Custom Music for Your Podcast

Your Podcast Deserves a Unique Sound

Your podcast intro is the first thing your audience hears and sets the tone for your entire show. It is the first impression your audience will have. If your podcast uses the same music as others, it may be mistaken for another product or brand. Commissioning custom music ensures your podcast is identified as yours.

When you use music from a royalty-free library, it is on a non-exclusive basis, meaning anyone else can license it for their content. You don’t know who else may be using it. The music could already be established as part of another brand or on thousands of social media videos.

What Is the Solution?

A custom-written piece of music for your podcast intro with a term of exclusivity is the way forward. It will cost more, but you won’t end up with music found elsewhere. If you wish to create a brand for your podcast, audio branding is as important as other brand elements, such as logos, colours, and typography, so it is a worthwhile investment.

Tailor-made Podcast Intro

You need to hire a professional with expertise in composing, producing, and sound design. As a composer myself, I can compose the music, create sound design layers and also organise, record and produce any voice-over elements.

Make it your own

Typically, with stock or royalty-free music, a composer can spend many hours creating a piece of music, which will then hopefully generate multiple small payments over several years.

If you want to commission a composer to create a custom piece of music and allow you to use it exclusively, you will need to compensate them fairly in advance.

This can take various forms:

One-time buyout

This is possible, but it tends to be expensive as you are effectively buying exclusive use of the music from the composer. This means the composer can no longer leverage any royalties from that piece of music. As with everything, there are no set figures here. It is always a bit of a negotiation and costs can vary considerably depending on the experience and stature of the composer and the size of your brand.

A Period of Exclusivity

I’m a fan of this because it enables the composer to be competitive with costs and allows the client to have a period of exclusivity. The client pays upfront for exclusive use of the music for an agreed length of time. After the period of exclusivity expires, the client can let the agreement go non-exclusive. This allows the composer to sell future non-exclusive licenses.

Leasing Music

This method would work well for clients who don’t want to commit to long-term exclusivity and the associated upfront costs.

The principle is simple: the client pays for the work involved in composing and producing the podcast intro, but the license is an exclusive lease paid monthly or annually. The music remains exclusive to the client unless they let the lease lapse. In this scenario, the music reverts to a non-exclusive license. This arrangement works well as the client retains exclusivity in the music for as long as they like while the composer continues to generate an income.

To Sum Up

The importance of having custom music for your podcast intro cannot be overstated. The initial impression that your audience will have could be compromised if they recognise the music from elsewhere.

Using royalty-free music, although cost-effective, poses the risk of generic and overused elements that may dilute the uniqueness of your podcast.

Investing in custom-written music crafted exclusively for your podcast will incur a higher cost, but the benefits far outweigh the expense. A custom intro is invaluable for leaving a lasting impression, establishing a connection with your audience, and reinforcing brand recognition.