In the mid-1930s, the famous French publisher, Francis Salabert, launched Salafilm, a collection of records intended, as its name suggests, for the musical illustration of films. A true visionary, at the forefront of the evolutions in his field, Francis Salabert was at that time the only French publisher convinced that the future of music would lie in recording and reproduction. He was also the publisher of many film scores, including those by Maurice Jaubert and Arthur Honegger, at a time when this nascent form of music publishing was still not well regarded by his peers. 

During this period, Arthur Honegger and Arthur Hoérée introduced Ondes Martenot into their film scores, which, along with the Theremin, invented in Russia in 1917, are among the first electric musical instruments. Subsequently, the search for new timbres would become a major component of production music. See, in this regard, the comprehensive work by Philippe Langlois, “The Bells of Atlantis,” dedicated to electroacoustic music in cinema, as well as the website that references it: The Bells of Atlantis

In 1936, two British publishers, the renowned classical publishing house and instrument maker Boosey & Hawkes Ltd and Bosworth Music, created their production music catalogs. Many recorded pieces from this era, reissued on compact discs and available on certain production music platforms, are still used for the musical illustration of archive films. In 1985, this company was renamed Cavendish Music, led by Steve Cole, who would later become the head of Zomba Production Music, which will be discussed later. 

Cavendish Music was integrated in 2008 by the Dutch company Imagem Music Company, and its music publishing department is now called Imagem Production Music and Five Alarm in the USA.