On Tuesday, October 21st, IAR hosted the event ‘Do It Yourself: Music for TV Commercials’ with special guest Wendell Hanes. Wendell has scored over 600 commercials, themes, and promotional spots for television. He has been involved musically in several independent feature films and is the author of the book, “The 30-30 Career: Making 30 Grand in 30 Seconds!” IAR students, faculty, and staff attended the popular seminar to learn about the field of music for commercials and how to become a part of it. Wendell talked about his position as a composer at Volition Sound, a full service music and media branding company, and told the audience about the importance of music expansion, “It’s not enough to just be a recording artist in today’s world. If you expand into different areas such as commercial music, you will grow as an artist and above all get paid.”

Wendell showed the students a variety of projects that he sold to companies such as Porsche, Corona, Audi, Lipton Iced Tea, and Samuel Adams. He engaged the audience for their opinions of the spots and why they thought the music fit. Wendell also showed three musical versions of the same TV commercial and asked which the audience liked best. He wanted to demonstrate the subjectivity involved in the business and that the client’s decision to purchase the project is not based on the music alone, but on a range of factors. Prior to the seminar, Wendell provided IAR students with two video pieces without audio. Students built their original music and sound design to the video and the projects were viewed at the seminar and critiqued by Wendell. IAR students had the unique opportunity to learn how to get into the commercial music business from a successful professional. For more information on Wendell and his book, the3030career.com.