De Wolfe Music

October 15, 2004 7:57 AM

De Wolfe Music has a vast and fascinating CD catalogue of commercial music: classics, genre, sound effects, mood music, and soundalikes. Search or browse to find online full-length demos in RealPlayer format. Alternatively, the UK site provides demos via a Flash playbar. Check out, for instance, Chinese epic, clones of Kurt Weil or Scott Joplin, an Egyptian/Roman blockbuster, the Final Frontier - or maybe be Tense, a gladiator, laidback and Scottish, or very English.
posted by raygirvan (5 comments total)

That "laid back and scottish" link points at a very odd piece of hackwork -- essentially a barely-disguised transposition of Amazing Grace with some contemporary beats laid over it. How many other things in this library are like that? Assembly line imitation music for industrial applications?
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:06 AM on October 15, 2004

heh, it's called Production Music. There are tons of companies that do this ( Firstcom being the largest, and also owned by BMG/Sony.)

Instead of approaching the publisher or master rights holder each time a TV station, ( or local production house, in-house Corporate communications etc ) wishes to produce a local TV spot with music ( or some other application), they will go into their production music library. A music library can range from $2000-$20,000 per year, all inclusive master, synch and performance rights, depending on the market.

Often Film & Major TV network show sound editors will turn to production music for a cheaper alternative to the high synch fees associated with established bands. Rather than pay yearly fees associated with the above, they will pay a 'needle-drop' ( or per use ) fee depending on the usage.

Years back I used to work for one of DeWolfe's competitors, they are very nice guys, but one of the smaller fish in a VERY strange part of the music/television/film industry.
posted by remlapm at 8:15 AM on October 15, 2004

more here
posted by the cuban at 8:17 AM on October 15, 2004

George_Spiggott: it varies. Some, as you say, are a trifle lame; others are very sharp pastiches and original compositions by composers with good track records, like Paul Lawler. I ran into the site while trying to find the catchy theme used for the current NatWest ads - thought it was real Kurt Weil, but it turned out to be a clone by John Roos.
posted by raygirvan at 8:25 AM on October 15, 2004

Fans of Monty Python and the Holy Grail would recognize at least some DeWolfe music - the firm is credited with some of the film's music. In a DVD commentary, the Pythons said that they intended to have small little music, but it became obvious that it just wouldn't work for the film, so they just went to DeWolfe one day and bought a bunch of incidental music to put in because it was too late to do anything else.

(yes, this includes the fanfare as the knights traverse the countryside...)
posted by mdeatherage at 1:07 PM on October 15, 2004