Synchronized!

In this last episode before their summer break, Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb have a very interesting conversation with Ron Mendelsohn from MegaTrax.

With over 30+ years in the production music industry, it’s great to hear Ron’s perspective on how the industry has changed, and where we’re heading.

Ron doesn’t mince his words on the disruptors, and has a strong opinion on how we should perceive this competition.

Expertise, opinion and vision make a great combo for another fascinating episode of Synchronized!

West One Music Group’s setup might well be the blueprint of the independent production music publisher of the future.

What started as a British label label working traditionally with sub-publishers around the world arguably changed into the first hybrid independent global production music publisher.

Besides having their own offices in London, Munich, Paris, Sydney, Dublin, Bangkok, Hong Kong, New York and Los Angeles they still rely heavily on local sub-publishers.

What was the reason for starting their own offices in certain territories? And why do they feel they still need local sub-publishers in other territories?

Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb talk with Edwin Cox, Global CEO of West One Music Group.

Interested in his views on the current state of the production music industry? Check out this new episode of Synchronized!

JP Sing is YouTube’s Music Content Strategist for Europe, Middle East and Africa. With his background as a booking agent, road manager and Digital Strategist at Sony Music Entertainment Africa he has enough experience up his sleeve to help YouTube navigate the world of music copyright. Besides the business side JP is still enjoying music to the fullest when playing the guitar in his band OneDaySky.

Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb discuss a wide variety of topics with JP. What is YouTube content ID? How does it work? How important is music to YouTube? How can music creators use YouTube to generate income & reach their clients and fans?

Again a very informative episode of Synchronized!

Adam Taylor started out producing documentaries, TV Movies and Reality programming. Later he joined APM Music, (a leading US Production Music Library) and he is now President and CEO, a post he has held since 2001. He has also been the chairman of the PMA from 2017 to the present day: More than enough reasons to have a sit down with him, and talk about the state of the production music industry.

Hosts Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb talked with Adam not only about the changes that our industry has seen in the past 20+ years, but also about the changes that are about to take place.

What does the future of production music look like?

Listen to this episode of Synchronized! and find out!

Cora Music claims it's providing 'the music your videos always deserved', competing with Epidemic Sound for video producers' synch in the Nordic market. It was founded by Swedish performing rights society STIM, but how is it different from all the other platforms?

Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb decided to ask CEO Malte Andreasson what Cora Music is all about. Is this set up going to be an example for other PRO’s around the globe? Will Cora Music offer their services globally in the near future? 

Is Cora Music the future of production music or a maybe a threat to production music?

This new episode of Synchronized! is yet another hour filled of information that will help you decide your strategies for the future.

In this episode of Synchronized!, hosts Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb talk to industry veteran Randy Thornton.

Randy gives us the benefit of his wide-ranging experience in the library music business. He co-founded Non-Stop Music in 1981, and built it up to the point where it was acquired by the Warner Music Group in 2007, becoming the foundation for the Warner Chappell Production Music operation.

As CEO of Warner Chappell Production Music, Randy became a worldwide leader in production music. He was appointed Chairman of the Production Music Association (PMA) in 2012, and served in that post for five years.

With his children, he now owns and runs Amphibious Zoo Music, a highly successful library operating out of Utah, USA.

This episode gives a sweeping view of the last forty years of the business from the point of view of a man who really has seen and done it all!

Ferry van Beek & Simon Webb talk with Keatly Haldeman, CEO at Dequency. Dequency is the world’s first web3 synchronization licensing marketplace. A platform for music and visual creators to connect and collaborate on NFT art and metaverse content.

Confused? You won’t be after listening to this episode of Synchronized!

Having worked for almost 20 years at Sesac, where his last job was as SVP Strategic Development / Distribution & Research Operations; for 2 years as Executive Director of the PMA, and already more than 7 years as EVP, IP and Business Development at SourceAudio, it is difficult to find a guest with more diverse and deep-rooted experience.

In this episode of Synchronized! Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb talk with Hunter Williams about the state of our industry. From PRO’s to new business models, from simply being a distribution platform to becoming a generator of new income sources, there is no stone left unturned.

The production music industry doesn’t just face challenges, there are plenty of opportunities too!

Our guest in this episode, Art Munson, is the founder and owner of musiclibraryreport.com. This long-running website is the ‘Trust Pilot’ of library music: A forum for composers to share views on different libraries, and library practices.

Art Munson’s enthusiasm for NFT’s, Crypto currency, Artificial Intelligence, and all things at the cutting edge of production music, is infectious.

In a fascinating episode, this senior statesman of library music talks about all this and more:  How he graduated from playing guitar with Dick Dale and The Deltones to becoming a guru of our business? The joys, for a composer, of non-exclusivity. The merits of releasing tracks on micro-stock websites? How the subscription models of the new wave of disruptors are disrupting the older royalty-free disruptors. What it's like being an octogenarian in the library world. And, what he believes the future holds…..

