related link: www.megatrax.com/browse.php?bLibs=0&bCats=1273&bSort=DESC&bRecs=25&bPage=1

Pro Sports Music Marketing
Pro Sports delivers music to professional and collegiate sports. Through a network in professional and collegiate sports, the company has become a resource for all the professional sports leagues for delivering music and music talent for such events as the Super Bowl, Pro Bowl, Daytona 500, World Series, the NHL and NBA All-Star Games. www.prosportsmusic.com/

Sound Ideas
Sound Ideas offers more than 500 distinct royalty-free collections to broadcast, postproduction, and multimedia facilities with unlimited lifetime synchronization rights with every purchase in DVD ROM, hard drive, and CD formats. All .wav files are provided with full keyword metadata for search applications. www.sound-ideas.com, sports-music link: www.sound-ideas.com/musicmenu-sports.html, sports–sound-effects link: www.sound-ideas.com/sound-effects/sports-sound-effects.html. Sister company Westar Music also features unlimited licensing: www.westarmusic.com/products/sports

VideoHelper
Created to violently grab people’s attention, VideoHelper is an independent, boutique library specializing in promos and marketing. It aims to provide quick-moving, hard-hitting, concussion-suffering, in-your-face music to major sports broadcasters (NBC Sports, NFL Films, MSG, HBO, ABC Sports, Turner Sports, ESPN) and professional franchises (including Super Bowl champions the Seattle Seahawks) as well as almost every other sport from college to pee-wee level (except, the company says, dressage). Genre-defying, exclusive tracks are designed with the editor in mind: multiple edit points, modular sections for easy looping, short hooks/melodies to facilitate cutdowns, and other features unique to the library. An intuitive online custom search engine as well as on-staff personal assistants help users find the right tracks, and VideoHelper provides a specialized breed of production music to sports programming, promos, and in-stadium entertainment. But probably not dressage. videohelper.com/, sports reel: www.videohelper.com/sports

Warner/Chappell Production Music
Uniting successful independents Non-Stop Music, 615 Music, Groove Addicts, CPM, and others, Warner/Chappell’s brands have composed works for well-known TV shows, films, and companies, including ESPN, British Open Royal & Ancient, World Cup South Africa, Major League Baseball, Cox Communications, and Speed Channel. www.warnerchappellpm.com