Tech Focus: Production Music, Part 2 — What’s Happening in Libraries

Choices in genres, tunes, and cues are proliferating

Anyone seeking library and production music and cues has more choices than ever, including a new entry this year: Arena Waves. Here are some of the leading libraries, many of whose clients bring music to sports in venue, on TV, and online.

Click here for Tech Focus: Production Music, Part 1 — Sports Is Big Part of the Industry’s Resurgence.

APM Music was formed in partnership with Sony Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing, the world’s two largest record labels, providing content creators with music of a quantity and quality previously unimaginable. Available for use in productions across media of all types, the combination of radio quality, variety, and ease of use attracts the top sports-content creators. Clients include ESPN, Barstool, NFL, NHL, MLB, most P5 Schools, and growth leagues PLL, PFL, Fan Controlled Football. Sports Instagram

Arena Waves is a pre-cleared music library offering specialized, dynamic, and customized music for sports, esports, and other media content. The curated collection was designed specifically for sports and live broadcasts with precise, drop-in–ready cutdowns for bumpers and highlights, saving valuable time. Besides a rapidly growing library with 100,000 tracks (the service launched with 70,000 tracks on March 1, 2021), Arena Waves is an aggregate with an impressive array of talent and composers and offers custom music packages in as little as 48 hours from any direct request. Designed by sports-audio and production-music veterans, Arena Waves boasts such sports clients as CBS Sports, ESPN, NBC Sports, MLB, NFL, NBA, Netflix, Amazon, and the BBC.

Megatrax recently toasted its 30-year history as a leading independent production-music library by launching a new brand identity with a new logo, renewed brand mission, and newly developed music-search platform powered by artificial intelligence. Its library features 300,000 tracks, creative radio imaging package WIZZFX, and custom music options for any project. Sports-related link, 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 200,000 tracks of highly curated, up-to-date, and relevant content updated quarterly. 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 Golf Channel/NBC Sports, CNN Sports, ESPN, the UFC, Top Rank Boxing, Sony Interactive, and dozens more brands, networks, and pro-sports teams across the globe. Sports-related link

Sound Ideas offers more than 1,000,000 sound effects, production elements, and royalty-free music tracks for broadcast, live events, postproduction, game developers, and multimedia facilities, with unlimited lifetime synchronization rights with every purchase. Delivery formats include downloads, hard drives, and online memberships. All .wav files are provided with full keyword metadata for search applications. Sports sound-effects link

Emmy, Telly, Addy, and Promax Award-winning Warner Chappell Production Music (WCPM) is a global leader with more than 35 years of experience. Based in Los Angeles with offices in New York City, London, Paris, Nashville, and Hamburg, WCPM is owned by music publisher Warner Chappell Music and is part of the Warner Music Group family. In total, WCPM represents 135,000+ unique tracks and 120+ catalogs across popular genres: hip-hop, pop, rock, country and alternative, classical and orchestral, modern underscore, jazz, trailer music, sound design/SFX, world repertoire, and vintage archival. In addition, WCPM produces custom music from its studios in Nashville and Los Angeles. Recent clients include Disney+, ESPN, NBC, ABC, Fox, MLB, and EA Games, and the UAE Pro League’s theme “Going to War.” Sports-music link

VideoHelper is an independent, boutique production-music library providing exclusive music for sports-entertainment broadcasters (NFL Films, ESPN, MSG, HBO) 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. Our website/search engine makes it faster and easier than ever to find and license the music needed. Sports link