If you have an account with Lisn to supply music to our database then you’ll have noticed a field which allows you to add ‘tags’ and lyrical keywords to your songs while uploading. This article will explain in more detail the benefits of tagging your tracks and some tips on good tagging.
The key role of tags is to help flag up the most appropriate music to potential licensees. This is one of the most common ways that people search for music on the Lisn website. The more relevant and accurate tags you include, the easier it is for potential licensees to find the right track (and hopefully your track) as the solution to their requirements. If you have no keyword tags then your tracks will not appear at all if the client performs a keyword search.
So, what should you include in your tags to improve the chance of your music being discovered:
Lyrical keywords – select the main descriptive words in the song. Avoid using natural language phrases such as ‘and’ and ‘on’. If any words can be spelt in more than one want (eg ‘realize’ instead of ‘realise’ for the American and Canadian spelling) then it is worth including both variations.
Moods & Feelings – what are the main moods that the music conveys, e.g. light, springtime, fresh, dawn, happy – this helps to provide extra context to the default timbre options.
Instruments and FX – be more specific about which instruments or sounds are used in the track, e.g. steel drum, cowbell, wah, phaser.
Sounds like – a licensee may be looking for music which bears resemblance to another artist, e.g. Arctic Monkeys, Thievery Corporation, Aphex Twin.
Other references – don’t be afraid to think laterally, but always keep the tags relevant to the music or the listener will lose faith that you can provide what they are looking for. Examples could be words which associate with your music such as journey, travelling or relationship even if the song title or lyrics themselves don’t include these words.
You don’t need to go over-board with huge lists of tags – a well thought selection of the most pertinent feelings, references and lyrics that best reflect the track will be just as effective and give your music a better chance of standing out. And it only takes a couple of minutes while you wait for you music to upload!
If you’d like more information on tagging or advice on any other part of Lisn’s uploading process please get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.
Nestled at the edge of the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland, Aedan Sherry doesn’t have to look far for inspiration. Through his music, he shares with us this inspiration. With his enrapturing, moving, evolving melodies and creative beats and rhythms, you can get lost in Aedans playful compositions. With over 14 years experience in writing music, his tracks convey happiness, optimism and more! Aedan works in several styles and genres, including Electronica, Dance, Chill Out, Alternative, and Electro.
What is your musical background?
Apart from being sent to accordion lessons when I was younger, I would say I’m mostly a self taught musician. I think my love for music probably began unconsciously throughout all those years of growing up at home to the background score of my Dad’s record collection. I would be playing with colourful toy bricks and building little wooden train tracks to the score of Vivaldi or the Beatles or even Kraftwerk. So I’m sure I’ve been influenced right from the beginning to have an ear for music. Also there was the Playstation era where I did nothing but play games for hours on end providing me with a soundtrack of mixed musical genres and styles from right across the globe. I could be playing Final Fantasy for an hour or two with its wonderfully melodic Japanese instrumentals, then later I could switch to Tony Hawks Skateboarding and be listening to the Ramones’ Blitzkrieg Bop. So I definitely wasn’t left short for inspiration.
Things really started to evolve for me when I received a music sequencing game for the Playstation (Music/Music 2000). At last I could sit and create a whole song from scratch using my own melodies, beats and rhythms. I got lost in a world of composition which continues right to this present day. The love never dies.
How would you describe the style(s) of music you make? Do you focus on any specific instruments or equipment in your work?
My style varies a lot. I could be working on an orchestral piece for a week or 2 and when I’m done I could move straight into a trance or electronic tune for my next project. It all depends on how I’m feeling when I start writing. If I had to categorise my style or styles I would say I mostly work in electronica and in its many forms (electronica, ambient, dance, trance, break-beat, IDM), then in orchestral and then in world music. A lot of the time when submitting music for synchronisation I am asked what bands or existing acts my musical style sounds similar to. I find that the most difficult question to answer as I feel my music usually doesn’t sound very similar to any of them!
Most of the time I won’t have a specific idea of what I want to create. Just a very strong urge to start creating. Sometimes I’ll start with a beat, sometimes a melody, and then build from there.
At the moment my computer is my studio. I always use the same software which consists of three or four electronic synths, one software drum machine and one sampler. I have all the sounds in there that I could ever possibly need. Real instruments, flowing strings, woodwinds, brass etc. right down to hard and heavy electronic leads, fat basses and thousands of individual drum hits which I use to compile my beats and rhythms.
What successes have you had in the music/synchronisation industry so far?
