Thursday, December 15, 2011

Juxtaposed Music Launches Online Music Licensing Platform: JuxMusic.com

NEW YORK, USA – Juxtaposed Music, LLC., today announced the launch of their ground-breaking online music licensing platform at www.juxmusic.com. The JuxMusic Licensing Agency provides top music supervisors and directors with the music of highly-acclaimed established and leading-edge independent artists, bands, composers and songwriters. All tracks are pre-cleared and hand-picked by the company's founder and CEO, record producer/engineer and music supervisor Brandon Mason, whose album credits include David Bowie, Secret Machines, Shooter Jennings, and film soundtracks to Across The Universe (Grammy-nominated),
The Runaways, and The Tempest.

"I decided to start this company when I realized that my independent-artist friends and clients were sitting on catalogs of great music. They owned the masters and publishing, yet had few means to put their copyrights to work," says Mason. "Most artists find it difficult to make solid connections for synch placements, while music supervisors often struggle to discover independent music that is truly exceptional. Our mission is to help production clients infuse their film, television and branding projects with the authentic emotional impact of great independent music while also propelling the careers of artists whose work deserves greater notoriety."

Since the company's soft startup in October 2011, the JuxMusic Collection has amassed tracks by an impressive selection of artists including Hazy Malaze, rock band alter-ego of the great Neal Casal (whose credits include Ryan Adams, Chris Robinson Brotherhood) and Jeff Hill (Rufus Wainwright, Shooter Jennings, Teddy Thompson), composer Jeff Mercel (Mercury Rev), composer/songwriter/guitarist Jason Crigler (Goats In Trees, Teddy Thompson), James Brown's original Funky Drummer Clyde Stubblefield, jazz great Ben Sidran, songwriter/guitarist Ann Klein (Natalie Imbruglia, Joan Osborne), drummer/percussionist Danny Frankel (k.d. lang, Lou Reed, John Cale), guitarist/producer/songwriter Scrote (Daniel Johnston, The Stripminers), Grammy-nominated children's music band Milkshake, composer/keyboardist Erik Deutsch (Charlie Hunter Trio, Shooter Jennings), "antique garde" band Kill Henry Sugar, pop singer/songwriter Emily Zuzik (Moby), electronic dance music phenoms Trash Yourself, Gosteffects, Kids At The Bar, and Glasnost, hometown heroes Loomis and The Lust, Hilary Hawke, Joy Dragland, and the extraordinary, incomparable artists 101 Crustaceans, and Dr. Snitch.

"All artists are invited to upload their tracks for consideration via the 'Submit Music' page at juxmusic.com, but we're very selective about who makes the cut. The JuxMusic Collection ultimately has to reflect the integrity and aesthetic of a great record label… this is the level of excellence that our clients need and expect for their projects," says Mason.

JuxMusic also offers music production services: custom/original music composition (by many of the artists from the JuxMusic Collection), music supervision, editing, sound-alike production, and remixes.

The intelligent, interactive technology at juxmusic.com makes the online environment a "from-start-to-finish" music licensing experience available to anyone in the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Here's how:

* Production clients can mine through vast amounts of music in seconds by conducting an accurate Google-like track search, selecting criteria fields for genre, subgenre, tempo, mood, instrumentation, vocal type, and key, as well as artist, song title and open-ended keyword entry. Each artist has a sleek and informative public profile page where every song can be streamed in real time.

* Clients can use JuxMusic's innovative online video compositor application, SynchStage, to produce video synchs of their own uploaded video content with any track from the JuxMusic Collection without ever leaving JuxMusic.com.

* Clients can license their selected tracks with JuxMusic's automated "click to pay" licensing modules and PayPal gateway. Clients receive 16bit .wav audiofiles and .pdf files of Master Use/Synch License Agreement documents via automatic download upon completion of their transactions.

"Alternatively, clients are always more than welcome to call, email and provide us with project briefs for personal service. We can turn around music requests incredibly quickly," adds Mason.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

MarilynMusic Collaborates With Rising Stars And Established Names

MarilynMusic's Casey Conrad answers the phone from his studio, The Vertical Room on the Upper East Side of NYC on a cool Friday afternoon. He is present, but his voice sounds almost far away. It is apparent that his focus is on tracks to be produced. He says he's excited to talk about them, but even more so to get off the phone and get back to work. He has a lot on his plate, including collaborations with rising stars like Sera Buras of NBC's 'The Voice', to more established names like Michael Bolton. Conrad has worked with many names in the business, and is always looking to work with new talent.



Although hesitant to talk about his creative process, stating "it's too mysterious for me to try to put into words," he's nevertheless excited to talk about a new track that MarilynMusic just released on iTunes called "Jump". "I co-wrote it with Michael Gaines, a lifelong friend and my business partner in MarilynMusic. We grew up playing music together and both feel very fortunate to have this gift," he told me.

The energetic pop dance tune features artist Wallace Gary, who has worked for many years with Ashford and Simpson. Nick Ashford was one of Conrad's songwriting idols and will be "sorely missed for his beautiful songs and his gentle heart."

Conrad is currently producing a track for Michael Bolton which was co-written by Joanne Perica, a Canadian singer-songwriter and frequent collaborator. The track features guitarist Phil Hamilton (Luther Vandross etc...).

"Joanne Perica has been a co-producer, co-writer, colleague, and most of all a friend," Conrad explains. Their close professional relationship has lead to many great projects including other tracks with Bolton.

They are also in the early stages of a new album for Perica that will have a pop-rock influence. To this end they've enlisted the talents of guitarist Zane Carney of 'Carney' (the house band of Broadway's 'Spiderman Turn off the Dark'.) "He's a very talented guy and very prolific in his abilities. Great chops, good all around pro... he has some great stories and I enjoy working with him," Conrad says of the young guitarist. They also added Carney's "chops" to an urban dance track called 'Fearless', co-written with Perica and new artist Sage, which should be released shortly.

When asked about other projects, he said he's mixing world famous jazz pop guitarist David Spinoza's new album. Spinoza is a well respected studio artist who's played on over 4,000 recordings. The team for this record, which is being produced by old friend Gary Haase (also playing bass), includes David Mann on sax, Cliff Carter on keyboards, Vinnie Colaiuta on drums, and Conrad on percussion.

Recording artist Sera Buras has also co-written and recorded a track produced by Conrad at his Vertical Room studio called 'By Your Side' that is moving along swiftly.

"Sera has been working on evolving her style and has gotten to a place where her talent as a piano player as well as a singer is being highlighted," Conrad states. "She has a gospel background, she plays amazing organ... but maybe her greatest strength is her traditional roots... that is what's being discussed...there will definitely be an interesting range."

MarilynMusic is rooted in the quality of music made, and of sounds produced when artists collaborate with equal vision. Casey Conrad along with MarilynMusic partner and co-writer Michael Gaines is at the center of it all. No wonder he can't wait to get back to work.