Radio Jingles With Bespoke Music - Tim James

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Bespokemusic caters for an astonishing amount of the UK radio jingles market. But what is this world of radio jingles all about?

Radio jingles and station idents should be familiar to anyone who uses their ears. Every time we turn on a radio station you will hear the audio logo in its full glory. But who are the guys behind the scenes, and how do they do it?

Chris Hambly of Audiocourses.com caught up with Tim James, "The Dude" of Bespokemusic.co.uk.

AC: What does it mean for a jingle to be radio ready?

TJ: Usually put through a multi band compressor (dbx quantum), normalized and levels maximized (waves L2) so the track can match commercial track levels.

AC: How do you formulate your jingle ideas, I mean to say, are you given a strict brief?

TJ: It's usually left to me. The station might give me a commercial track as an idea for the style/genre. Usually it's more a brief for timings as a lot of idents have to work up to the pips and in 10/20/30" etc sec windows. If left to my own devises, I'll listen to the station's output to get a feel and style. I write idents as short songs: an intro, verse, bridge, chorus etc.

AC: How do you record the instrumentation?

TJ: Cubase SX

AC: Radio jingles, in general, seem to have that trademark vocal harmony thing going on. How do you record your vocal parts? And do you use a typical harmonic structure?

TJ: Those sort of jingles are typical of the american jingle houses in the 70's and 80's and are still being produced today. Although there are radio programmers who still prefer that style, there are many who prefer jingles that sound like the music that they play on their radio stations.

So I don't adopt a particular harmony structure, it just depends on the track. If it's an acoustic guitar track with a string section, then it might just need a soul style solo vocal. If we're producing a big track with real horns, strings, the full monty, then we'd record a group vocal of 2 males and 2 females tracked up with third and fifth harmonies.

AC: Are your jingles copyright free?

TJ: no

AC: . How do you protect your work from copyright infringement?

TJ: Every track is registered with the PRS, and backed up recorded delivery.

AC: How are the royalties arranged for each track? Are there standard contracts available or is each job unique?

TJ: When you register each track with the PRS you declare who are the writers and the percentages they receive. From that they can distribute the share of royalties collected from the radio stations

AC: Do you use an agent? If so do they take a slice of the royalties?

TJ: I have produced library music tracks over the years and they are looked after by a publisher. They take 50% of all royalties.

AC: You are one of the main radio jingle companies in the UK. Do you also have an international outlet?

TJ: We are starting to branch out. We have an agent in Malaysia and a few agents wanting to represent us in Europe, but I haven't made a decision yet !

AC: What skills are imperative for a radio jingle composer / producer?

TJ: For me it's attention to detail. I write and produce a jingle as if it were going to be a number 1 song. I'll use real strings, horns and the best singers in the UK to get the right sound even though the track is 12 seconds long! The bottom line is you can tell the difference, and luckily all our clients can tell as well.

The word jingle has such cheesy connotations. When you see the level of production and musicianship that today's composers use, 'jingle' doesn't do it justice. There's lots of other titles: Audio Imaging, Station Ids...Sonic Branding....ok not sure about that one!

AC: What advice would you give for a "newbie" wishing to get into radio jingle work?

TJ: Look for a niche. Get to know the right people at the station, and do demo's. I know it's a lot of outlay on spec, but people need to hear something, it's all about trust.

AC: What do you personally like to listen to? What floats your boat?

TJ: Bavarian beaver music. No all kinds of stuff. I remember someone saying listen to music you don't like because something in it might give you that bit of inspiration I listen to all current main stream to keep my ear in tune. I love South American music (Ry Cooder,Buena Vista Social Club etc) because it's quite different from what I do in the day. I can switch off and not analyze!

AC: What format do you work in? Mp3?

TJ: MP3's for sending tracks in progress. A typical station ident package can be up to 100 tracks, so usually CD. If it's mega urgent then wavs uploaded to an ftp site.

AC: Do you have to observe reference levels?

TJ: That's a question for our engineer. We get a 'healthy' level that compares to commercially released tracks. The stations usually load everything onto their play-out system and from there they can tweak level's etc.

AC: Do you use any particular cataloguing system?

TJ: Everything's backed up on to DVD and filed.

AC: What is a donut?

TJ: Jinglewise, it's when there's a vocal hook/strap at the top of the track that then drops down to a backing track for a voiceover and finishes with a vocal hook/strap

AC: Do you eat them?

TJ: Not a whole one..

AC: How important do you consider room acoustics?

TJ: Very important. Our studio's have been treated, not quite Real World, but the mixes stand up well on the radio, which is all I can ask for.

AC: How did you get into the radio jingle business?

TJ: I did a free station ident package for a local RSL station (restricted service license - can broadcast up to 28 days)

Tim, many thanks for your time, our readers I am sure will find your words of wisdom highly useful.