Original music for advertising is not priced by the second. A useful budget covers a creative process, a production method, a defined usage and a delivery package that can survive the campaign's real versioning needs.

Projects become difficult when those four things are collapsed into one number. The hero film may be clear while the cutdowns are still unknown. The media plan may be provisional. A first presentation date gets mistaken for a final master date. A quote is requested before anyone has decided whether the score needs an in-the-box production, featured players or an orchestral session.

There is no honest universal rate that solves this. The productive approach is to separate the decisions.

A music budget should describe the work

Two thirty-second commercials can require entirely different productions.

The first variable is the creative search. A precise brief with an agreed dramatic function lets the composer focus quickly. A broad brief asking for several musical territories requires more research, more demos and more decision-making time.

The second variable is the sound source. A score might be built with electronic production, combine programmed material with live players, or move into orchestration and recording. Those are not simple quality tiers. They create different textures, schedules, staffing requirements and revision points.

Contemporary orchestral writing does not automatically mean a large orchestra. A small, distinctive ensemble combined with electronics and sound design can create a more ownable world than a generic symphonic wash. Conversely, if the concept depends on collective breath, friction and acoustic depth, replacing the session with samples may remove the reason the idea worked.

The calendar is part of the cost. Research, first-round demos, revisions, orchestration, booking, recording, mix and deliverables need separate space. A picture change before composition begins is not the same production event as a new cut after players have recorded.

Versioning is the final major variable. International campaigns may need cutdowns, territory adaptations, voice-free versions, social mixes and alternate endings. If these appear after approval, they can create additional cost or delay. If they are identified in the brief, they can be planned and quoted.

Usage is not an administrative footnote

The creation fee answers one question: what are we making? Usage answers another: where, for how long and through which media will it run?

At minimum, the scope should define territories, term and media. Digital usage also needs practical clarity around owned channels, paid placements, connected TV, online video and social cutdowns. A short global web campaign is not described in the same way as a multi-territory television buy supported by cinema, paid social, retail and live events.

Copyright in the composition, performers' rights and the recording producer's rights are distinct layers. Depending on the project, publishing interests, samples, arrangements and pre-existing works add further permissions. A re-record may avoid using an existing master while still requiring clearance of the composition. French Article L213-1 separately addresses the phonogram producer's authorisation. The rights chain must be confirmed before launch.

A commission agreement with the composer may not account for every payment or permission. Depending on repertoire, mandates and modes of exploitation, collective management may also apply. Production should confirm this with the relevant societies and legal advisers instead of treating one licence as automatic clearance of every layer.

Buyout is often used as though it were a magic eraser. It may refer to an assignment, an exclusive licence or simply a broad usage package. Those structures have different consequences. For an assignment of an author's economic rights, French Article L131-3 requires each transferred right to be identified and its scope, purpose, territory and term delimited. Moral rights remain perpetual, inalienable and imprescriptible. Complex international campaigns should be checked by the appropriate legal and rights specialists.

Clear usage protects both sides. The producer can deliver what the client has bought. The music team knows what it has authorised. Nobody learns after launch that a worldwide extension was outside the original scope.

Deliverables should match the life of the campaign

A stereo master is only one part of a professional handover.

The delivery package should support editorial, final mix and versioning. Its exact shape varies, but it commonly includes:

Stems are not an invitation to rebuild the score without direction. They allow the mixer to protect dialogue, open a space for voiceover or preserve an impact in a difficult format. That usefulness has to be planned during composition. A single percussion stem containing every transient may be technically separate and practically useless.

Cutdowns deserve the same care. A six-second asset is not simply the opening six seconds of the hero film. It needs immediate identity, a clear gesture and a fast resolution. Building this into the writing protects the campaign from sounding amputated.

The brief that makes a quote meaningful

A good music brief can be short. It simply has to include the information that changes the work.

Start with the picture: edit status, expected durations, first presentation, picture lock and final delivery. References help when the brief explains what matters about them. Pace, restraint, structure, texture and space for dialogue are more useful than a link with no commentary.

Then describe the campaign: territories, term, media, languages, cutdowns and formats. If something is genuinely unknown, label it as unknown. A visible assumption can be managed. A hidden assumption returns later as urgency.

Finally, share a working budget or at least the intended production scale. The job of a music agency is not to push every film towards a live orchestra. It is to find the right musical system inside the actual constraints, then show what changes when the production scale changes.

What a useful estimate makes visible

A clear estimate can separate composition, demos and revisions, orchestration and music preparation, players and payroll, studio and engineering, mix and mastering, production, adaptations, deliverables, travel and contingency. It should describe the licence or assignment structure for each relevant rights layer rather than hiding every permission under one usage line. It records assumptions such as the number of routes, sessions, versions, territories and term.

Without a film, schedule and media plan, a universal price range would be misleading. A buyer can still request three comparable configurations: a primarily electronic production with defined routes and versions; a hybrid production adding selected players and a short session; and an orchestral production including preparation, players, studio and engineering. Each estimate should show what materially changes, what stays constant and what will be priced later if the media plan expands.

That separation makes trade-offs possible. If the budget moves, the team can adjust the session, reduce versioning or revisit usage without destroying the creative idea. When everything lives inside one unexplained line, every change becomes an argument about what somebody thought was included.

The goal is not to locate the cheapest possible track. It is to commission a piece of music whose production, permissions and files correspond to the campaign that will actually go live.

If you have a cut, treatment or media outline, send the film and intended usage to Sul Tasto. We can turn those inputs into comparable production routes before the schedule becomes the main creative director.