Music Licensing Tip Sheet - MusicSupervisor Licensing Tip Sheet ... Needed to replace Bowie “Under Pressure” opening riff, needed knock off, only 1000 all in ... so can you give

Music Licensing Tip Sheet

June 2011

Welcome 2A note from Barry Coffing

Licensing Overview 3Breakdown of Searches, Placements, and Projects

Placements in Progress 4 - 5A look at the licensing activity for the past month

Fresh from the Licensing Lounge 6 - 8Monthly Listening Leaders

News from the Front Lines 9 Updates and Insights

Supervisor Spotlight 10 -14 Interrview with Chris Mollere

Triumph of the “Heard” 15 - 20Interview with Apocalypse Cow

Chris Mollere

Apocalypse CowLicensing Lounge

Barry CoffingFounder and CEO

Music Licensing Tip Sheet

Welcome to the MUSIC LICENSING TIP SHEET

We’ve created the Pro Membership Account and this Tip Sheet because we are always receiving requests for more information about the ever mysterious Music Supervisors and what they’re up to. What are they looking for? What are they licensing? What kind of projects are you working on? All of these questions and more are answered in the Licensing Overview Report and at $9.99 a month, it’s less than a pack of cigarettes in New York and much better for you.

We are also introducing the Weget brand. You have created great music and we have built a great way to find it. Moving forward we are focused on finding and creating new ways to make us money.

Things are so crazy around here that we don’t always have time to fill you in on all that we are doing so we created a @wegetplacements twitter account. All the posts are now on the home page so you can see what we’re up to 24/7.

We are very excited about the future and if you read the “Triumph of the Heard” interview Julius gives you some insight into just some of what we’re building.

Upgrade to The Pro Account - The First Month Is Free

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Upgrade Account CLICK HERE

http://weget.co/tipsheet1_1

Licensing Overview

As expected for May, TV numbers are lower because a bulk of the shows are on break. The big surprise genres are Pop, Classical & World music which are all placing music at double the search percentage. The big downer is Country which was searched at 4.28% of the time with a 0% license rate. I guess it’s time to tell all your country writers and artists friends about Music Supervisor. We are missing out on op-portunities – we need their tracks.

Projects, Searches, & Licenses

Composers & Rockers Account For Almost 50% Of All Licenses3

Licensing OverviewCLICK HERE


We’ve had a great year so far with placements in the upcoming “Hellraiser,” the “Hoodwinked 2” trailer, the series “Shameless” on Showtime, and feature film “What’s Your Number” starring Ana Farris (20th Century Fox film) to name only a few. This month we had a lot of cool pitches… the following is a wrap up of what happened in May.

Julius RobinsonDirector of Creative Operations

Cindi AvnetDirector of Music Placement

(NOTE: We have left off the specific names of the shows per the request of the music supervisors – they don’t want to be approached directly by our members. Thanks for respecting that rule).

If you have any more ideas for the STILL OPEN projects, please send an email (and mp3 if not yet uploaded) to [email protected] then upload your music and info on the site. Please include your name and login.

Placements in Progress

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Music for TV & Web

Series on USA NetworkThe budget is $500.00 - $1,000.00 all-in for each song. Looking for the following music: Latin (vocal or non-vocal), suspense, action, chase and building tension - all non-vocal. STILL OPEN

NEW Series #2 on USA NetworkHas a budget of $1,500.00 - $2,000.00 all-in per song. Currently looking for the following music: Rock (a la Black Keys), Hip Hop/Urban, Club (upscale New York club), singer songwriter for big moments - end songs - vocals are fine. STILL OPEN

NEW Series on FXLooking for odd, quirky, retro, whimsical, loungey, trippy, sexy, warm.... vocal and instrumental music. Think every-thing from Peggy Lee and other retro male & female vocal-ists, Free Design, Devotchka, Andrew Bird, Beirut, Swingle Singers,...etc etc etc. Budget very limited, but the show is GREAT, will get a lot of attention. PITCH COMPLETED/WAITING FOR RESPONSE

Promo for TNTNeeded to replace Bowie “Under Pressure” opening riff, needed knock off, only 1000 all in. PITCH COMPLETED/WAITING FOR RESPONSE

