Mark Holden – Film Music Institute

For almost 90 years ASCAP has benefited and served the interests of tens of thousands of composers, songwriters, and publishers. Throughout this long history the lessons of particular times and circumstances have accounted for vast changes in ASCAP policies over decades and generations. On the whole, the strides and reforms ASCAP has achieved throughout the […]

11Apr2001

Where’s The Beef? PRO Policies and the Nondisclosure of Music Usage in America

By Mark Holden
April 11, 2001
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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“We have learned that a right that goes unadministered can be forever lost. We have learned this.” — Prof. Dr. Jurgen Becker, Executive Director of GEMA, the Performing and Mechanical Rights Society of Germany. Most of my catalog as a composer is in feature film scores, themes and series television— even a couple of musicals— […]

11Jan2001

ASCAP and BMI Usage Weightings: Out of Step With the World?

By Mark Holden
January 11, 2001
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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Usage weightings are employed by performing rights organizations (PROs) as a means to assign greater or lesser monetary value to music performances in broadcast media. These weightings are allocated by usage categories, including feature performances, themes, background (a rather derogatory, inaccurate and unsophisticated term) and music used in commercials, promos and logos — renamed CPA […]

01Dec2000

BMI’s Doreen Ringer Ross: Stoking the Creative Fires of Film & Television Music

By Mark Holden
December 1, 2000
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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Doreen Ringer Ross has been at BMI since 1985, currently as Vice President of Film & Television Relations. We were pleased to interview her in Los Angeles during the fourth quarter of 2000. Mark Holden: How would you best describe your job at BMI? ROSS: Certain aspects of my job are complementary & parallel to […]

01May1999

Direct and Source Licensing of the Performing Right – Part 2

By Mark Holden
May 1, 1999
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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Throwing some light on direct and source licensing was the purpose behind “Music Licensing and the Future,” a seminar sponsored by The American Alliance of Composer Organizations (AACO) and Film Music magazine. The six participating panelists represented professionals from business, academic, legal, administrative and creative facets of the music industry. The forum was moderated by […]

01Feb1999

Direct and Source Licensing of the Performing Right: The End of the Beginning, or the Beginning of the End?

By Mark Holden
February 1, 1999
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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According to Jack Zwaska, “There is no bogeyman” with regard to direct and source licensing. For 17 years, Zwaska has been the Executive Director of the Television Music License Committee in New York. The Committee is authorized by virtually every local television station in America to negotiate or litigate their music license agreements with ASCAP, […]

11Jan1999

Can Collecting Societies Survive Beyond The Digital Frontier?

By Mark Holden
January 11, 1999
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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The following is the text of an address given at MIDEM by John Hutchinson, CEO of MCPS/PRS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society/Performing Rights Society) in Great Britain. He is the British counterpart to Frances Preston of BMI, John LoFrumento of ASCAP, Bill Velez of SESAC and Edward Murphy of the Harry Fox Agency, Inc. We are […]

01Sep1998

Digital Watermarking And The Performing Right – Part 2

By Mark Holden
September 1, 1998
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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In the arena of digital watermarking-that is, the process of automating music performance tracking in broadcast, cable and on the Internet-the current level of activity in the industry can easily be described as buzzing. This is quite a contrast from a year ago, when the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) quietly issued its Request […]

11Jul1998

Digital Watermarking And The Performing Right – Part 1

By Mark Holden
July 11, 1998
Royalty Checks and Reality Checks (Archive)
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Americans have come to expect a high level of performance from financial service providers in the Information Age. This expectation includes total accountability and transparency of operation with regard to accounts, i.e. your bank, law firm, stock brokerage, credit union, department store and corner gas station. If they handle your money and send you a […]

Author: Mark Holden