Music Maven Consulting – Free To First 5 Composers!

Hey All,

Two colleagues of mine are starting a consulting business to help musicians and libraries navigate the crazy world of cue sheets, metadata and PRO’s. The company is called Music Maven and was formed by Phil Bright and Geoff Siegel.

Phil has owned Pfilbryte Production Music for 20 years and has thousands of placements in TV, film and video games. He also developed his own software to catalog and track cue sheets and reconcile them against PRO statements.

Geoff has run Fundamental Music for 12 years. Fundamental reps independent artists for TV and film placement, does custom work for advertising and has a small production library.

They’re offering the first 5 MLR members that private message me a free 30 minute consult. They want to get a feel for what areas are the most important to musicians concerning cue sheets, statements, PRO’s, etc. So, you’d be helping them as much as I think they can help you guys with these important aspects of our business.

Contact Geoff at geoff [at] fundamentalmusic [dot] com. If you are a human you will know how to decipher that e-mail address. 🙂

THE CREATIVE LIFE: LESSON 1

by Robin MunsonCreative

Long, long ago in the faraway kingdom of Pittsburgh three little princesses were groomed for “The Business”.  The King and Queen — my parents — were frustrated singers and songwriters.  We were schlepped from voice teachers to dance teachers to piano teachers and acting teachers. We made command performances in our living room on a regular basis, singing standards from the American songbook — Rogers and Hart, Gershwin, Cole Porter, Lerner and Lowe. . . (NOTE:  It’s impossible for me to say whether I would have wanted a life in The Business with different parents, but that’s a topic for another day.)

At 3,  I dreamed of one day being a ballerina. But not all little girls have the requisite long legs and athletic coordination for the Ballet Russe, so by the time I was ten years old, it was pretty clear that wasn’t going to happen. Continue reading

The Five Stages of Writing A Cue

by Robin MunsonClimbing

(With apologies to Elizabeth Kubler-Ross. . .)

We’ve noticed that whenever we write a cue, there are certain predictable stages that, try as we might, and as many times as we have tried to avoid them, keep cropping up like — well, use your own metaphor.

Stage I:  Denial – “I’ve got this great idea!  I know exactly what to do!  This will be a piece of cake!” You start with an epiphany.  The more outlandish or difficult the project,  the more irrational enthusiasm courses through the bloodstream.   “Silent Night” as a tango?  Jay-Z meets Celine Dion meets Ennio Morricone?  A live Czech orchestra action-adventure-comedy trailer on a shoestring budget?  “NO PROBLEM!  I’ll have this puppy wrapped up by 6:00 tonight!”  You come up with a simple melody and a three-chord riff within five minutes.  “Brilliant!”  Yeah, right. Continue reading