Teen series for ABC/Disney Scene, runway with the girls on catwalk. Lady Gaga meets Katie Perry, Male or female, Contemporary mu-sic, also electro beats, pitch only 2-3 G per cue PITCH COMPLETED/WAITING FOR RESPONSE

Non-profit health video for YoutubeLicensing three background scoring cues for non-profit short, 50 bucks a song. COMPLETED/LICENSED

Indie Feature film: Needs harp and female opera piece, something like Richard Strauss “Last Four Songs.” Haunting. STILL OPEN

Sports Video (internet short film) Licensed 2 alt-rock instr. $100 each. COMPLETED/LICENSED

DocumentaryLicensed 100 bucks per song, singer songwriter, coun-try western. COMPLETED/LICENSED.

Placements in Progress

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Fresh From The Licensing Lounge

Almost as if to mock our tracking report, Can-ada’s “90 Pounds of Ugly” is currently getting the most listens at Rock -- even though they are equally at home in Country & Folk.

Monthly Listening Leaders - The Songs Getting The Most Attention

In May, Supervisors Looked For A Mixture Of Fun And Heartbreak

Howes And Slaters :30 “Whistling Bones” is just the track for a sunny day spot and it’s get-ting heard a lot.

Doris Dukes heartbreaker “He’s Gone” is a throw-back to another place and time. Produced by the legendary Jerry Williams a.k.a. Swampdog, this track boasts live strings and B3 in support of one of the greatest voices you may have never heard.

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Nintety Pounds of UglyAll All Alone

Rock

Howes And SlaterWhistling Bones

Scores/SiFX

Doris DukeHe’s Gone

R&B/Hip-Hop

Licensing LoungeCLICK HERE



David Das’s “Down Wid it” is A Cappella at its best. It says summer fun in a way that seems to be hitting the spot.


Quirky And Fun Seem To Be Important Even In Jazz And World

Russian-Born Alisa Shamrow has created a strange brew of Jazz/Lounge with an Eastern European flair that is getting a lot of listens.

Arian Saleh is a West Coast guy with a very slinky middle Eastern way of saying “Let’s Get It On.” This track is sexy, fun and getting attention from the right people.

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David DasDown Wid It (A Cappella)

Pop/Easy Listening

Alisa ShamrowIsn’t Love Strange?

Jazz Blues

Arian SalehBetter in Blue

World/Latin/Reggae




This has been the most heated genre with Ja-pan’s Oe Captain Funk and Twirl’s “The Things We Do For Fashion” having spent time at at number one. But TeV95 & Admiral Grey are currently in the top spot. Go to the licensing lounge soon and check them out.


Top Instrumental Tracks In May All Have A Strong Synth Sound

I’m not sure how this track ended up in the “Other” genre but it is a beautiful dreamy piano/synth track that shows off German com-poser Martin Herzberg’s writing -- and he is getting heard.

Dark and brooding with a dash of hope and power is the best way to describe Atlanta based com-poser Doug Astrop’s “Hymn.” It has bounced in and out of the top spot all month.

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TeV95 & Admiral GreyMe To You

Dance/Electronica

Martin HerzbergTruth’s Hideout

Other

Doug AstropHymn

Classical/New Age



News From The Front Lines

New Offices, New Markets & New Technology are all in the works

There’s a lot happening up here. Your lovable neighbors to the north are devel-oping and producing some exceptional content. From sassy kids’ shows to a vampire drama and epic first person shooter video games in Montreal -- we got it going ON! I’ve been having some really cool meetings here in my home town.

So...what kind of music do they want is the question? Well this is my inside scoop....The Gamers: The gaming guys always need high end, orchestral, dra-matic, compositions and cues. But hey, you can always slip a metal-electric or punk rock track in there if its subject appropriate. This is more along the lines of first person shooter (FPS) games. For music games (similar to guitar hero etc..), they can always use a power pop, hip-hop or positive alternative rock tunes for kids to jam along to.

That’s all for now, tune back in for more news from the north....

Background: Throughout the last year we have been running a Beta test on a pro-gram we call Radio in Retail. It’s similar to Musak or DMX, except we collect and pay your royalties directly, instead of them being lost in the cracks of the PROs. This is an interesting market and we are generating a tremendous amount of ex-citement. Pro-Members -- we’re running a bit behind on posting reports because we’re adding vendors and testing new technology, but don’t worry, the number of spins are going up -- not down. We are working on a big deal that should be done by next month.

