If you’re new to agency production and wondering what goes into creating, producing or sourcing all that amazing music and sound you hear in commercials, the Association of Music Producers is ready to take you back to school. The advertising music industry’s trade group will be presenting a virtual educational panel intended to guide first and second year agency-side producers and creatives who may be buying or negotiating the rights for music for the first time.
Titled “Advertising Music: Ideation to Execution For Your Campaign,” the event will take place on Thursday, October 20, at 4 PM PT/7 PM ET. The panel is open to the public, but registration is required here.
The panel will be moderated by Liz Myers of Trivers Myers Music, who stepped in for Stone Irr of Butter Music, the panel’s initial moderator; Irr helped develop the overall theme and objective of the panel, but had to withdraw owing to a schedule conflict. Participating on the panel will be Paul Greco, executive director of music & audio at Wunderman Thompson and a former chairperson of the AMP Awards for Music and Sound; Jean Scofield, AMP East president and executive creative producer at Mophonics; Carol Dunn, AMP National Board president and West Coast executive producer at Human/Post Human; and Kate Urcioli, managing director and co-founder at Heavy Duty Projects.
Among the topics the panel will cover are defining the sound of your campaign; determining the best resources for music in different scenarios; reviewing common negotiation terms, tips, and tricks; best practices for scheduling music in the context of your production calendar; how to approach talent and union payments; and the legal implications of using various sources of music.
Participants are invited to submit questions about specific areas of the industry for the panel to cover in advance. Questions can be submitted here.
Myers says the panel came about in response to requests from AMP members’ agency counterparts to provide some form of basic tutorial for junior producers. “We have an Educational Committee, which is morphing into a Programming Committee,” explained Myers. “Many of our panels have come from ideas created by our Diversity and Inclusion Committee, as well as our chapter boards. All of this flows within the mission statement of our outreach and education programs at AMP. We’re passionate about best practices, and we’re expanding on that to include some level of social consciousness to everything we do. It has become our mantra.”
The panel participants will offer attendees a holistic view of what it takes to understand the advertising music business. Myers’ company, Trivers Myers Music, has composed or arranged music for many clients and received multiple Clio Awards. A longtime member of AMP’s West Coast board, Myers teaches a popular course at UCLA Extension entitled “Music Composition for Commercials” which is part of the UCLA Film Scoring Certificate program.
As West Coast EP of music, sound and post-production studio Human Worldwide, Dunn leads the creative partnerships with her clients for commercials, film and TV through music, sound design and final mix. Her music career, which started on the label side at Capitol Records, has now stretched over 30 years. Human Worldwide has produced or post produced work for such brands as Toyota, Doritos, Comcast, Google, Nike, Uber, Halo, Postmates and Coca Cola. When she’s not overseeing production, Dunn works to increase diversity and inclusion within our industry.
Scofield of Mophonics began her career at BBDO, followed by a nearly decade-long run at mcgarrybowen, now part of Dentsu. From ideation and strategy to overseeing production of songs, scores, covers, and remixes, Mophonics is a partner to some of the most leading content creators today, accelerating brand storytelling and identity through thoughtful, considered music and sound.
At Heavy Duty Projects, Urcioli leads a music house that’s recognized for its work in ads, trailers, TV series, feature films and video games. Urcioli is an industry leader with 15 years of sync and licensing experience who’s contributed to the soundtracks of some of the most notable blue-chip campaigns in the industry. Among the studio’s more notable commercial projects are Gatorade’s touching tribute to Serena Williams and Johnnie Walker’s Clio and AMP-winning 2022 global campaign.
Wunderman Thompson’s Greco has directed sonic branding on many notable brand campaigns to create “the sound of the brand.” He’s produced original music for such advertisers as Rolex, Samsung, Puma, Wild Turkey, Macy’s, Smirnoff, Dr Pepper, 7up, Wild Turkey, KFC, the US Army, the U.S. Navy, Pepsi, FedEx, HBO, Visa, and many more. Prior to joining Wunderman Thompson predecessor J. Walter Thompson, he worked at such agencies as Young & Rubicam (now VMLY&R) and BBDO.
