As the advertising landscape continues to evolve, several music houses have unveiled plans to open new offices and to diversify their services. Among the latest developments is the launch of music house Emoto in Santa Monica and Chicago. The new venture also has a licensing division, joining a growing list of music shops–including Crushing, New York, Groove Addicts, West Los Angeles and Chicago, Machine Head, Venice, Calif., and such bicoastal companies as JSM and Elias Arts–that additionally offer licensing and music supervision.
Meanwhile, Duotone Audio Group, New York, has opened Duotone West in Santa Monica, adding to the ranks of bicoastal houses that include JSM, Elias and Face The Music. Furthermore, Human, a New York-headquartered house that already has outposts in Paris, Sydney and in Johannesburg, South Africa, will soon be opening an office in Santa Monica.
Also going the bicoastal/international route is Amber Music. Michelle Curran, Amber’s managing director,
opened that company originally in London and then added a New York shop. Eighteen months ago, the company established a presence in Los Angeles. That office recently relocated to Santa Monica, and boasts three composers, John Wood, The Elements, and John Altman, as well as sound designer Chris Smith.
“We really respect a lot of the work that goes on in Los Angeles,” related Curran, who noted that in addition to composing and sound design, the company offers music sourcing and licensing services. “There are very talented teams in production and at the agencies, and we thought having a presence out there would allow us to work more closely with them.”
Joel Simon, president of JSM, said that having an office on the West Coast allows the shop to be more involved in the process, given the large number of productions that take place in Los Angeles. “By being there, it enables us to be way more involved in shoots than we used to be,” he noted. “We are way more involved at the genesis of the edit than we used to be.
“It was a need we saw not only for ourselves to continue to be a growing business, but also a necessity for our clients to offer the best possible service we can,” he continued, adding that a JSM, Detroit, might be in the future.
EMOTO
Admusic, Santa Monica, a longstanding music house, recently announced a new entity and a new office, as well as a restructuring of services offered. The new company, the aforementioned Emoto, adds a Chicago operation, and plans to work on spots, TV shows, feature films, and with the record industry. Long-time partners in Admusic, composers John Adair and Steve Hampton, will head up the shop. (The Admusic name will be retained for special projects.) Admusic has a long history in spots, having created tracks for advertisers such as Lexus, adidas, Mountain Dew and eBay. Under the Hampton/Adair banner–which is now a part of Emoto–music has been produced for TV shows such as Sex and the City, Last Comic Standing and Joan of Arcadia. Emoto will offer, in addition to the composers associated with Admusic, access to recording artists from around the globe, as well as licensing services.
“The music industry has undergone radical change,” related Adair. “The creative process has changed. The definition of intellectual property has changed. Most significantly, the barriers separating music production for the advertising, television, film and recording industries have disappeared. Composers today move easily between mediums–Emoto is a response to those changes.”
Craig J, a producer who has worked with Madonna, Janet Jackson and Mary J. Blige, among other recording artists, will head the Chicago office of Emoto. Technology, including video-conferencing, will allow the Chicago and Santa Monica offices to collaborate, and enable clients to work remotely, a benefit for the company’s Windy City ad clientele. “Our clients [in Chicago] want more access to the Los Angeles talent pool, but tighter budgets and production schedules are making that increasingly difficult,” said Adair. In addition to the new Chicago office, Emoto has entered into a affiliation with Uncommon Trax, an independent record label in Chicago, that handles artists such as Kurtis Mantronik and Saffron Hill. Per the agreement, Emoto will be able to offer artists signed to the label–as well as tracks for licensing–to advertisers. The company will also offer sound design services via an affiliation with 740 Sound Design, Santa Monica, headed by Dane Davis, who has worked on spots for Nike, Lexus and Samsung, among others, as well as features such as The Matrix, 8 Mile and Boogie Nights.
Emoto’s earlier alluded to licensing division will be headed up by Howard Paar, who served as a music supervisor on the upcoming feature film Herbie: Fully Loaded and as the executive album producer on the documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys. Paar also served as a record executive, having done stints at Mercury/Polygram and V2 Records.
“Artists who are affiliated with us through our licensing division or the label, are also able to work with us in other ways,” says Hampton. “We can license their work for ads or television, or we bring them in to create new music. Our aim is to introduce new talent from around the globe to our advertising, television, and film clients, and to create new opportunities for artists to work in different media.”
DUOTONE
Composer Dan Marocco, who had previously been on staff at Duotone, New York, is heading up the recently opened Duotone West.
“We thought he would be the perfect person to go out there, because he already knows Duotone,” said Amy Sheldon, partner/executive producer at the company, who also noted that Marocco had been interested in relocating to the West Coast. “He’s talented in two ways–he not only composes for us, but he’s a total computer whiz, so he was the perfect person to send out there to set things up.”
Sheldon related that Duotone West, while working with clients on the West Coast, will also handle assignments from East Coast ad agencies. “With the way the technology is now,” said Sheldon, “it’s not any different in a lot of ways from doing a job here–because we’ll still be able to participate in the jobs as well.”
