Does library music make sense: a composer writes a tune for some imaginary commercial scene in advance, the small pieces are put in a library for sale, and they are available to anyone willing to pay for the right to use them.

Library music was a product of a special time in the 1990s, when TV and radio expanded and needed low-cost music. Teams worked like an assembly line, preparing scores in advance and using studio time between other sessions.

From creation and recording to publication, composers and musicians didn’t have time to refine the piece. In the end they may not even have been paid enough, and they may not even have had their names on the score or the record. Their music may have been popular, or easily forgotten. They may not even have known what became of it.

Was it fair? Was it worthwhile? At least they had, more or less passionately, created it.

I think the whole story is quite sad, and it’s exactly how people’s lives are. It’s like a lotus growing in the mud, looking for a little trace of freedom in the midst of unfreedom.