Originally, A&R (also known as Find and Sign) was a department in a label company that was in charge of finding prospective artists and matching them with a style and product that would sell. It was the job of the A&R manager to scout these artists and sign them to the label, and their responsibilities included providing negotiations, booking recording sessions, and selecting and marketing songs for the musicians. Nowadays, the position of an A&R manager still exists, but with a twist: he now usually searches for artists who have already found their style and developed their music. At Proud Music, we are very pleased to call Frank Herrlinger our A&R manager.
Pop Music
“Pop music” as a term exists since the mid 1920s. It used to mean plainly: popular music. Popular music encompassed anything from classical to jazz, blues, and rock ’n’ roll, but, as times changed, the meaning of the word evolved as well. In the 1950s, with the novelty from Elvis Presley and in the 1960s the novelty of The Beatles, popular music started being coined as a term to describe the music of preference of a larger targeted audience, namely that of adolescents. It is the kind of music characterized by being tuneful, up-tempo and repetitive (Encarta 2009). Many groups and singers have experienced success in this area since Elvis Presley and The Beatles, thanks to the growing acceptance of pop music and its inevitable development of varieties, which now also include, among others, techno, rap, reggae and hip hop. Some of these groups and singers are Michael Jackson, The Bee Gees, Elton John, Beyoncé, and The Who. If you are looking for actual pop music, the Proud Music Library offers around 1500 titles available for licensing.
Can I listen to all the tracks of the Library online?
Of course. You can access the entire library any time. You can listen to all the tracks in their entirety and in high audio quality (128 kbit/s) via streaming. To listen to the tracks without the watermark (beep), all you have to do is sign up for a free account.
Could you send me a sample cd of your tracks?
First the bad news: We do not send out sample cds of our royalty-free music. But the good news is: Sample cds wouldn’t be that helpful, as we are expanding the library so often, so CDs could in no way provide the full spectrum our Proud Music Library that is available to you online any time.
The Pros and Cons of Background Music on Websites
To use or not to use background music on websites: that is the question. Although some people might argue that music is only nuisance and parallel to “acoustic pollution”, there is evidence that can prove otherwise. Yes, you read right. True: For those who simply want to find information on the web, music proves to be an added element that makes it hard to multitask. Nevertheless, nowadays there is an added entertainment value that cannot be ignored. The interplay of ambience and effect has an impact on emotions and thus, the decision-making process. Furthermore, in a world where video games have come to encourage the desire for immediate gratification, reading texts is time consuming and tedious. Music plays an important role in advertising, since it sets the mood and serves as fast and effective messaging.
Naturally, not all websites require music, and in some cases it is even discouraged. Although music should be functional, web design is just as important. Take for example news sites, where music would disturb the actual task at hand, namely reading the news. Therefore, it is recommendable to add music only if there is an appropriate application area or where creating an effect would help in the transmission of information; otherwise rely on a good web design. At the end of this discussion, you will find excellent examples from clients who successfully used background music on their websites. The fusion of information and emotion was particularly well done. Towards this goal, the Proud Music Library offers thousands of hand-picked titles that have been proved applicable by our Artist and Repertoire Management.
We are both happy and proud to be able to present you with successful projects of integrating music to websites from our clients on our blog! By the way, this is not by any means the last blog entry about background music; there are more to come.
Andreas Holnburger, interior designer
Are there any DVDs/CDs with all titles found in the Proud Music Library?
There are no DVDs or CDs containing the compilation of the Proud Music Library. Why? We have an increase of around 40 entries and that our complete content is retrievable for licensing online.
What means “GEMA-freie Musik”?
The term “GEMA-freie Musik” means completely royalty free music. The composer of this music is not registered with a collecting society (ASCAP-free, BMI-free, PRS-free, SUISA-free, AKM-free, TONO-free, SIAE-free). The Proud Music Library contains more than 10,000 completely royalty free music for all media: e.g. web, movie, tv, advertising, on hold.
Showreel by Imagine People with Music by Manuel Kempter.
Imagine People produced a corporate film to promote the myriad of areas covered by their projects. They selected electro-pop music for its background, which is a form of granular synthesis created through sampling. In this particular showreel, the group from the Netherlands chose a work called “Doll Shopping” (completely royalty free music) by Manuel Kempter, one of the composers you can find in the Proud Music Library.
Showreel Imagine People from Imagine People on Vimeo.
Evi Sachenbacher-Strehle training for the World Cup in Oslo 2011
Music produced by Proud Music’s own Frank Herrlinger provides the background of this documentary on Evi Sachenbacher-Strehle. The name of the piece is “Route 1210.” Evi is a member of the German national Cross-country skiing team and is presently training for the World Cup in Oslo 2011 with Peter Schlickenrieder, himself a former Olympian. Nowadays, he appears regularly on the German Television show “ARD-Buffet” on ARD. In these videos, it is undeniable that an athlete of such caliber as Evi’s needs to train year ‘round, and you can see Evi training in the summertime with inline skates.
Search made easy through an autocomplete feature in the Proud Music Library!
We recently introduced a new feature on our web page, that makes finding the right track on a return visit a lot more convenient: Track names are now automatically completed in all the search boxes on our web page. If you enter a part of a track name, we will present you a dynamic list of matching track names through our new ajax-live search feature.