MusicBrief's Music Platform Makes Scoring Spots Simple

One music brief. A generous selection of free demos. A choice of three simple worldwide licenses. Getting an original composition for your latest campaign really is as simple as one, two, three, thanks to MusicBrief’s game-changing music platform.

Revolutionising the original music model for agencies, brands and composers alike, MusicBrief is an online only service that connects award-winning screen composers with creative agencies and brands around the world, simplifying the scoring and licensing process.

Streamlining the entire process of scoring original music, MusicBrief invites agencies to submit musical briefs online before opening them up to the service’s roster of professional screen composers around the world. From there, MusicBrief guarantees to deliver a minimum of ten demos, free of charge, although on average they will supply agencies with fifteen to twenty, all with a choice of three simple worldwide licenses

With music budgets ever-shrinking, agency producers are increasingly having to turn towards more affordable, less effective library music, but that’s no longer the case thanks to founder Matt Hayward’s refreshing online-only model. 

“The industry has changed radically over the past five years and shrinking budgets have determined to a large degree the way we now do business,” Matt explains. “With multiple award-winning screen composers at our fingertips, who are happy to pitch for work, and agencies and their clients looking to have original music scored on tighter budgets, we've simply moved the business online and in doing so have removed two of the primary overheads associated with running a traditional music company, namely real estate and full-time support staff. This in turn has allowed us to eliminate the main barrier to having original music scored on a tight budget, which is cost.” 

For agencies and brands, the entire process has been boiled down to a simple three-step process. Firstly, agencies are invited to upload their brief online before it’s delivered to MusicBrief’s handpicked team of professional screen composers. MusicBrief will then deliver a minimum of ten free demos from its composers within 48 hours (if required). There’s no obligation to use or license any of the demos but, if one is selected, the agency then picks from three simple licenses – before, if required, revising and finalising the track.

Hayward and his team have created a platform that makes it possible for brands and agencies to own an original composition but on a budget that’s competitive to a library track. 

“In recent years, brands have been spending less on big brand TVCs and increasingly more on multiple content productions with much smaller budgets, usually for use across multiple channels,” explains Hayward. “Just because your music budget is tight, it doesn’t mean you should have to settle for library music. In our opinion, scored music raises the creative bar 99% of the time on projects where music is required.”

Instead of syncing a library track, agencies can now have exclusive use of an original composition for worldwide usage for 12 months, or forever in the case of MusicBrief's ‘All Media Plus’ licence, with no rollovers, no repeat fees and no ongoing administration costs. 

For the composers on MusicBrief’s roster, there’s no obligation to respond to any brief. They’re able to remain entirely anonymous, allowing them to continue working their day job or, in the case of many freelancers, continue to market their own brand whilst pitching for MusicBrief briefs - earning 50% of the fee and retaining 100% of the publishing.

“Personally, the benefits for me lie in the ability to pitch on jobs that otherwise I wouldn't have had the opportunity to,” explains MusicBrief composer, Andy Scott. “As a freelance composer, it's imperative that I have multiple streams of work coming into my studio.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by another of the roster’s composers, Jamie Saxe: “One huge benefit is that I can focus on composing music and have a lot of projects coming in that I haven’t had to search for. While I continue to work on other composing and film projects, it gives me a chance to work on projects that might not otherwise come my way. Selling your music has always been a competitive enterprise and joining the roster has opened up another platform for composing opportunities.”

“For me, the benefits are being able to keep some freelance work coming, while still maintaining my other jobs along the line. It's also nice to be able to have the opportunity to say ‘no’ to a project if I don't have time or don't feel like I can connect with the project,” adds another MusicBrief composer, Mark Allen. “Working in a ‘traditional music house’ for several years, that ability to say no has been a big help. I do this in addition to several other things in music, so I feel like these projects for MusicBrief are more like fun, side-projects, rather than an obligation I need to fill.”

Whether it’s for the agency, the brand, or the composer, the demand for a more convenient and affordable process - with a more equitable payment structure for composers – is the disruptive service’s long-term goal. 

"This is a new model and accordingly we expect that it’ll pivot over the course of the next couple of years as the industry continues to morph and as we receive feedback from both agencies and composers alike,” concludes Hayward. “However, what will never change is our core belief that original music composition, or rather the craft of scoring music to picture, is an essential element in bringing any film that requires music to life, no matter what the format.”