Music and podcasts…why quality makes all the difference.
My name is Kylie Johnson and I have a problem. I confess I hate bad music. I confess I especially hate royalty free music.
It’s not actually true that I hate bad music. I seem to know all the words to a lot of very bad songs. What I actually can’t stand is that horrible tinned royalty free music that many people use in their podcasts.
They use it because the alternative is paying enormous amounts of royalties for music and it’s usually not possible. For example in 2006, I wanted to use the great Coldplay track “Clocks” for CSIROpod, but it would have cost CSIRO many thousands of dollars. APRA (Australasian Performing Rights Association) does a great job of protecting the rights of musicians but in 2006 it hadn’t caught up with the technology and was treating humble podcasters the same way it was treating radio stations. The reality is that no podcaster can afford to pay mega thousands for a music track.
I had a deadline to meet and so I started investigating royalty free music. Oh the humanity! It’s like someone gave a chimpanzee a synthesiser, a glockenspiel and bottle of rum and let them loose with a tape recorder. Awful awful awful.
With only a day to go before the podcast was due to be released, I discovered some music one of CSIRO’s science communicators had written, and used that (with his permission obviously). I didn’t love it but I didn’t hate it and I had a deadline…and suddenly it became the official CSIROpod music. It had an unusually lazy beat and someone called it “the p*rn music”. The name stuck and it’s been called that ever since. I must confess I haven’t listened to CSIROpod for sometime so I’m not sure if they’re still using the same music.
Last week I was faced with a similar challenge. I had to create the first Digital Dips podcast for Fleishman-Hillard in about two days. This time, I was determined to get the music right.
So I contacted Charlie Chan. Charlie is a magical creature who writes beautiful music for movies, television and documentaries.
I met her when I was working at Channel Seven. I was working on this horribly tabloid television show and Charlie wrote the intro music. She was a very bright spark in a bit of a wasteland and while I only met her a couple of times, I never forgot her.
Fast forward (ahem) 19 years and I’m on the phone to Charlie, asking if I can buy a music track. Not just any music track. I want the track she wrote which was used by the ABC’s program Australian Story.
I knew it was probably impossible, but I have always loved the Australian Story music. If you shut your eyes, you can just imagine travelling on a journey, winding your way along a road set in the rainforest. It’s a really evocative piece.
The track is called Paradise, from Charlie’s album “East and West” which you can buy from Martian Music http://bit.ly/8NzftZ
Charlie and I struck a one off deal for a year. I used a remix of the Paradise track and it just makes all the difference to the podcast. If you want to hear it, check out my earlier post which includes a podcast interview with Kate Lundy http://bit.ly/7D4RgI.
I truly believe it’s worth spending money to make a podcast sound good. You can cut corners in other areas, but it makes sense to pay a one-off fee to a local musician than using hideous royalty free music. Plus you’re supporting local arts and culture.
If I’m creating a podcast for a client, I like the result to sound polished and professional. Good music, a good ‘radio voice’, good talent and good editing make all the difference.
You can check out the amazing Charlie Chan at her website: www.charliechan.com.au.
Kylie
p.s. for the cynics among you (and I’m normally one of them), this isn’t a plug for Charlie. I just like what she does.
