MusikPitch

Video has become an integral part of the users experience on the internet. Long gone are the days when even the shortest clip would take an age to load; streaming video can now be accessed and watched almost instantaneously – and watched it is. According to Don Reisinger at The Digital Network, 83.5 % of US internet users watched internet video in January. That’s a total of over 171 million people. That translates into big bucks. Analyzing Comcast’s data, Reisinger says that average videos “lasted about five minutes, and those who watched ad-supported content were forced to sit through an average of 24 seconds worth of commercials.” Overall, that’s 4.3 billion ads in January alone.

So why has online video become so popular with internet users? A picture may speak a thousand words, but a video is worth at least a thousand pictures. Video is uniquely placed to give the most accurate reflection of events. Sights, sounds and action can all be shared in an easily accessible fashion. With smartphones from all major market players now ubiquitous, video can be used to document users lives, from everyday experiences to once in a lifetime events. The natural next step is to upload these videos online and share them with friends, family, and the world. Here is a video of a wedding shot entirely on an iPhone

Even big name news stations are now relying on user videos for coverage, with much of the footage from protests in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya coming from individual citizens who took out their smartphones and recorded the events that they were experiencing.

Viral videos, those internet phenomena that pervade social networking status updates and email forwards are especially popular. It’s hard to say exactly what it is that makes a video go viral. Anything from an awkward teenager with a light saber to horrific atrocities can, when caught on film, become a part of the cultural lexicon, known and seen by almost everyone.

One of the most important elements to a successful viral video is, of course, the soundtrack. Video is an immersive experience and the auditory input of a viewer is essential to their decision to continue watching and to share it with others. While catchy songs of the moment or iconic anthems of the past can sometimes be appropriate, a custom soundtrack can make a video really pop. The benefit of custom soundtracks is the ability to create perfect match between what is happening on screen and what is coming out of the speakers. The track can be designed to slowly build to a crescendo at the climax of the video, to feature as a soft backing to the clip, or to emphasize significant elements of the video.

It’s clear that online video is not only here to stay but will every day become even more vital to internet users’ experiences. Uploading and sharing videos is becoming easier every day, and as it becomes normal within social circles to do so, making and sharing original videos will become essential in order to keep up with the times.

Christopher Tin’s song, Baba Yetu, which is played when the video game Civilization IV opens, won a Grammy in 2011! This is the first time that a song for a video game has earned the title, reported an article in the Washington Post. The fact that this song won the honor highlights the importance of opting to have music custom made for your video game. Have a listen at Christopher’s amazing score:

Custom music should always be used to brand your games as the right music will make your video game instantly recognizable to your players. The music in your game will become your theme. Just as people remember the theme to a TV show or commercial, people will recognize your games through this music.

Can you imagine a movie without music? It would be flat and boring. The same thing is true of your video game. There’s no doubt that personalized music will add depth to your video game. The music will give your game personality and style. Music will also flow with your video game, indicating the highs and lows in the game.

It’s also important to have music that is specially tailored to your game. You don’t want your music to sound like any other. It will make gamers stick to the game and lure them back. No matter how fun and exciting your game, without customized music it may be still incomplete. There is nothing like having music that you can say is unique to your game.

A video game music composer will listen to your suggestions, play your game, and create music that embodies your game. When the music plays, people will know that your video game is being played even when they can’t see the game. A professional composer can create music that’s so fitting and seamless to you game, that you’d wonder why you hadn’t hired a composer sooner. You won’t be able to imagine playing your game without that particular music. That’s just how perfect the music will fit to your game.

The music composed specifically for your video game may give you and your game worldwide recognition. Like Tin’s song, the music connected to your game might earn awards and accolades. The song may become widely performed by famous musicians. The music may be recognized as a work of art. Your game sales could soar. People will become more interested in your game due to its award-winning music, and a media frenzy ensues. You never know what could happen. Imagine the press that Civilization IV is receiving based on the music. Newspapers, magazines, and television stations may report news related to your video game based on its phenomenal music. The creators of Civilization IV may not have known the heights at which the music created for their game will launch the game. Now they know. All said, customized music is must for any video game. Anything less is a disservice to the game and the users. Gamers deserve to have the best gaming experience ever, and music is a significant part of the experience.

