Well, it was a great meeting last night! Our guest speaker, Michael Permutter was terrific and we all want to thank him very much for taking the time from his busy schedule to come and tell us about this very imortant segment of the business. You may have noticed Jenn diligently taking notes last night and with great efficiency, she has already forwarded them to me so I can forward them all to you for your records. Enjoy!

Jenns notes from August 20th

Our guest speaker was Michael Perlmutter, who is a Music Supervisor for SL Feldman & Associates, which is a very large talent agency. Go to www.sfla.com for more information about this company.
Michael has been a Music Supervisor for over 6 years, and his job is to find the right music to suit a scene for a TV show, movie, or made-for-TV movie. He seeks out music, and sometimes they use songwriters to write a specific type of music they are looking for. He gets approximately 300 demo CDs per week. So obviously, he only listens to small portions of each song to get a feel for the songs, to see if it is anything they can use right now. He very rarely throws anything out, because even though he might not be looking for that particular sound right now, based on the productions hes working on, he might use it later, when something does come up, requiring that kind of music. Sometimes, but pretty rarely, they work with composers for background score. They are just starting to do some commercial work, which is seeking out songs for commercials, advertisements.

Michael talked a little bit about the difference between publishing rights and master rights (ownership rights). When you write a song, you OWN that song. No one can take that away from you. If anyone wants to use your song, for a commercial, for a TV show, for a movie, whatever, they have to lease it from you (obtain licensing rights from you to use it). If you have given a record label publishing rights, this just means youve given them the right to put your song out there, and use it for whatever they see fit. But you still own the song. If Michael wanted to use your song for a movie, hed have to get permission from you (the song owner) and from your publishing company, because they own the publishing rights. Synchronization rights come into play when Michael sets your song to a scene, to a moving picture.

Michael mentioned that the opportunities in Canada are more limited and pay less than in the USA. Canadian films have low music budgets. But its a great way to start if you want credit and exposure for your music. Michael said hed send us a list of Music Supervisors in L.A., since there are many there that we could market to.

He made some suggestions as to what "rules" to follow, when sending a CD to a music supervisor.

Always put the song titles and your contact information right on the sleeve of the CD, or stuck to the case of the CD. This way, they can follow along with the songs as they listen, and they know right away who to contact if they like it. Dont make them have to pop out the CD to see the song titles. Dont make them have to search for your promo material to find your contact information. Often the promo material gets separated from the disc.

Only send 3 or 4 songs. They would rather not receive a 10-song full album. But, if youve already produced an album, then go ahead and send it in, but be sure to mark which 3 or 4 songs youd really like them to listen to most (because they are your best, or because they are relevant to the productions the music supervisors are working on right now). Mark the songs by putting a post-it note or sticker right onto the CD case.

Make sure you have professional sounding, well-mixed, clear recordings for your demo CD. No home recordings.

Do your research! Find out what productions the music supervisor is working on right now, and what types of music they are looking for, so that you can market songs that fit that need. Dont bother sending over your "techno" if theyre looking for "country".

Instead of mailing a music supervisor your demo CD, you could also send them a letter or e-mail indicating the website you have your MP3s on. Michael said that he personally is old-fashioned and does not prefer this method. He likes a CD in hand.

Val