You’ll find out all this and more in the new episode of Synchronized!

This new episode features John Clifford, until 2017 Managing Director of Universal Production Music UK, and, until recently, EVP & Global Managing Director at BMG Production Music. 

John is now a self employed at True Road Music, and board member of the PMA. In the past he has been a long-standing member of PMAG (Production Music Advisory Group) at PRS for Music. 

John brings a wealth of experience to the podcast. He argues strongly for the traditional publisher / sub-publisher relationship, and provides a compelling counter-narrative to some of the more disruptive and independent voices we have heard recently. It's a very interesting conversation.

This time, in a bonus episode, we feature Epidemic Sound.

Epidemic has been mentioned more times in our podcast than any other library label. And is without doubt, with a market capitalization of $1.4 billion, the major library disruptor of our time.

So who are these ‘bad boys’ of library? What are their intentions?

The Epidemic business model is certainly different, and Niklas Brantberg, head of music, opens the lid on this huge company. In a candid interview, Niklas reveals (amongst many other things) the way Epidemic differs from other libraries in its relationship with both its users and its composers, how it started, what its composers earn, how it relates to the infrastructure of conventional libraries, and also gives some clues as to how best to compete with this behemoth.

It’s a fantastic interview, and a must-listen for any library owner or composer who wants to look deeper into the present and near-future of our business.

Love it, or loathe it, Epidemic is here to stay!

Ferry van Beek & Simon Webb talk with PhD candidates Júlia Durand & Toby Huelin. They approach our industry in an academic way and ask questions we wouldn’t but probably should.

Later this year they are organising a study day about production music. Check out their website to find out how to participate!

In this first episode of 2022, Andy Hill, CEO of I Like Music, is back as our guest on Synchronized!

And, of huge importance to those publishers operating in the UK, he talks about the conclusion of I Like Music's contract with the BBC, and what ILM has in store for us next.

Andy looks back at how Napster slashed the profitability of the record companies in the 90’s. He predicts the same will happen to the production music labels in the near future if they don’t act on the lessons learned by the record companies.

His solution? A new platform to service clients who are now moving to other worldwide platforms like Epidemic Music. Participating production music labels will not only share in the revenues, but also become equity holders in this new platform.

He strongly suggests that production music label owners should act now. Want to know how? Begin by listening to this new episode! 

And "Don't just kick the can down the road!"

Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb talk to Marzio Schena from Anote Music, and try to get the answers to these questions.

Anote Music is a marketplace where people can invest in music royalties, and where rights holders can sell their rights. (A kind of Stock Market for music rights.)

With this platform you can raise money to invest in further development of your catalogue, or buy that nice piece of gear that you’ve always wanted.

Does this mean that music is just another commodity? Find out and listen to this fascinating new episode!

This episode is a complete hour about the documentary, The Library Music Film, and more.

Travel back to the Golden Era of Library music and find out about the music you may know, and the stories you may not.

Do you have any idea which famous library track was used in The Muppets? Listen to this episode of Synchronized! and you’ll find out!

And you'll also find out why an Epidemic composer will never end up owning a boat!

Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek had a great time with Paul Elliott, the director of this highly entertaining documentary. We’re sure you will have a worthwhile hour listening to our discussion.

Musiversal is a platform where you can record in real time with professional session musicians. A platform for session musicians may not sound revolutionary but Musiversal does it differently.

It’s subscription based rates allow you to a certain amount of live remote sessions per month. In this episode of Synchronized! Martin Quach, co-founder and CGO of Musiversal, talks with Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb on how it all started, and what they want to achieve with their services.

Want to know if it’s something you can use? Listen to this new episode of Synchronized!

Magda Niestryjewska is Head of Sync and Music Supervisor at Jaguarec in Poland. Jaguarec is an established publisher of a variety of production music labels and caters to clients in TV and advertising.

What does she think is the best way to face the increasing competition? Should we try to imitate the disruptors? Or do traditional sub-publishers need to concentrate on their own strengths?

Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb were treated to a positive outlook on our business. It’s an hour of your time but what a great way of starting off your weekend!

With 2 billion dollars distributed every year, thanks to their metadata and more than 4000 companies using their services worldwide, you have to agree that BMAT is a force to reckon with.

Want to know what drives this company? Listen to this new episode of Synchronized! in which Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb talk with Pedro Cano & Luis Ruano.

Find out what BMAT can do for our industry. And should we worry about the fact that the audio level of music on television may determine how much you get paid out?

Synchronized! is presented by Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb and is proudly sponsored by the Production Music Association (PMA).

This time Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek had the pleasure talking with Morgan McKnight, Executive Director of the Production Music Association (PMA).