Current Music Needs for Retail: We are in need of master quality cover or origi-nal versions of “HIT” songs. They are requesting recognizable songs only so cov-ers of obscure songs won’t do. We are also in need of all genres of music for this program vocal or instrumental 2:00 minutes or greater in length.

That’s it for now.

Holly FaganDirector of Music Supervisor Canada

Derek LefholzArtist Relations & Director of Radio In Retail

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Supervisor Spotlight “Chris Mollere”

Chris Mollere has supervised many television shows including Kyle XY, 10 Things I Hate About You, Pretty Little Liars and Vampire Diaries. His films include The Box, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, and War Games (The Dead Code). He’s interviewed by our Director of Creative Operations Julius Robinson.

Julius Robinson: Hey Chris, so can you give me a quick wrap up on what your lat-est projects and/or credits are?

Chris Mollere: Sure, currently I’m working on the Vampire Diaries for the CW, Pretty Little Liars for ABC Family, a couple movies in the works that we’re prepping on, but currently just those two TV shows are the big things I’m focusing on.JR: What is your favorite moment in the process of music supervising? Do you think it’s going through the script, is it the editing, licensing, the premiere? At what point do you say, “This is cool!”

CM: That’s an easy question. My favorite part definitely is taking the episode, work-ing with the editors to find the right songs to work into the shows. Sometimes that is pre-production, sometimes that’s during post-production. Sometimes we have on-camera music that we need to arrange before the shoot. But I think working with picture in post-production is definitely my favorite part, because it’s sitting there on your own and editing music to picture to try to make it work as perfectly as pos-sible.

JR: What do you find are the differences between working on a comedy or drama, whether it be TV or film -- do you find a difference in what the music requirements are for those kind of shows?

CM: TV is so quick that you have to find stuff at a quicker pace. Then you have the different kinds of genres for TV whether it be a drama, dramedy, comedy etc. But it seems like there is one common theme on a lot of the shows, especially for the shows I’ve worked on. We’re trying to keep the heart in it. Also it seems like every show I’ve worked on is a very musically driven. I don’t know if that’s one of those things I’m known for, or just the projects that I have happened to work on.

JR: It seems lately that music -- especially in TV -- has become as important as any character in the show.10

Supervisor Spotlight “Chris Mollere” Continued

CM: Yeah definitely -- even on Vampire Diaries. I feel like we’ve added music as an additional character in addition to the cast. We’ve used music to kind of tell a story whether it be a big break up, a big first kiss, a moment that two people are sharing or when a character has a new revelation. We’re trying to intertwine and make it work hand-in-hand with the score. It’s a challenge and I think we’ve succeeded pretty well with that.

JR: Can you explain how you had to find the right song for a score? That’s an interesting point, how those two fit together.

CM: You don’t want songs that stick out so much. “Oh they just pushed this one in there.” We try to make it feel organic so it’s not as noticeable, so it’s accentuating and not overtaking the score.

JR: How do you deal with a champagne music taste on a beer budget? How do you serve the film without going breaking the bank?

CM: Well there is good champagne out there that isn’t that expensive!

JR: Oh really are you finding champagne is more affordable now a days?

CM: I think so, ha! There are many great artists out there who aren’t on the major labels -- making it more possible. There are plenty of artists I’ve worked with whether through MusicSupervisor.com or other high quality catalogs. There are great ones still on major labels, but there are also a bunch that were signed who decided to take their own path. So, I’ve had very small budgets that are challenges to make work, and I’ve had decent budgets that are fun to play with. But at the end of the day you just make do, figure out what you need to make it happen. From there, you just get the best music as possible for working on that project.

JR: Right, so how do you tell a director or producer they can’t afford what they say they must have?

