Blogs

Sound Design vs. Music for Trailers: Balancing the Ultimate Audio Showdown

Gather 'round, folks! Today we're diving into a sonic duel: sound design versus music for trailers. Each brings its own set of attributes to the table. Music provides the emotional depth ready to pull at your heartstrings. Sound design, armed with whooshes, booms, and pops provides that extra sizzle, making sure you don't just see an explosion—you feel it. We love a happy ending, which is why we feel obligated, nay privileged, to end this "feud." Tag along with us as we explain the distinction between sound design versus music for trailers and how they coexist to enhance the storytelling of a trailer.

How to Choose Music for YouTube Videos & Ads

Choosing the right music for YouTube videos & ads isn't just an afterthought—it's a key ingredient in the recipe for success on the platform. Think of music as the seasoning: it can elevate your content to new heights or make it completely unpalatable. Our team at SAS always has a blast selecting music for advertisements. Of course, that includes videos and ads on YouTube. With some of our latest placements like the Hyundai Genesis GV60 “Have Fun, Recharge, Repeat" campaign, we felt inspired to break down our process of picking the perfect music for YouTube videos & ads.

The Top 10 Best Video Game Soundtracks EVER!

Ah, video game music—where would we be without you? Still playing games probably, but silently and awkwardly so. It is mesmerizing how far music has come in video games. Like the reasons mentioned in our blog about the Impact of Music in Commercials, music in video games enhances the gameplay, helps set the tone, creates a pace, and enriches the storytelling. We know that narrowing down the best video game soundtracks of all time to just 10 is a very subjective pursuit. However, after consulting our team of music supervisors, film/TV trailer composers, video game composers, and, of course, the internet, we conjured up our list of the 10 best video game soundtracks of all time. So, grab your controller and headphones, and let’s dive in.

The SAS Speaker Series Presents: A Casual Conversation With Sr. Music Supervisor, Mike Ladman

What’s new at Score a Score you ask? We recently hosted the first episode of our SAS Speaker Series! Now you're probably asking yourself, "What's the SAS Speaker Series?" Our founder and CEO, Jordan Passman, just started hosting Zoom webinars where he's joined by industry experts for some casual conversation about what they do best. Our first guest was Mike Ladman, a good friend and very talented music supervisor. Mike and Jordan met back in 2010 when Jordan first founded SAS. Mike at the time just started his internship at McCann, one of the most legendary ad agencies in the world. After working his way up at McCann, he eventually left to work at Droga5, a highly-respected creative ad agency. He's been at Droga5 for 7 years now as a top Sr. Music Supervisor. From the evolution of music supervision to AI predictions, check out the entire interview below. Or, scroll through to read some of the highlights. Enjoy!

Sonic Stories From Our Trailer Music Composers: Track 1

Our team of trailer music composers is filled with unparalleled talent. In that talent lies an endless amount of wisdom and inspiration. Getting to know the creative process and lessons from artists in the composer universe should be a never-ending pursuit. In our newest blog series, Sonic Stories, we unveil the insights, stories, and personalities of our SAS artists. Starting with the one and only Daniel Ciurlizza (pronounced “Chur-Leet-Zuh”)!

The Most Memorable Placements From Our Music Supervisors

Our music supervisors have been making big moves lately! At the top of the summer, they wrapped up a major Pepsi spot for their “Summer Forever” campaign. Earlier this year, the two LA Lakers-related series we worked on in 2022 got nominated for Sports Emmys, one of which took home the win for Outstanding Documentary Series! As our music supervision team keeps bringing in the heat, we passed the pen (or is it keyboard?) over to Mindy Dinh to talk about the best placements from our SAS music supervisors... so far. Take it away, Mindy!

SAS Favorites: Custom Trailer Music Edition

It has been such a thrill to see how much Score a Score has accomplished over the past few years. The company has grown to 19 team members (and counting), we supervised our first Super Bowl LVI commercial for Bud Light Next, and a few weeks ago, our custom trailer music was part of 7 campaigns nominated for a GTA! That included Best Music for Babylon, which took home the win. Even more recently, we launched the re-brand of our trailers department! We are now officially called Locked.

How to Get Music on TikTok in 2023

If you're looking to master the art of creating music on TikTok, you've come to the right blog. We all know and love TikTok for its short-form videos. Over the past few years, TikTok has become an incredible source for music discovery, where new and upcoming artists can promote their music to a wider audience. As a proud TikTok Sound Partner with dozens of trending tracks in the TikTok Commercial Music Library (CML), we felt it was time to cover everything you need to know about getting your music on TikTok and how to make the most of this platform.

The Impact of Music in Commercials

Fun fact of the day: As of 2022, the Gen-Z attention span is about 1.3 seconds. Even though this metric is about Gen-Zers, social media has shortened all of our attention spans. This overwhelming fact plays a huge part in how advertisers choose to tell their stories. While visuals and copy take the forefront, the role of music in commercials is equally important when capturing viewers' attention. We’ve got five reasons and examples as to why that is so.

