you're in a perfect position to really take care
of people and build some great relation-
ships. If you can't get a job with a publisher,
try working for a music supervisor. A
music supervisor deals with the publishers,
record companies, and managers, and you
get to see the whole problem-solving side of
the job."
ART FORD, VICE PRESIDENT OF FILM AND TELEVISION
MUSIC,
BMG MUSIC PUBLISHING
Art Ford began his musical odyssey as a drummer
at age 11. By the time he was
15, he was playing professionally and touring
with bands that opened for artists like
Pat Benatar, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty, until a
car wreck ended his drumming career
in 1985. Ford put in a short stint as a record
producer, then as an independent talent
scout in the Northwest, searching out grunge
groups for Atlantic Records, and then
touring as a road manager with bands like Ratt,
L.A. Guns, and Poco.
After moving to Los Angeles, Ford landed a
position in A&R for MCA-distributed
Impact Records, working with acts like The Fixx
and Southside Johnny and the
Asbury Dukes. He created a job for himself when
he discovered that there was no one
assigned to field phone calls from film studios
regarding licensing masters for sound
tracks. After successfully placing songs in
films like
The Bodyguard and Point Break,
Ford found that he loved the fast-paced, "I
need it yesterday" energy of the film and
television music business. Recognizing the need
for a broader range of material, he
worked out an agreement with the president of
MCA whereby he was allowed to
broker independent consulting deals with
outside record labels and publishing
houses. With song catalogs representing pop,
rock, alternative, rap, and country mate-
rial to draw upon, Ford quickly established
himself as the one-stop source for film
and television sound track licensing. In
addition to his MCA salary, he was paid con-
sulting fees by the catalogs he represented, as
well as commissions on songs he placed.
Ford realized that if he could break into music
supervising for films, he could be
both the buyer and the seller. In return for
supervising a small film for Synergy
Productions, he obtained a letter of
introduction that allowed him to get meetings
with the presidents of the major publishing
houses, leading to a subpublishing deal
with Sony Music. Impressed by Ford's
entrepreneurial spirit, in 1993 BMG Music's
Danny Strick offered him a job running their
film and television department.
Initially, Ford was a one-man operation. In
order to service his clients and keep
track of the thousands of songs in the BMG
catalogs, he set up a song search com-
puter database. Recognizing the power of the
Internet, he convinced his employer to
bankroll the launch of an on-line song search
engine to the film and television com-
munity, becoming the first publishing house to
do so. The success of the innovative
user-friendly and service-oriented database
established BMG's reputation within the
industry as a proactive, artist-friendly music
publisher. Ford's department grew to
include its own marketing division dedicated to
gaining exposure for BMG artists.
CASE STUDY:
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