E38 - Indie Panel: Music Contracts For Every Budget

The Catalyst Storieroad Institute proudly presents "Music Contracts for Every Budget". Learn how to secure music for your series and much more. Our guests are: Paul Bezilla - Entertainment Attorney and Alex Mueller - Entertainment Attorney/Composer. Hosted by Charlie McCarron - Composer and Film Score Fest Executive Director.

 

Topics include:

• What’s the process for licensing an existing song?
• What should be in a composer contract?
• Public domain and royalty-free music

 

Paul has worked in law firms and corporations in Los Angeles, Nashville and Minneapolis, including a multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate, an international law firm and an international record company. He understands negotiation, finance and contracts in the entertainment industry from all sides of the table. His entertainment law practice includes music, film, television, e-commerce, internet, advertising, branding, production, distribution and new media. Before law school, Paul was a professional touring musician and was inducted into the Iowa Rock 'n’ Roll Hall of Fame. Paul was an adjunct professor for the University of Southern California’s Music Department (Music Business) from 1988 to 1995.

 

Alexandria (Alex) Mueller is a media composer and entertainment attorney. She is the Chair of the Sports, Art and Entertainment Law Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association and author of a chapter on music transactions in the Intellectual Property Deskbook for Business Lawyers, published by the American Bar Association. Alex works with businesses of all sizes in a variety of industries including filmmakers, event vendors, musicians and performing ensembles, composers, artists, authors and game and software developers to manage their rights.

 

Charlie McCarron is a film composer, video producer, visual artist, and board game designer in Minnesota. He is the executive director of Film Score Fest and produced the podcast Composer Quest. Notable films Charlie has composed for are Emmy-nominated Beneath the Ink, STARZ documentary Silicone Soul, and Kare 11’s Love Them First: Lessons From Lucy Laney Elementary, the best-selling film in the history of the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Film Festival.

 

Thank you to the National Academy of TV Arts & Sciences, WDSE-WRPT Duluth, The Wrap, and the WGA-East for supporting Storieroad.