As a composer and music publisher I get sent lots of music to peruse and check out. Some are great…some are not.

So I thought I would pass on some of the knowledge I have garnered over the years to help out those interested in the medium.

Stock and Production music are generally instrumental cues that are used as scene setters inMovies, commercials, TV etc. Sometimes they are replacements for famous songs as they are generally a lot more affordable for a producer.

The quality of stock and production music has gone up considerably in the following years as technology at home has made it possible to create wonderful sounding music on a budget. I still find however that many of these sites still have cheesy and dated cues that sound like they were programmed on a keyboard and mixed in a bedroom. These sites generally give away their music for rock bottom prices.

My company directcomposer.com has gone the other way only taking music that sounds current and expensive sounding…but still affordable…and that’s the way I like it

To get your music to sound this way you really have to explore and really get inside every facet of the music you are creating. You can do this by emulating and studying the harmony, tones, and production techniques of these artists. I find most writers fall flat in their song construction and harmony…as well as mixing capabilities.

Study study study…never half as it…make it authentic sounding, that is the key.

Once you figure out how to do this you will see that all music is very similar and that you can create almost any style. There are many great tutorials on the net for mixing/mastering, and for writing put on some headphones and transcribe hours of your fav artists….I did!...spent years doing that everyday…it works. The one other thing that I did was to consciously write something every day. Maybe you won’t write hit songs off the bat, but in time you will become a very powerful and expressive writer where even your bad tunes sound pretty damn good.

Hope this helps,

http://www.directcomposer.com