ALIBI Music Opens World of Possibilities to Algonquin Students

Posted on Tuesday, July 6th, 2021

When Algonquin College students were granted access to ALIBI Music last year thanks to an exclusive agreement, it opened up a world of production possibilities to professionally enhance their projects.

The ALIBI Music Library is a professional music and sound effects platform featured in Hollywood productions and the TV, streaming, video game and advertising industries. The library contains more than 250,000 audio files, including more than 11,000 curated original songs and 6,000 sound effects created by a global array of professional artists.

“ALIBI gives our students access to quality professional music. The fact that it’s copyright-cleared solves a lot of problems because the students aren’t out sourcing music from the Internet that they think they might have rights to. Now there’s a one-stop, where they don’t have to search anywhere else,” said Jeremy Atherton, Program Co-ordinator with Algonquin’s School of Media and Design.

Students enrolled in courses for film and media production, television, radio, advertising, interactive media design, and video game development can access, download and incorporate ALIBI’s music and sound effects content into the projects they create as part of their course curriculum.

Jonathan Parks, Executive Producer and founder of ALIBI Music, built his company from scratch starting in 2010. It now has employees in Los Angeles, London, Portland, San Francisco and music composers contributing from all corners of the world, and it provides the resulting music and sound to all the major studios and productions houses. The next time you’re watching Netflix, chances are the sounds you’re hearing are thanks the ALIBI.

For Algonquin Film and Media Production students like Samantha Green and Samuel Lewis, having access to ALIBI’s deep and rich library has been a huge difference-maker.

“Music is such an important part of filmmaking. The soundtrack is an integral part of setting the emotion in a scene. Finding a trusted resource to license music is often one of the biggest hurdles faced by independent filmmakers. Having access to quality music this year via ALIBI has allowed us to elevate our productions to a professional level,” said Lewis.

Green likes the fact that ALIBI also offers multiple options for one particular song or sound.

“Some songs give you the option to only hear the piano, guitar, vocals or a mix of a few. This makes our creative process and control a lot easier and almost feels like you get to personalize a song in a studio, except it’s all online,” said Green. “During one of our projects, we found this great song, but we felt that there was just a little too much of the strings. By going through the dropdown menu for that song, we were able to find a mix without the strings and it custom-fit our production.”

Atherton said that having access to the ALIBI library marked a “quantum leap” for the College, which was relying on outdated and far less user-friendly resources, which included CDs, prior to the agreement.

“Nothing will deaden a great film like a ’90s soundtrack,” said Atherton. “We have great storytelling from our students and cutting-edge cameras, and now we have the cutting-edge music to match.”

With professors and students all working from the same library, teaching production has become far smoother and time-effective. ALIBI also gives the students a first-hand look at how the industry functions.

“We hold the students to the same standard that the industry would. They have to follow the proper channels, keep the proper paperwork and make sure their business affairs are in order,” said Atherton. “The students can see the prices the industry would have to pay (for ALIBI content), so they also get an understanding of the real-world costs.”

For a samples of Algonquin students’ work featuring ALIBI content, check these links:

Green’s documentary at 14:58, titled ‘Home Run’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDjTtWFpGGw

Lewis’ ‘Pinball & Perogies’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR-3ZE_V6is&t=168s


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