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Soundtracks: Scoring Yourself A Hit

Sam Prout takes a look at what recording artists get out of going down ‘the soundtrack route’.

Posted 9th February 2012, 1:02pm in Blogs by Sam Prout
Sam Prout

Sam Prout

Soundtracks: Scoring Yourself A Hit A great song can make a great scene, on film or TV, but what, I hear you ask, do recording artists get out of going down ‘the soundtrack route’? Don’t pretend you didn’t ask that.

Money may be the most tangible thing a band will receive in return for their song being featured on an original soundtrack. Certainly there are fees involved, and some production companies will pay big bucks, but that song placement is also like a gig you don’t have to turn up to. In fact, it’s like a gig the audience didn’t even know they were going to see, and that kind of exposure can make a band’s name. Quite recently, new UK indie outfit Kankouran had their track Rivers featured on the official trailer for Series 6 of Skins. A little more than a fortnight later, the band had received over 1,000 new likes on Facebook. Quite a performance when you consider that Kankouran have yet to play an actual gig.



For the bigger boys and girls of the music industry, movie placements can bring a band to the attention of whole new audiences. It may be unsurprising that in the US in 2009 the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack shifted 153,000 copies in its first week on sale, but that soundtrack featured songs by The Killers, Thom Yorke and the Magic Numbers. Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon collaborated on a track just for the movie soundtrack, and Lupe Fiasco came bundled as a bonus feature. I still wouldn’t download it though... *opens iTunes*

Movie placement can also lead to glittering prizes, with an Academy Award the shiniest bauble of all. Traditionally, musical Oscars have been dominated by giants of cinema history like John Williams (who’s won five Best Original Scores already, and is nominated for two more in 2012), but last year, the Best Score went to Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, maybe better known as Nine Inch Nails, for their music for The Social Network. Also in with a good chance of winning a musical Oscar in 2012 is Flight of the Conchords’ Bret McKenzie, for his Best Original Song, Man Or Muppet (yes really), from the current Muppets Movie.



If Bret wins, he’ll join a host of other popular musicians who’ve won a Best Original Song gong, including Eminem, Elton John, and Berlin (you know, from Top Gun). It’s worth remembering, though, that turning the dairy up to eleven doesn’t always guarantee a win; despite brutally churning out the cheese, Aerosmith and Bryan Adams both missed out on Oscars in the Nineties. Both were beaten by songs from animated features. You can make up your own punch lines.

Of course, Academy Awards success isn’t necessary for a soundtrack to be widely received by audiences and critics. Even tracks from smaller films, like Alex Turner’s songs from the 2011 film Submarine, often become just as strongly associated with a movie as any award winners, and can help to make the movie what it is. Besides, even an Oscar-nominated soundtrack doesn’t always please the whole audience. In January, retired Hollywood actress Kim Novak took out an advert in Variety explaining that she felt as though “[her] body- or at least [her] body of work- has been violated...” An extreme response, you might think, to new silent movie The Artist’s use of 6 minutes of music from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. As keen as Kim was to slam the breezy black-and-white picture, taking out a full page ad dedicated to the film, in a widely-read entertainment magazine, probably wasn’t the act of sabotage she might have intended.

Not every band is so eager to have their tracks featured in the mainstream, though, famously Clap Your Hands Say Yeah reportedly turned down the opportunity to appear on an episode of the O.C. for fears it would damage their credibility. And for all of its advantages, simply being featured on a soundtrack does not guarantee automatic success anyway. Simon Pursehouse, Director of Music Services for Sentric Music, and responsible for negotiating Kankouran’s placement on the Skins trailer, warns that a band still has to be proactive in order to fully benefit from that valuable soundtrack placement. In particular, Simon recommends getting hold of the search engine terms that relate your track to THAT key scene as one simple (but often-overlooked) way to make sure that anybody who pauses the DVD to search for your song actually finds what they’re looking for. This is especially important for new and underground artists hoping to broaden their exposure through soundtrack work. Taking a look at Sentric Music’s blog (sentric.wordpress.com) would be a good start for any band looking to go down the soundtrack route, but the rewards, if you get it right, speak for themselves.

So there you have it, valuable soundtrack placement can bring in juicy rent money, golden statues, and epic exposure; but make sure you know what you’re doing, and don’t expect everyone to be happy.

These rewards may be something that DIY Records’ own TVEGC soon enjoy for themselves, as their song 'Bag Of Meat' has been chosen to feature on the soundtrack for new British horror flick Elfie Hopkins. The trailer, featuring a sample of the track, is online now.
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