Creating for a client.

[TimR]

What pitfalls have you come across when writing/recording for someone else?

I recently recorded some music of a friend playing. He had been asked to record a song for someone to be used at an event.

The third party gave a very loose description of what they wanted. My friend played well and the recording is fine but it's "Not quite what they wanted."

There's no money involved but we're looking at possibly re-recording it - maybe 2-3 hours of messing about. But still don't have a firm idea of what exactly they want.

The event is this coming weekend!

.

Edited July 13, 2015 by TimR

[discreet]

The usual thing is to give examples of existing work to get an idea of the feel and direction. When I composed music for film and TV I was given a brief, a time-coded video and a selection of audio tracks that the client would have preferred, but were way too expensive to use! So, 'very much like that, but not actually that' was the order of the day...

Ask the client to provide some audio examples that are in the same ball park as what they want.

Edited July 13, 2015 by discreet

[BigRedX]

IME music is simply far too subjective for this to ever be do-able - especially when there is no money involved.

In the days when I used to produce animations for presentations or on-line ads and tried once to make a bit of extra money by composing my own music for one; after 3 complete re-writes I gave up and since then I have selected a handful of library tracks and asked the client to pick one.

[TimR]

In this instance it's just a cover of an exsisting song.

[discreet]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1436787565' post='2820683']
In this instance it's just a cover of an exsisting song.
[/quote]

Ahhh... then presumably they want it to be as much like the original as possible..? Cannot the original be used for the purpose?

[TimR]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1436787846' post='2820688']


Ahhh... then presumably they want it to be as much like the original as possible..? Cannot the original be used for the purpose?
[/quote]

No. They don't want it to be like the original, hence the recording.

[lowdown]

You have to get inside the clients head, they usually say one thing and mean another (not always of course).
At the brief (as said above), try and get a musical directions.
It's always do-able. But sometimes another composer my come up with a better idea that's do-able.

If it's a cover or rehash, do they want the same tune in another style from another period at another tempo?
Orchestral, EDM, Rock etc.
Questions, ask questions, and be very polite about it.

[discreet]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1436787911' post='2820689']
No. They don't want it to be like the original, hence the recording.
[/quote]

And hence the problem, then. Interrogate them relentlessly and try and get them to come up with examples of what they want.

[TimR]

Yes. I think that's what I would have done had it been me and I'd been asked. Unfortunately it's not, I've just been drafted in to do the recording

Edited July 13, 2015 by TimR