Financial Considerations

Financial Considerations

The cost of airing a radio advert can vary from different radio stations; this is because there is no set price for airing an advert. The cost usually increases with the amount of times the advert is played on the radio and at what time in the day it is played. The most desirable time for your advert to be played is either in the morning and late afternoon, this is purely because those times are when the most people listen to the radio during morning and evening rush hour. These time slots are usually more expensive because they’re more popular and will get more listeners.

Most radio adverts are usually around 30 seconds long, shorter adverts are usually half the price of 30 second ads. When you are choosing what radio station you would like your advert to be played on there are a few things you need to consider. You need to think about what radio station attracts your target audience, how much money you are willing to spend and how many times you would like your advert to be played per week.

There is quite a wide range of different adverts that a radio station accepts and will also sponsor. The cost of developing the advert including actors, speaking, music, sound effects and script writing usually won’t cost more than 10% of the budget which is usually £2000 for larger, more popular stations and around £250 for smaller stations. However you need to think about if you require the use of a popular song in your advertisement, in that case may cost up to £25,000 in licensing fees.

Here is an example of what you will see when looking for costs for playing your advert.

Some radio stations will offer you a 'bulk' offer where they play your advert a certain amount of times at certain points in the week.

Music

Music

There are laws in place when it comes to including and choosing music for Radio advertisements, you cannot just choose any music and include it in a radio advert. You cannot use any material that could infringe copyright. Copyright infringement is when a third party owns that music and you will need the permission from that party in order to use that music. There are several laws that state you cannot play music that is copyright material, meaning it is own by someone else and has royalties with that track. Royalties is where you have to pay a specific fee in order to have the permission to use that music.

Music has a very key part in radio adverts, it helps entice the audience and keep them interested along with helping create the desired emotion or mood for that advert. Without music, the advert could come across as very boring or dull. The music you use will depend on the context of the advert. The producers will usually choose music that works well with the product or service being advertised. There often can be difficulty with choosing the right music because of limited choice of soundtracks available that are without copyright.

A problem that makes the issue of copyright more complicated is that often, advertisers and radio stations can be unsure about exactly what they are or are not allowed to play or use. This is due to the fact Radio stations usually have licenses which will allow and permit them to play songs that have copyright for entertainment purposes, however these licenses usually do not cover the use for commercial advertisements.  This means, if the advertiser uses a song without permission, the legal responsibility and repercussions will be on them and not the radio station.

Fair use: It is illegal to use any copyrighted material or music, when it exceeds fair use. This means if any of the core parts of the music or material has been used, then it has exceeded fair use. It’s illegal to use any music or material that can be easily recognized when you don’t have the permission to do so.

Licensing: It is indeed possible to use a song you wish to use, there are in fact ways to get its use approved. However this will require two licenses, one from the owner of the music and one from the owners of the copyright recording.

The 7 Second Rule: A lot of advertisers will use the ‘7 Second Rule’. This is the idea of you can include any song as long as it only plays for 7 seconds or less. However, this rule from a legal view does not actually exist and still breaches copyright without the licensing permissions.

Strategies: As you can see, copyright law is very complicated and thorough, and can also be very expensive to gain the correct copyright. Therefore an option would be to compose or purchasing the copyright for the song and then record the song by another musician instead of the original artist.

In my college, we have our own radio station with a catalogue of Production Music and Production FX, this is all completely royalty and copyright free which means we can use these for radio advertising. There is no copyright protection on any of these sounds or tracks, so we are free to use them without infringing copyright.

Production Music: 

Production FX:

Production Facilities

Production Facilities

In order to create a commercial suitable for radio there are a few things needed or you need to consider and take into account while making the advert so it is up to professional standards.

Firstly you need to think about where or how you will be creating your advert, radio stations have the ability to create adverts in house (e.g: Key 103 and Capital) and they will have all the equipment and facilities that will be needed. They will have their own production studios and therefore will be able to produce adverts independently.

Alternatively, you can make an ad through a production house. For example, there are a few production houses in the UK like SP Media, SpotWorks and RPC Audio. These are all production houses that will help to create a radio ad; they have specific equipment that is needed for a professional standard advert.

To create an advert, equipment is key. To create an advert up to radio standards you will need equipment such as:

Mixing Desk/Console – This an electronic board used to combine sounds, routing and changing audio levels and changing the pitch of the audio. These can also be used to change the volume and insert jingles to your advert and had many other uses and techniques.

