The Making of a Music Library

Local composer Marty Irwin and former MD of Zomba, Stuart Livingston decided that they would create a new music library. Sourcing some of Sydney's finest composing and playing talent, the new library, Sonic Ozault was launched earlier this year. I spoke with guys to find out a bit more about why and how they did it.

Geoff: Well let’s get to it. There are a lot of production music libraries out there and it seems like a competitive business. Why did you do it?

Stuart: Yes, it certainly is a competitive business but with all the mergers and acquisitions in recent years we believe there is room for a good independent music company.

Geoff: So how do you go about starting your own library of production music?

Stuart: First you take all your money and chuck it into the wind! Seriously, you need to set a business plan with a budget you believe you can sustain during the first couple of years when you won’t see any revenues. You also need to know the markets in the various important territories and plan your productions to suit them as much as possible.

Geoff: You’ve called the library Sonic Ozault. I guess that name came about because you decided on a certain style of music or section of the market you wanted to tackle. What do you feel the market lacked?

Stuart: I think we had a reputation at Zomba for high quality production standards so Marty and I agreed that if we were going to do a new library we needed to maintain those standards, if not surpass them. The name Sonic Ozault is a play on words and says what we’re about. We’re Australian and sonically out there. We do feel that the market is lacking in commercial sounding product and that Sonic Ozault will address this issue.

Geoff: How have Australian libraries gone in the market place. How many are there right now?

Stuart: Aussies are a parochial lot so I think any locally produced library will have a chance. There are several now but I’m not sure how they’re doing although I believe Beatbox is fairing quite well.

Geoff: Beatbox is your local distributor, but who handles you overseas and how did you go about finding those distributors?

Stuart: Over the years I’ve developed a worldwide network of contacts in the music publishing business so it was a process of finding the right overseas partners with vested interests in production music.

Geoff: How do you keep on the OS guys tails to market your work?

Stuart: It’s simple really. They’re just as keen on earning money as we are so they’re unlikely to take us on and sit on the library. Communication is important so we update each other on what’s happening on a regular basis.

Geoff: How do you deal with the legalities or setting up an overseas deal?

Stuart: This is the boring administration bit. Part of my role as MD of Zomba and President of BMG Zomba Production Music Asia was working on sub-publishing contracts for the overseas libraries we represented in Australasia and blanket licensing deals in Asia plus other nasties like withholding taxes etc. So I just use what I know as a basis for the deals.

Geoff: How do you get the music to each country? Do they like it in different formats?

Stuart: Unfortunately for us at this point in time different countries want different formats. Would you believe that Scandinavia want DVD’s and also supply clients with hard drives while Japan only want CD’s?

Geoff: Is your music available on the web?

Stuart: Yes, in certain territories. USA, Netherlands, Germany and Australia have our stuff available for downloads.

Geoff: Tell me how you or your distributors work with the various collection agencies around the world to find out when a track has been used?

Stuart: Our distributors are publisher members of their respective collection societies. I.e. PRS/MCPS in UK, GEMA in Germany, CASH in Hong Kong, JASRAC in Japan etc. Each society has their own monitoring methods and the distributors work along side them in a similar way that local publishers work with AMCOS/APRA.

Geoff: How do you deal with piracy?

Stuart: You make them walk the plank! Look it exists, there are thieves everywhere but the penalties for being caught are severe and act as a deterrent in many countries. Our contracts with overseas distributors put the onus on them to protect our rights in their licensed territories but it wouldn’t surprise me if illicite product turned up in places like Mexico or China! In that case all you can hope for is that the relevant distributor got a decent blanket license fee.

Geoff: Let’s get to the music. I'd ask you Stuart, but I think we should have some questions for Marty, just to make him seem relevant.

You got some impressive composers and players involved, except those cool guys from Hullabaloo….. How did you go about choosing who became part of the project?

Marty: Well we did ask the Hullabaloo guys and they snubbed us. In hindsight it was probably a good thing. First of all most of the other writers didn’t want to work with them and I hear from a very reliable source that they only write songs in the key of C major with 7/4 time signatures. Stuart and I both felt that this could be a potential problem.