CM: When they tell you the budget, probably the best thing you can do is just be as involved as possible from the beginning. That way when we’re going through the process, I’m giving them options for music that could work, music that they might not know about. ‘Oh this is awesome, what is this? This is cool.’ You don’t get into the whole situation of ‘Oh we put Led Zepplin in and we can’t afford that.’ Or a song quote is maybe denied or not approved in the timeline we have. You just try to be as proactive and aggressive as possible to get what they want to fulfill their musical visions for the project. You’re trying to get stuff in there that they want, and that pushes the boundaries. It’s just part of the job. It’s trying to find what we can’t live without -- and what can we change out, and then going after everything as hard as I can.JR: Are you finding that the major publishers and record labels are willing to deal a lot more especially with TV because the exposure is so good for their artists?

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CM: Yeah, I think they’re more open minded now, because it used to be here is a set of rules -- if you can’t afford this, then we’re not even going to talk anymore about it. These companies are looking more and more on a case-by-case basis. They are looking at it project by project instead of “Oh this is a TV show so it’s do-ing this.” What’s the music budget, what kind of ratings is it getting, what’s it airing on. Honestly it just takes having a conversation or two to get people to understand exactly what the project is, and also getting them excited about it. If it is something that gets them and the artist an opportunity to get a little bit more exposure, it’s good for everybody.

JR: The impact of being on some of these shows, that’s got to factor in and help you as a supervisor.

CM: It definitely does. Our goal is to get the best music we can for our show, or movie or whatever. But at the same time we love music to be something more, something bigger, where the artists are getting good exposure because artists are kind enough to allow us to feature their music. I’m happy to do whatever I can to try and get them get as much exposure as possible out of it. That includes twittering after episodes air on the West Coast, to shooting out a list of songs, to doing what-ever possible to make sure fans know. The CW, ABC Family, and ABC websites have put up lists of songs aired. Things have definitely changed, record sales aren’t what they used to be and people are selling more singles now than they are albums. So I’ve seen artists that have sold 5,000 units throughout their career, and then a couple weeks after they air on one of the TV shows, sell 20-30,000 downloads of one of their songs. It’s awesome. That’s my goal you know -- I started as a music fan and musician first -- so seeing that happen and to be able to help in the process is exactly what I love to see happen. It’s the ideal situation.

JR: Are you seeing more step deals, and are some of these major labels willing to do a step deal for a lower budget production or even a TV series?

CM: Most of the TV studios are actually starting their shows off at five to six year rights, with bumps for the different media. They start off at five years TV only, and then they move into more options. This used to predominantly be done with films. Twenty-five years ago a TV show like WKRP had so much music in it, but you could never imagine somebody would want to buy a DVD set. Nobody knew what a DVD was. Now we have new online downloading and new technologies that make these episodes live on for eternity. So it’s been interesting to see how they have tried to utilize the step-deal structure so they can to get the show going. But once it’s going to stick around, they switch it over to the AMXT in perpetuity, which is all media excluding theatrical.

JR: I’d love if you could get specific on this question, and give me a specific ex-ample. You can leave out some of the names if you think it’s too embarrassing, but what was your biggest nightmare as a music supervisor? The one time you went “Oh my God am I going to live through this?”

CM: We did an on-camera performance on one of my shows, a UK band, really cool guys, great music. Got them to the set and everything like that, except nobody had checked their visas to make sure they were valid. They didn’t have their work visas completed yet, so they were unable to perform on set. So we called legal and they came down, and made them sign something.

JR: Oh wow, so what happened, were they able to do the on camera? Or did you have to replace them?

CM: We actually had some extras that we’d just put up on stage mimic them. They signed away likeness rights.

JR: That’s a great story, that’s insane. So the moral of the story is check your work visas.

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CM: It wasn’t my job to check the work visas, but it is now. Now it’s one of the first things I ask for -- drivers license, passport for US citizens or work visas etc. At that par-ticular studio, now that’s one of the first things they do if they do an on-camera with musicians.

JR: Good tip, and on the reverse side, what is the one gig where you just stood back and thought this is amazing, the music works brilliantly, everyone is high fiving each other -- do you have one of those to talk about?

CM: We did an on-camera performance on one of my shows, a UK band, really cool guys, great music. Got them to the set and everything like that, except nobody had checked their visas to make sure they were valid. They didn’t have their work visas com-pleted yet, so they were unable to perform on set. So we called legal and they came down, and made them sign something.

JR: Oh wow, so what happened, were they able to do the on camera? Or did you have to replace them?

