We’re living in a golden age of TV, with networks, streamers and production companies creating a myriad of must-watch content. Whether long-form series, one-off dramas or reality TV and unscripted formats, we’re spoiled for choice. But how do showrunners, producers and music supervisors keep their soundtracks fresh, ensuring we all keep coming back for more? Welcome to our guide to finding and licensing diverse music for high-volume TV.
Music Fatigue
When you’re producing dozens - or even hundreds - of episodes, no matter what genre you’re specializing in, audiences crave variety. One way to achieve that? Your music choices on the show’s soundtrack. From background music to tracks that are really driving the action, there’s always pressure to maintain the quality of the music - but, crucially, without blowing the budget.
Do you ever feel like you have ‘music fatigue’ or 'listener fatigue'? That the tracks which used to feel fresh suddenly sound a bit… samey? The relentless ‘girlboss’ tracks soundtracking the Oppenheim Group’s high-powered agents driving luxury cars in killer outfits around LA in Selling Sunset? They’re definitely glam and bring the drama. However, with each episode featuring snippets from about 15 songs and a 10-episode season containing as many as 150 songs, together with hundreds of music cues over eight seasons to date, they’ve increasingly given rise to online parodies of their song lyrics.
The risk is that repetitive music can diminish its emotional impact, reducing viewer engagement and making the shows feel generic. Love Island mixes things up with a blend of current hits, classic tracks and original compositions to keep things fresh, featuring a variety of music genres from pop (for upbeat and romantic scenes) and dance for the parties, to indie when the Islanders are feeling introspective or emotional. Even classical pieces have been known to feature - as well as decades-old bangers to keep everyone on their toes (‘Bye Bye Baby’ by the Bay City Rollers, anyone?)
Everyone’s favourite BAFTA-winning behemoth The Traitors has a definite sound (which has even seen a BBC Proms event dedicated to it this year). Guardian music journalist Dorian Lynskey described it as, ‘Traitor pop… absurdly melodramatic cover versions of songs that are already plenty dramatic.’ Slow down the BPM, transpose into a minor key, pump up the orchestral elements and add mournful vocals to your favourite track and you have a guaranteed Traitors hit. It taps into the show’s atmosphere of camp grandiosity and is a key element of establishing a kind of sonic branding that fans love as much as Claudia’s fabulous kilts ‘n’ oversize knits wardrobe, and those tension-fuelled roundtable eviction sessions.
Artists such as Damned Anthem and 2WEI (who memorably re-worked Britney’s ‘Toxic’) have seen their work become the go-to for massive movie trailers, off the back of TV soundtrack success. However, it’s key to stay ahead of the game.
How Audio Network Can Help
As the music department on fast-moving reality shows requires potentially hundreds of tracks for their transitions between multiple characters and story strands, there’s only so much money to spend. Hence the fact that you’re unlikely to hear Ariana, Beyoncé, Gaga or Rihanna. Plus the fast turnaround schedules for shows such as The Kardashians mean that getting licensing sign offs from major artists could cause avoidable holdups. So, for many of these shows, tracks come through licensing companies instead.
But how do you find exactly the sound that you need, quickly? That’s where we come in. We have a wealth of search filters, covering everything from mood and genre, to instrumentation, vocals vs instrumental, etc that can speed up finding fresh tracks.
Plus, we have hundreds of handpicked playlists to help editors and producers quickly find the right music for specific themes or show types. Tension Drama, Inspirational, Romance or Heartbreak? We have you covered, courtesy of our Playlist hub. Laugh or cry, scream or shout at the screen with our storytelling Reality TV tracks. Or choose uplifting, feel-good music for your Lifestyle show. And for those all-important transitions, you need our Mood Changes selections.
When you want to build a musical identity across a series, whilst maintaining variety, look to our pre-built collections. Create Traitors-style drama and suspense with The Tension Code, or boost your reality content and daytime TV stories with the albums in The Home of Dramedy. Want to harness an epic Hollywood sound? Nobody does it better than the Mission: Impossible composer Lorne Balfe, who has a dedicated, hand-picked collection.
When you’re craving variation within a specific style or sound, that’s where our composer pages make your life easier! Once you’ve found your favourite composers and artists, you can search their whole Audio Network catalogue and find hundreds of different options. With artists around the world, the choice is limitless. Still can’t find exactly what you want? You can customise many of our tracks through cut-downs, alts and stems to make the track your own, tailoring it to your project.
Licensing with Audio Network
Licensing tracks for productions which air across multiple territories can also be a potential headache. Luckily, when you license Audio Network’s music, it’s cleared globally, which can save a huge amount of time. You can also put regional search filters in, to further ensure that you can use your selected tracks wherever you want to.
Shows such as The Hills fell foul of the shift from airing on MTV to streaming services (Hulu in this case). Originally, The Hills was able to acquire top-tier tunes on MTV, but the music was only licensed for a certain amount of time. No-one was thinking of a second life, where shows live on in perpetuity, so the licences were for short-term use. Hence, there’s a key moment that used to be soundtracked by Rihanna’s ‘Umbrella’ that fitted the scene exactly, which has had to be swapped for an entirely different track now that The Hills lives on Hulu, as The Hills (and Selling Sunset) creator Adam DiVello revealed to The Hollywood Reporter. Using original music has the added advantage that music supervisors can secure songs in perpetuity whilst still sticking to a limited budget.
Luckily, all of Audio Network’s licences are in perpetuity - once you’ve got your music, you don’t have to worry about it.
So when you need a high volume of music, our catalogue makes finding and licensing it fast and super simple. And with new releases every fortnight, you can be sure you’re staying ahead of the competition.
Need Music for Your Project?
At Audio Network we create original music, of the highest quality, for broadcasters, brands, creators, agencies and music fans everywhere. Through clear and simple licensing, we can offer you a huge variety of the best quality music across every conceivable mood and genre. Find out how we can connect you with the perfect collaborator today by clicking the button below!
