The past one hundred years musical compositions have been the emotional backbone of motion pictures all over the world. Since the age of silent films featuring nothing but a musical score to the multi channel surround sound systems that are common place in today’s movie watching experience, music and sound are the tools film makers and television producers use to set the scene and convey the mood. The source of this musical content has evolved alongside the ways in which composers create it, and the methods of distributing it to content makers have advanced in parallel with the ever-changing commercial music distribution channels. Like developing forms of consumer music distribution, production music distribution will continue to evolve as new technology makes way for new methods of delivery.
What is now called production music has had many different names over the past one hundred years including background music, effects music, cue music, mood music and library music. The term production music was made popular in the United States around the 1960s. During the early years of film music, musicians would play along silent films in the theatres. Music publishers like Sam Fox Moving Picture Music and Chappell Music Publishing first distributed musical compositions in the form of sheet music to the live players. In concert with the growing film industry, the need for recorded background music developed. Thus began the age of the music library. At first, it was distributed on records and played on the phonograph; 78rpm format was used until 1969, when LP’s were introduced. Now, like all forms of entertainment, the production music library went digital.
The way music is added into movies and TV shows is constantly changing just as the tools that sound editors and music supervisors use to put the emotion into films changes. The future is unknown, but one thing is for certain, as new technology changes the way production makers seek out fresh music, new channels and devices will be created to distribute production music.
Tags: background music tracks, commercial music, cue music, Entertainment_Culture, film music, film music history, music distribution, music for film, Music librarianshipMusic librarianship, music mood, musical content, needle drop, needledrop, production blanket, Production Music, production music, royalty free music
Headquartered in Orlando, Fl, Deluks Professional is a boutique music rights company focusing in electronic music licensing, clearance and representation.
