Let The Music Play with Danielle Soury from Walker 🎧
Welcome to the first installment of “Let The Music Play!” In this new series, we ask music supervisors to share a collection of their favorite tracks discovered in DISCO Libraries.
If you’re a music supervisor and DISCO Libraries is new to you, head over to “Discover Music” in your left navigation. There you’ll find this playlist along with many others and a whole world of music from the DISCO community. From big name labels and publishers through to indie sync reps and composers — there is a treasure trove of thousands of songs from hundreds of rights holders and artists available for you to discover and save right to your DISCO!
With so many rights holders giving you free rein to search and save their music, there’s a new favorite artist or song eagerly waiting for you to find it…and it just might be in this mix.
To kick off the series. our first list comes from Danielle Soury, Music Supervisor at Walker.
“I had so much fun making this playlist,” Danielle says. “DISCO Libraries feels like this cool, Bandcamp-for-sync arena for us. I’m open and excited by any and all forms of music exploration, so adding another tool to our music discovery tool box is awesome! I hope other music supervisors take advantage of it. I went through almost everything and there’s a lot of great stuff.”
Danielle has selected an eclectic bunch of music. ‘I’m an ease in ease out playlist maker,’ she says. ‘There’s a time and place to get the party started… Anyone can listen to Les Fleur by Minnie Ripperton [the playlist’s first track from Sweet on Top] and be like ‘oh I’m ready to listen to whatever is coming next.’
The through line of the playlist, Danielle says, is this is “all music I would listen to at home.” Danielle shared some more on a few of her selects below.
Don’t Run Away — Human Barbie [Special Boy Media]
This song is so beautiful and sad — a timeliness combination if you ask me. I especially love tender vocals and lulling rhythm.
The Buzz Beam 2020 Party On Orlando Island — Loretta’s Museum [Maps Music]
I had never heard of Loretta’s Museum before and this song is really cool! It’s very textural and organic. I love brass work, I love the syncopation of this track. It’s beautiful. Maps Music reps this band and they clearly have impeccable music taste. That catalog is amazing, such a range.
Words — F.R. David [Freaknsee]
I’ve always loved this song but I never knew who repped it. While browsing Libraries, I clicked on The Joubert Singers library. Most music supervisors know them from the well known 80s song ‘Stand On The World’. I’m pretty sure every advertising creative has referenced that track thousands of times. And because it is great — anthemic, soulful, an authenticity that people really try to capture.
Cut to me finding “Words” in that library from Freaknsee. I love euro-disco!
Circle — Cults Percussion Ensemble [Woodwork Music]
I really like this group! I think this album came out in the 70s and found it only a few years ago. It’s like weird circus children music.
ZaZa and Some Runts (Smoke Break)- Terry Presume [One Two Many]
This is my favorite new discovery track! It’s got good energy to it, really sick. I would love to see this song in a spot (I need the clean version of course haha).
Theme for Kamala n.2 — Marc 4 [Sonor Music Editions / New Tape]
This song is repped by New Tape who I had never heard of before DISCO Libraries. They’ve got all vintage Italian music — really good stuff in there. While I was in their Library I was thinking “Wow, I think you could score a whole show from their catalog!”
Let The Music Play — Shannon [Woodwork Music]
Throw back! This song was always on the radio when I was a kid. It’s one of those songs that makes you go “uuhhhh I could bop to this”. It’s almost annoying but it’s not. There’s something about it that Shannon holds down and it’s actually really groovy.
Superego — Lunch Money [Fire Talk]
I found this band when I went down a deep dive looking for something similar to Kamasai Washington for a client. When I need a sonic break from work related music, I listen to a lot of instrumental and experimental ambient. If I have to listen to swagger rock for 5 hours, its nice to put something like this on.
Easy Money — Westerman [Partisan Records]
I hadn’t heard this Westerman tune in a minute but I was certainly captured again by it’s 1980s imbued drum machine and thick guitar sound. It makes me want to go sleuth for some reason!?
Why I love You — The Ultimates [Bank Robber]
New find from Bank Robber! I almost wanted to close with this song but I threw in some piano action instead, like you are being played off by the accompanist.
Homesickness — Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou [Maps Music]
Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou is one of my favorite pianists, so naturally I loved coming across her work in the Maps library. I put it last because it feels like something that would have been played at the end of the night in the 1950s or 60s. A sweet goodbye.
Danielle also shared some quick tips for rights holders on presenting their music on Libraries:
• Act on access requests quickly: “Please make sure you look at the requests!”
• The more music the better: “If you are comfortable putting more of your music on Libraries, it’s wonderful to have the access.”
• Curate your Library home page selects: “If you don’t have any music on the front page, it can be hard to navigate through everything on the backend. Definitely curate what you want to showcase.”
Music supervisors can access monthly curated playlists (including this one!) inside their DISCO, along with hundreds of Libraries from the world’s best rights holders.
Are you a rights holder who wants your music discoverable in DISCO too? Click here to learn more.
