Local band members take their talent online at Melodicom

If you’ve ever seen a performance by Greer-based Trade Street Band, you’ve heard the musical stylings of Paul Bingham, Brett Ensley and Brandon Higginbotham.

Now, the trio of talented musicians is using their passion for playing to create music for commercials, films, documentaries, podcasts and even those cat videos on YouTube, with their new company, Melodicom.

Melodicom.com offers royalty-free – or copyright free – music for online purchase by the track or via a monthly subscription that allows multiple downloads. Offerings include a wide range of genres from classical to country and funk to vaporwave.

“So, you make a video of your cat, throw the latest Bruno Mars track on there and put it on YouTube,” explains Higginbotham. “A day later, you get an email that your video has been flagged because you don’t own the copyright to that Bruno Mars track. Royalty-free music takes that out of the equation. When you pay for a track through us, you get an unlimited license to use that track on anything you want to use it on.”

With backgrounds in music composition, mixing and performance, Melodicom’s co-owners handle all writing, scoring and production from a state-of-the-art studio in Greer. Bingham is the guitar guru, Ensley’s expertise is film scoring, and Higginbotham handles vocals and specializes in electronic and video game music. Their diverse experience working on Broadway shows, in Nashville recording studios and on international stages gives Melodicom musical expertise that many of their competitors don’t have.

“One of the largest royalty-free sites was started by a web developer and a marketing guy with no musical backgrounds,” Higginbotham said. “Quality control is a little different with us handling everything ourselves.”
In addition to royalty-free tracks, Melodicom produces custom tracks and jingles for companies such as Michelin, Rigid and The Home Depot, and for advertising and marketing firms representing a host of other top brands. The company also has an education arm to teach young, aspiring composers.

“Today, everything is about music production, from podcasts to film scoring to video games,” Ensley said. “Kids need to know composition and the music technology side. Not only do you need to know how to run a computer and all your programs, but also how to produce a solid product so your clients will pay you money to do what you love to do.”

And creating music clearly is what Bingham, Ensley and Higginbotham love to do.

“We started in the live scene, and it morphed into something a little bigger,” Higginbotham said.

Sample the music of Melodicom here.