But seriously folks……A couple of the guys had already worked with Stuart in the Zomba days and it was basically a follow on from there. We do have some new blood though, who are turning out to be very impressive. As far as tracking them down and pulling it all together, it was a matter of spreading the word and then listening to demos. We feel we have the A-list Sydney musicians.

The writers are; Phil Beazley, Costa Coulouris, Leon Gaer, Ben Garden, Tom Ferris, Rajan Kamahl, Noel Macdonald, James Muller, Bill Risby, Gordon Rytmeister, Phil Scorgie, Brydon Stace, Chad Wackerman and Chris Wright.


Geoff: Once you had the composers, did you get them to do a short piece and run it past some producers to check you were on the right track?

Marty: We do appreciate input from the sub-publishers in the different territories and if the same reference of style/genre keeps appearing then we definitely take it on-board when we’re putting projects together. We like the guys to have creative input into the tracks and feed us any ideas they have but generally the bottom line rests with Stuart and myself. We are responsible for keeping up with trends and making sure the library is ‘cutting edge’.

Geoff: Is it like every other production music library out there or do you offer something different?

Marty: Actually we do offer something different. We can compose commissioned music as well as ‘off the shelf’ product. We have the facilities to remix, edit or rewrite existing pieces of music as well as writing original material to brief from scratch. If any clients are interested they can contact us directly on PH. (02) 9546 2335.

Geoff: How long did the guys spend writing the music?

Marty: It’s different for everyone. Some spend days, others spend weeks, it’s really up to them.

Geoff: How much latitude did you give them in the composing? Did you change arrangements or chords/melody?

Marty: The guys have lots of room to move. Sometimes we need to add or subtract from the arrangement/production but we like to think it’s a group decision. As long as they do it my way it’s fine.

Geoff: Do you suggest what sort of music they should write, or did you go with their natural area of expertise?

Marty: I do think each person has their own area of expertise and we do try and encapsulate that within each project. We like the guys to focus on what they are good at doing and at times it’s up to Stuart and I to suggest specific genres and keep the production on track.

Geoff: How long did it take to record the music? Give a specific example of one CD.

Marty: It took about twelve months (musically), to put the first release together. It’s hard to give a specific time frame for one CD, considering we never release just one. Some take 2-3 weeks to record/mix/master while others can take months on and off while waiting for overdubs etc. We do like to have deadlines, although I don’t think we’ve made one yet. Quality control is a big deal to us and we don’t release anything until we are 100% happy.

Geoff: How much is real instruments and how much samples/synths?

Marty: It’s probably about 50/50. There is definitely the need for both.

Geoff: And how many CD’s have you started with and what sort of music do they cover?

Marty: 9 CD releases (3 doubles) and 1 DVD.

Geoff: I’m sorry, but I have to ask this one. Do you think that some of the new music creation tools available will shrink, even possibly destroy production music?

Marty: We would like to think that quality in composition and production will prevail in the long run.

Geoff: How do you fight royalty free music? I’ve heard some that’s not too bad. Some of them don’t even ask for it to be logged.

Stuart: We don’t fight it but don’t subscribe to it. The ones that don’t sound too bad are usually supposed to be reported to the performing rights societies but because they are synch free they’re often considered totally royalty free and the composers end up with nothing. The world would be a better place if everyone understood that without composers there wouldn’t be any music!

Geoff: There’s a new production music company in the states that offers a three minute track for $7, unlimited usage. Going anywhere near that?

Stuart: As far away as possible!

Geoff: I understand you’re underway with the next lot of music. What can we expect?

Marty: We will follow up on the genres we have already created plus a couple of secret weapons that we hope will blow a few socks off!

Geoff: Where can we contact you? Do you have a website?

Marty: Yes. www.sonicozault.com

Our distributors here in Australia are ‘Beatbox Music’. You can contact them on Phone: +61 (02) 9484 2321 
Fax: +61 (02) 9484 7316 Email: info@beatboxmusic.com  Or there web address is www.beatboxmusic.com

Geoff: When are you doing that feature set of CD’s using Hullabaloo?

Marty: When they become less difficult to work with. Stardom affects us all differently.

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