CM: We actually had some extras that we’d just put up on stage mimic them. They signed away likeness rights.

JR: That’s a great story, that’s insane. So the moral of the story is check your work visas.

CM: It wasn’t my job to check the work visas, but it is now. Now it’s one of the first things I ask for -- drivers license, passport for US citizens or work visas etc. At that particular studio, now that’s one of the first things they do if they do an on-camera with musicians.JR: Good tip, and on the reverse side, what is the one gig where you just stood back and thought this is amazing, the music works brilliantly, everyone is high fiving each other -- do you have one of those to talk about?

CM: I would say Vampire Diaries is the most recent one where we’re all ecstatic about the music. But we’ve also worked very hard on the music too. It’s one of those things where we push ourselves until the mix is done. Until we’re on the stage and we finish the mix, the music search continues because we still want to up the level of the show as much as possible. That’s how strongly everyone feels about it. We all go that extra mile to try and make it as good as possible. On Vampire Diaries, whether

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it is a PA up to the creators of Julie and Kevin, every person is busting their ass to make it that much better. And Pretty Little Liars, we are very proud of that one too. It had a great soundtrack after 10 episodes; it’s been cool to feature a bunch of up and coming artists, artists that haven’t really had much exposure. On Greek we got to feature great up and coming music too. There are a bunch of other shows that I’ve been fortunate enough to work on that have had a great musical identity, and we’re all very proud of and happy with the final product.

JR: Can you name a band or two that has come out of your shows that you feel like you’re really proud of, and you have played a small part in getting them out there?

CM: Florence and the Machine, Temper Trap, Airborne Toxic Event, I don’t know there are probably so many more. We hit them up and found them very early. We just dug the music and got them into the shows. I know we didn’t do it all ourselves, we just helped with the exposure. Maybe somebody working on another show saw it. Or maybe a fan saw them on TV and went to a live show and took two of their friends, and the next time brought more friends -- and it just exponentially grows. Yeah I think there are some bands we’ve definitely helped along the way, in the process they’ve helped us a lot too by adding great music to the scenes we’re trying to accentuate.

JR: Great, what do you see as the future of music supervision as a career, an occupation? What do you think is the future of that and the importance of that position?

CM: In TV shows, films, even trailers for big films, music is playing a vital part in telling the story. As the music industry is in the limbo trying to figure out what to do and how they’re going to sell records, how the major labels are going to stay in business, how the major publishers will make money, how the indie labels will make money, how the indie bands will survive and go on tour -- I think the way it’s going to proceed is film/tv placements. Music supervision is going to be a very huge part of the music industry. It’s become more of a primary piece of the industry puzzle, compared to when it used to be more of a secondary piece. For music, film and TV is more of a primary source of income instead of secondary as it used to be. The supervisor will become even more of a music producer. With technology it’s become simpler to record a track. Basically music will start to be more tailor-made for these projects, by bigger and bigger artists. We still find those great songs that come out on records and that’s always great, but I think music for film/tv is going to become even more hands-on and even more unique to whatever project people are working on.

JR: In terms of music discovery I think film, TV and the internet have become as important, if not more, than radio.

CM: Yeah, and wait until Apple announces next week about the iCloud with four major labels signing on to stream music so you have it at your access without having to store it anywhere. That’s where people are going to be finding more music. “Oh I love that song” so go check it out, and from there click on who else would I like. I think even as a music fan it will become more interactive throughout.

JR: Do you think there should be an Academy Award for best music supervisor?

CM: Yes I definitely think so. Music plays such a vital part in films especially now. And what is the one thing people buy in addition to a movie ticket or DVD or BlueRay? it’s the soundtrack. 14

Triumph Of The “Heard”

Apocalypse Cow Productions is a team of three composers (with the occasional collaborator) who work collectively towards creating inventive music, whether it is for film, television or artists. The two brothers (Jeffrey and Dan Jere-my Brooks) and Jeffrey’s wife (Theresa Brooks) have been writing songs or involved in music since childhood. They founded Apocalypse Cow in 1999, since then they have created music videos, scored films, produced charting rock albums, mixed film audio and written music for network television, feature films, arcade games, DVD releases, music libraries and more. Apocalypse Cow also houses a full recording studio so musicians can easily be recorded live when needed. (See complete credits at end of interview).

