What do Paramount’s Spin the Bottle, Freeform’s The Fosters and Netflix’s Black Summer all have in common? Composer Alec Puro. Alec has not only composed all of these projects, plus numerous more, but also has a full service music production company, Gramoscope Music, specializing in creative music services including custom scoring, original composition, music supervision and licensing to the entire production community. Gramoscope has powered the sound for countless hit TV shows, films, ads and video games like The Real Housewives franchise, Wicked Tuna, The First 48 and the NBA 2K video game series to name a few.
Alec is now changing the royalty-free music industry with his new company, Viralnoise. By subscribing to Viralnoise, creators can enhance their projects with elite music and sound effects—without the complexity of traditional licensing agreements or the financial burden of high-cost production music. Viralnoise consists of 35,000+ music tracks and 30,000+ premium sound effects previously reserved for major TV shows, films, and global brands. The company was designed specifically for YouTubers, TikTok influencers, podcasters, filmmakers, game developers and all digital content creators with a mission to level the creative playing field by making Hollywood-grade audio accessible to all creators. Alec discusses Viralnoise and much more in the below interview…
Your latest feature was Paramount’s Spin the Bottle. How did you decide on a tone for this film?
This was my third collaboration with Gavin Wiesen after The Art of Getting By and All Nighter, so we have a really great shorthand at this point. Gavin is such a talented director and it’s always exciting to explore new territory with him – this time diving into the horror/thriller genre, which was different from our previous projects together. For Spin the Bottle, the film follows this group of friends who unwittingly unleash an evil spirit while playing spin the bottle in a house with a dark history, so musically I wanted to create this underlying sense of dread and unease that builds throughout. I created a very industrial, synth-driven, atmospheric and at times aggressive score that really leans into the supernatural horror elements of the story.
What would you say is different about your Spin the Bottle score than other horror film scores?
I think what sets it apart is that industrial, synth-driven approach combined with that atmospheric quality. A lot of horror scores rely heavily on traditional orchestral jump scares or overly aggressive metal sounds, but with Spin the Bottle I wanted to create something that felt more modern and unsettling in a different way. The industrial elements give it this mechanical, almost inhuman quality that reflects the supernatural evil the characters unleash. It’s about creating that underlying tension and dread rather than just hitting you over the head with obvious scary music.
Your music can currently be heard on Bravo’s The Valley and the upcoming season of the Real Housewives of OC. Can you talk about what exactly you did for these shows?
Through Gramoscope Music, we’ve been creating music for The Real Housewives franchise for years now, including OC, Beverly Hills, and New Jersey. What we provide is this extensive catalog of music cues that work for all the different emotional beats these shows need – everything from dramatic confrontation music to lighter transitional pieces to underscore the more lifestyle-focused segments. These reality shows need a lot of music to keep things moving and support all the different storylines and character dynamics that are happening.
Since there are numerous people contributing music on these Bravo shows, how do you make sure that your music is cohesive with the others?
The editors on these shows are really great at maintaining the overall sonic identity of each series. They understand what works for each specific show in the franchise and they’re very good at selecting pieces from our catalog that fit within that established sound palette. We make sure our compositions complement rather than compete with other elements, and over the years we’ve developed a really good understanding of what types of cues work best for different dramatic beats in these reality formats.
You contributed music for Kevin Costner’s The West, which is currently airing on the History Channel. Can you talk about the music you created for this? Where did you get inspiration for this?
Part of curating a music catalog means constantly creating new albums and evolving the range of sounds that we offer. We work closely with A&E and History channel productions frequently, so we’re acutely aware of their upcoming needs. With that said, we knew that this show was going into production so we got to work creating a handful of new albums with the help of our talented team of composers that we thought would be useful in capturing the sound of the show. With every album we create, we try to imagine how the music we write will help to tell a story whether it’s a dramatic reality TV moment on The Real Housewives or something more cinematic like this Kevin Costner show.
You have scored everything from horror (Black Summer) to romantic comedies (The Art of Getting By). Is there a genre that comes easier to you than others?
Genre wise, I love creating music for everything from an in the box electronic score to a big hybrid orchestral score to a small indie band sounding score. One of the best things about being a composer is that every gig is different, so you get to switch it up and try new things every time you start a new project. It really keeps things fresh being able to switch gears between styles, genres and instrumentation. If I only scored shows and films that were all in the same genre, it would definitely be difficult to keep the ideas fresh and new all the time.
You created a royalty-free music licensing company called Viralnoise. Are you afraid that this company will take away from your composing jobs, because it’s faster and cheaper than hiring a composer to do a full-blown original score?
Not at all – they really serve completely different markets and creative needs. When I’m hired to score a film or TV show, I’m creating a bespoke musical identity that’s specifically tailored to that project’s unique story, characters, and emotional journey. That’s something you can’t replace with existing music, no matter how high quality it is. Viralnoise serves the massive community of digital content creators who need great music but don’t have Hollywood budgets for custom scores. If anything, Viralnoise helps support my scoring career by providing stability between major scoring projects, just like Gramoscope Music has done for years.
What prompted you to create Viralnoise? Was there something missing in the marketplace?
It really crystallized through years of requests. Countless content creators told us they struggled to find unique music that fits their style while navigating different platform requirements. They wanted access to the same quality audio they heard in their favorite shows and films, but traditional licensing was either too expensive or too complicated. After building the Gramoscope Music catalog for over a decade, we realized we had this incredible resource that could solve these exact pain points. The democratization of content creation through platforms like YouTube and TikTok meant there was this huge community of talented creators who just needed better tools.
What would you say is the biggest selling point for Viralnoise?
What sets us apart is that we’re giving creators access to the same music and sound effects that have been used in countless major TV shows, blockbuster films, and big-budget advertisements. This is music digital creators have not had access to until now, so it’s not the same old music you’ve already heard in everyone else’s content. Many other royalty-free music platforms offer low quality, canned sounding stock music and sound effects rather than the Hollywood-grade audio found at Viralnoise that has already been battle-tested in professional productions.
Because you are a composer, I imagine you pay close attention to the music in the media you consume. What film or tv score have you been really impressed with lately?
There are a lot of current TV scores I think are really great. I’m loving the use of Philip Glass’s music in 100 Foot Wave and a few years back, Ramin Djawadi’s score for Westworld was incredible. I’m always paying attention to how other composers are solving storytelling problems through music and finding new sonic territories to explore. It’s such an exciting time to be working in this field with all the different platforms creating diverse, high-quality content.
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