THE SEARCH FOR JINGLES
Words by Alex Marinkovich-Josey (he/him)
Picture this.
You’ve got a banging idea for a new podcast. Everyone’s telling you they’re dying to hear it for real. You’ve pitched it to Salient Podcasts, they love it. Next thing you know, you’re in the studio, recording with your new co-host, and it's all coming together. Then, your producer asks you the fatal question. Have you thought about
intro music? It all comes crashing down.
Podcast jingles are hard, y’all.
We know a good one when we hear one. Let’s Make a Rom-Com’s banging, floral track screams romance, Worlds Beyond Number gets you in that fantasy, RPG mood, and the German podcast Decades From Home has a popping, bavarian tune that’s guaranteed to stick in your head. I have a strange taste in podcasts, I know.
As much as we can fall in love with a good podcast’s mood setting music, a bad jingle can turn a great listen sour. As a beginner in the podcast world, that battle between harmony and ick is a real struggle. Just because you’re keen to work with the audio medium, it doesn’t automatically mean you know how to make music. The obvious answer is to look through music directories and find something that suits your show. I wish I’d tried that.
I knew how to play the guitar long before I started podcasting, but I wasn’t gifted enough to ever really compose anything on my own. My first podcast jingle was out of my control. I was 14, and my dad made it for me. I was super cool, can’t you tell? It was a great tune for my geeky, mostly Star Wars podcast. But when I left for Aotearoa, I wanted to keep podcasting and I knew I’d need to do it myself. I launched my first new podcast while I was at Weir House, and I took to the world’s greatest music making tool: GarageBand.
With GarageBand came loops, an amateur’s best friend. The loops gave me a solid structure that was composed by someone of actual talent, so I felt assured that I could come up with something. It took an embarrassingly long amount of time. I wanted to find out what other podcasters at Salient did for their jingles, so I reached out in the group chat. Georgia, who’s the host of one of our upcoming Salient Podcasts, was quick to reach out with their story of meeting a composer friend. “We sat down in the Hub together to make [the track]. I have zero understanding of music, or pitch, or sound, so the process involved many exasperated sighs and music 101 sessions on the difference between percussion and the other instruments.”
It seems all podcasters share the same burden. Georgia’s story is reminiscent of my journey with Stranger at Home. I wasn’t happy with the loops I'd assembled for the show’s theme, and wanted a refresh. I couldn’t wrap my head around it, so I sought out a classmate who could help me compose it. I’d made sure to commission them properly for the work, but that meant paying a hefty sum for about 30 seconds of music! I’m glad I did it, but maybe I should just teach myself how to write a short tune for my wallet’s sake.
There are definitely costs when it comes to making any sort of podcast, but maybe it's worth it when it comes to making a tune that’ll stick in your head forever.