The PMA was founded in 1997 after a US performing rights society planned to impose a cap on production music royalties. Several production music companies came together and successfully opposed this issue.

Since then the PMA has continued pursuing the interests of the production music publishers.

Want to know what they’re doing on your behalf? Listen to this episode of Synchronized!

IPMG (International Production Music Group) is one of them. It is a platform for Production Music companies to discuss the challenges, and lobby the key players, to secure our sector's interests.

In this episode of Synchronized! we talk to Juliette Metz (Director at Encore Merci) and Martin Nedved (Managing Director Studio Fontana) about the IPMG and what it stands for.

Listen to an hour full of great information and conversation about the wonderful world of production music.

Synchronized! is presented by Ferry van Beek and Simon Webb and is proudly sponsored by the Production Music Association (PMA).

In this episode of Synchronized! Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek talk with Noah Becker, president and co-founder of AdRev, to find out the different ways they can help you with generating extra income.

Find out how it works and listen to what Noah has to say about a new platform they’re working on to compete with the so called disruptors.

Synchronized! is proudly sponsored by the Producion Music Association.

To prove our point you’d better listen to this new episode of Synchronized! Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek were able to talk to Dan Korobkin, President of Sales for SourceAudio.

SourceAudio is not just a platform to distribute your music or host your website. They also offer various possibilities to generate extra income without virtually any effort from you.

Have a listen and let us know what you think

This time Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek have Jon Lacroix as their guest.

Jon LaCroix is one of the founding fathers of Bulletproof Bear, a fiercely independent production music publisher.

They are an untraditionally traditional music publisher. Wanna know how that works? 

Listen to this new episode of Synchronized! and Jon will tell you all about it!

Synchronized! is presented by Simon Webb from Music for Sport and Ferry van Beek from All Music Publishing.

Guests are Brian Brasher and Veigar Margeirsson from PITCHhammer Music. We not only talk about their passion for trailer music but also about what their Trailerized treatment does to well known songs.

Synchronized! is presented by Simon Webb from Music for Sport and Ferry van Beek from All Music Publishing.

Alex Black worked as a General Manager at Boosey & Hawkes, Managing Director at Imagem Production Music, Global Director at EMI Production Music and became CEO of Sonoton Music last March.

With a track record like that we wondered what his plans are with arguably the biggest independent production music label in the world.

Enough reasons to ask him to be a guest on Synchronized!

Fortunately he said yes and he was willing to share some great insights with us all.

Synchronized! is presented by Simon Webb from Music for Sport and Ferry van Beek from All Music Publishing.

In this new episode of Synchronized! we talk with David Della Santa.

He is co-founder and Chief Creative Officer at Trqk a unique service to not just analyse your PRO statements but also create gap analysis of on-air performances vs reported performances.

Besides that he’s also Executive Music Producer and Music Supervisor at Volume Music + Sound a full service music company featuring award-winning composers and producers.

David combines his creative skills as a composer with an entrepreneurial mindset.

Curious what he’s got to say about the state of our industry? Just hit that play button!

Synchronized! is presented by Simon Webb from Music for Sport and Ferry van Beek from All Music Publishing.

So this episode we talk to Patrik Hinrichs from AMG Scandinavia (formerly AUX Publishing).

He tells us about the impact that Epidemic Sound had on the industry in Scandinavia and predicts that all of us will have similar experiences in the nearby future.

Another hour of insight on how our industry is changing rapidly.

This time Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek took the bull by the horns, so instead of just talking about the disruptors they decided to talk with one directly.

In this episode of Synchronized! Ori Winokur, head of music at Artlist, talks to us about their platform and the differences between them and the traditional production music labels.

Happy Easter!

With offices in France, Canada and the United Kingdom BAM Music is rapidly expanding its footprint.

In this episode of Synchronized! we talk to CEO Pierre-Michel Levallois not only about all things production music but also the ambitions of this French company.

Another great insight in the wonderful world of production music.

Enjoy listening!

Cheers,

Simon & Ferry

Out now! A brand spanking new episode of Synchronized! This time Dan Graham is our guest.

Dan is the owner of Gothic Storm and he runs two succesful Facebook groups about the library music industry. One for publishers, Library Music Publishers Discussion, and another one for composers called A Composer’s Guide To Library Music Discussion.

Dan tells us why he is happy with the fact that people steal his music and why he doesn’t have a sub-publisher in the USA.

Food for thought. So feel free to enjoy the unlimited buffet of valuable information and insights that this episode of Synchronized! has to offer.

Cheers, 

Simon & Ferry

Joe Saba co-founded VideoHelper together with Stuart Winter in 1995 in New York. Since then they won at least 4 Emmy’s (On Ebay).

Joe is also co-founder of the Production Music Association and still an active composer.

