Although ARU Chicago has amassed a 100,000-theme library – one of the biggest in the business — the recording company has been seeing a growing demand for a better overall product with custom music compositions instead of library tracks.
ARU’s in-house composer and music supervisor is Tom Haigh, a sound designer, mixer, musician and possessor of two degrees in music. He recently composed an original score for a spot created by LaGrange-based healthcare specialists SPM Marketing for its client, Bayshore Community Hospital of New Jersey.
SPM had planned to use library music, but could not find a piece that fulfilled the demands of their creative process.
Since the 30-second spot, called “Masterpiece,” dramatically introduced the hospital’s new expanded medical staff and facilities, ARU engineer Bill Kovach felt certain scenes required musical emphasis that could only be obtained with original music.
He persuaded Bob Konold, SMP’s SVP/group creative director, that the cost differential between library and custom sound would be negligible.
Haigh had a general time frame of a week to compose the score.
“Everyone knows you can’t choose between getting it done well and getting it done quickly,” says ARU partner Mark Zeboski. “With composer and sound designer working together under one roof, you get both.”
Notes Kovach, “The classically-influenced Bayshore track could not have been more different than the library selection and worked infinitely better.”
Versatile Haigh is a native of Yorkshire, England, where he attended York University and received a bachelor’s degree in general music and a master’s in composition. He met his wife, Chicagoan Monica Ryan, an acoustic artist and teacher, while both attended York University.
Five years ago, Haigh and Ryan moved to Chicago and he freelanced as a sound designer and scored mostly indie cinema. When he joined ARU in 2010 as a sound designer, he also took on the role of music supervisor, following the departure of Jessie LaBelle, who was in charge of Tonic, ARU’s music library.
Before long, ARU engineers began seeing a slow but sure shift from library to original music, as clients began realizing the value of real musicians to custom-score their spots.
Other agencies have opted for original music instead of library tracks as well. In a recent Comcast/Xfinity spot versions of Haigh’s original music was used in seven different spots.
Don Arbuckle, ARU partner, says that Haigh’s musical education brings a unique perspective to scoring. “Tom is a composer, musical supervisor and sound designer all wrapped into one position.
“Without him, we wouldn’t be able to offer high quality, custom tracks along with our library services.”
