Commercial music composer Doug Wood-president of Port Washington, N.Y.-based OmniMusic, which he co-founded in 75 with his wife and company VP Patti Wood-has been elected to the board of directors of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). In total, 24 board members-12 writers and 12 publishers-were elected to serve a two-year term commencing April 1. Wood was one of three newly elected writer-members (the other nine were re-elected). There were two newly elected publisher-members (the remaining 10 were re-elected).
Wood is believed to be the first spot industry artisan elected to serve on the ASCAP board. The 24-member board has the power to alter policy on such issues as royalties payment. Woods election came as a major surprise; he was generally considered a long shot to win a board seat. Over the years, Wood has been an outspoken advocate of spot composers getting just due in terms of royalties. He is director of the seven-year-old Professional Composers Association (PCA), a nonprofit group formed to represent the interests of commercial composers who create jingles, film scores, TV and radio themes, industrial soundtracks, multimedia sound design and library music.
What we are so excited about is that Doug is a representative from our industry, enthused Association of Music Producers (AMP) president Lyle Greenfield, who is also principal/executive producer of bicoastal Bang. [To our knowledge] never in the history of ASCAP has there been someone coming [completely] from the commercial side of the music industry. [This music] is extraordinarily important. … And its presence is pervasive in our culture.
Wood admitted of his campaign, It was an uphill battle. Nobody in the world expected that I would win. … I wasnt even nominated by ASCAP. [I was] nominated by petition. Greenfield describes Woods drive for election to the board as a tireless and methodical campaign, noting that Wood set up a Web site, sent out mailers, and spoke at industry events, including various AMP meetings.
ASCAPs functions include handling of licensing rights and paying royalties for the public performances of its members copyrighted work. Wood was among the most active representatives from the commercial segment that last year appealed to ASCAP to abolish a fund-which commercial composers viewed as a cap-allocating a specified 10% of the total television royalties fund to the commercial, promotional and announcement community. The remaining 90% of the fund was set aside for music in TV programs, such as background music and theme songs.
Wood was instrumental in organizing a series of meetings last spring attended by members of ASCAP, AMP and PCA (SHOOT, 05/22/98, p. 1). Several months later, ASCAP abolished the fund (SHOOT, 10/16/98, p. 1).
I realized Im not the only composer not being fairly treated by the system, Wood said of why he decided to make a bid for a board seat. Heres something I could do that would help a lot of people. … Performing rights is a billion-dollar business and if you are able to change the distribution even very slightly, it could have a major impact on a lot of people.
First on Woods agenda as a board member is to see from the inside how the organization runs … and [then] do anything I can to make the payment system fairer for all composers. He suspects some board members will be responsive to his ideas while others will be interested in maintaining the status quo. He hopes he can help make a difference.
Im not saying all music ought to be equal, Wood clarified, adding that he instead aims to help the distribution system better reflect the current state of the industry.
At the time that the 10% fund was being debated, another topic, the pop premium, came under fire. Per that premium, popular music used in spots receives four times the music credit value of an original commercial composition. These credits are used to determine payment amounts.
The Apop premium ought to be eliminated, Wood insisted. Its unfair. There is no justification for it. He acknowledged, however, that it is an established policy that would be difficult to overturn.
Greenfield suggested that Woods election would give the commercial music industry a stronger voice at ASCAP. My guess is if we want a meeting with ASCAP, if we have something on our agenda, then we dont have to beg and hope for the best. … No one expects dramatic changes overnight. We dont have a new administration. We do for the first time have a nontraditional voice supporting issues that are important to our [segment] of the industry.
AMP West Coast chapter president and national AMP VP Dain Blair, who is creative director/owner of Los Angeles-based Groove Addicts, was also buoyed by Woods win. It gives us great hope that maybe we can run someone else from AMP, he said. We need more voices on that board.