We thought those were enough reasons to invite him to be a guest on Synchronized!

Luckily he said yes, since otherwise this intro would have been a waste of space on the internet.

It’s always a pleasure to talk to people that are not just knowledgeable but also genuine.

Spend some time with Joe and us and listen to what he has to say.

We did and we loved it!

Cheers, Simon and Ferry

This time we have the honor to talk to Jenny Oakes and Karis Jones from JW Media based in the UK.

We don’t just broach the subjects that we have been discussing with previous guests, but also ask ourselves the question why there are so few women in the production music industry.

This is not only the case in managerial positions but there are also few women active as a composer, producer or sound engineer.

Food for thought!

In this brand spanking new episode of Synchronized! we have Andy Hill from I Like Music (ILM) as our guest. It’s safe to say that Andy is the godfather of online distribution of production music since he started the first system called Mars Online in 1990!

He is sharing some great stories and tips in this episode so kick back and relax while listening to what Andy has to say.

Hope you’ll enjoy it. Cheers, Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek

This episode we feature Mark Vermaat, head of business development at Soundmouse, as our guest.

Soundmouse recently won the pitch to build a new production music platform for the BBC. Mark shares some great information on what Soundmouse’srole will be regarding this new platform. A must hear episode if you want to have your production music distributed to BBC. (and other broadcasters!)

In this episode of Synchronized! our guest is Daniel Holter from The License Lab. He started as a sound engineer and was kind of lured into the production music business. If you need one word to sum up this episode that word would be: PASSION.

This fifth episode features Scott Meath and Brian Beshears from AtomicaMusic.

They tell about how they got started in the industry, founded Studio Cutz and Blue Fuse, sold these labels and started again completely from scratch after their non-compete ended.

Does your label need to offer all different musical styles that are available? Are song descriptions important? What are the best search options to offer your clients? Are clients still using keywords for finding the right track? Or are emoji’s the way to go? One thing is for sure: our industry is not just about the music.

You also get some great advice on how to pick the best title for your song! (spoiler alert: get drunk in Vegas).

We had a great time recording this episode of Synchronized! with Scott and Brian and hope you enjoy listening to their stories.

Take care,

Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek

In this forth episode of Synchronized! we have Ed Ashcroft and Paul Vials from Ultraphonic as our guests.

Besides this great production music label they also own District 6 Music Publishing which represents songs in a wide range of genres and include artists like Roy Harper, Donae’o, Feder, Geezer Butler (founding member of Black Sabbath), Murcof, Dwele, Feder,  John Foxx, Gael Rakotondrabe, Mind Against,  Traumer, Agents Of Time, Con Brio, Cotonete, Jen Jis,  Mathame, Hi Levelz - to name a few.

We talk about the difference in dealing with production music and commercial music, the future of sub-publishers, whether you should start your own production music label and the recent request from MCPS to obtain mandates for India and China.

We loved hanging out with them and we’re sure you’re gonna get some great perspectives on the state of the production music industry.

Take care,

Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek

In this third episode of Synchronized! we have legendary guitarist Ray Russell as our guest. Ray played guitar on the soundtrack of several James Bond films, Space Oddity (David Bowie), You Can’t Hurry Love (Phil Collins), Don’t Cry For Me Argentina (Julie Covington), Bright Eyes (Art Garfunkel) and Private Dancer/Let’s Stay Together (Tina Turner) just to name a few.

Besides playing the guitar he also managed to compose an estimated 10.000 production music tracks for labels like Universal Music, Firstcom and Made Up Music.

Ray not only shares the story about how he started playing with the John Barry Seven, he also tells us about the guitar he was given by George Harrison. It was recently shown in Antiques Roadshow and is worth an estimated….. well you have to listen to find out how much exactly!

Enjoy this fresh episode.

Take care,

Simon Webb and Ferry van Beek

Already the second episode of Synchronized! A podcast for the production music industry presented by Simon Webb from Music for Sport and Ferry van Beek from All Music Publishing.

This time our guest is Jonathan Firstenberg from 3 Ear Music Group. Jonathan is specialized in music acquisition, management and consulting. We ask him what the best and the worst thing is that happened to the production music industry in the last ten years. We also talk about selling your catalogue and indie’s combining forces.

We hope you’ll enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! If you have questions, remarks or you would like to be a guest in one of our next episodes, just drop us a line!

This is the first official episode of Synchronized! A podcast for the production music industry presented by Simon Webb from Music for Sport and Ferry van Beek from All Music Publishing.

This time our guest is Einar Helde from APL Publishing. Questions we ask ourselves are: Is there too much production music out there? Is exclusive representation in dedicated territories a thing of the past? Is there going to be just one global PRO?

We hope you’ll enjoy listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it! If you have questions, remarks or you would like to be a guest in one of our next episodes, just drop us a line!