An interview with Jeffrey and Theresa Brooks of Apocalypse Cow

JR: JULIUS ROBINSON, MUSICSUPERVISOR.COM

JB: JEFFREY BROOKS, APOCOLYPSE COW

TB: THERESA BROOKS, APOCOLYPSE COW

JR: Did you know that “Flashbulbs” replaced Madonna’s “Vogue”in the Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2?

JB: That’s fantastic.

JR: So can you tell me about “Flashbulbs?”

TB: It was started from a hook in my head. The idea of flashbulbs, actually the song “Paparazzi” was newish at the time. I just went with the flow and used a lot of Kelly Clarkson-type ideas. We have a singer we’ve worked with who’s 20-ish and in college and so I had her voice in mind as I was writing the song. Her name is

Success stories straight from the horses mouths

Apocalypse Cow ; Jeffrey , Dan Jeremy Brooks and Theresa Brooks

Courtney Jurick, but she goes by Courtney Jay.

JB: She’s been on MTV’s “Made” and performs in Chicago.

JR: So did you cut it there in your studio in Chicago?

JB: Yeah, we write and record everything right here.

JR: Tell me about the process; once Theresa had the song then what do you go through to get that sounding so good?

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Triumph Of The “Heard” Continued

TB: We write out the basics to the song, bounce ideas back and forth.

JR: What’s going on with that there? Are there clubs that are featuring Chicago music, or artists out of there that you know about who you recorded?

JB: Well “Bloodshot Records” are out of Chicago, a part of a bigger resurgent country thing, and I think it’s pretty hip. And blues of course is constant in Chi-cago.

TB: Yeah Buddy Guy did a bunch of shows in January.

JB: Buddy Guy, he’s a legend of blues, and always a cornerstone of Chicago

JR: So – Apocalypse Cow -- are you guys Francis Ford-Coppola fans?

JB: I am a Coppola fan. It’s heavily debated how to say his last name isn’t’ it?

JR: is it Cappola or Coppola?

JB: Who knows, it seems like every three years there’s a new pronunciation for his name!

JR: And he’s a vintner now, he’s got the wine company. I’ve had a lot of his wine it’s very good, but I like his movies better.

JB: Yeah I’m a Dracula fan.

JR: So obviously that play on words was part of your think-

ing when you came up with your name for the production company “Apocalypse Cow?”

JB: Yeah, that’s a funny story. My brother and I were in high school and he’s a little younger than me. So I was doing a creative writing paper and the teacher said we could submit it as a video instead. I just got this new video camera, which was a big thrill. We did this really bad video, and it had a little character generator on the camera and so we decided we needed a production company, and one of us decided Apocalypse Cow without really thinking about it. Again we’d seen a lot of Coppola films, so we just punched it in and the name kind of stuck. I of course know that I came up with the name, but my brother is under the delusion that he came up with it, so to this day it’s unresolved, who came up with the name

JR: That’s hilarious, and what’s your brother’s name again?

JB: Dan Jeremy

JR: So there’s the debate as to who is the creator of this amazing pun. Use a pun, go to prison! In fact, actually you might laugh at this, we’ve been debating the past couple of months about how to roll out the marketing on a whole new level of service and websites and other things we’re offering. We’re creating a plat-form for us to build other websites that service other segments of the music busi-ness, and it’s an open API for anyone who wants to use it. Right now, after this MIDEM show we picked up another 200,000 tracks so we’re going to be up over 300,000 and I believe that puts us at the number 1 independent catalogue in the U.S. So we’re just talking about how we’re going to do all this stuff. I’m a song-writer and screenwriter and Barry, our founder is a producer working with Steve Tyrell for many years in Hollywood and we all come from a music background and are continuing the pursuit of our dreams and not giving them up. The pun when I was thinking about with Apocalypse Cow, I said this is going to be my headline ‘Triumph of the “Heard” -- Apocalypse Cow places ‘Flashbulbs’ in Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2, Talk about a Zoo”. He loved the idea of “the heard” so we’re going

The legendary Buddy Guy

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to “join the heard” and make it a catch phrase along with “we get music.” Our deep brand name will be WEGET -- that’s our brand behind MusicSupervisor.com. We’re going to have IndieSafari.com, which will be a indie band fan exploration site and a whole bunch of cool ideas we’re working on now to really make all of this work not only for licensing but for actually being a real spectacular part of hopefully the music business or whatever’s left of it. So what do you think?

