How did you guys get into library music?

[KPMPK1001]

I’ve been thinking about how there are so many people who are interested in library music including myself. So I’m just wondering how you guys got into library music?

For me, my first experience was through NFL Films and their usage of various music libraries like KPM and De Wolfe. I decided to look up the music they used and found the KPM library on YouTube.

[tonyc1971]

I’ve been a fan of library music since before I even understood what it was. Being based in the UK, we were and still are subjected to it every day be it a TV theme, advert or trailer or music used on a test card. This is where I first heard library music.  The downtime on tv channels filled initially by a test card and then in the 80’s and beyond, teletext pages ‘in vision’. So for me, it was trying to track those tunes I’d heard as a kid growing up in the 70’s and 80’s. When the internet exploded it didn’t take long for me to come across others like myself on forums such as LMT, Vinyl Vulture (now VG+) and blogs such as our very own Retronic. There was also a site dedicated to music used on Channel 4 and it went on there.

I secured a large haul of library albums on an infamous auction site and paid a fair amount of money. These albums were about to be skipped by the BBC and a fellow enthusiast saved them in the hope of cataloging them but never found the time. Apart from pictures I didn’t really know what I was buying. However I secured most of the Bruton, Themes Int, Boosey & Hawkes, Chappell, Parry Music and more. I ripped what I could but then my second child was due so the albums had to go. I’m not sure who had them but know he lived not too far from me in Warwickshire.  I hope whoever has them still has them and has looked after them.  Who knows, they may even be a member here.

I still discover new music and genres. I’m a firm believer that as one grows older, your taste changes. For example, when I was younger I didn’t care much for the music the BBC used on its test card but now a
Big fan and thanks to the Test Card Circle I still am discovering new gems that I like. I’ve also found a large chunk of library albums that S4C used which was never documented anywhere (to my knowledge) and other libraries from other countries that satellite channels and companies used in their promos.

I don’t always listen to library music. There are weeks when I don’t bother but always come back to it and delve in a folder I may not have been in before. With Retronic’s YT channel with library compilations this also opened up my eyes to other labels and composers I wouldn’t usually listen too. Not one bad video on that channel. Library music means different things to different people. For me, it’s about rediscovering your past and listening to snippets producers put on their commercially released music.  Long live library music and Library Music Themes.

[Bronic]

Youtube.

I was somewhat aware of Bruton and KPM before but 5 years ago someone uploaded a +2 hour compilation of Bruton tracks. It was very jazz based instead of the boring funky emphasis that everybody else does (I'm pointing my finger at 11db11). I kept listening the video playlist for months, everyday.

Suddenly the video was gone, as the whole channel that posted it. I took the task of reassembling the playlist from memory in the exact same order. It took a month getting to download the Bruton library, listening everything and assembling the exact addicting order of tracks and reuploading it to Youtube. I only made a single mistake so it's missing just a song from the original list.

By downloading all Bruton I also got a set of other labels. As I was already listening to conventional jazz (Monk, Coltrane...) but I found the sweet spot of jazz, symphonic progressive rock and 1970s production. Library music that is not rooted in the jazz or orchestral tradition is just faking it.

[BenKirb]

Through watching old television clips on YouTube.

I bet that's how many of my other friends got into library music.
It wasn't until late 2022 (around the time of my obsession with that one Chameleon Music album, which I'd rather not get into) that I really got into library music. I now have a collection of about 100 CDs!

[stackjackson]

... For me, it was around 1994 or 1995 when I was first introduced to library records. I had purchased a handful of De Wolfe 10' LPs from a large estate sale in Virginia, owned originally by an old RCA executive in New York City... I was clueless about what these peculiar records were at the time, and wouldn't learn about them, and library music generally, until a couple years later when the Sound Gallery comps, etc. started coming out...