I’ve been writing music for about 14 – 15 years now but only decided about a year and a half ago to go full steam ahead into writing music for synchronisation . It took a little while before things got started for me. You need patience in this business! A wait of about six months ensued before I’d made my first sale. After that it became more of a weekly or fortnightly occurrence. I am now at the point where I’ve made nearly forty sales in total since I started. My biggest success in the industry so far has actually come from right here at Lisn Music where I’ve had a song synced into an American TV series, VP Challenge . So thanks for that Lisn! I’ve also had music placed in a couple of live theatre performances for the Open Learning Initiative and for the Colorado Children’s Hospital and just recently I’ve been asked to provide music for an up and coming free running online video project which I’m quite excited about. Also there were a few television sync opportunities I had to turn down due to conflicting contracts between libraries which was unfortunate, but it was still a boost to hear that my music had been successfully selected for use in sync for television here in the UK.
Have you been involved in any exciting projects?
I had a single released on iTunes about 3 years ago with a small label in the US. It was a one off project but it was still a cool experience. The label heard my track on Myspace and got in touch with me asking if they could put some lyrics down on it. I said yes and then 2-3 months later the track was released on iTunes. Even the local paper called round to my house, did an interview and had me on the front page of their music section. It was great!
What are your goals for the future?
My main goal for the future is to be able to continue writing and hopefully reach the point where I can write on a full time basis and support my family from my musical income. At the moment I’m only writing on a part-time basis which is enough to get some good music together but with a little more time I think I could produce something that little bit extra special. One personal goal of mine is to be the guy who writes the theme music for the coverage of the next world cup on the BBC or on ITV. Its in Brazil, and there’s plenty of musical culture to source inspiration from there! You never know, it might happen! But even just to be able to tell people that I write music for a living would be a nice feeling.
To license music from the Aedan Sherry Publishing catalogue for TV, film, advertisement, game, corporate or other media project please visit the Aedan Sherry page on Lisnmusic. If you are interested in Aedan Sherry creating a bespoke composition please drop us a line.
We received so many positive comments about our recent Lisn Showcase CD and its fold out poster-packaging that we’ve created some desktop wallpapers you can download absolutely free.
You can download them in all their glory from the links below or visit our ‘does-what-it-says-on-the-tin’ Free Stuff page, where you can also download a free track courtesy of Baker Street Recordings.
If you’re looking to license music for a project or work within a music supervision role and would like to receive the Lisn Showcase CD, please get in touch.
The mysterious Thin White Dude says “I just like making ‘weird’ music, and I’ve been doing it on and off for 10 years.” We’ve been really impressed with the tracks he has made available to license on Lisnmusic so far and asked him to answer a few questions to find out a bit more about the music and man behind it.
What is your musical background?
Since childhood I have had a love of music. At school I played the trumpet (badly) and piano (even worse). I first started creating my own music about 10 years ago when I get a demo of the Sony ACID software. Since then I have continued to make and re-mix music, although with some long breaks in between. There has been steady ‘improvement’ with the quality and constancy in my work, culminating on the tracks on offer by Lisnmusic, all of which were created over a fairly manic 3 week period between April and May of 2011.
How would you describe the style of music you make? Do you focus on any specific instruments or equipment in your work?
I would describe my musical style as ‘quirky’. Some may say ‘zany’, but I don’t like that word. Over the years my range has been quite eclectic (from full on dance to boarder-line thrash metal). I have recently been very eager to include a fair amount of acoustic guitars as it is giving my music a much warmer sound, as well as providing a lot more ‘width’. I tend not to use vocals in my own music, except for the occasional sound-bite.
What successes have you had in the music industry so far?
My greatest achievement to date is one of my Sony contest re-mixes winning a prize of ‘The Listeners Award’ – it’s always good to get that peer judgement. The mix was also used on a commercially released EP by Intergalactic Faerie Funk, although I actually only discovered this recently after Googling my artist name (true story).
Have you been involved in any exciting projects?
I’m a one-man-band and I haven’t had much chance for collaboration work so far. I am currently in discussions with band in London (Echo the Sound) with a view to doing some production work for them (they have no drummer, so they need help in finishing off tracks). It could turn out to be exciting as their guitar work is great.
What are you goals for the future?
My main goal is to keep improving musically. On top of that I do want to get involved with visual media as I think my musical style has a lot to offer this particular sector of the music industry. Oh, and I want to carry on having fun making my music – if it ever becomes a chore, it’s time to stop!
Anything else you would like us to know?
