Mark Northam

Media Composers Organization Announced

A new national organization has been formed to benefit media composers. The Media Composers Organization (MCO) is a new national organization which is designed to address the needs and interests of those who compose instrumental music for film, television and multimedia. The organization is a pro-advocacy organization whose goals include improving compensation, royalties, and work benefits for media composers.

"The industry has changed dramatically over the past 20 years. With the advent of low-priced digital recording technology, more and more people have set up home recording studios and are now calling themselves media composers. Many remain hobbyists while others have achieved semi-pro status. Far too many of these people are doing jobs for free, or for very little money. This has intensified competition resulting in creative fees that are spiraling downward. Composers who have enjoyed 20 years or more in the business suddenly find themselves having to find work in other areas to survive. To mitigate this problem, the MCO will create new industry standards, establish a code of ethics, and work with composers to educate them as to the pitfalls they inadvertently create when they do spec work or jobs for no pay at all," said New York composer Lorraine Lush, who serves as one of the Directors of the MCO.

Lush added, "The MCO is already working diligently to effect change in the current performing rights distribution system. Composers now have to wait many months before they receive their royalty payments - that's if they receive them at all. The Performing Rights Organization's (PRO) distributional and music valuation methods are so convoluted that no one outside the PRO systems understands them. What we do know, however, is that some media composers are being paid at a rate that's only 3% of what other writers are being paid, which is grossly unfair. Before the MCO, media composers had no advocacy group to turn to. Without us, conditions will only continue to decline, and in another 20 years or maybe even sooner, media composing may cease to be a viable career.

"In Hollywood, we're the only trade without any sort of a strong, advocacy-oriented trade organization, and our industry is sorely lacking in education - especially for those thousands of people at the entry level of our industry. It's time for composers to take an active role in combating the challenges we've seen in the world of score composing, and that's exactly what the MCO is all about," said Los Angeles based composer Mark Northam, who publishes Film Music magazine and serves as an MCO Director.