Stories — Blog — Lab Notes

Top Chef: Wisconsin

Bravo’s Top Chef has brought their competition to culinary hotspots including Los Angeles, New York City, Charleston, and London. For Season 21, they set up shop in our home for over a decade: Wisconsin.

StoriesNathan HonoreMarch 13, 2024production music, library music, music licensing, #3ING, #ThreeIngredientsOrLess, Bravo Top Chef, Top Chef Wisconsin, Wisconsin Top Chef, James Beard Award, James Beard Wisconsin, James Beard Milwaukee, Top Chef Milwaukee, Padma Lakshmi, Kristen Kish, Cooking competition

Throw Out The Playbook

When we see the same basic formula over and over, it all becomes easy to forget. But there are a few stand out Super Bowl commercials that viewers may remember. Plus haikus.

Virtual Crate Digging: Untangle Me

Placing authenticity and the emotional value above all else, we’re diving into one of the most endearing and heart-on-your-sleeve recordings in our catalog, Untangle Me.

StoriesNathan HonoreFebruary 5, 2024library music, music licensing, music supervision, virtual crate digging, #LMTL, #LMNTLRecords, Ingrid Michaelson, Mandy Moore, acoustic pop, Nashville, acoustic, teen drama, human drama, indie folk

Evidence of Thoughtfulness

Celebrating thoughtfulness and curation by highlighting the work of Song Exploder’s Hrishikesh Hirway and his interview with the podcast The Art of Curation.

StoriesNathan HonoreOctober 17, 2023production music, library music, music licensing, License Lab, hrishikesh hirway, Song Exploder, Art of Curation, Samin Nosrat, West Wing Weekly, Ted Talk, The One AM Radio, Mia Quagliarello, AI, Daniel Holter, #LMTL, #LMNTLRecords

Walking The Walk

After over a decade in this business, the milestones can really creep up on you.

Virtual Crate Digging: Nordic Holiday

Minimal piano-based atmospheres and haunting arrangements of traditional Christmas carols encourage quiet moments of reflection while touching heartwarming, nostalgic memories.

Creative Aeronautics

It’s not enough to simply tell someone who you are or what you stand for. Actions speak louder than words. And a nearly 40 minute video dissecting the details of a production music track just scratches the surface.

StoriesNathan HonoreApril 27, 2023music licensing, production music, story, music supervision, music supervisor, production, Music supervisors, LMNTL Records, Song Exploder, Daniel Holter, Owen Sartori, sound design, pop production, WordLess, Podcast, #LMTL, #LMNTLRecords

Hidden Gems & Where To Find Them

Knowing what’s new is exciting, but what about the thrill of discovery? If you’re familiar with the venerated history of library and production music, you know that there are countless treasure chests full of hidden gems still waiting to be discovered.

Bound By Sound

Bound By Sound is a podcast that features interviews with industry professionals working at the intersection of music and film. The conversations are, in their own words, “casual, inspiring and a little geeky.” If you’re anything like us, that’s a combination that will always pique your curiosity.

Roll The Highlights

The most extraordinary sports moments will live forever in the memories of those lucky enough to witness them live. But for the rest of us, we go to the highlights.

Virtual Crate Digging: Latin Jazz

One sub-genre of jazz that brings an undeniable energy that makes any environment feel alive. Latin Jazz (ACPM-007) delivers that energy with live performances in the studio and sits the listener square in a dimly lit booth of a smoky mid-century club.

StoriesNathan HonoreJanuary 30, 2023production music, library music, music licensing, music supervision, virtual crate digging, analog champion, latin jazz, jazz, Afro Cuban, Cuban Jazz, Hammond organ, #ACPM, #AnalogChampion

Virtual Crate Digging: Geek Beats

Geek Beats combines all the energy of a Mountain Dew-fueled campaign and the full-fledged badassery that you feel when you play. In short, it’s one hell of a ride.

StoriesNathan HonoreSeptember 16, 2022production music, library music, music licensing, music supervision, virtual crate digging, Geek Beats, chiptune, retro, 8-bit, dancing about architecture, video game music, video game, gamer, #DAA, #DancingAboutArchitecture

Artist Watch: Alec Shaw

Live in the KEXP studios complete with a full band and choir, rising Seattle talent Alec Shaw brings his soulful vocals into a lush, raw indie pop playground.

StoriesNathan HonoreAugust 3, 2022indie artist, artist watch, alec shaw, KEXP, indie pop, indie folk, Zan Fiskum, Seattle, eyeballs and eardrums, underscore, composer, #E&E, #Eyeballs&Eardrums, #UND, #UNDERscore, #LMTL, #LMNTLRecords

Virtual Crate Digging: Sunshine Kidz

More sincere than goofy, more heartwarming than slapstick, the whimsical instrumentation found on Sunshine Kidz walks the line between Wes Anderson and SpongeBob.

StoriesNathan HonoreJuly 5, 2022production music, library music, playlist, music licensing, music supervision, organic spark, sunshine, sunshine kidz, whimsy, kitsch, children's programming, virtual crate digging, #OSPK, #OrganicSpark

Music Supervisors Unite

Some people become divided, some people become united. Now music supervisors unite as they make the push to unionize.

Virtual Crate Digging: Under The Bridge

Far away from shredding solos or fragile fingerpicking, Under The Bridge is an unexpected soundtrack that explores another side of what an electric guitar can do.

StoriesNathan HonoreMay 31, 2022production music, library music, music licensing, music supervision, virtual crate digging, drama, underscore, electric guitar, emotive, delay, reverb, overdrive, #UND, #UNDERscore

Distinguishing Descriptions

What makes someone stop scrolling to audition a track? While the reality is that taste is subjective and everyone has their own venn diagrams of reasons, track descriptions regularly show up as a primary reason editors and music supervisors push the ‘Play’ button.

Hometown Pride

The entire License Lab team is quite literally all over the map with composers in cities like Nashville, New York, Portland, and our internal team in California, Washington, and Wisconsin. In that spirit we wanted to highlight a few Milwaukee artists who have spread their wings and are making waves on a national scale.