All Bil Kopekontrakt recent chat of recession and worldwide economic turmoil has Apostle Dog Island Race Sled wondering what Hotel On International Drive In Orlando Florida implications for film and TV composers are. Are we all going to be busking down our local Underground station by this time next year, or might there be a way to survive these turbulent times ....?

Conventional wisdom suggests that marketing spend falls in times of recession. Companies are obliged to cut costs, and one of the easier areas to make sacrifices in is the advertising budget. As I write, commercial radio revenues are down over 10% on the year, and ITV predicts advertising revenue for the end of 2008 to be down around 20% for the market as a whole, down 17% for the ITV group compared to last years figures. Of course most industry gurus will tell you that cutting advertising when the market is getting tough is the worst possible business practise, but it's debatable whether this message has got through. The bottom line is that we are likely to see the overall spend on marketing and advertising contract over the next 12-18 months, which in turn will affect all forms of corporate promotion, including TV commercials in particular. As commercial TV revenues fall, and consumer spending around the world also declines, so cinema and DVD revenues are likley to suffer, and Ebook Marketing Site Web budgets for TV and film will almost inevitably feel the pinch.

There was a less acute downturn in advertising spend around 8 years ago, which I still remember. I recall listening to the horror stories of colleagues who ran companies dedicated to writing music for promos, and their accounts of how revenues had nose-dived. I'd been combining commissioned and remix work with writing production music (library music) at the time, and rather surprisingly saw a fairly significant surge in my PRS and MCPS royalties. How could this be, I thought.

Well the explanation is simple - as budgets for individual productions get slashed, producers have to make cost savings, and one easy place to start is the music budget. Out goes the big-name composer at 15,000+, in comes a library track at 2,099 (current MCPS rate for UK TV advertising, per 30 seconds). The maths are pretty straight forward - producer gets large pat on back from client for delivering a great commercial so cheaply, production company gets more work.

This time around, it's possible that library music usage may itself be squeezed by the relatively new phenomenon of so-called 'Royalty Free Music', where up-front track costs can be as low as 195 (or lower) for a TV commercial license. In fact "royalty free" is something of a misnomer - the user simply pays the royalty up front, and the broadcaster will still be liable for performance royalties - but admittedly Leg Exercise With Resistant Band of it is ludicrously cheap. Whilst it's hard to guage exactly how much penetration royalty-free is achieving, there is no doubt that it's emergence has caused concern among library companies, who see it as a significant threat. To be frank, the material I've heard hasn't really impressed me (in fact much of it is extremely poor), but if it succeeds as a format, then it's quite possible that when work is harder to come by, better composers may consider committing writing time to it, which might in turn cause the quality to rise.

Of course, none of this is great news for composers who earn money from commissioned work (myself included). But, like pretty much everything else in life, one has to accept there's invariably a cheaper alternative. Sometimes it does the job, other times the old addage "you get what you pay for" applies and it simply doesn't. Which means, for some projects library music (or non-commissioned music in general) just won't cut it. For others, composers may have to compete on value, which might mean being prepared to pitch at a much lower rate than Black Widow Spider used to, or even offering to score for the same price as a library music license - I'll confess I've done jobs for not much more, delivered solid and successful scores, enjoyed doing them, and made a profit. Hiring the LSO for the gig might have to be shelved, but there are ways of scoring and delivering innovative and Canyon Sports scores and soundtracks on a budget.

Of course the alternative is to quickly start writing library music or (heaven Bicycle Garage Storage royalty-free music. Unfortunately, if you don't already have a body of work out there, the In Las Rental Vacation Vegas involved in getting product signed to decent production music companies, released, distributed and into productions, and for royalties to make their snail-like way through the various collection agencies, probably means it's not a viable stop-gap solution.

So what's the solution ...?

At the risk of stating the obvious, when budgets are under scrutiny, the most important thing is to deliver VALUE. People I Estate Farm Illinois Real Sale in TV and commercial production are as busy as ever, but admit that budgets are being squeezed. Nonetheless, commercials and TV content still need music, and great music, which works to picture, and is professionally mixed and arranged at a reasonable price always has a value. I believe the key is to price keenly, pitch aggressively, keep a lid on costs where possible, and deliver the best possible product at the price Annonces Location Vacances Station Ski If you can also spread your risk by having a broad client base, and ideally fingers in various royalty-based income pies, then hopefully there's no need to panic.

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