Advertising jingles have been a staple of marketing and advertising campaigns since the early days of radio. General Mills is often credited with the first singing commercial in 1926 to boost the slumping sales of Wheaties cereal. Other companies soon jumped on the radio jingle bandwagon. While still in use today, advertising jingles exploded with the addition of television in the 1950s, gaining popularity throughout the 1960s and 70s.

Radio, however, is still the powerhouse of jingle placement. Marketing professionals use advertising jingles in radio to make their products memorable in an environment where no visual cues are available. Whether used in television or radio, advertising jingles play an important role in branding efforts, contributing more to brand recognition than any slogan or logo. Companies, products, service professionals, even bloggers can make their brand more memorable using musical jingles to get their unique qualities, slogans, or attributes stuck in the heads of their target market.

Still not sold on the idea of using advertising jingles to help create brand recognition? Consider these famous jingles. Odds are, you will recognize these products and companies after hearing only the first few musical notes. Not only are these the most famous advertising jingles, they are also perfect illustrations of the importance of brand recognition and how jingles contribute to that recognition.

See the USA in Your Chevrolet. In 1952, Dinah Shore sang this famous jingle for Chevrolet. “Make a date today to see the USA and do it in your Chevrolet…” It combined the spirit of patriotism with the dependability of a Chevy. Adding America’s favorite singer and television personality of the day didn’t hurt either.

Plop, Plop, Fizz, Fizz… Starting in the early 1960s and continuing through the 1980s, Alka-Seltzer used this famous jingle in dozens of commercials.

Everyone Knows its Slinky. In the 1960s and into the 1970s, this jingle for the children’s toy Slinky could be heard on the mouths of both children and parents. Who doesn’t remember watching a Slinky walk down the stairs to the tune of “It’s Slinky, it’s slinky. For fun it’s a wonderful toy…”

Oscar Mayer Wieners and Oscar Mayer Bologna. In the mid 1960s, kids wished they could be an Oscar Mayer wiener. In the 1970s, they learned to spell Oscar Mayer and bologna. Oscar Mayer was so good at using advertising jingles, they earned two spots in the best of all time jingles list. Bet you can’t listen without singing along!

I Am Stuck on Band-aid. Johnson & Johnson, the makers of Band-aids, produced this jingle to tout their product’s staying power. During the 1980s, variations were adapted for new products in the Band-aid product line.

Snap, Crackle, Pop… Can you name the cereal in this jingle? Have you ever wondered where the “Snap, Crackle, Pop…Rice Krispies” slogan started? It started with an advertising jingle back in the early days of black and white television.

It’s the Real Thing (I’d like to buy the world a Coke.) During the 1970s, the Coca-cola bottling company capitalized on the peace movement. People wanted an end to the Vietnam War and civil unrest. Coke used that desire to create a moving jingle for their product. They even created a special Christmas edition.

You Deserve a Break Today. McDonald’s used this slogan in a variety of radio and television advertising jingles from the early 70s until the mid to late 80s. As time passed, the updated the music and lyrics to fit the times, but the classic jingle lines “you deserve a break today…at McDonalds” stayed the same.

Like a Good Neighbor. For thirty years, State Farm has used their famous jingle. Today, the telltale notes and jingle still appear in commercials. It was one of many jingles with music written by Barry Manilow.

If you are ready to take the next step and allow music to increase your product awareness – get your custom jingle created on MusikPitch!

What is YOUR most memorable jingle of all time?

In movies, musical scores help build the emotional imagery necessary to communicate the right place, time, setting, and mood. How would viewers really feel when Dorothy dreamed of a better place without the famous “Over the Rainbow” performance in the opening scenes of Wizard of Oz?  How else would you find your heart pounding during the racing scenes from The Fast and the Furious without tracks like Limp Bizkit’s “Keep Rollin?” Film scores, when done well, can be just as important as plot, character interactions, and sets. The best film scores play their part so well; it is almost as if they become a character themselves. Listen to these top five film scores of all time and see if you don’t agree.

1. “The Wizard of Oz” The score won Oscars for composer Herbert Stothart for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Legends abound concerning various songs from the movie, including that studio executives planned to cut out “Over the Rainbow” altogether. Considering the Recording Industry Association ranked it number one on their list of “Songs of the Century,” it’s a good thing the executive’s plans were derailed. Did you know that the originally released soundtrack actually featured re-recorded versions of each song, performed by the Ken Darby Singers?







