Music for action sports

Moving into the 2010s, the action sports industry is booming, with brands infiltrating mainstream culture like never before. We're retained by some of the category's true killers - including Quiksilver, Roxy Europe, DC Shoes, Burton Snowboards, and Sole Technology, the parent company of Etnies, Emerica and éS - to source and license music for use in promotional and for-sale video content that's distributed across multiple platforms, including web, DVD, mobile and VOD.

The model is simple: artists and record labels get to leverage these brands' popularity to reach huge new audiences, while the brands get great music to use in their promotional clips, usually in exchange for some combination of promotion, product and modest license fees.

Our process: we solicit tracks from the hundreds of record labels, music marketing companies, publishers and other content reps that we work with regularly. Songs are submitted, with many of them being pre-licensed by their rightsholders via our proprietary online application, BrandsForBands. We screen the tracks based on the client's creative direction, then submit the most appropriate ones for their consideration. They make their picks and we post the fully licensed tracks to a secure web page that’s accessible by their editors worldwide.

The client gets a library of pre-cleared, grab-and-go tracks from established artists - not generic library cuts from unknowns. And because artist/label compensation is capped before we reach out to content providers, the client's music cost is fixed, always a valuable proposition when licensing music. Finally, those brands that supply bands with clothing gain an opportunity to seed their product among highly visible musical movers and shakers.

Quiksilver says: 

“Quiksilver partnered with Brandracket 4 years ago to help us develop and manage a music program for our brand that met all of our in-house creative and consumer marketing music needs. The result is a unique, robust and innovative music platform, which has provided us a wealth of content for global creative projects and has given Quiksilver a strong and distinct musical point of view through which we can create meaningful and impactful dialog with our consumers. It is a true pleasure working with the Brandracket team, and the results of our music program grow stronger everyday.” ~ Roger Russell, Director Of Marketing, Quiksilver, Inc, 2009