Music for brands
Original music for ad films, jingles and sonic identity, and background score for video.
We are an independent Hindi music label, and the work we do for brands is the work we already do every week on our own records: writing a piece of music, arranging it around what it has to carry, and recording it properly.
What changes with a brand film is that the music serves something else. It has to land a cut, sit under a voice without fighting it, and be finished on the date the edit is locked. We would rather talk about the film and the deadline first than send you a rate card.
What this covers
Original music for ad films
Music composed to picture for a television commercial, brand film or digital spot. Written against the cut you have, in the language the film speaks, and revised as the edit moves.
Jingles and sonic identity
The short sung or played hook a brand is recognised by, and the sonic logo that ends the film. A different craft from scoring a film, because it has to survive being heard once, at low volume, and still be remembered.
Background score for video
Underscore for corporate films, explainers, documentaries and long-form content. Usually less about a tune than about pacing, and about staying out of the way of the words.
Who owns the song
Decided per project. Tell us which you want and it goes in writing before any work starts.
You own it
We assign the master and the underlying composition to you in writing, with duration and territory stated on the face of the deed. This is the usual arrangement when you are releasing the song yourself.
We own it, you license it
Kashikesh Productions keeps ownership and grants you a licence on agreed terms. Because the master is ours, we can also issue the ISRC on our own IMI registrant code and register the work at IPRS as part of the same job. Worth considering when you want the record made without taking on the paperwork of owning it.
On ISRCs: we can only issue one on our own registrant code for a recording we own, because that is what IMI’s terms allow. If you own the master, the ISRC comes from your distributor or from your own IMI registrant code, which is free to apply for. We are happy to walk you through getting one.
Either way, a writer’s statutory right to royalties cannot be signed away. The fourth proviso to section 18 of the Copyright Act, 1957 makes it non‑assignable and non‑waivable, shared equally with the assignee, and voids any agreement to the contrary. We route it through IPRS, which is the mechanism the section itself contemplates. Anyone offering to buy it off you is offering something the Act does not allow.
Questions
- Do you write music to picture?
- Yes. Send the cut, even a rough one with temp music on it. Writing against a locked picture is the normal way this works, and hearing what the editor reached for tells us more about the brief than a description usually does.
- Who owns the music when the film is delivered?
- Usually you do. An advertiser commissioning music generally needs to own it outright, and we assign the master and the composition to you in writing, with duration and territory stated on the face of the deed. The one part that cannot be signed across is a writer’s statutory royalty share, because the fourth proviso to section 18 of the Copyright Act makes it non-waivable, so that routes through IPRS.
- How quickly can you turn a spot around?
- It depends on the length and how settled the edit is. Tell us the date the film has to be delivered and what still might move in the cut, and we will tell you honestly whether we can meet it rather than agree and hope.
- Do you work in languages other than Hindi?
- Hindi first, and other languages where the film calls for it. Our own catalogue is filed in Hindi and in Punjabi. If a spot needs a language we cannot do well, we will say so.
- What does it cost?
- It depends on the length of the film, how much music it needs and how wide the usage is. A fifteen second digital spot and a campaign running on television are not the same job, so we do not publish a rate. Describe the film and the usage and we will come back with a number.
Further reading
What we have written about this, so you can see how we think before you ask us to do it.
- Who owns the music in your ad film? Paying for it is not the same as owning it
- Can you use an existing song in your ad film? Two permissions, two owners
More in Brands.
Tell us about the song
What exists already, what you want it to become, and roughly when you need it.
Enquire about music for brands