I’m also available for children’s parties and corporate booze-ups…
To license music by Thin White Dude directly for your TV, film, advertisement, game, corporate or other media project please visit the Thin White Dude page on Lisnmusic. If you are interested in Thin White Dude creating a bespoke composition please drop us a line.
There’s so much competition to make your submissions to music supervisors (and others who may want to use your music) stand out that getting the basics right is crucial. In this article we present five ‘must do’s’ to ensure that you increase your chances of success.
1. Ensure the Audio Quality is High
This might seem obvious, but is easily the most important. Always provide the best impression of your music by sending final masters rather than early demos or works in progress. The Music Supervisor will often be looking for songs that they can quickly and easily license without the need for further work or delays. If they are on short deadlines this becomes even more important.
2. Have 100% Ownership
Make sure you own, or can account for 100% of the copyright contained in the work. As soon as supervisors have to deal with split masters or are trying to chase down a 5% share of a songwriting copyright (maybe an old band member has left who has percentage) they will walk away from the deal.
3. Provide Clear Contact Information
Make sure your full contacts are on both the case and the CD that you send. Also make sure your track listing is available on the case – if it’s only on the disc it can be hard to read when in a CD player. If you’re sending a submission by email make everything clear in the email and also within the information encoded into the tracks. This is easy to do with iTunes.
4. Register CDs with Gracenote Before sending your tracks off on CD make sure to register them with Gracenote – this is the database that iTunes uses to find track title when a CD is inserted. Register and make sure it all works before you send it off. It can take several days for the details to make it into the Gracenote database so be sure to plan in advance.
5. Have Stems and Instrumentals Easily Available
Sometimes your track can be perfectly suited to a project in all ways, but the lyrical content may give it an unwanted sentiment that doesn’t fit the production, or it may need to be used under dialogue. For these reasons supervisors will often want to know if there is an instrumental available and may want both versions to test out in the production. On occasions they will also ask for the stems as they may need to use a stripped down or slightly altered version. While there is no need to send all of these with your initial submission it can be worth mentioning their availability in a covering letter or email.
Lisnmusic make sure that all of the above tips, and more, are undertaken as standard when we represent your songs to Music Supervisors. If you are interested in working with Lisnmusic please contact us by email or via our website. And why not try out the above suggestions when sending us your music for consideration!
UK label 9 Volt Records formed in 2009 and is home to Auto-Pilot. With a sound largely based in electronic music, but without being strictly pure to the genre, Auto-Pilot and 9 Volt covers everything from laid-back loungey grooves to punchy and atmospheric electronica. Prior to establishing 9 Volt, Auto-Pilot signed to Holophon in 2007, releasing 2 albums (Ocearina & Out Here). Three more releases followed over the next few years through various European labels and they signed a publishing deal with Warner-Chappell Music. Adrian Collier talked to Lisn about the label, successes and their future plans.
What is the musical philosophy of the label?
The 9 Volt philosophy is to release genuinely great music with real originality based around the electronic genre but somewhat deviating away into the crossover territory of live musicians and instruments.
Who is behind the label and what is their musical background?
The label was formed in 2009 by (myself) Adrian Collier and Shaun Herbert who together go back to the mid 90’s playing in the same band (Fokker Pilots). Back then I played bass and Shaun was the keyboards. Later the band dissolved and reformed into Auto-Pilot which went on to sign to a succession of labels including Holophon and Major Records in Europe.
Tell us a bit about your main artist(s)…
9 Volt was formed as an artist label for Auto-Pilot so for a while it remained that way, and the download sales reflect the hard work put in.
In 2010, Trance producer Cygnus X-1 aka Martin Craig came onboard and in a relatively short period established himself within the Trance community gaining real momentum.
What successes have you had in the synchronisation industry so far?
Relatively new to the synchronisation industry but since looking this way the most notable things we’ve done a global warming campaign for Greenpeace and work for Sky Sports 1.
Have you been involved in any exciting projects?
So far, in the 2 years the label has been running it has all been one big exciting project. Music synchronisation is the current project we are looking at and yes, were excited about the prospects.
What are you goals for the future?
We tread careful so goals are only baby steps ahead, I guess the word is tentative. Looking further ahead the prospect of running our own publishing is a real possibility.
Anything else you would like us to know?
We like the fact that we produce our own music videos and I guess in the short time we have looked in to synchronisation it has changed our outlook towards music. It’s opened doors to new ideas in song writing enabling us to think more out of the box.
If you’re interested in licensing music from 9 Volt Records for your project in a fast and efficient manner, with both the master and publishing copyright cleared for immediate use then visit the 9 Volt Records page on Lisnmusic.
