Tech Focus: Music Libraries, Part 1 - Production Music Is Another Score for Sports Recent trends emphasize in-venue music, wider ranges of genres and sonic quality By Dan Daley, Audio Editor
Thursday, June 7, 2018 - 10:31 am
Print This Story
Story Highlights
The music you hear on sports television has remained remarkably consistent over several decades: triumphal trumpets and crunchy electric guitars still dominate major-league sports shows, with slower-paced sports like golf relying heavily on anodyne pastoral genres.
However, recent dynamics are introducing some changes into these familiar formulas and how they're being used. For instance, production-music providers report increased demand for music - especially custom tracks - to be played live inside stadiums and arenas, as sports venues ramp up their fan experiences to keep up with broadcast.
Stephen Arnold Music - whose production-music arm The Vault supplies ESPN, Altitude Sports, and Golf Channel - has developed a percussion track that allows MLS team FC Dallas's drum line to perform with it live in the stadium, according to VP, Music Services, Whitney Arnold. Tracks the company provides for UFC and Top Rank Boxing are used for theatrical-type event openings as well as fighter-walk-on music and profile packages.
It's very much a show in the arena, just as it is on television, and the music has to reflect that, he says. Music helps set the tone.
Peter Alexander, sales manager for production-music developer The Hollywood Edge - which offers the SFX and Westar Music, respectively, royalty-free and licensed brands - notes the 16th hole at the Waste Management Phoenix Open on the PGA Tour, which is known as golf's biggest party. The hole, with a mini stadium seating up to 16,000 screaming fans, features the same kinds of musical walk-ons that hitters enjoy at some MLB parks.
He suggests that the same mentality is driving the increased use of sound effects and stingers - quick, staccato sounds like whooshes - that are part of the music beds. That has been happening both in the venue and on television, furthering an evolutionary process that has been in place for some time.
When it comes to sound and music, the line between entertainment and sports is really blurring, says Matthew Gutknecht, senior account director, sports entertainment at APM Music, which counts ESPN ad NBC Sports among its clients. The effects are also well-suited for online sports and clips on social media, where play action generally moves at a much faster pace, in which it's harder to develop identifiable musical themes. You generally have 15 seconds - or less, for a transition - to get an idea across, he explains. Sound design is the way to do that.
If some sports music sounds a bit more like hit radio, it might be because more music artists are moving into production music as their recording revenues decline, given the shift away from CDs and toward streaming (which notoriously pays far less). That has been good for production music's talent pool, says Belinda Robles, senior music director, Megatrax. The quality of the music has been increasing because we have more good composers and recording artists in the mix, a migration compelled by lower record-sales revenues.
And, although many of those artists prefer not to trumpet that shift in their career strategy and use pseudonyms for their library works, Megatrax President/CEO Ron Mendelsohn notes, The stigma once attached to doing production music is fading.
Genre and Quality
Sports' migration to streaming (paralleling that of music distribution, coincidentally) through a broad array of networks and distribution portals is driving demand for more music while also challenging norms for sonic quality.
There are more ways now to consume sports than ever before, and there are some very good productions being used for streaming on platforms like YouTube, says Alexander. But there's also a vast range of sound quality, too. There's a big difference between what you hear on HBO and on someone's home webcast.
The ubiquity of home studios and the broad availability of music and effects samples have contributed to the wide variance of sound quality, Alexander believes, as has the diversity of consumption platforms, which range from 60-in. flat-panel displays coupled with discrete surround-sound home-theater systems to the speaker of a smartphone.
UFC and other alternative sports are helping diversify the music genres used for sports shows live, on the air, and online. The basic genre trends are still largely predictable - such as rock for UFC, urban and trap for NBA, and country/rock for MLB - but these are often customized: for instance, a heavy-rock track with an Irish lilt for Conor McGregor's UFC walk-on music. Arnold opines that this speaks to the need for diversity in catalogs.
How To Find It
The availability of more music options than ever creates its own problems: how to pick through mountains of music to find what you need. It's an issue for all music consumers, underscored recently by Apple's $400 million acquisition of music-identification portal Shazam.
All the major libraries have developed their own search functions, most based on keywords that, by nature, tend to be subjective and vague. As result, says APM's Gutknecht, sports clients are relying on the libraries themselves for proactive curation: They'll tell us, My people don't have time to listen to 60 or 80 albums' worth of material; you send us what you think is best.
The residual problem, however, is one Hollywood is very familiar with: Everyone wants something that's just theirs, he says, but not that different from everything else.
Click here for Tech Focus: Music Libraries, Part 2 - An Abundance of Choices
Most recent headlines
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
Step out of the vault and into the future of gaming with Fallout: New Vegas streaming on GeForce NOW, just in time to celebrate the newest season of the hit Ama...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
Sports Broadcasting Hall of Fame Inducts 10 Industry Icons During Unforgettable ...
17/12/2025
ESPN to Debut MNF Playbook with Next Gen Stats, a New AI-Driven NFL Data-AltCastThe series, powered by Adrenaline TruPlay AI, launches Dec. 22 and runs through ...
17/12/2025
Inaugural Optum Golf Channel Games Debut Under the Lights' in Primetime on ...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Audiences Watched Over 103 Billion Minutes of TV on Thanksgiving Day
NFL Games ...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
17/12/2025
KPop Demon Hunters Stars Visit Berklee for Weeklong Celebration Andrew Choi and EJAE, who voiced the film's main characters and contributed to its soundtr...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Inside The Unseen World Of Indian Customs: Netflix Reveals The...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix announces PAPARAZZI KING: the docu series coming to Ne...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Unveils First Look at Jo Nesbo's Detective Hole Pr...
17/12/2025
Back to All News
Netflix Welcomes Warner Bros. Discovery Board Recommendation
Business
17 December 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
After Careful Revi...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
The Hao AI Lab research team at the University of California San Diego - at the forefront of pioneering AI model innovation - recently received an NVIDIA DGX B...
17/12/2025
Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on ...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
Three 12-kilowatt Advanced Electric Propulsion System thrusters, supplied by L3Harris Technologies, form the core of Gateway's propulsion system. Pictured i...
16/12/2025
The challenge facing America's defense industrial base is not just about speed - its about rebuilding the foundation that makes speed possible. Our nations ...
16/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
16/12/2025
SEVILLE, Spain Canal Sur, the public broadcasting service for Andalusia, Spain, has completed a total technology refresh based on Pebble's resilient, softwa...
16/12/2025
NEW YORK Teleprompting hardware provider Telescript International has acquired all software code and intellectual property previously owned by Telescript West. ...
16/12/2025
As cable operators face increased competition from 5G fixed wireless access providers, a new report from Ookla Research finds that T-Mobile is the FWA speed lea...
16/12/2025
Apple has announced a major upgrade to the Apple TV app for device owners outside the Apple ecosystem with news that the Apple TV app for Android now supports G...
16/12/2025
Space42 grows Direct-to-Device partner ecosystem through a Memorandum of Underst...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
Tech Focus: Music Libraries, Part 1 - Production Music Is Another Score for Sports Recent trends emphasize in-venue music, wider ranges of genres and sonic quality By Dan Daley, Audio Editor 
