PPB October 2016

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| OCTOBER 2016 | 13
INNOVATE
(aptly named LoudRock Studio
after the kids), and it’s amiracle he
has any time to createmusic.
“In the summer I don’t,” he says.
“I only have time to work onmusic
in the winter months.” Since he lives
and works in the same community,
he goes home for lunch. “I sit down
for fiveminutes and try to come
up with five ideas. Usually I find
two good pieces. You don’t have
to construct a full song—you just
need a strong part and a not-so-
strong part—and it only needs to
be a couple of minutes long. You’re
trying to set amood and a tone, not
be a focal point. If it’s too busy, it
doesn’t work with dialogue,” he says.
One time he set a goal to create
and finish a song in one hour. “And
that thing has been played on TV!”
he says. Hearing his songs on TV is
a thrill, although he rarely catches
them, in part because he has little
time to watch TV. Usually he’ll find
out a song of his has been used only
when he gets his royalty statement.
But once he caught his song in
action on aWeather Channel
show called Lifeguard . “They used
my song as themusic that plays
when you go to commercial. I
remembered the show being onmy
royalty statement and when I saw
there were new episodes coming
up, I recorded them.That was the
first time I heardmy song on TV,”
Nokes says.
While writingmusic for TV
isn’t necessarily going to support
a family, movie trailers are a lot
more lucrative. He’s been trying
for a few years to break into that
market. “Unfortunately, it’s highly
competitive andmovie trailer
songs are done on spec [with no
guarantee of being chosen or paid].
On the flip side, if your music gets
chosen, the potential payment
is substantial.”The good news is
that the feedback he’s gotten on
his movie trailer songs has been
positive and helpful. Once summer
is over, he’ll go back down in the
basement, review those critiques
and get to work.
Check out Nokes’ music on his
website at www.carchasemusic.
comor at
jnokes.
When MTV
came out in the
early ’80s, it
made a lasting
impression. I
thought guitar
was really cool.
So I taught
myself how to
play guitar and
played in bands.
But I always
liked the writing
music portion
of that the best,
rather than
the performing.”
Left, Nokes records
guitar tracks in his
basement studio,
next to the sump
pump and AC unit.
Jason Nokes (left) and David
Shultz, DistributorCentral VP and
member of the triathlon band Iron
Band, show off the guitars given
to them as gifts by supplier Brand
O’ Guitar Company (UPIC: guitar)
at The PPAI Expo 2015.
BehindThe Scenes of TVMusic
Composers: The creators of
the music.
Publishers: The organizations
(such as ScoreKeepers Music)
that collect, tag by theme,
market and store composers’
music. “There’s a contract
between the publishers and
the composers. The publishers
have a certain number of
songs of mine and we’ve
already negotiated our rates
and payment. And then the
publishers negotiate between
themselves and the TV shows.
So any time the TV show finds
a song, they don’t have to
negotiate with all those people.
If you look at reality shows,
there is music going on all the
time. They could go through
100 songs in an episode,”
Nokes explains.
Music Supervisors: The people
in charge of music for a TV
show. Nokes says, “They’ll
have in mind what type of
music they want to use in these
different scenes. They’ll have a
relationship with the publisher
and typically they’ll have full
access to all the songs the
publishers have in their library.”
Performing Rights
Organizations: Music
supervisors turn in a cue
sheet, which lists all the songs
they used, how much of the
song they used and how
often, to a performing rights
organization. The two biggest
ones are Broadcast Music,
Inc. (BMI) and the American
Society of Composers, Authors
and Publishers (ASCAP). The
performing rights organizations
divvy out the money to the
publishers and the artists. Says
Nokes, “I’ll get music on TV
but I won’t know about it until
months later. It just shows up
on my royalty statement.”
Royalty Statement: The
document that details what
shows in countries all around
the globe have paid to use a
composer’s songs. Amounts
can range from as little as one
cent to hundreds or thousands
of dollars.
Julie Richie is associate
editor for PPB.