LA Event Choice: “Keys to Building a Successful Library” – Wed. 7/24
The production music business has its rewards and pitfalls – as well as a clutch of colleagues who are willing to share hard-won knowledge.
Steven Corn of BFM Digital brings his know-how to Wednesday’s PMA event.
LA composers, music producers, and the business minds who love them can ruminate with a roomful of top experts at the upcoming Production Music Association (PMA) event, “Keys to Building a Successful Library”. It will take place this Wednesday, 6-8 PM, at the Sportsmen’s Lodge, 12833 Ventura Boulevard (just east of Coldwater), Studio City.
The cost is $10 to PMA members, and $15 to non-members and guests. RSVP is required – contact debra@pmamusic.com to get registered.
Here are the details on the evening’s exploits, as provided by the PMA:
Our panel of experts will cover the different facets of what owners need to know to build a catalogue/library the right way in order to maintain value. Want to become (or stay) a long-term viable business? At this event you are guaranteed to learn something new, no matter how experienced you might be.
PANELISTS:
Steve Corn – CEO & Co-Founder, BFM Digital
Yoav Goren – President & Co-Founder, Immediate Music
John Houlihan – Music Supervisor
Ron Mendelsohn – CEO & Co-Founder, Megatrax
Steve Pecile – President & Founder, SoundMiner
Owen Sloane – Partner, Gladstone Michel Weisberg Willner & Sloane, ALC
Moderator:
Gary Gross – Worldwide President, Universal Publishing Production Music
Bios
Steven Corn
CEO and Co-Founder, BFM Digital
Steven Corn, CEO & Co-Founder, brings over 25 years of strategic media and music licensing experience to BFM Digital, a digital distribution company specializing in representing independent artists, labels, publishers and other content creators. Corn is jointly responsible for the over-all vision of the company and signing BFM Digital’s current network of hundreds of digital services worldwide.
In addition, Steven Corn is Co-Founder of BFM Jazz. The artists of BFM JAZZ are well-established, masters of their craft including Steve Gadd, Tierney Sutton, Steve Smith, Eddie Gomez, Lenny White and many others.
Prior to forming BFM, he created Corn Music Services, Inc., a company that was one of the first to license master recordings, sound effects and images to cellular providers around the world for use as ringtones, wallpaper and ringbacks. More recently, Corn Music Services has provided consulting services for such high profile online companies and licensors such as Myspace, Fox Interactive, Universal Studios, Oddcast and kSolo.com.
Yoav Goren
President & Co-Founder, Immediate Music
Yoav Goren graduated with a BA in Film and Television Production at NYU. After touring with several bands as keyboard player, Goren settled in Los Angeles where he worked with the legendary Leonard Cohen on the acclaimed CD The Future (1992) as arranger and co-producer. Also in 1992, Goren teamed up with composer Jeffrey Fayman and founded Immediate Music, which has become one of the preeminent suppliers of original music for motion picture advertising.
In 2007 Goren was awarded an Emmy Award for “Outstanding Music Composition in a Sports Program” for the “20th Torino Winter Olympic Games” and in 2008 Goren was the recipient of a composing award from BMI. In 2009, Goren became the first person to ever perform a live concert of trailer music compositions as part of his “Trailer Music Live” performance series.
As President of Immediate Music, Goren works daily at the company’s studio facilities in Santa Monica, with regular forays to concert halls and studios worldwide to produce Immediate Music’s trademark orchestral recording projects.
Gary Gross
Worldwide President, Universal Publishing Production Music
At the helm of Universal Publishing Production Music Gary Gross oversees all aspects of the Company’s production music entities, managing more than 32 offices in cities across the world. UPPM is the preeminent supplier of high level production music and serves the burgeoning business that creates, produces, and licenses music for use in film/TV, advertising, broadcast and corporate clients. In 1997, Gary followed his passion for music and joined Killer Tracks, at the time a small “production music” company recently acquired by Bertelsmann Music Group, where he was quickly promoted through the roles of VP Marketing, VP/GM, SVP/GM to President of BMG Production Music in 2002. Under Gary’s leadership, the business grew from a small operation to become one of the most healthy and vibrant segments of the entire music business. When Universal Music Publishing Group acquired BMG Music Publishing in May 2007, Gary joined the UMPG team as Worldwide President of Universal Publishing Production Music (UPPM) where he continues to exponentially grow this sector of the music business. Gary has also served as a board member on the PMA (Production Music Association) for the last 8 years.
John Houlihan
Music Supervisor
Since getting a big opportunity to work on the music for “Mr. Holland’s Opus” John Houlihan has become a veteran Music Supervisor/Music Producer/Composer/Music Editor who has helped shape more than 65 feature films and dozens of popular soundtrack albums. Music Supervision highlights include Training Day which earned a Best Actor Academy Award for Denzel Washington, all three Austin Powers films, both of the Charlie’s Angels films. Recent film projects include the sci-fi thriller Looper and the comedy What To Expect When You’re Expecting. Upcoming releases include the action-comedy RED 2 starring John Malkovich, Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Anthony Hopkins, Mary-Louise Parker and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Don Jon, the writer-director debut from Joseph Gordon-Levitt in which Joseph also stars with Scarlett Johansson. John was film Producer and co-music supervisor for the documentary film SUPER MENSCH: The Legend Of Shep Gordon which marks the directing debut of Mike Myers and will premiere at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival before being released in the fall by A&E Films.
Ron Mendelsohn
CEO & Co-Founder, Megatrax
Ron Mendelsohn is co-founder and CEO of Megatrax, a leading independent production music library and custom music house based in Los Angeles. Established in 1990, Megatrax has earned a reputation worldwide for high quality music coupled with unparalleled service and innovation. In addition to managing business operations at Megatrax, Ron is also an accomplished pianist and composer who has composed hundreds of cues for the Megatrax library and scored numerous film/TV projects ranging from promos to feature films. A graduate of Wesleyan University (CT), Ron attended film scoring programs at USC and UCLA and studied at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Liege (Belgium) on a grant from the Rotary Foundation. Ron is a founding member of the Production Music Association and has served on the PMA board since its inception. Ron is also a member of numerous other professional organizations including the SCL, Vistage and ASCAP. 147
Steve Pecile
President & Founder, SoundMiner
Steve is the President of Soundminer Inc., the maker of leading audio asset management software. Soundminer is used extensively in post and broadcast facilities, as well as by most major music catalogues. It provides tools for advanced searching, databasing, and metadata tagging for all major file formats and continually improves these tools to meet the requirements of all content creators. Steve began as a composer and has numerous television credits and previously owned a production facility in Canada. 78
Owen Sloane
Partner, Gladstone Michel Weisberg Willner & Sloane, ALC
Owen J. Sloane chairs the Entertainment & Media Group at Gladstone Michel Weisberg Willner & Sloane, ALC. One of the entertainment industry’s most respected attorneys, Owen has over 40 years of experience handling sophisticated and complex transactions and intellectual property matters for major entertainers, publishers, record companies, managers, producers, songwriters, and other participants associated with the entertainment, Internet production music library, and music publishing businesses. He has negotiated all forms of talent contracts, recording and publishing agreements, distribution agreements, producer and writer agreements, innovative merchandising and touring deals, and sponsorship and song placement agreements. Owen has an impressive track record of success working with many major artists, including Chris Daughtry, Rob Thomas, Matchbox Twenty, the Frank Zappa Estate, Suzanne Vega, and Chester French, among others, and was one of the founders of Killer Tracks.