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BBH's launch of its music publishing arm, Leap, set a bandwagon rolling. But is it one worth jumping on, John Tylee asks
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Initiatives by Britain's agencies to have more direct control over the music that features in the ads they produce are moving forward with an upbeat tempo.
It was little more than two years ago that Bartle Bogle Hegarty drove into new territory with the establishment of Leap, its music publishing arm. The launch set a bandwagon rolling on which others have been keen to, erm, leap.
TBWA\London and its Omnicom stablemate DDB have Stream\, which aims to find music more effectively and efficiently. Now, WCRS has joined the ensemble with Huge Music, an in-house division to source and license music for commercials.
On the face of it, there's a compelling logic for what's happening. The de-coupling of media from creative and the rise of the client procurement specialist means agencies no longer make enough money on the production and distribution of ads, but still give away their intellectual property rights for nothing. Surely anything that can provide a recurring income stream has to be welcomed.
Curiously, though, the managers running these divisions don't see them as cash cows. "The money we'll make compared with BBH's billings is relatively insignificant," Richard Kirstein, Leap's managing director, comments.
Meanwhile, Fiona McBlane, the former EMI promotions and licensing manager who now heads Huge Music, says that while a decent profit would be nice, the primary intention is to enhance the creative product by matching the right music to the right ad.
What is becoming clear is that the reasons for agencies to set up music divisions vary greatly. Leap has gone all-out to challenge the status quo by invading the territory traditionally occupied by record labels and acquiring intellectual property rights.
Not surprisingly, the music industry, already battling falling CD sales, the rise of downloading and the growing...