Horrible Music is an online composers consortium set up by Los Angeles composer Jud Haskins (of Soundscore) to give agencies with low-budget projects access to music that is, despite the company's name, not horrible. Haskins describes Horrible's sonic offerings as "music for ugly budgets."

"Ugly budgets, while they do start at five grand, we define as any music budget that doesn't allow the agency to travel and record wherever the creative team wants. We are currently up for a project with an "ugly" budget of $20,000. The agency wishes they had the 30-40K that a fully funded project provides," says Haskins.

"Horrible music is the answer to what agencies need. We threw out the cappuccino machine, fired the reps, and ripped out the stainless steel bar. Instead, we have an online and growing consortium of talented freelance composers with me as creative director," continues Haskins. "Agency producers have to wonder if they do go with a top music house, will they be put in third place if Wieden + Kennedy comes in with a project. There's also the process of having to do competitive demos. They hate it, but it's the traditional way to get multiple music options."

Since the site launched in November 2001, Horrible has supplied a stark choral track for an AMA motorcycle racing spot out of Crispin Porter + Bogusky and tweaky electro-breaks for a Nokia spot through the Richards Group.

Horrible was structured around the responses Haskins received when he asked agency contacts, "What do you hate about doing music for commercials?"

Some of the responses included being led to believe you don't have enough money for a hot composer, endless sales calls and name-dropping. So, Haskins tapped "The Grid," a network of friends and associates (including ex-music house composers), who will pitch out demos for jobs, often supplying as many as 10 demo tracks for a spot. Also on the Horrible agenda is research courtesy of Russel Davies, a W+K staffer and friend of Haskins in London; Davies scouts out up and coming musical talent in the U.K. capital, suggesting such artists for commercial projects. The samples of these artists listed on the Horrible site range from "ambientialist" Sosumu Yokota to the more well-known rock and/or rhythm of Super Furry Animals, The Avalanches or Alex Gopher.