The fourth and final episode in the Settling the Underscore series, exploring music for advertising. Finally, after weeks of talking to composers, producers and editors, we hear from the musicians who made the glory days of the jingle business what they were. Bassist Will Lee, keyboard player Rob Mounsey, and guitar player Steve Khan. All three were part of a generation of players on the New York session scene in the 1970s and 1980s, sometimes playing on multiple projects every day.

In this third installment in a series of episodes about music in advertising former advertising executive Ken Yagoda, commercial music producer Mike Boris, and editor Maury Loeb layout the business from the advertising agency and editorial point of view, and explain who influences the music that gets chosen, how the business has changed and what the future holds.

In this, the second of a series that explores music in commercials, we talk to three freelance commercial composers. These are the often invisible, uncredited creators of music for advertising. How does one enter the business of writing music for advertising? Who are the people who thrive in that world? What skills are required? What is the lifestyle of the creative composer? How much rejection can one person stand? What is it like to be a woman in a boys club? 

In this first of a series of episodes dedicated to the world of commercial music, two composer / entrepreneurs who have each put in their time on both the creative and business end of things talk about their careers and perceptions of the business. John “Scrapper” Sneider of Storefront Music, and Wendell Hanes of “Volition Sound”.