Soundproof Recording Booth – This is a generally small sized room which is completely sound proof to eliminate any external sounds and keep the internal sounds clear and crisp. Radio presenters along with the use of microphones are isolated in these rooms as it means no external, not needed sounds from outside the room will be included, which the audience will not want to hear. This also means the presenter or person speaking won’t be interrupted whilst talking with any background noise whilst on air. 

Digital work station including a computer with correct software/programmes – A digital work station is designed specifically for recording, playing back audio and editing your clips. There are many different programmes available, however at college we use the programme Reaper, audacity or adobe audition. AVID Pro Tools is an extremely well known professional program that has many features. This programme is widely used in professional areas because it has a huge variety of important features and effects. However, AVID pro tools is not completely essential, its very high end and can only be run on certain systems. This is why we use the programme Reaper at college to edit. Reaper is very similar to Pro Tools, as they both have the ability to do multitask editing and importing sound effects. Reaper give us the intended effect and wanted result which is suitable for the work we do in college.

Another option would be to use the programme Audacity, this is free, very simple and easy to use, has multitrack audio editor which can be used for systems such as, Windows, Mac OS X and other operating systems making this programme widely suitable. This can be used for:

• ·         Recording live audio
• ·         Editing different sound files (e.g: WAV, MP2, MP3…)
• ·         Cut, copy and mix sound files together
• ·         Change the speed and pitch of audio recordings
• ·         Add sound effects

However, I have not used this programme for my college work so far 

Another option is Adobe Audition, this is another digital audio workstation from Adobe systems. This programme has many different helpful features such as:

• ·         Advanced Sound Design
• ·         Audio Finesse
• ·         Sound Remover
• ·         Preview Editor
• ·         Enhanced Multitrack Editing

Unfortunately, although this programme is available, I haven’t used this programme for my college work.

Production Roles

Production Roles

There are many different roles and jobs that are needed when creating a radio advert.

Firstly is the creative producer. The role of the creative producer is to oversee the whole process of making the radio show or advert. They can also create sound and audio for the radio advert, such as the jingle or commercial clips. They also have a good understanding of technical issues and can be board operator or technical operators. The creative producer is usually placed in a separate control room, separated from the person on air by a window so they can still see and communicate with each other however noises don’t travel into the studio. An example of a creative producers work can be jingles or commercial audio clips.

A voice over artist will be required when there is speech involved in the advert. Their job is very simple however very key and important, they read the script for the advert and read it out while recording. Voice actors are usually trained for the job, as a radio advert will need a voice that is clear enough to be understood and can portray the emotions needed for that advert. They will be recorded prior and then the audio clip will be added during editing. Using a well-known celebrity or familiar voice could possibly increase the popularity of the advert, as the audience will recognize the familiar voice. A way of finding a voice over artist you would like to use is by going onto the Music Radio Creative Voices website and look through all the different voice over artists and find one that is right for your advert.

A radio copywriter will be needed, their job is to write the scripts for the radio commercial, they usually have intensive or good understanding of how the audience will listen and respond to the radio commercial and how to attract the listeners to that product. They will need to write a script that not only grabs the audience attention, but also informs the audience of what they need to know. Very often, copywriters will have previous experience of radio production. Part of their job sometimes is to oversee the voice-overs when producing the audio needed; oversee studio production and the distribution of the radio ad.

A recording, sound or audio engineer will also be required when making a radio advert. Their job is not only to record the audio needed, but also to edit and mix it in a way that makes the audio sound up to standard and best quality possible. They will usually listen to the audio whilst its being recorded and look for ways that will help the audio sound perfect, for example they may adjust the equipment and the recording levels. They have the responsibility of ensuring every piece of the studio equipment is in working condition and correctly set up for the recording session. They need to be qualified or have a great understanding of how to mix music, understand musical pitch, rhythm and time and also be able to edit tracks and be able to fade in or out the audio, music or jingles. They also need to have a very in-depth knowledge and previous experience with all the equipment being used.

Introduction

I have been asked to create a producer’s guide to radio commercial production. I will create a written guide which will then be uploaded to my blog. My guide will include the following:

• Location, range and content of commercial production facilities.
• Jobs available in radio commercial production.
• The production, purpose and styles of the music used in radio commercial production.
• Budgeting and financial considerations in radio commercial production.