JB: That’s fantastic; I think it’s hysterical

JR: Yeah well it’s guys like you that make it all happen. So let’s get back a little ways into history here, how did this all start? How did you begin Apocalypse Cow or even before it was called that? How did you get to this place?

JB: Well my brother, who unfortunately is still stranded in the snow, I don’t know if you heard Chicago got hit.

JR: Oh yeah our guy in Chicago sent me pictures of the streets it’s unbelievable

JB: Yeah so my brother isn’t here today unfortunately, but he started pretty much when we could reach the piano. My dad PAs like church and school just as a hobby. My mom played some guitar so I was around music but wasn’t really a musician. Then I guess it made sense for me to start putting microphones in front of my broth-er and just started engineering that way. We got really into Plunderphonics music, so like John Oswald might be a good example of those people. You know we’re all familiar with mash-ups and sampling now, but that’s kind of like if you took a car and another car and stacked them on top of each other. The way I think of sampling is like you take a spark plug from one car and a lug nut from another, really micro parts and then piece together a bunch of stuff. It’s probably the slowest way to make music but if you know where all the samples came from you can contextual-ize some cool meaning and build up a whole song. Our thing is that we wrote songs with lyrics, and it felt like pop songs when they were done which is definitely not the case for most of the other Plunderphonics people. But like I said, it’s like the

slowest way we could possibly make music, so I said screw it, I’m going to buy a guitar like everyone else and just learn it. Around the same time I met Theresa and she was studying performance and music business at DePaul University, and also learning guitar and we were going to learn guitar together but instead we got mar-ried. So I guess that’s kind of how the whole thing started, my roommate in college was a audio engineer, but we were doing computer science stuff so it was unre-lated. I was already recording my brother’s stuff and his songs kept getting more elaborate and needed more and more gear. I needed advice from my roommate and at some point he was like “you pretty much have a recording studio why don’t you start taking bands in and do that too”. So I started recording bands and that was like 12 or 13 years ago. I simultaneously was writing because you know that’s where the passion is. When Theresa finished school it became…

TB: ...three of us full time here

Chicago snow storm.

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whole different aesthetic from what we had before

JR: I think there’s still an appreciation for filet mignon, well you’re a vegetarian so -- pure delicious food as apposed to fast food. You can hear the difference. I tell members there’s a possibility your music can be played at full volume through Lucas Sound speakers in Cineplex’s all over the world -- or soft in the background in the TV show and it doesn’t make a difference how it was recorded. Whatever that range of possible outcomes though, it seems to me that you would want to make your music sound as great as you can. There are still people out there that want stuff that is recorded with vintage gear, with tube mics and live drummers and that great stuff.

JB: I hope so, because God knows we’ve invested in that stuff. I hope the studio and people want to license music that sounds like that. Not to say there’s no place for the other, but it’s a different thing.

JR: Ultimately. I think that over the long run, quality always wins out. I think your investment in that gear is good, I know people in the studio business that have seen a huge hit to their bookings and they’re not really doing the same kind of busi-ness that they used to. People don’t really care and are willing to go to somebody’s bedroom and use Pro Tools. But maybe we can draw more attention to guys like you that are really trying to do something top quality. One of the comments I have to tell you from the exec of Disney about “Flashbulbs” is “this track sounds great.” It was up to par with Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ and that’s one of the reasons it got selected. When this came along the producers were like “yeah that’s good.” I don’t know if it could have been accomplished in just a bedroom.

JB/TB : Yeah really, very true. That’s nice to hear

JR: This is the irony of the whole thing -- someone is going to listen to it that has the ability to choose you to be in a movie, and they will be comparing you to the

JB: Yeah so between the three of us somebody is writing all the time, and/or two of us are, and someone is recording most of the time. It’s a pretty busy place!

JR: What area of Chicago are you located in?

JB: We’re 30 miles west of Chicago Proper. So we’re at the end of the train if you will, the last stop

JR: Well that sounds like LA, you’re basically 30 miles from anything here. I’m 30 miles from my wife and you know she’s in the next room! Anyway, as you can tell I’m a comedy writer as well so I’m trying out some new material on you.

