Author Topic: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?  (Read 4030 times)

C0NN1E

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Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« on: October 05, 2022, 10:55:00 PM »
It's a good question!

What about library music tracks that appeals so much to you?

For me, I just think the amount of creative freedom presented in a lot of library tracks is crazy. You'd be hard pressed to find a track that is bad. I love library music!

WSBG Returns Yet Again!

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2022, 11:09:45 PM »
I like the orchestral styles used in these tracks, it just makes it feel like an orchestral score for anything you'd like to put it in, even the electronic (i.e. Eric Siday and Desmond Leslie) and big band stuff (i.e Syd Dale & Johnny Hawksworth) feels like that too. Plus, the music tracks covers pretty much everything that it fits to, like light/modern movement, dramatic, romantic, comedy, space, sports marches, industrial and so much more!  :D
« Last Edit: October 05, 2022, 11:13:08 PM by WSBG Returns Yet Again! »
Peace, Love, and Library Music!

TheMusicalAvenger

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2022, 01:00:26 AM »
It has that sense of variety that not many big company music producers are able to tap into. They can be used for anything. Commercials, logos, drama, action, space adventures, romance, restaurants, stores, big band, and even more. The sheer amount of effort and creativity given to these songs is vast and endless.

Bronic

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2022, 01:39:56 AM »
Much of those old libraries and their musicians hit that sweet spot of melody, jazz, experimentation with the bonus of the late 70's early 80's synth and orchestral sound. Also you get top-notch musicianship and creativity.

I spent most of my life listening challenging things from 70's progressive rock (Symphonic, RP-Italiano, Krautrock, Zeuhl) to a bit of jazz but those often seem confined to their tropes. In prog rock is rare to find clever ideas, much of it are average rock ideas stretched and linked together around a narrative. To my surprise some of these composers were members of prog bands (Teddy Lasry, Jannik Top from magma and Francis Monkman from Curved Air).

Example SPOILER: No prog rock band would ask an orchestra to repeat an ascending chord progression over and over and stick with it except by the last round by going lower at the beginning to add punch to the conclusion. Such odd brilliant composition. You got to have a thinking brain to come up with this stuff:


BenKirb

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #4 on: October 06, 2022, 04:31:58 AM »
I like library music because it sounds strange sometimes, but also sounds amazing, and has recognizability to many people.
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tonyc1971

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #5 on: October 10, 2022, 08:24:18 PM »
Very similar to others, I collected library music to get hold of the long lost tunes I heard as a child.  Be it on the test card, incidental music on TV programmes (including Prisoner Cell Block H, The Sweeney etc), TV themes that used library music, advertisements etc etc.

With the help of some others we purchased a variety of library albums from all sorts of labels with a view to complete some old tapes that the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and S4C here in the UK used for their test card music.  This took some doing.

Websites along the way included Vinyl Vultures which later became Very Good Plus (VG+), various re-incarnations of this great forum with those very knowledgeable members helped complete the gaps by sharing our vinyl rips.  Much like we do here today.

It grew from there.  Once I'd completed and achieved what I wanted I then continued my search for other treasures.  Again, with the help of others here I've listened to more libraries, more artists and songs that I care to remember.  Most good, some not so good.  It's a question of taste.  Even within this genre, there are plenty of albums that I've listened or flicked through and probably never listened to again.  Every now and then, someone here will comment about an album, be it a request or upload and based on comments, there is the odd one I've gone back too and really liked.  I think it's an age thing and tastes change.

That said, there is nothing like obtaining an album and listening to it and even if you don't know why you bought or downloaded it, there is often a track, or whole album that makes it all worthwhile.

When I first started out buying library albums, I wanted to rip them immediately so I could listen again easily without digging out the vinyl again and having to play.  Here was the problem.  Back 20 years ago, hard drive space was much smaller than it is today.  Just looking at a 1TB HDD back then would have set me back hundreds of pounds.  When I started ripping at 320kbps and my HDD filling up fast I didn't think twice but to reduce the quality to 128kbps.  I kick myself for it now.  I had to sell my vinyl collection in 2012 around 10 years after I started.

