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After seven years with BMG, Ford left his
powerful position to launch his own
company, June St. Entertainment in 2001. The
firm catered to film and television
music supervisors and advertising agencies, who
"are always in crisis-management
mode" when it comes to finding songs for
specific projects. With a solid understand-
ing of the needs and tight schedules of music
licensees, he used cutting-edge Internet-
based technology to create a song search engine
where clients could search for music
by artist, title, lyric, year, mood, gender of
vocalist, or any other combination of
prompts. The password-protected interface
allowed clients to access information 24/7
from their own computers. When a potential song
is identified, the user can preview
the song instantly, burn it onto a CD, and cut
it to picture.
In just over a year, the company placed songs
in such films as A Walk to
Remember, My Big Fat Greek Wedding,
Goldmember/Austin Powers 3, and Charlie's
Angels: Full Throttle and in commercials for
Coca-Cola, Nike, Old Navy, and UPS.
In response to several offers to handle all of
the music supervision and licensing
responsibilities for feature films and other
projects, Ford formed Ford Music Services.
He has served as a music consultant on xXx:
State of the Union, Walk the Line, and
Waist Deep. "I put music in movies and get paid
for it," Ford says, "Come on, that's a
great job to have."
BUSINESS AFFAIRS
LEGAL AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS · FINANCE
· HEAD OF
FINANCE/ADMINISTRATION
JOB OVERVIEW
Those who work in business affairs are
responsible for legal and financial manage-
ment of the company's assets. They draft,
negotiate, and approve contractual agree-
ments, and are responsible for the acquisition
and exploitation of assets. Business
affairs protects against copyright
infringement.
PREREQUISITES
You should have a law degree or substantial
legal background, with knowledge of
worldwide copyright law. You should be
proficient in finance and have the ability to
strategize.
POINTERS FOR THE JOB SEARCH
Larger firms employ legal counsel on a
full-time staff basis and many also retain
additional support from an outside law firm.
Small publishers retain counsel or hire
on an hourly or project-by-project basis for
legal advice. Before finishing law school,
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