NEARLY HALF OF ALL MUSIC PLAYED ON BROADCAST & CABLE TV IN U.S. IS PRODUCTION MUSIC
Data Shows Production Music as the Dominant Source of Music for Media
Los Angeles, CA — A recent study by leading music data company BMAT Music Innovators found that more than 46% of all music played on top broadcast and cable television networks is production music identified by BMAT’s technology. The report, which looked at 47 high-rating TV channels identified by the Production Music Association over the period of February 11 – March 14, 2022, showed that production music was used 6.5 times more than commercial music on those networks during this period.
Additional findings identified that music is used in 39% of total air time on the selected U.S. channels, with the highest music usage occurring in lifestyle, documentary and reality TV channels. Unclassified music comprises 47% of music usage, which includes, but is not limited to, commissioned music, film and TV scores, catalogs owned by the broadcasters, as well as any production music libraries who do not have their music in the BMAT system at the time of the monitoring. Commercial music made up 7% of the music usage in the channels analyzed. The full report is below.
“The BMAT study indication that production music represents over 46% of the music used on key networks is in itself a powerful demonstration of the value and importance of production music to the television and advertising industries,” says Adam Taylor, President of APM Music and Chairman of the Production Music Association. “It is also important to note that if all libraries were in the BMAT system, this percentage would be far higher. Production music is specifically written in service of the moving image, and it is clear that our music plays a vital role in the success of modern programming.”
“The findings of this survey validate that production music is the dominant source of music on broadcast and cable TV, making up almost half of all music usage. We are thrilled to see these results, and this study firmly establishes our industry as an integral part of the media landscape, while confirming what we’ve known intuitively for years,” says Production Music Association Executive Director, Morgan McKnight.
“This is a highly competitive market, with all the major labels and countless independents vying for market share. As a result, the creative level of libraries has risen dramatically over the last decade, becoming just one of the reasons why so many of the world’s most successful companies choose production music every day,” said Joe Saba, Co-Founder of VideoHelper and Vice Chairman of the Production Music Association. “On the tech side, production music has led the way in many areas, including YouTube monetization, music search, digital music detection, and even AI-based music categorization.”
“BMAT helps individual production music libraries to drive their business and get paid what they deserve. In this case, we made available our capabilities to the Production Music Association, going one step further to support the production music community. Our extensive music database mixed with our in-house developed audio fingerprinting technology and thorough data analysis experience were key to demonstrating something that many of us presumed – the importance of production music on TV and its massive contribution to at-home entertainment,” said Luis Ruano, VP of Rights Admin at BMAT.
As the library business continues to stay at the forefront of creativity and technology, this annual report will track production music usage year over year. With the constant adaptation and development of this industry, the Production Music Association expects production music usage to increase each year. The Production Music Association continues to fight and advocate for fair payouts and accurate reporting for the community.
ABOUT PRODUCTION MUSIC
Production music is heard everywhere – in major motion pictures, on streaming platforms, in major league sporting events, and is pretty much everywhere on the internet.
Production music is what used to be known as ‘stock music’. It is different from traditional “commercial”music in that it is specifically composed for use in media productions, typically as part of a catalog of music made available for immediate licensing and where the publisher and recording owner are the same entity.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION MUSIC ASSOCIATION
The Production Music Association (PMA) is the leading advocate and voice of the production music community. We are dedicated to advancing the unique value of production music and working together to ensure a better future for our community.
We are a non-profit organization counting over 670 music publisher and composer members. Major labels, independent boutiques, emerging composers and well-known Grammy™ winners are all part of our membership. Together, our members account for over 2,000,000 individual copyrights. PMA music is heard daily in every country around the world.
Our goal is to provide to all our members the education, support and advocacy needed to support their careers and enhance the value of their craft.
The PMA hosts the annual Production Music Conference in Los Angeles, which has become the global gathering place for the industry.
ABOUT BMAT MUSIC INNOVATORS
BMAT is a music innovation company with a mission to index all music usage and ownership data. They help all different companies in the music industry better their data operations to make sure artists get paid for their plays. Every day BMAT delivers 27 billion matches and 80 million identifications to CMOs, publishers, record labels, broadcasters and DSPs globally.
Every day, BMAT monitors over 7000 radio and TV channels, matching against their database of 92 million unique audio fingerprints. BMAT tracks and processes over 168,000 hours of music on radio and TV, and processes music usage reports from +80 DSPs, generating up to 27 billion music matches per day., music longer than 2 seconds with 99.9% accuracy in clean audio environment, and with 93% in distorted environments.
Driven by machine learning and copyright expertise, BMAT’s Music Operating System pumps neutral data and authoritative knowledge to everyone along the chain. Everyone who makes or uses music can plug in to ease operations, increase earnings, and get in sync with everyone else.
More about BMAT at https://www.bmat.com/
