An article in the Harvard Crimson pointed to a project run by Berklee and the movie studio Paramount. The studio has undertaken a massive programme to tag a database of old soundtracks from the 20s onwards, with the goal of making them available for licensing. There are mountains of music out there that cannot practically be used, as they cannot be searched. By tagging old soundtracks, supervisors will be able to locate and cue music from a very rich library that includes scores from films such as Star Trek, Forrest Gump, Chinatown, Mission Impossible, Love Story, and Airplane from composers such as Elmer Berstein, Danny Elfman, Philip Glass, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone and others.

The idea is certainly good from a logical point of view, and one I recently put to a popular TV series. Why let good music lie dormant when it could be earning money? But a question that bothers me is who will be earning? Was not lots of this music composed “for hire”?

Continue reading on Examiner.com: Berklee students open doors to Paramount’s archives – Boston Movie News | Examiner.com and The Crimson.

For MIDEM 2011 (January 22-26), CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, has invited a number of industry experts to Cannes to share practical advice on music licensing during two panel discussions: MidemNet’s “Music Licensing Crash Test” (Jan 22) and the CISAC hosted MIDEM session “Digital Services & Authors’ Societies — Building Efficient Partnerships” (Jan 24). CISAC will also unveil its highly anticipated annual Global Economic Survey of royalty collections for authors’ rights during the week.
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Sensoria (April 23-25) will offer a mix of screenings, performance, talks, events and exhibitions in the UK town of Sheffield that will be followed by Sensoria Teasers – events, activities and collaborations “as and when the opportunity arises”. Events include “Music for real airports”, a screening of “12 Angry Men” with live music, “Man of Aran” with live music by British Seapower and an interesting Pro section. These talks will include discussion about synch licences, monetisation in the digital world and a masterclass with Paul Leonard-Morgan. Details at Sensoria.

Midem 2010, the place were the global music community comes together, will feature a number of exclusive licensing events. Are your songs good enough for the next DJ Hero® videogame, a movie trailer, a US popular show, or even a Pantene campaign?

If you’re attending Midem, submit them for up to five Listening Sessions via Activision Blizzard, Grey Advertising, RipTide Music, MTV and Zync Music, all taking place only at MIDEM 2010, January 23-26, 2010 in Cannes!

Improved tracking – and therefore more accurate payments – is becoming a major issue with members of author’s rights societies worldwide. The US body Sesac is introducing tracking using Vericast, from BMAT, to more accurately track music usage for select publishers. BMAT uses real-time audio recognition to spot the tracks being used in advertising and radio, even recognising music under a voice-over or that has been put through effects. Traditionally, societies have had to rely on users declaring uses. But this is a cumbersome system to manage, the result being that most payments could best be described as “guesstimates”.

Systems such as BMAT, however, are expensive. This is probably why Sesac in its press release says “Thousands of audio files from select SESAC publisher affiliates will be monitored across top broadcast and cable outlets”. In other words, they are focussing on the top earners from the top publishers at major media outlets. So although this will improve accuracy, it will most likely only do so for higher earners. For more details, visit Sesac and BMAT.

The MOFFOM Music on Film/Film on Music Minifest & Market will take place in Berlin on the original dates of the now cancelled Popkomm international music market. This event includes both a market part aiming at film and music professionals as well as a small film festival part targeting the broader audience of film and music aficionados.

Throughout the day of September 17, three panels will offer insights on soundtrack marketing strategies and the creative collaboration between filmmakers and musicians, as speakers like Mikkel Maltha (Zentropa), Andro Steinborn (NEU Filmproduktion), Thomas Jamois (Naïve Label) or Hannes Stöhr (“Berlin Calling”) share their experiences. The panels are moderated by John Groves (Vice President, Federation of Film & Audiovisual Composers of Europe – FFACE). For details, visit Just Temptation.