Album Capsules
by Mark E. Waterbury
Crossfade - Self Titled
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Vicki Genfan - Live
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Shine - Heaven and Hell
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Zillatron - Lord of the Harvest
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Buddy Miles Express - Hell and Back
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Caterine - Cognition
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Walter Trout and the Radicals - Relentless
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Rob Waller - 7 song demo
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James Hollihan - The Funky Misfit
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Brent Adair - Pieces
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Spotlight DVD Review
Walter Trout and the Radicals - Relentless the Concert
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Crossroads: Ed Sloan of Crossfade
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Industry Profile - Filmusic Services owner Matt Safran
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Indie Band Spotlight - Vicki Genfan
by Mark E. Waterbury
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Scott Turner's Song Publisher's Perspective
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Music Biz Opportunities
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Music Industry Marketing Showcase
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Copyright 2004 by Music Morsels, a Serge Entertainment Publication.
Editor: Sandy Serge
Contributing Columnists/Writers:
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 TM© March 2004
Industry Profile - Filmusic Services owner Matt Safranby Mark E. Waterbury
 "I was told that I was one of those kids that used to sing in the car seat," Matt Safran remembers. "But my mom also told me that I was constantly plugged in front of the TV. She would try anything to get the TV turned off and I would try anything to get it turned back on!" Born in Connecticut and relocating to London, Ontario at age five, Matt took piano lessons as a youth and later on would become a keyboardist in various high school rock bands. After a year at the University of Toronto he returned to London where he finished his degree in English Literature at the University of Western Ontario. "It was a nice degree but sort of routine," Matt reflects, "It did teach me how to write and speak coherently and how to conduct research." After college Matt spent about a year traveling before deciding to head to British Columbia with the members of the band he was in at the time, although his path wound up leading in a direction that differed from his band mates. They had decided to move to Victoria to reform the band and 'became big music stars.' Matt wished them luck and told them to drop him off in Vancouver. "I had realized that if I was going to make a living out of music it was going to be in the industry side, not by being a musician. I knew too many struggling, starving musicians, including me for awhile, and that was not where I wanted to be. Knowing the way the industry works I realized there was much more room to be successful and make a good living on the business side of it."
Matt's first job in Vancouver was working for a theatrical company called Live Entertainment of Canada who had just built a new theater in town. The company owned Canadian, North American or international rights to many well known musicals including Phantom of the Opera, Showboat and Sunset Boulevard. "I was sort of working in music there, and I was the guy who always sang in the office and listened to soundtracks all day. I felt that although I was in the entertainment industry I was in theater which was not really music. People would ask me questions about the musicals and in general I didn't know about the shows themselves but I knew all the songs. Music was where I really wanted to be." After a couple of years at Live Entertainment he took a job with a music publishing company where he would pitch music to television and film entities. He learned a great deal about the general workings of music supervisors, publishing rights and soundtracks, also realizing that he was developing a passion for that particular facet of the music industry. "When I started here I realized that music was a commodity that could be brokered, bought and sold as intellectual property. I thought it was a very cool concept and I began to study up on copyright laws and how everything worked."
After about two years at the publishing firm, Matt found out through a contact that there was an opening at S.L. Feldman and Associates, a company that had offices in Vancouver and Toronto and was one of the largest talent representation firms in Canada. Matt came on board as an assistant to the head of the film and television music department, basically reversing his role from the publishing firm where he was the one pitching songs to music supervisors. "It eventually became something were I realized I was going to keep bringing in new projects. I basically made this little job for myself as a music supervisor and an agent for score composers. Under no supervision or anything I just worked every day to make us money." In his five and a half years at Feldman & Associates, Matt worked his way up the ladder to where he became one of the associates with a staff working for him. He kept learning as he progressed, reading a large number of trade publications for both the music and film industries, but also learning other important aspects that often can only be taught through experience. "What I really learned at Feldman was how to service a client. Knowing copyright law and having a vast knowledge of music and knowing how it fits into TV is great, but knowing how to service a client or several at a time is what I learned there. Making sure that they feel that they are getting what they paid for. To some extent a client needs to feel that I'm in a position of saying, 'Hi, can I help you - what can I do for you today?'"
Eventually, Matt began to feel that no further advancement was possible for him at Feldman. Instead of plying the job market to find a company where he could advance his career, he decided it was time to open his own company. "I felt like I was a barber that was sitting in someone's chair where I could cut as much hair as possible but I would still owe rent to the shop. So why don't I go buy my own barber shop? That way I don't have to do a hundred things at once to stay ahead, I can do five." After a mutually amicable parting from Feldman and Associates, Matt opened his 'barber shop' Filmusic Services in 2003. He got on the phone and started calling new and old contacts, and was soon growing a solid list of clients looking for music for film, television and advertising projects among others. "Most businesses are about picking up the phone and smiling every day. And as of February 1st I'm so busy that if someone were to call right now and ask me to work on a big project I would probably have to hire someone. I would like to think that I will be busy enough at some point to hire people, but right now I have been running this business for seven months and I am currently successful."
As Matt continues to work hard at making Filmusic Services a successful company, he does think that at some point he would consider possibly getting involved with a major record label. That is buried deep on the back burner however, as he loves what he is doing now - interweaving his media passions and proving that watching too much TV when he was a youth may have paid off. "I come to work every day and people are jealous of me," Matt muses. "In this end of the business, there is a lot about learning about copyright law and working with music as a commodity. You have to know the chains of what happens when an artist creates a song and all the different ways a song can make money for the artist. All the streams through record labels and publishers and distributors, sync licensing, broad rights...you have to learn everything. I realize that I am still learning and everyday is a learning process. So there is a lot more to my day than just watching TV and listening to music. That makes up about fifteen percent of my day, but that is what people are totally jealous of. I'm a TV junkie and I always have been, and I have always loved music. Putting the two of them together along with movies is just great."
Matt Safran's advice for musicians: To get your music placed with music supervisors, just keep sending it. You don't really need a reason to send it, just send it. Make sure that you put your phone number on the CD itself, because they often get accidentally separated from the CD case. With music supervisors, don't waste your money with pretty packaging. You don't need to send twenty-five dollars worth of press kit with color photos and press clippings and everything to me because all I really care about is that shiny disc in the case and the music that comes off of it. It's nice to know that you're charting somewhere or you're getting good reviews, but for that sort of info, just get me the web site address and I'll look it up myself. I feel badly when bands spend a lot of money on something that is probably going to get thrown away. If you have attitude, I want that to come out of the CD and onto my stereo, because what you look like is not going to get your music into a movie scene, Target the music itself.
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