Well I just returned from the Billboard Hollywood Film and TV conference in LA. Boy let me tell you... this was a conference room full of naysayers. At a time when there are more opportunities for music... how is it that we can't seem to correctly monetize it? This article I found on twitter points to many of the concerns happening at present in the industry. Shrinking budgets and growing costs are making breaking into the film world even more difficult than it has been in the past. It seems that when we as property owners give one concession price-wise... the studios begin to think this is going to be the modus operandi for remainder of their deals... As an interesting contrast to this, we at Naxos are actually doing quite well in the licensing game. I attribute most of this to the fact that we are incredibly diversified in the licensing business. I feel we are lucky to have intellectual property that bodes well in so many different areas. Perhaps this is the silver lining to having such a niche product... after all Classical Music is not for everyone... But there IS a market for it. and I am thankful for that.
While there were many panels and events surrounding the conference.. several stick out to me as being the most valuable for my conference experience. Notably, the Music Supervisor Roundtable- the "State of the Union" , the Thursday keynote featuring Sasha Baron Cohen and his brother/composer Erran Baron Cohen, the behind the scenes look at "Glee" and last but not least, the "Music for Commercials and Beyond" panel featuring the creatives behind such popular commercials as the United Airlines, talking babies, and milk rock opera. <vids below>
Suprisingly the Baron Cohen's were quite interesting. Erran actually is a classically trained trumpet player and composer and composes all of the music for his esteemed brother's films. I never began to think that they actually gave a damn about the music in their productions- but it actually has quite a bit of bearing on their productions. This to me is a great thing!
[caption id="attachment_300" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sasha Baron Cohen and Brother"]
The" Glee" panel was equally interesting as it addressed the marketing challenges of creating the series. Imagine taking the greatest rock songs ever written and then trying to convince the publisher that it is a good idea that you arrange it for show choir and put it on Fox. This is the challenge they faced at the inception of the series... Once they got the series running- the apparent crossover appeal of this music was realized when they began seeing massive single sales after each night's episode. The theme song this week was RIAA gold certified and this is without any "real" record promotion. Their complete album drops in three weeks and they expect it to be a top 10 seller quickly! This is a great example of cross promotion between TV and the record industry. This to me is a huge success story.
[caption id="attachment_299" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Glee Panel- Lea Michelle"]
Of course one cannot go to the Billboard Conference without matriculating to the Hunnypot party. This year's party was no disappointment. Once again at the "Heights" club on Hollywood Boulevard, PJ Bloom and his band of wild misfits brought tons of great bands, djs and networking with the creme de la creme of the film music industry. Great times were had by all and the party was rocking properly when "The Crystal Method" took the state at 11:00. From then on- they rocked my face off with some of the rawest beats I have heard in years. They made me miss and appreciate my old friend, Electronic Music... once again.
[caption id="attachment_298" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Crystal Method"]
All in All, this was a great experience once again. Every year, I find that I meet more creatives and find more connections in the vast film industry. This is definately a conference to visit if you are interested at breaking into this industry. Contacts abound.