[WIILKAS]

It was thanks to soap operas, in the 80s and 90s they used a lot of library music and that's how I started to like it. The first thing I knew was the Netwok Music Ensemble catalog

[danthemusiclover]

When I was browsing YouTube, I suddenly came across a video by a former YouTuber who called himself "Adventures In Sound", it was the song "M. Zalla - Risaie". (Nov 7, 2020)

I was lucky with the algorithm, because by clicking, without realizing it, I entered the world of the library. I remember my first impression, it captivated me.

And I discovered this forum because not too long ago, I discovered the Flash Resonance saga by Charles Talar Records, I searched in the search engine and the first thing that came up was this blessed forum.  (March 11, 2023)

[BenKirb]

It was thanks to soap operas, in the 80s and 90s they used a lot of library music and that's how I started to like it. The first thing I knew was the Netwok Music Ensemble catalog

Pardon me, but I think you simply mean Network Music. The "Ensemble" part is only used in official YouTube uploads of tracks.

[neowave]

I searched electronic music from the past and find some videos about 10 years ago (2014-2015). First video is from first laserdisc 3dcgi game from 1983.

I didn't know who was playing it but I wanted to get all the tracks, it was after some time of searching that I could find out that they were from Bruton label but I had these records in low quality first time, after the time - lossless.

The next video was Librarian Girls by Soulwax with a cover that doesn't exist (https://librarymusicthemes.com/index.php?topic=3774.0)
https://vimeo.com/25861658
or

Which directed me to music that is quite different from the official compilations and sources I had heard before.
Dived into this music in more detail since 2018

[hilbert]

If you asked me what library music was 15 years ago, I couldn't give you an answer, despite having heard it numerous times on TV like most people. I have always been curious about the music I heard during programme forecasts on TV in the early and mid-1990s when television channels didn't have a 24-hour programme, at least here in Austria and many other European countries. But I have only really become aware of library music through vintage porn. I realised that much of the music used in those "movies" was intriguing and thought that those were soundtracks specifically composed for those porno flicks. Trying to get an ID on some of my favourite tracks, I learned that some of them were used in mainstream productions such as Beavis & Butt-Head and even a James Bond movie. I think it was The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton. This gave me a hint that the music I heard in porn had an entirely different source. Long story short, what started as a small curiosity opened up the door into a whole new world of music for me. 

[stackjackson]

... I learned that some of them were used in mainstream productions such as Beavis & Butt-Head and even a James Bond movie. I think it was The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton... 

I'm curious, what's the name of the track/artist?

[hilbert]

... I learned that some of them were used in mainstream productions such as Beavis & Butt-Head and even a James Bond movie. I think it was The Living Daylights with Timothy Dalton... 

I'm curious, what's the name of the track/artist?

It's "Sacred Heart" by Chris Blackwell. You'll find it on "DWSLP 3571 - Rhythm Shop - See The Day (De Wolfe)."

Here's the scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5hXHYAWtDI

Full track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-_NTLrQ2d0

The first time I heard this track was in a porno movie called "Inside Napoli" from 1990. Same movie uses a couple of tracks from De Wolfe's "DWCD 022 -  Switchcraft."

[stackjackson]

It's "Sacred Heart" by Chris Blackwell. You'll find it on "DWSLP 3571 - Rhythm Shop - See The Day (De Wolfe)."

Cool. Thanks for the follow-up, hilbert.

[mistersofty]

Mom was a radio host. My earliest digging memories (86,87-ish) are 6-7 y.o. me sitting in front of a database terminal's green monitor, typing random keywords to look up cat. numbers then fetching the actual media from a dozen or more of metal filing cabinets filled to the brim with this newfangled "CD" technology. The idea was usually to borrow them for a couple of days in order to tape them. Yeah, I know, I know....
Anyway, some of my picks included library music, because it was a radio station and these things were kinda meant to be there... and I often didn't know any better.
Much later ('99) bought a pair of 1210's (I wanted to be a DJ) and started digging records, including stuff outside of my main "DJ music". Aka thrift stores and flea markets picks. And just like that, I got into library music again.