Tech Focus: Music Libraries, Part 2 — An Abundance of Choices

From familiar to custom to original music, sports clients have lots to pick from

Anyone seeking library and production music and cues has more options than ever before. Here are some of the leading ones.

Click here for Tech Focus: Music Libraries, Part 1 — Production Music Is Another Score for Sports

APM Music, a joint venture of EMI Music Publishing/Sony ATV and Universal Music Publishing, supplies a comprehensive collection of music for sports-entertainment clients. Among them: broadcasters (ESPN, Turner Sports, Fox Sports, NFL Network), pro franchises (Philadelphia Eagles, New York Yankees, Vegas Golden Knights, Golden State Warriors), production entities (NASCAR, NFL Films, PGA Tour Productions), and collegiate athletics (Alabama, Notre Dame, Auburn, Kansas). More than 620,000 tracks in every genre by award-winning composers and indie trendsetters are available. As a mainstay in sports culture with songs like the Monday Night Football theme and catalogs like the NFL Films Music Library and MLB Music Library, APM Music is a complete resource for sports content. Find what you need through the timesaving Music Director Service APM Search site, and create something unique through APM Custom. Check out recent work at sports.apmmusic.com and special custom-music projects, such as with the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, and ESPN/SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt.

Killer Tracks delivers original music that captures passionate audiences the world over, with more than 175,000 tracks from 38 global libraries. Friendly, knowledgeable support is always available from a dedicated team of music-search specialists and licensing experts. Sports clients include ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL Network, and NBA Entertainment. Some recent sports placements include the 2016 Monster Energy Supercross and Top NFL Films Shots (Week 13). Sports-related links: Action & Intensity Sports, Dramatic Sports, Baseball, Football, and Hockey

Megatrax offers more than 150,000 tracks, including alternate and underscore versions and complete edits. Its new website features an ease-of-use interface and improved search system. Portable–hard-drive system offers faster music updates and accurate metadata. Full-time tech support and music supervisors with live chat are available, as are online Spanish and Portuguese translations. Payment options include the ability to do radio barter deals. Custom scoring is available via Aircast Custom Music division. Sports-related link

Born from original music and sound design for leading worldwide brands, The Vault Production Music Library, designed by Stephen Arnold Music, offers more than 125,000 tracks of highly curated, up-to-date, and relevant content with quarterly updates. With excellent customer service and music supervision, The Vault offers a high standard in production music, taking maximum advantage of the assets that made it a leader in sonic branding. It’s staffed full-time with composers, who are called on regularly to aurally differentiate the likes of CNN, The Weather Channel, ESPN, Nat Geo, Discovery, and dozens more brands and networks across the globe.

Sound Ideas offers more than 600 distinct royalty-free collections to broadcast, postproduction, game developers, and multimedia facilities, with unlimited lifetime synchronization rights with every purchase. Delivery formats include downloads and hard drives. All .wav files are provided with full keyword metadata for search applications. Sports-music link. Sports sound-effects link. Sister company Westar Music also features unlimited, worldwide licensing.

Warner/Chappell Production Music is a worldwide leader in the production, news, and custom-music industry. Its brands have provided music for well-known sports TV shows, networks, and companies. Among them: ESPN, British Open, the World Cup, Major League Baseball, Cox Communications, and Speed Channel. Sports-music link

VideoHelper is an independent, boutique production-music library providing exclusive music for sports-entertainment broadcasters (NFL Films, ESPN, ABC Sports, MSG, HBO, Showtime) and professional franchises (Seahawks, Mariners, Orlando City Soccer Club). Thousands of multi-genre tracks complete a catalog specifically designed to drive video. VideoHelper brings a very specialized breed of production music to sports programming: one that thinks like a producer and is easily editable. Its website/search engine makes it faster and easier than ever to find and license the music needed. Sports link