Music Essays: Independent thinking.(Column)

To compete with the majors, independents need to evolve with the needs of the ad industry.

While dining with a friend of mine who happens to be a producer at a successful London advertising agency, I discovered that he receives an average of 20 unsolicited calls from music providers every day.

That's a substantial amount of calls in anyone's book, but it is understandable when you consider the phenomenal number of music suppliers (publishers, labels, managers, consultants and so on) that are all vying for business. With so many potential competitors out there, how do you make sure you stand out from the crowd?

The obvious answer would naturally be 'with great music'. But music is so subjective: one man's meat is another man's poison. More importantly, though, and here's the real shocker, sometimes having great music just plain …