Not long after I started to collect, I was sniffing around eBay and spotted a 'library haul'.  It had 500+ albums that were saved going into a skip from someone at the BBC.  He tried to log them and sell separately but was too time consuming, so ended up selling as one large lot.  I was up until stupid o'clock and spent a large sum of money on them.  I collected from a services off the M40 on the outskirts of north London and my boot was full of boxes of vinyl.  I had an idea what they were but not the tunes they contained.  Lets just say, I didn't have much sleep those first few weeks listening to them and ripping them.  It was like a drug.  The next album had tracks I recognised and this helped me re-create most of what Channel 4 used along with S4C and some what the BBC used.  I couldn't believe it. 

Going back to 2012 when I had to sell them.  I was gutted.  I was looking at online prices as a guide and sold separately.  Needless to say I made more than what I paid for and them did something similar by listing a 'library haul' for around 200-250 albums.  I remember the guy picking them up.  His eyes were hanging out of his head and thought to myself, that was me 10 years ago.  Would I do it again ?  Probably not.  Prices are heavily inflated and most know what they are worth, plus with PayPal and postal costs spiralling, it's an expensive hobby.

I'm happy with my collection held on my HDD from my own collection, and over time when hard drive prices came down and members here and elsewhere downloaded in lossless, the desire to replace my heavily compressed recordings engulfed me and really proud of what everyone here has achieved and how we help out library family with missing albums or upgrades.  Thanks to those people, and a big thanks to those who have helped compile various compilations along the way including David Evans who has his own C4 test card website, Lord Thames who, to be fair if he doesn't know the answer to a question or clip of something it is incredibly rare.  Wish I had his knowledge !, the admin here and regular contributors who make this forum what it is.  Fantastic !  Sorry, I've rambled on long enough.  Thanks for reading and happy collecting everyone !
« Last Edit: October 10, 2022, 08:26:34 PM by tonyc1971 »

Gannett

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #6 on: October 10, 2022, 08:52:00 PM »
Like some others, it was initially to find those recognisable tunes from radio and TV, but quickly I realised that this stuff was something special, particularly because of its non-commercial nature. These tunes weren't  created to make loads of money, they were there to do work.

At one time I would just download anything I could get my hands on, decent library was hard to come by. Now I'm more discerning, I know what areas of library music interest me, and which ones don't. The one thing I'm finding is that in the past, when you would discover 1 or 2 albums and sort of digest them, now you can download a whole bunch of stuff at once and just flick through it.

I will say that while my taste in music has changed over the years, my love of library music has remained constant.

Porn Library

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #7 on: October 11, 2022, 12:56:18 PM »
Simple answer here....I dig 70's and early 80's instrumental grooves (Disco, Funk, Jazz/Funk and Easy Listening with a groove), and it just so happens that a lot of library music from this time frame was just an addition of that for me.

Psyclon

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #8 on: October 11, 2022, 04:50:25 PM »
I am a child of the 90s and thus grew up with the MegaDrive/Genesis. The console contained the YM2612 chip, basically a DX7 light version. The legendary FM keyboard has a very distinctive, digital, metallic sound that goes under my skin. I would sit there and listen to the tunes instead of playing the actual game. Many games had a "sound test" feature in the options and I loved the sound since that.

Later when we replaced our dial-up with a flatrate DSL connection in the early 2000s, I sucked up chip tunes and tracked music like crazy, I learned about the Amiga vs Atari fight and the demoscene. Electronic sounds from the 80s and 90s, with no vocals, and made without any pressure of being a chart hit. Just musicians doing their thing.

That is basically 75% of why I love production music. The other 25% are the fact that my personal PM library (700 tracks) is strictly limited to the years 1980 to 1999. With that I have exactly what I always loved but never could really have - instrumental background music. In educational VHS tapes there was great music going on in the background but obviuosly, for me that was out of reach, so I resorted to my chiptunes.

