"Famous Last Words"

The Power of Music (October 2006)

Dear Readers:

On Thursday evening, September 21, I attended the Los Angeles performance of Jack Wall's and Tommy Tallarico's wonderful Video Games Live.

The setting was the beautiful Hollywood Bowl.

This is the second time the show has been presented in that venue. I believe there was a bigger crowd this year than in 2005. The Bowl is huge and all but the extremities were full.

Tommy Tallarico is a great host -- and as he put it from the stage during the Mario music segment, "not the only short Italian here tonight!"

Jack Wall conducts the orchestra and chorus. Jack has earned, in my mind, the title "maestro!"  He has great command of the musicians and the material.

The artistry and talent on display are remarkable and undeniable.  No one who sees Video Games Live can ever question the artistic and expressive nature of our work and our products.

Game publishers who control the copyrights to this music should be congratulated and thanked for supporting the show. And it is not strictly a non-profit venture for them. When these compositions are publicly performed, performance income may be earned through ASCAP, BMI, or the affiliated performing rights society of the composer and copyright owner.

If the publishers, as presumed owners of these musical works, have not registered the compositions, they should certainly so do. If the composers have not registered the work with their societies, they may be missing out. ASCAP and BMI will not pay a composer's share of performing income to the copyright owner (in these cases, presumably the game publishers or their affiliated music publishing units), no matter how much the copyright owner wants to retain it, or takes steps to deny the composer his or her share.

When composers make their deals to provide underscore for games, it is important that, at a minimum, they reserve the right to register their works with their respective performing rights societies. This is a necessary step to collect the composer's share of performance income that may be generated. In earlier columns, I have discussed going further when negotiating composer – publisher, or composer – developer agreements to preserve composer's rights to share in income generated from ancillary uses of game music. An example of such ancillary income would be if a soundtrack CD were ever to be recorded of the Video Games Live show. Mechanical (statutory per unit) royalties would be paid by the record label to the games companies for use of the compositions.

While Video Games Live served as the inspiration for this article, it was not the catalyst. Two days after seeing the show, I heard a radio commercial for Days Inn. The music bed jingle, which occupied a very prominent place in the ad, was a song called “Keep on the Sunny Side” (maybe you've heard it; I am very familiar with it).

The Days Inn spot reinforces the extraordinary enduring power of music. “Keep on the Sunny Side” was first recorded on May 9, 1928 in Camden, New Jersey by A.P., Sara, and Maybelle, the original Carter Family. It went on to become popular as their theme song and maintains its connection with people to this day. The fact that a song first recorded nearly 80 years ago can be so powerful today, that it was chosen as a central part of a national advertising campaign, and can presumably motivate people to respond favorably to an advertiser and its message, speaks powerfully to the enormous impact of music on our psyches and lives.

At a time when what we do is under attack on many fronts, Video Games Live and its amazing music is a wonderful ambassador for our industry.