2. “The Sound of Music” The songs created for Julie Andrews and the rest of the cast by the songwriting duo Rodgers and Hammerstein are familiar to people worldwide – even those who haven’t seen the movie. It’s hard to tell if the score drives the movie, or the movie drives the score. No matter, the two combine flawlessly to create the ultimate cinematic marriage between audio and visual.







3. “A Fist Full of Dollars” Unlike any other film score before or since, the unique choices of instruments and blending of sound bites in this Ennio Morricone and Sergio Leone collaboration make it one of the best film scores of all time. Best known for the whistling, this score includes the sounds of gunshots, whips cracking, and introduced the world to the all-new Fender electric guitar. Just listen to the theme song and you can envision to the lonely, isolated, dusty old west.







4. “American Graffiti” Featuring hits from Chuck Berry and Bill Haley, this film score perfectly illustrates how we all capture the memories of our adolescence through popular music of our time. The soundtrack reeks of nostalgia and evokes memories of jukeboxes and time frozen in celluloid. So, “where were you in ’62?” George Lucas definitely picked the best songs to highlight the heydays of the early 60s.







5. “Wall-E.” When your main character has next to no dialog and no facial expressions to speak of, it’s up to the music to portray his thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Thomas Newman’s original scores were mixed with songs from Peter Gabriel, Michael Crawford, and classics like The Blue Danube to create the musical presence behind this films incredible success. It won Grammys and nominations for Academy Awards. Down to Earth was nominated for Best Original Song, while the entire soundtrack was nominated for Best Original Music Score.

Now that you’ve read and heard our picks for the best film scores, what was your favorite movie score of all time and why?

Announcing the ability to guarantee a custom music contest on MusikPitch. Now those needing custom songs can guarantee they will pick a winner. Below is a screenshot of the Guaranteed symbol in use for a current song contest:

We are excited to announce this change as songwriters can now feel confident in submitting their work knowing that the contest holder is guaranteeing they will pick a winner. We also hope that more contest holders will guarantee their contests knowing that they will receive more quality submissions by doing so.

Very excited to hear that EzineArticles has added a new category under their Arts-and-Entertainment main category labeled: Filmmaking-and-Film-Editing. Ezine describes this category as discussing

Filmmaking, Cinematography, Movie Making, Audiography, Filmmaking Schools and Courses, Film Production, Film Editing and Directing, Screenplays, Development, Pre and Post-Production, Independent Filmmaking, Tools and Equipment, History, Sales and Distribution, Cameras and Popular Filmmakers.

We will definitely be using this category to research information and also submit articles using our knowledge of sourcing custom music for films and videos.

If you have been active on MusikPitch lately, you may have noticed a few changes. These will be the first of many changes we are making based on all the feedback we have received from both songwriters and those needing custom songs.

The first change is the addition of a chat function that will help us at MusikPitch headquarters walk people through the process of launching a new music project. I’ve worked with the people at Zopim chat and am really loving the new feature. If you’d like to try it out, just go to the homepage and click the orange chat bubble.

If someone is available to chat, this will bring up the chat window which will stay on throughout the launch process.

The second addition we completed last week was to set a minimum project prize of $500.00. After running for a few months, we’ve seen that when those needing custom music are given the option to choose a payment, they will choose the lowest possible prize amount, even if warned the quality and number of music submissions will be low. If they don’t receive a song they like, which is highly possible at such a low prize, they will just request a refund. This is tough on songwriters to compete for such low amounts and also hurts the MusikPitch brand. Although we have seen some companies have success at the $100 prize level, we feel it is more beneficial overall to set a higher minimum. Therefore the current Celebrate Green Radio Theme will be the final $100 contest that you will see on MusikPitch.

We have also added the requirement in our terms and conditions that those running a music contest must provide adequate feedback for each song received in order to declare they are unsatisfied with their music and receive a refund.

Some future changes in the works are a 30 day time limit on selecting a winner after the project has closed, allowing songwriters to flag inappropriate songs being submitted for elimination by MusikPitch staff, and putting the guaranteed project functionality into place.

We hope that you enjoy using MusikPitch both as a songwriter and as a project holder and that these changes will make our system be more beneficial to everyone involved. Please feel free to comment on these changes below, we love any and all feedback!!