I switched to a new music library for licensing soundtrack music for our videos recently. It got me thinking about how often I move past an aspect of the process, considering it solved. Why don’t I take a second look more often?
The easiest answer is probably busyness and time. When I’m in the thick of multiple projects, it’s hard to step back and think about how I’m doing something. I’m focused on completion and that necessarily moves me towards time-tested ways of doing things. Experience often moves me into binary ways of approaching a problem that escape my notice.
For years now, I’ve been using the same music source for all our videos. I was comfortable with how it worked and could always find fresh new tracks to build our videos around. This particular project needed something different, something less rhythm-heavy but refined; and not the typical bouncy, “corporate” glockenspiel-sounding tracks that swamp all the stock music sites!
After digging into the options, I found some fantastic music libraries that aligned with my values and workflow. I found a track that blended classical and electronic elements beautifully, with a meaningful progression that evolved through the course of the video. There’s a fair structure for artist compensation and licensing tools that make the process easier for our clients. I’m inspired whenever I find a way to reinvent how I approach a project, and I’m thankful for having some time to really think through how we use music in our videos.