WMC 2008 Panels: Producing Music for Film and TV

WMC 2008 Panels: Producing Music for Film and TV

25 March, 2008 | 9.27PM

• Written by: Mr Tunes
• Filed under: Music News: wmc 2008 panels

Beatportal is down at the Miami Beach Spa and Resort Hotel covering the panel discussions for the 2008 Winter Music Conference.

These sorts of gatherings are usually seen as the boring side to the week-long event, which is ironic since it started out as a conference and has morphed into more of a week-long festival attracting all sorts of music lovers and vacationers who are uninterested in the business side of things.

So if you didn’t get to make it down this year and are interested, well we’re here to share with you our observations as the week goes on.

Kicking off this year’s discussions was a session on producing for Film, TV and Video Games.

Since it’s a large topic and a lot of things were discussed, we’ve stuck to the most interesting points.

There was some good information to be had for producers and artists regarding how to approach this side of the industry if you’re in the electronic genres such as house and techno.

And that advice is simple: know your audience.

Don’t pitch house tracks to a music supervisor or jingle studio if you know they’re working on projects that don’t need these styles.

Find out what they’re working on before you get in touch and choose your battles wisely.

For a ten minute trance anthem be sure to edit down a version of say two minutes max before setting out to get it placed.

Label all your demos properly using a CD Jewel case that has a spine so it can be archived easily in an office.

Write all your information on the disc and casing in case they get separated.

And make sure those CDs load into iTunes nicely with proper track titles and artist names.

Unless you’re really big, no one has time to figure out who wrote a song and how to contact that person if the info isn’t readily available.

Someone asked are you’re better off going through a mass music library service to get your music placed.

Music supervisor Amine Ramer offered the insight that she typically likes finding an artist on a lower level and not in some big database that lacks personality.

And to that extent another music aupervisor, Dave Curtin, also discussed how there’s something to be said for finding an artist on their own popularity rather than finding them from demo submissions.

So off-the-hook producers and DJs take heed, sometimes you’re best bet for getting placed in a kickin’ commercial or video game is to simply be good at what you do and the rest will follow.

Of course that’s not to say that a bit of hard work to get featured doesn’t hurt.

Curtin also mentioned that there is room for DJs to work with music supervisors in helping them select tracks, since they typically have their ears to the ground in regards to what’s hot these days.

And to summerize the discussion I think that producer Jason Wilkes said it best, mentioning how the days of Billboard charting and big label signings are sort of going by the wayside in the advent of artists being heard by millions of people on TV or in the theatres.

Besides, we all know how well the Apple the ads have done for the artists featured in those spots.

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