Muse by Clio Features Trqk and Tips on How Brands and Musicians Best Work Together

Muse by Clio recently interviewed David Della Santa, Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Trqk, to gain insight and some tips. Read all about it in our excerpt below. Click here for the full interview on musebycl.io

David Della Santa is a veteran music producer, music supervisor and composer who has spent over two decades in the music industry. In 2019, he co-founded music royalty intelligence platform Trqk, which is dedicated to helping creators and publishers work more efficiently while growing their income with strategic royalty insights. He currently serves as the company's chief creative officer, overseeing the development and launch of its TrqkIQ service. The service enables clients to identify and reclaim missed royalties, understand peer and industry-wide royalty trends to target more lucrative business, and maximize licensing negotiations.

Della Santa's experiences as founder, executive music producer, music supervisor, and lead composer of custom music house Volume.ms strongly influenced his decision to create Trqk. Over the course of his creative career, he has composed scores, produced multiple genres, and selected and licensed songs by up-and-coming indie artists for clients such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Nike, Reebok, Audi, Wells Fargo, and Quaker Oats, among over 500 total placements. 

We caught up with David for our Liner Notes Q&A series to learn more about his musical tastes and journey through the years, as well as recent work he's proud of and admired.

David, tell us...

A recent project you're proud of

Can I mention two here?

I am a co-founder of Trqk, a music royalty intelligence platform dedicated to helping creators and publishers work more efficiently while growing their income with strategic royalty insights. There is incredible value embedded in royalty data, everything from what kind of tracks tend to earn the most and for how long, what sources pay the best, and where tracks tend to be played. However, you'd need a Ph.D in data science and a degree in coding to suss out the answers and take action. That's why we created Trqk: to simplify the process so creatives can maximize their performance royalty revenue by learning where and how to spend their time.

I am also one half of Spy Empire, an electro-rock duo that fuses the moody majesty of classic synth groups like Depeche Mode and Erasure with the jangly '80s art-pop of Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs. The other half is my longtime friend and co-writer/musician James Rotondi. I can honestly listen to these songs over and over and still want to hear more.

Someone else's project that you admired recently

There are a bunch of great music tech projects out there that I'm excited about, from virtual recording studio apps to decentralized digital rights platforms. But the project I most wish I thought of is Descript. It's a collaborative audio/video editor that works like a document. I heard about it while talking to industry acquaintance Jay LeBoeuf, head of biz dev at Descript. It's not going to solve headier issues like low stream rates or copyright attribution issues, but it's one of those ideas that's so simple yet poised to rock the podcast world. They also have one of the best promo videos I've seen. 

How musicians should approach working with brands

Get the creative brief in person! My company Volume.ms wrote music for advertising and TV for 20-plus years. My experience with brands is as a composer and producer of custom music for brands rather than pairing brands with bands. My approach to working with brands focuses on the creative brief. It's not enough to exchange a few emails about what the brand is looking for in supporting music; it's a conversation that is best done in person. There is so much that needs to be communicated, and words alone don't cut it sometimes. There's a lot of nuance that can be missed in digital communication.

For example, what are the brand creatives or spokespeople wearing, how do they speak, are they buttoned up or casual, where do their music references come from, and how old are their kids—these are just a few signals. Also important, if any of them is a part-time musician, be careful! I have stories. Give me a creative who knows squat about music any day over those who have their own musical ambitions. The novices will give honest, from-the-heart feedback on what's in their head, and that's really what's at the heart of the story. You don't get that from an email. People also give off an energy when they're absorbed in music. When I was sitting in a room of creatives or producers and playing the score I had just created for them, I could sense what they were going to say before they said it.

How brands should approach working with musicians

The above is relevant here, too. As a brand spokesperson or creative, don't be afraid of the music brief. So many people get anxious talking about music because they think they don't have a musical vocabulary. As I said above, the less you know about music, the better. After all, it's not the music I want you to impart to me. It's the story you are trying to tell about your brand that I want. It's my job to hear that and translate that into music.

What music can do that nothing else can

Music can take you forward in time! Everyone knows that music can bring you back emotionally, to that first kiss, to that last breakup, or to that high school prom. Just as it can take you back, it can take you forward. It can bring you to a new emotional state, which makes it especially good at supporting video. A good music score can move you to a new feeling about what you are seeing that enhances and becomes your experience.

**Team Trqk extends sincere thanks to Muse by Clio for this awesome interview! To read the full story, including more about David’s background as a composer and musician, click here.