Production Music Association appoints Hunter Williams as Executive Director
There’s a new mouthpiece for the Production Music Association (PMA).
Hunter Williams joins the Production Music Association as Executive Director after 20 years at SESAC.
The PMA is the organization which promotes and protects the rights and interests of publishers and composers production music for use in film, TV, radio and new media.
Today the PMA announced the appointment of Hunter Williams to the position of Executive Director. His new post is effective immediately. Williams will be based in Nashville, TN, and replaces Debra Young Krizman, who will be continuing on with the PMA in her new role as Vice President, Operations. Randy Thornton is the PMA’s chairman.
Williams knows the nuts and bolts of the production music vertical. He comes to the PMA following 20 years at the performing rights organization (PRO) SESAC, where he most recently held the position of Senior Vice President, Strategic Development/Distribution and Research Operations.
In his tenure at SESAC, Williams oversaw all royalty distribution operations, including the development of the company’s distribution and survey methodologies, performance tracking across all applicable media, and the maintenance of the company’s repertory and performance databases.
In addition, he oversaw the company’s research and analysis division, which helped drive strategic development by identifying new business opportunities. He also led SESAC’s pioneering use of digital fingerprint and watermark technologies to track and pay royalties for performances on radio, television, and new media.
Williams is taking on his role with a primary mission of protecting the value of production music. However, Williams identifies several obstacles to that goal in today’s rapidly expanding media marketplace.
“There is the disturbing trend of so many content owners willing to give away their music or do ‘cheap’ deals in order to ‘legitimize’ themselves as artists, composers, or music companies, or to ‘get ahead’ of the competition,” he notes. “Bragging rights won’t put food on the table and cannibalizing an industry for short-term gain won’t feed you very long either. We have to continue to educate new music suppliers on the value of their intellectual property and the importance of healthy business practices. And in order to receive value we have to give it: Great content, clear and friction-free licensing, great customer service — these practices will win the day and provide for a healthy sustainable industry for all.”
With two decades of executive level activity at SESAC, Williams feels he’s dialed in to the current environment of the production music professional.
The PMA currently has over 550 music publisher members, ranging from major labels to independent boutiques.
“In that time, I’ve learned the importance of music to picture and how it can enhance the mood, emotion, and tempo of a TV show, film or commercial,” says Williams. “Why that music ought to be valued and compensated fairly as one of the creative contributions to an audio-visual production. The challenges of tracking that music across so many media outlets and the importance of getting it right for the rights owner. Utilizing ‘best-of-breed’ technologies to enhance and improve traditional tracking systems and survey methodologies. The royalty weighting and payment methodologies of all three PRO’s and how they impact TV composers and music libraries. Finally, and most importantly, customer service…answer your phone and email and listen to what your customers have to say.”
According to Williams, an optimal production music sector is one with safe and fair licensing that benefits composers/content owners (i.e. libraries) and music users alike.
“When the industry is healthy,” he says, “we can ensure buyers and sellers of music are both giving and receiving value. The composer/content owner can focus on delivering great music and the music user can rest assured they are getting relevant content at the highest quality without having to worry about conflicting rights and terms that place them in tenuous positions and uncertainty.
“The Production Music Association has established a set of Principles and Core Values that stress these things. We believe that companies that follow these guidelines, both on the seller and buyer sides of the table, will foster a healthy and sustainable production music industry for generations to come.”
— David Weiss