music and political elections
Music and branding. It’s taken for granted that these two go hand in hand whether it’s promoting a television show, an antacid or a political campaign. The selling of a candidate to achieve public office is in many respects no different than marketing laundry detergent (insert joke here). As it relates to the use of music, a well known and established song that everyone knows can help support the intended persona of a candidate. While I thought this subject might be of interest at this particular time, I was surprised to find that the use of music in political campaigns goes back much farther than I would have imagined. Songs [...]
murdoch-backed music startup bankrupt before launch
By Yinka Adegoke for Reuters Beyond Oblivion, a digital music startup backed by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and investment bank Allen & Co Director Stanley Shuman has filed for bankruptcy protection after spending millions of dollars building a service that never saw the light of day. Journalists were given a preview of the New York start-up service that aimed to give away a limitless library of digital music with devices that had the Beyond Oblivion software pre-installed. Such a plan would have had music licensing costs running at tens of millions dollars even before it achieved any scale. Beyond Oblivion owed creditors between $100 million and $500 million, with estimated [...]
death of the pen?
“The pen is mightier than the sword” may soon be changed to “The stylus and Bluetooth keyboard are both mightier than the sword.” We’ve watched companies tumble and paradigms shift over the years as a result of the digital revolution. First to fall were the record stores, both independent and chain. Next followed the video stores, from Independent thru Blockbuster. The Digital Revolution is no less impactive than was the Industrial Revolution, and the full effect is yet to be realized. The next to fall – I predict it will be the pen. The iPad, along with competitive tablets and the Smartphone, are becoming our new writing ground. With products [...]
reason to believe
In posts during the last year, I have had some not too nice things to say about some of the trends that I have observed in today’s music industry (the broadest definition of that term). I have bemoaned the death of the album format, the rise of talent born in the shallow end of the talent gene pool, the damage that instant-access-to-every-song-ever-recorded-at-any-second can do to our ability to reflect and gain perspective on lasting, meaningful musical quality, and the sometimes plastic-y, tinny sound of CDs…among other horrid criticisms. Recently, while searching for other writers who share exactly my same views, so that I can feel confirmed, I can across this [...]
licensing notes from leisa korn for january 16, 2012
Happy New Year! For some reason, the start of 2012 has been peppered daily with extensive and lengthy explanations of how copyright laws came into being. I’ve been working in music publishing for more years than I want to admit to and even I’m overwhelmed by the weightiness of these articles. So maybe I can give a really simple explanation that everyone can understand. As mentioned in my previous blogs, the launch of audio detection programs is allowing publishers/rights owners to monitor the broadcast of their music on television, radio and the internet. Occasionally we find a program, commercial or infomercial that includes music we distribute for which no synchronization [...]
a moment with arranger & orchestrator jeff atmajian
Jeff Atmajian is a highly sought-after arranger and orchestrator for films. As an orchestrator, Jeff has worked on all or nearly all of the films of directors Rob Reiner and M. Night Shyamalan. He has worked with all the London orchestras on classical, popular and film recordings, as well as doing film recording with the excellent studio orchestras in Los Angeles and New York, and over the years he has composed large and small scale music for Megatrax. Jeff took a moment this week to share a little about his background in music and the work he’s done for Megatrax. Megatrax: Tell us a little bit about your background in [...]
apocalypse: NOT
2012 is going to be a great year for Megatrax. This year will see the launch of our much anticipated new website which promises to be the fastest and most accurate music search system in the industry. This will also be a year that will see the rollout of significant new catalogs, the debut of our new bimonthly production schedule, and groundbreaking on our ambitious office makeover. On the album front, I look forward to producing a double album of classical piano music featuring a virtuoso concert pianist, completing an authentic collection of Brazilian music recorded in Rio with live musicians, and taking our first baby steps into the genre [...]
bret levick’s personal history of punk
One of the stand-outs on the History of Punk CD from our The Scene catalog is Bret Levick, an acclaimed American rocker, edgy singer-songwriter and an innovative producer. His songs can be heard on hundreds of TV shows, commercials, trailers, films, and even a few video games. Some clients of Bret’s production company Bang Hard Music Corp. have included Apple, Nissan, ABC, NBC, Midway Games, Activision, NFL, HBO, MTV, Sony and more. Bret resides in Ashland, Oregon where he writes and produces music for TV and film, and performs regularly with his indie roots band LEFT. We asked him to reflect on his own history with punk and the work he [...]
happy new year from megatrax!
Here’s to entering our 21st year of making great music for great media! Happy New Year everyone!