TB: We can take surveys at the end if you want!

JR: Seriously, though, it’s tough out there, but we’re really determined to find some new income streams and we’re out into the retail store music space now. We have 700 stores so far and have generated 20 million spins like every 2 or 3 months. It’s really amazing, if you have the Pro Account, if you ever want to look at that, you get a one month free trial. Then if you want to continue its $9.99 a month. It gives you really detailed reports on what’s going on in that division. Also, you can see The Licensing Lounge where you can hear in real time what we’re pitching. You click on the title of the songs and the player opens up and you see what the music super-visor sees. And also your Twitter feed comes down, if someone wants to contact you they can. We’re building the beginning of a community for our members so it’s something you might want to check into. We want to get you heard and pump up our artists and get them out there as part of the reinvention of the music business

JB: Yeah because something’s going to have to happen, clearly, there needs to be a reinvention. We all feel it, even with the studio. I’ve definitely felt it here -- people generally don’t sell studio produced music on manufactured CDs -- they just do it on their Mac in their bedroom, and that’s good enough to sell at the show. It’s a

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best records ever made. So why wouldn’t you want to make the best record you could possibly make? So anyway is there anything else you’d like to say to add to this interview?

TB: You should add that we also worked with other people in the Chicago area and one of the co writers on the song for the lyrics is a friend of ours in St. Paul, Minne-sota, Mike Beckman

JB: And another thing we do is a lot of collaboration with people we’ve met through the years. For instance, Mike is a machine for writing lyrics and a heck of a guitarist. I can be like, “Oh Mike I need gypsy guitar” and he’s one of our go-to guys.

JR: Great, anything else about yourself, your studio, life?

JB: You just missed our annual Groundhogs day mailing. We’re serious!

JR: On our homepage for MusicSupervisor.com, we put our baby pictures up, we’ve got tongue in cheek bios. We’re just writers and musicians, we’re not egotistical. It’s part of our culture, so I really liked your attitude and the whole humor in Apoca-lypse Cow really appeals to me. When I knew this placement was definite I knew I wanted to do a feature on you.

JB: You were talking about photos and for the longest time we just had shots of our feet on our site. Who cares what I look like? The baby pictures really made me laugh when I saw that.

JR: Yeah if we put our real heads up there it would not be pretty. But seriously, it’s been a lot of fun talking to you and hopefully we’ll get together if you’re ever in LA or I’m in Chicago or somewhere in between we’ll try to hook up

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JB: That’d be fantastic!

Films include: Beverly Hill Chihuahua 2, According to Dom, The Fixer, Dead of Night, Proceed and Be Bold, Scorpion Bowl, Diabolical Tales III, A Role of Their Own, Two Brothers, One Beer and the American Dream

Clients include: Naperville Television 17 - Scored several documentaries, Film Pharm - scored a couple documentaries, Ford Motor Company and Ogilvy & Mather, Robotic Amusements - Arcade Game, Joue Joue - “Tots Rock” exercise video, Sunbeam/First Alert, Mountain Dew, Tub Ring - produced the charting album “Zoo Hypothesis”

Places Cow music has been played: Stations ABC, CBS, MTV, MTV2, Style Network/E! Entertainment, The History Channel, PBS TLC, National Geographic Ex-plorer, Planet Green, The Travel Channel, Science Channel, Women’s Entertainment, Sirius Radio, XM Radio, CMT (Country Music Television), Super Stations across the USA, NCTV17

Television Shows include: Let’s Make a Deal, Science of the Movies, Little People, Toddlers and Tiaras, Renovation Nation, Man Made, Samantha Who, Cit-ies of the Underground, Ace of Cakes, Rock the Cradle, American Idol: Rewind, Dr. 90210, Clean House Comes Clean, Property Ladder, My First Home, Running of the Brides, Can you Duet, Beach Patrol: Honolulu, Lassie’s Pet Vet, Your Average Zom-bies Podcast.

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Documents

Music Licensing Tip Sheet - MusicSupervisor Licensing Tip Sheet ... Needed to replace Bowie “Under Pressure” opening riff, needed knock off, only 1000 all in ... so can you give