Standard Music Library

Stock Music is proud to announce its new partnership with Standard Music Library and Music Britannica.

 Celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, Standard Music Library was set up as a collaboration between London Weekend Television (now ITV) and Bucks Music Group in 1968 to provide the music for hit TV shows like a.o. Please Sir! Upstairs, Downstairs, On The Buses and Catweazle.

Standard Music are still home to a large selection of music from LWT’s late 60s/70s programming, during which Harry Rabinowitz was its legendary head of music. Dudley Moore (legendary musician, composer, actor – Ten with Bo Derek and Arthur with Liza Minelli), Ron Grainer (Doctor Who theme/score), Delia Derbyshire (pioneer of experimental electronic music), George Martin (referred to as the “Fifth Beatle”) and Brian Eno all recorded for Standard Music in those early years.

Initially, and fittingly, Standard Music released 68 albums on vinyl, the last being Brian Eno’s Textures album which to this day remains unreleased anywhere else.

Standard continues to look for interesting and exciting music, often a little left of centre, working with the established contemporary composers such as Matthew Herbert and Justin Nicholls but also up and comers like One Bit Music.

A multitude of TV series and films have dipped into Standard Music’s catalogue: Serpico, Sex And The City, The West Wing, South Park, The One Show, BBC Panorama, Masterchef, Come Dine With Me, Top Gear and even Debbie Does Dallas.

Standard Music stands for quality, originality and authenticity, it has a rich and diverse catalogue of music designed exclusively for use in audio-visual productions such as films, ads, TV, films and online – they aim to have a high-quality little bit of something for everything, from orchestral and classical to dubstep, dark atmospherics, exotica, drum n bass, chillout, ambient and jazz, on to World Music and an impressive archive catalogue stretching back to the late 60s.

Their composers include Production Music Award Winners like Justin Nicholls (I Smell A Rat ESL232 Labyrinth), music pioneers like Brian Eno and Delia Derbyshire, the well-known French singer/songwriter Laurent Voulzy, Naim Amor, Dom Beken & Alex Paterson, Dan Bewick, Phil Binding, Dennis Bovell, Raymond Burley, Michael Chapman, Neil Cowley, Terry Edwards, Rob Ellis, Sam Fonteyn, Francis Fumiere, Barry Gilbey, Gordon Giltrap, Jonathan Goldstein, Ron Grainer, Tom Greenwood, Christopher Gunning, Philip Guyler, Derry Hall, Max Harris, Matthew Herbert, Nigel Hess, Brian Hodgson, Laurie Holloway, Si Hulbert, Elliot Ireland & Alex Rizzo, Fabian Jolivet, Denis King, Basil Kirchin, John Kongos, Lank & Tank, Daniel Lanois, Sven Libaek, Phil Manzanera, George Martin, Janette Mason, Chris McCormack, Elan Mehler, Richard G. Mitchell, Barbrara Moore, Dudley Moore, Nick Muir, Phil Parnell, Marco Pirroni, Mark Russell, Tony Russell, Ben Salisbury, Tim Saul, Richard Thair, Kirk Thompson, Steven Stapleton, Mike Vickers, Tony Visconti, Benet Walsh, Charles Webster and many more…

Musica Britannica is a boutique niche label curated by veteran composer/film director, James Kenelm Clarke. It is a small but growing specialist catalogue of light melodies and moods, predominantly classical and acoustic. Please click on the following link to listen to the introductory playlist for Musica Britannica. The extensive use of authentic acoustic instruments gives the label not only more character and personality, but also creates a warmer, more in-depth sound thus evoking and enhancing core moods like happy, sad, tense, neutral, etc. Musica Britannica aspires to empower the creative producer with unique cues which demonstrates a deep understanding of how music works with picture. It is the perfect solution if your production needs music with a strong sense of narrative.

Go to smipm.com to check out all albums of Standard Music Library and Musica Britannica.

Music Submissions Guidelines

If you would like to submit your music for consideration for our music catalogue please pay attention to the following:

  • Do not call or email asking if it is okay to send music, we listen to everything that comes across our desk. Sometimes this takes a while, so please allow four to six weeks before querying if your music has been received and reviewed.
  • Our core focus is high-quality production music. If you care enough about your music that you want other people to pay attention to it, you need to make sure it stands out. We love new and exciting music. For your music to stand a better chance to get noticed, make sure you send us finished tracks NOT demos, unless they are brain-meltingly good.
  • You must own and control 100% of the copyright in both the composition and master recording. Sound-alikes and samples are not permitted.
  • We do not accept any music on a non-­exclusive basis. We act as the exclusive music publisher for the compositions in our library, promoting and representing them to our clients worldwide through a network of sub publishers.
  • Make sure you are not under an exclusive agreement with another publisher.
  • Please do NOT email mp3s as they will be deleted.
  • Please submit a streaming link ONLY for 5-8 songs using our contact form and any other info that you think is pertinent.

And last but not least: here is something to remember: the music library business is a long term journey. Chances are you will not become an overnight millionaire! Music libraries are all about growing a steady stream of long term income. Compare it to rolling a snowball, but a snowball that sometimes rolls quickly, sometimes slowly. Quick or slow, it still grows.

We know it is not a great sales pitch but it is the reality of the business. And it says something about the Stock Music philosophy: we don’t over-sell or make huge promises to you. We just work hard, do our utmost best and with that attitude we hope you will stay and grow with us.