Finally, with access to the watermark-free stereo demo files, I could built up those tracks. Also, the sound is amazing: Slap bass, saxophones, pads...  Funny link is that one of the best Sega soundtracks is made by Spencer Nilsen. Before he came to SEGA, he produced music for NETWORK MUSIC ;)


GraniteCity

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #9 on: October 11, 2022, 05:47:35 PM »
That reminds me of something. Does anyone know that Koji Kondo, Jun Senoue or Hidenori Shoji composed for a music library?

C0NN1E

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #10 on: October 11, 2022, 06:49:51 PM »
That reminds me of something. Does anyone know that Koji Kondo, Jun Senoue or Hidenori Shoji composed for a music library?

This is quite interesting to learn about. What label are these compositions from?
« Last Edit: October 11, 2022, 07:37:06 PM by C0NN1E »

Bronic

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #11 on: October 13, 2022, 03:26:47 AM »
That reminds me of something. Does anyone know that Koji Kondo, Jun Senoue or Hidenori Shoji composed for a music library?

I bet the opposite, that they had access to library records at some point:



vs.



at 1:30

testcard

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2022, 09:27:16 AM »
Because, at present, most of the most beautiful pure music in the world is collected by library music, though not all.
I can appreciate the musical genius of human beings. Many musical melodies and scores are extremely perfect, as if they do not belong to this world. Occasionally, I have the illusion that this is not a work created entirely by people, but should be under the guidance of God.
English is not my mother tongue, so there are often mistakes in writing. Please forgive me. I will try to improve.

dothislikebrutus

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #13 on: October 27, 2022, 04:05:49 AM »
I like several aspects about library music. 

1.  I like how most of it is instrumental.  After years of listening to someone sing lyrics and conveying some story,  I got tired of
the confinement of decoding what they were trying to tell me. 

2.  I like how a lot of it seems somewhat minimal.  I feel like library music is the quieter presentation of music in some cases.  I find a lot of studio pop/r&b/jazz etc.
comes off more "outgoing" if you will,  trying to grab your attention with technical showboating and just comes off more "serious" or sterile to my ears.  While Library music
is literally made to blend in the background.

3. I also like the rarity aspect of the realm.  I know a lot of the heavy hitters within labels and artists are getting well deserved digitized and reissue treatment,  but so much
seems to be only available through sharing, the vinyl/cd format and youtube.  Seems most of it isn't on major streaming services.   I like the idea in a lot of cases these songs aren't going to pop up randomly in some spotify playlist.

4.  I'm also a fan of cheesy/cheap/novelty sounds and it doesn't really get any cheesier than some of the Italian library I've discovered.

5.  I also love the experimentation going on in library music.  It seems to go as far out as any other type of music,  arguably further.

6.  ....nostalgia

7. ...moog

BenKirb

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Re: Question: Why do you enjoy library music?
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2022, 12:56:20 AM »
I like several aspects about library music. 

1.  I like how most of it is instrumental.  After years of listening to someone sing lyrics and conveying some story,  I got tired of
the confinement of decoding what they were trying to tell me. 

2.  I like how a lot of it seems somewhat minimal.  I feel like library music is the quieter presentation of music in some cases.  I find a lot of studio pop/r&b/jazz etc.
comes off more "outgoing" if you will,  trying to grab your attention with technical showboating and just comes off more "serious" or sterile to my ears.  While Library music
is literally made to blend in the background.

3. I also like the rarity aspect of the realm.  I know a lot of the heavy hitters within labels and artists are getting well deserved digitized and reissue treatment,  but so much
seems to be only available through sharing, the vinyl/cd format and youtube.  Seems most of it isn't on major streaming services.   I like the idea in a lot of cases these songs aren't going to pop up randomly in some spotify playlist.

4.  I'm also a fan of cheesy/cheap/novelty sounds and it doesn't really get any cheesier than some of the Italian library I've discovered.

5.  I also love the experimentation going on in library music.  It seems to go as far out as any other type of music,  arguably further.

6.  ....nostalgia

7. ...moog

I agree with you on the nostalgia part.
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