HookSounds: Behind the Scenes of Making Music

Since the founding of HookSounds back in 2016 it is a place for original and well curated royalty free music. At launch HookSounds featured only a handful of independently created tracks but thanks to our amazing community it has grown to a major music source for thousands of content creators world wide.

In this article we will take you behind the scenes of making music for HookSounds and show you the key elements which has made the platform to what it is today. Let’s take a glimpse behind the scenes and learn where the music you use on a day-to-day comes from.

What Makes HookSounds Unique?

With the advancement of technology, creating music has become more accessible than ever, allowing more people to produce music on their own. What makes HookSounds stand out, however, is our commitment to originality and one of the highest curation standards in the industry. Every track is carefully crafted and selected to ensure a distinctive sound and a consistently high level of quality.

In the early 2010 years, there was this common believe that stock music in general sounded cheap, flat an generic. Most music producers back then created tracks to sell as many licenses as possible. Quantity won over Quality.

At HookSounds, creating authentic music was always at the heart of our work. We think that there is a big difference in making music just for the sake of selling it and actually making it passionately.

Since the beginning, our focus has been on quality over quantity, with the belief that the creative process of making music should never be driven purely by commercial goals.

Our small team of just a handful of people fosters a respectful, supportive, almost family-like atmosphere that directly positively influences the quality of the music we release.

Where the Music Comes From

If we invited you to “take a look behind the scenes,” you wouldn’t find us in multi-million-dollar studios or large corporate offices. Instead, you’d step into our living rooms.

HookSounds operates entirely self-funded, and we’ve proven that high-quality music doesn’t require extravagant equipment or efficiency-optimized work environments. What it truly needs are creative minds and a deep passion for making music.

 

How A New Track Comes Alive

To really understand whats going on behind the scenes here at HookSounds, let us take you through the unpolished process of how we create the music you love.

It starts with the Idea

There are many different ways we find inspiration for a new musical theme. Sometimes it starts with humming a random melody; other times, it comes from pure experimentation with sounds and instruments. Every artist on our team has a distinct musical style and profession, bringing a unique touch to each creation.

Through the feedback we receive via email and social media, we always have a rich pool of ideas to draw from. This helps us identify in-demand concepts and transform them into high-quality final products. It’s especially valuable when writer’s block strikes.

Setting the Foundation

Experimenting in this stage feels like playing around rather than “work”. The joy in making music for us lies in stumbling on these “happy accidents” which lead to interesting and unique ideas which can be creatively developed. No piece starts and continues like another – and that is exciting.

Let’s give you an example.

That’s how simple the track “Guardian of the Island” started:

Very simple, just a few notes. But having even a very rough foundation, makes it easier to imagine footage around it. In this case it could be a jungle, images of ancient structures.

You are a content creator yourself? Check our article on how you can turn any boring idea into great art.

Recording

Now that the core idea or melody is laid out, it needs some development. On many tracks, that includes recording further instruments, melodies and adding ideas to enrich the sonic experience. This will set the core idea in a certain context and give it a “vibe”.

Most tracks consist of multiple instrument layers such as drums, bass, guitars, keys and synths. In this step we are bringing all of these together and define the relationship between the instruments.

The creative freedom is huge and manually building our tracks piece by piece and seeing them developing is one of the most fulfilling things.

The track progresses with the addition of orchestral drums, glockenspiel, stringed instruments and it has now developed into a more solid framework:

Arrangement and Creating Versions

In this step, the track takes on a clear structure and direction. We define how and when the different sections are introduced and record the instruments accordingly. For example:

Intro > Part A > Part B > Interlude > Part A → Part B → Part C → Part B → Outro

At HookSounds we also provide professionally edited cuts tailored to projects or formats with standardized lengths. The most common lengths are 60, 30, and 15 seconds, making them ideal for short-form videos, online and TV advertisements, and intros.

A strong arrangement plays with the listener’s expectations, presenting and integrating recurring motifs in a way that keeps the track engaging and dynamic. At the same time, it gives the music a clear identity and a distinctive personality that makes it memorable.

Mixing and Mastering

Once the composition is ready, this step basically is about “sweetening” the audio. Here we set the final levels for each instrument, make each sound like it should by adjusting the dynamics and frequency bands and make sure the track sounds “controlled” and balanced. It’s all about the tiny details that shape and define a track’s personality.

The sound tweaks on the individual elements in this step are very subtle and an someone with an untrained ear will probably have difficulties making them out. But summing all edited tracks together results in a day-and-night difference.

To understand the impact, take a listen to the unmixed track and the finished, mixed and mastered version.

 

Before the mix and master the track sounds quiet, powerless and muffled:

 

This is how the same section sounds, after the mix and mastering process:

After approximately 7–10 days of production, the track is finalized and, following a meticulous curation process, added to the HookSounds repertoire.

Check out the full track on HookSounds:

Your Source for Original, Human Made Music

In the era of AI where hundreds of tracks get created within seconds, we believe that the richness, originality and creative depth of great royalty free music cannot be replicated in this way.

That’s why we are following the traditional route of creating music manually, helping make our clients projects sound unique and professional. Even if this involves higher production costs.

With every subscription or single license, you will directly contribute keeping human made music alive and relevant while our fair pricing rewards and supports our artists and producers for their work.

 

Need a custom track?

If you’re working on a project but can’t find the perfect music track, a custom production may be the ideal solution. Certain projects — especially games and films — require music that works seamlessly with the visuals, pacing, and on-screen action.

For these cases, HookSounds offers a custom music production service tailored to your project’s specific needs. You can submit a request for a custom production through our form here.

Conclusion

What we’ve shown you here is just a brief overview of the steps and thinking that go into our music. In reality, each track is the result of a much deeper process of experimentation, refinement, and attention to detail.

Each track you see on HookSounds is created through this hands-on approach of dedication, craftsmanship, and passionate music-making. At HookSounds, it’s not about quantity — it’s about cultivating a distinctive collection of purposefully produced, original, human-made music that helps our clients’ projects stand out and sound truly unique.

Great ideas don’t need huge budgets or trendy personalities to come alive. In the end, music is emotion. And emotions are in every one of us.

We think its the dedication and passion to the actual creation process which have led to our now extensive library of polished end products.