Happy Birthday To Us!

Score a Score is officially 13 years old! It has been such an incredible adventure seeing our company grow into the team it is today. To celebrate, we want to take you all on a trip down memory lane with our 13 most happy scoring moments since SAS first began.

Music Supervision in Film: Tips & Tricks From Leon Bromell

Allow us to introduce Leon Bromell, one of the first music supervisors to join the SAS team! He is based in New York, is always up for a round of tennis, and his love for Greek food runs deep. So does his love for music supervision in film! Finding the perfect song to enhance an audience's emotional response to a movie is a skill. It is one that Leon has perfected. It took time to perfect the beat though. As Leon enters his second year as a music supervisor at Score a Score, he has collected 5 key pieces of wisdom when it comes to music supervision.

The Best Record Shops To Celebrate Record Store Day 2023!

World Record Store Day is upon us! Saturday, April 22nd to be exact. To prepare for this very important holiday, our team of film composers, sound designers, and music supervisors have joined forces to create the ultimate list of record shops to celebrate.

How to License Music Legally for TikTok Videos?

TikTok has become one of the most popular and fastest-growing social media platforms, especially among the younger crowd. It has massively grown in the last few years and now stands above Facebook, Google, and other tech giants.

Why Is Sonic Branding Important?

Have you ever heard a sound that brings back old memories or provokes certain images? Sound is the native language of the brain which is processed twenty to a hundred times faster than visual input. In fact, hearing is the most responsive human sense, and listening to a sound can help predict what we are about to see.

What Makes Good Sound Design?

No matter how beautiful the visuals are, a film needs great sound design to provide an immersive experience to the audience.

What Song License Do I Need for a Business or Brand?

Music streaming apps like Spotify and Pandora should allow you to play music anywhere for any reason, right? Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than that, especially if you’re playing music for a business or brand. So, before you begin streaming your favorite Spotify station at your new business location for your patrons, you need to read this.

What Song License Do I Need for a Kickstarter or Other Crowdfunding Campaign?

Any time you add someone else’s music to a project, you run the risk of copyright infringement. This applies to crowdfunding. Crowdfunding is when you ask for small donations from people on the internet to help pay for a project you have created.

What Song License Do I Need for a Podcast?

What makes a good podcast is a combination of commentary and audio clips. You will need to obtain a song license to play music and audio clips in a podcast. There are different types of song licenses you can choose for different purposes in your podcast. These include sync licenses, fair uses licenses, and live music publishing licenses.

What is Sonic Branding?

How many brands do you recognize simply from a tune or melody that is played? When you think about it, there are probably a lot more than you realize.

The Journey of a Song in Advertising: How to Get Your Music on Commercials

Although the internet has vastly widened the advertising landscape, many big brands still rely heavily on broadcast TV commercials. The majority of TV shows feature highly competitive music spots. As such, it can be challenging to get your music on such commercials.

8 Reasons Why Jingles are Powerful in Advertising

Like most people, you have that one jingle that has become your earworm. It gets stuck in your head and keeps playing, or, as soon as you hear it you can't help but sing along.

Film & TV Composer Agency

There is an immeasurable number of composers who can be hard to find. Not from any fault of their own, but because it is sometimes difficult for film and TV composers to market themselves and their talents within an opaque industry.

How to Get Music on TikTok

To stay relevant on social media, you need to be on all the latest platforms. The latest and fastest-growing social media platform is the music-centric app TikTok, with an estimated 1 billion users. That’s a lot of potential exposure! Artists are constantly gaining popularity on TikTok by adding their music onto the app. This is why it’s so important to get your music on TikTok. Users can add your music or sound to their videos, which can end up getting millions of plays, or even billions if it goes viral. But before your song goes viral, it needs to get onto the app. Score a Score will walk you through the process of how to get music on Tiktok and why it’s important to have your music on the platform.

What is Sound Design?

Sound design is the process of recording, editing, and mixing various sound elements and musical pieces for all types of visual media, including in a feature film, television, advertisements, video games and live performance, like theater. For sound design to work, a sound designer and sound design team must know a variety of sound techniques and elements and when to use them.

Advertising Background

Pay attention the next time an ad comes on TV. Do you hear background music that matches the type of ad being played? Now imagine if background music wasn’t added at all. Most commercials would sound like they were missing something, and they would be! They would be missing the vital background music that makes an ad captivating and engaging. That’s what makes advertising music so crucial to the TV ad. Music is crucial to advertising and branding, it plays a huge role in grabbing the audience’s attention and retaining it.

What is Music Supervision?

Movies, television, video games, and advertisements all use music to provide the audience with a memorable experience. To ensure the audience receives the best experience, the music will need to be carefully and strategically chosen by someone who has knowledge of music placement, music licensing, and the overall importance that music plays in the production.