By Sally House
Unfortunately today, music for films, TV shows and commercials has become commoditized terribly, to the point where clients don’t expect to pay for its real value, and don’t realize its worth in terms of the creative process.
Those of us working in the production music industry must know how a client-artist relationship works. Experience in advertising and marketing combined with experience on the production side are critically important to knowing how budgets and negotiations can affect both client and artist, as well as how these issues will affect the final product.
Here are some tips for maintaining the creative value of people who create original music:
Be Willing to Say No
It’s a hard lesson to learn in life and in business, and perhaps the most important one. Saying no to a gig is difficult, because it’s money, even if it’s crappy money. The most important thing is to stay true to your own values. Sometimes it just isn’t possible to fit another job in, and keep up the level of creativity and quality on.
Be willing to negotiate – but also know when to walk away.
Be Aware of Your Value
Know your worth and don’t sell yourself short. Be willing to negotiate with clients in order to build relationships, but don’t offer your professional services for less or no pay just to get noticed.
If you position yourself as ‘well I’ve got to give this away for free, or else ’ll never get attention,’ suddenly you’re The Free Guy, who is creating brilliant work without proper compensation. Then you’ve added to the myth that music doesn’t cost anything. The craft isn’t always appreciated.
Be Part of the Relationship
Recognize that some opportunities are about more than compensation, a difficult but valuable distinction for a business manager to make. For example, if a potential client needs to enlist your services to make a pitch for a project, you might decide to offer the work for free, a good faith gesture that strengthens the client bond and all but assures future paid work if the client lands the project.
Be willing to step up and help. And understand the value of the relationship, as opposed to just the value of the product.
Be Your Best
Know your strengths and play to them, but remember the importance of not getting spread too thin in what can be a very demanding industry. Don’t be everything to everyone. Specialize. Find your niche and then go full steam ahead to be the best in your chosen field.
Sally House is executive producer with The Hit House in Los Angeles. Recent work from The Hit House has been used in national and global television campaigns for clients such as Netflix, Target, Lexus, Jell-O, Porsche, and The Ritz Carlton, and in motion picture campaigns for films including “Godzilla,” “Frozen,” “Monuments Men,” “Million Dollar Arm,” “Thor: The Dark World,” “Despicable Me 2,” “Anchorman 2,” “Iron Man 3,” “Turbo” and “Bully.”
SCHROM x Yacht Club and Be Electric Studios Launch Electric XR for Virtual Production
SCHROM x Yacht Club, a full-service live-action, tabletop, and postproduction company, has teamed with Be Electric Studios, a soundstage, equipment rental, and virtual production company, to launch Electric XR, a virtual production collective.
Industry veteran Thomas Rossano will lead the new venture, which provides advanced virtual production solutions across multiple facilities. He brings over 25 years of experience in live-action, tabletop, postproduction and talent curation to enhance Electric XR’s offerings as a resource for brands and agencies, as well as other production companies in need of virtual production solutions. Additionally Rossano continues to serve as EP at XR New York (XR-NY), a role he’s held since December 2022. SCHROM x Yacht Club originally established XR-NY to help provide XR services for third-party rentals. While XR-NY will continue to function independently for SCHROM X Yacht Club, it now operates under the Electric XR umbrella.
Rossano’s expertise spans producing live-action commercials, branded content, interactive and experiential content. In addition to leading Electric XR, he holds responsibilities at SCHROM x Yacht Club which include driving business development, collaborating with sales reps and expanding the company’s creative talent network. Rossano’s career includes serving as an exec producer at Hungry Man for about 11 years, right from that company’s inception. He then went on to become a partner at Station Film where he also had a lengthy tenure. Later he was a partner at PRISM. Then after the pandemic hit, he became a freelance EP for nearly two years, looking into opportunities in virtual production, which led him to XR NY and now Electric XR. Over the years, he has produced high-profile... Read More