Bending the Pitch: Music, Conglomeration, Licensing, and Convergence

Bending the Pitch: Music, Conglomeration, Licensing, and ConvergenceCA 351 – Guest LectureOctober 9, 2012

Who “Owns” a Song?

Fat Possum’s U.S. distributors:-RED Distribution (Sony, 1979)-INgrooves (Independent, 2002; Universal, 2008; purchased Fontana Distribution in March 2012) The Mountain (Fat Possum Records, 2009)

Who “Owns” a Song?-Produced by Liza Richardson and Jonathan Platt-Distributed through Fontana Distribution (originally owned by Universal Music Group, sold as a subsidiary of the Isolation Network in 2012)

Friday Night Lights, Vol. 2 (Arrival Records/Scion Music Group; 2010)

Who “Owns” Friday Night Lights?

(1926-1986)

(1926-1930, 1986-present)

(2004-present)

(2004-2011)

(2011-present)

Who “Owns” Friday Night Lights?

Who “Places” a Song?

• Experience at BMI• Protégée of Roger

Corman• Frequently collaborates

with Josh Schwartz• Works with

predominantly indie artists

• Founded Chop Shop Records in partnership with Atlantic Records in 2007

Alexandra Patsavas, Music Supervisor

Chop Shop Records

Anya Marina, Felony Flats (Chop Shop, 2012)

Marina and the Diamonds,

American Jewels EP(Chop Shop, 2010)

Legitimating the Music Supervisor

• Guild of Music Supervisors formed in 2007

• Serve as voting members of the American Recording Academy

• Lobby for their own Grammy category

• Started own awards ceremony in 2011

Maureen Crowe, GMS President(second from left)

Brief History of Music Licensing for Television

• In the 1990s, the music industry came to see licensing for film and TV as an integral strategy for keeping labels in the black and for promoting certain artists

-Master use: negotiated with record companies; allows licensees to use specific recordings

-Synchronization: negotiated with the publishers of a particular song; entitles licensee to use the notes

and lyrics of a particular piece of music• Licensing as revenue stream that could compensate

for declining CD sales and lost profits caused by downloading and piracy

Tagging

• WB programming implemented tagging in the late 1990s

• “Free” promotions that warranted license fee reductions

• New and indie artists were seen as most likely to go along with such practices as radio further consolidated in the wake of the Telecommunications Act of 1996

• MTV’s turn to lifestyle programming

• Decline of music video promotionSongs from Dawson’s Creek (Sony, 1999)

WB Programming’s Influence on Licensing

• Exploitation of synergy-Dawson’s Creek was a Sony/Columbia

TriStar production (Sony artists)

-Dawson’s Creek was on the WB (Warner

Bros. artists)• Not above using

soundalikes for DVD and streaming content

• Many shows now license in anticipation of series’ going to DVD or on streaming platforms

Original Music Featured On Gossip Girl No. 1 (Atlantic, 2008)

How Does Reception Engage with Production?

Industrial Pressures-Allow music supervisors and producers to include genres and artists previously marginalized in the industry and to add sonic layers complicating textual readings of representation

Narrative Functions and Affect-Communicate character interiority-Sonic wallpaper-Semiotic richness of the music-image combination