Toronto-based stock footage player Canamedia has partnered with U.S. music catalog seller Pump Audio to provide Canadian TV and commercial producers with indie songs for background music.

Les Harris, president and CEO of Canamedia, which represents Pump Audio in Canada, says the licensing and distribution system enables producers to choose ready-made music for their projects far more quickly and cost-effectively than do traditional song sources.

‘Other companies enable you to download directly from the Internet, but if you’re listening to 60 pieces of music, the download time is a couple of hours,’ Harris explains. ‘No one has that time anymore. Pump Audio is instant.’

Canamedia supplies producers with a Pump Box – a hard drive that can be plugged into an Avid or Final Cut Pro editing system, and from which around 65,000 songs can be sorted to identify and synchronize music-to-video content.

Producers can tap in initial music parameters, then zero in on music that works in a particular scene, either in terms of mood or tempo. Canamedia then licenses final music choices from a cue sheet automatically provided by the Pump Audio software.

Much depends on rights purchased, but a ballpark licence fee for the music required for a 13-part TV series could run around $20,000, according to Harris. Pump Audio splits revenues on a 50-50 basis with the indie musicians who created the licensed songs and offered them up to the Pump Audio catalog. Canamedia gets a cut from Pump Audio when it makes a sale.

Steve Ellis, founder and CEO of Pump Audio, out of Hudson Valley, NY, himself a former musician, says indie artists can use Pump Audio to bypass major labels and get their songs onto film or TV projects.

What’s more, the indie musicians retain the rights to their music, whether or not it gets licensed through Pump Audio.

‘There’s no downside for the artists. The worst is your music ends up on a TV show and you get paid,’ Ellis says. ‘I understand the need and potential in creating a fair market that benefits both independent artists and music buyers in TV and advertising.’

He also feels that his service is right in step with the times.

‘The kinds of TV shows being created today require more quality music than ever before, and the explosion of digital media is creating the need for more music that can be used in production instantly, anywhere in the world,’ he says.

An added advantage for Canadian producers is that music licensed through Pump Audio is recognized by CAVCO as Cancon since it was acquired through the Canada-based Canamedia.

Ellis adds that he is eyeing additional Canadian musicians to add to the Pump Box roster.

www.canamedia.com

www.pumpaudio.com