Oct 24, 2017

Imagine walking into a restaurant, ordering a meal, eating the meal, giving the chef a hard time, giving the waiter a little bit of an attitude, and then deciding not to pay for the meal at the end of the night. In many ways, that's how the business of writing music for advertising is set up. Why is that? Who set it up...

Oct 20, 2017

Part of the Settling the Underscore series of episodes that explores music for advertising, this interview with composer Alex Weinstein explores an alternate reality in which the composer works in a direct and collaborative way with the director and the client from the very start of the process! 

My mind is blown. My...

Oct 17, 2017

In this, the second of a series that explores music in commercials, we talk to three freelance commercial composers. These are the often invisible, uncredited creators of music for advertising. How does one enter the business of writing music for advertising? Who are the people who thrive in that world? What skills are...

Oct 10, 2017

Behind every television commercial, there’s an entire economy dedicated to selecting, providing, creating and sourcing music. What was once considered the “jingle” business has now become one of the last sources of real income in recorded music. Today, publishers, bands, composers, production libraries, artists...

Oct 3, 2017

Jonatha Brooke has been one of my favorite singer songwriters since the first moment I heard her, 25 years ago. Her haunting, unique sound with the band The Story sent me reeling, and in many ways I’ve still never recovered. Since then, she’s recorded nearly a dozen albums under her own name. The most recent,...