Michael Eames
President and Co-Founder
Company: PEN Music Group
Website: penmusic.com
Los Angeles-based PEN Music Group, Inc. has operated as a full-service independent music publishing company since 1994. Michael Eames co-founded this alternative to multinational publishers with a focus on one-on-one attention that maximizes A-list music contacts in film, TV and advertising.
What is PEN Music’s overall strategy?
On the creative side we’re focused on sync: film, TV and commercials. We represent indie bands and artists where our only relationship is sync and we don’t own anything. But with a lot of those bands we start off with that type of relationship and we’re successful for them, they have money attached and we collect it. So the initial licensing and sync representation deal leads to an overall administration deal with them. And we hope all of our efforts in sync will bring exposure to the band, heighten their profiles and help attract label and management interest.
Who are some of your key writers?
We represent songwriter Donny Markowitz who co-wrote “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” from the film Dirty Dancing. On average, we have five to 10 requests per week to license it for usages. There is a company called Grand Cru that manages writers and producers, and some of them have publishing arrangements with the manager. We picked up Sam Marsh and Daniel Seeff who have a 17% interest in the Aloe Blacc song “The Man.” Sam also has a song on the Kendrick Lamar record. These are active guys who work in the DJ Khalil camp.
On the indie artist side, two examples of things we’re proud of: Larry Malinconico, who does film and television at PEN, discovered a band from Northern California called The Gospel Whiskey Runners, our version of The Lumineers––folk-rock with pop leanings. Within the first three months of him taking them on he got a mid five-figure sync use for one of their songs in a promo for season two of Orange is the New Black.
We represent a totally quirky singer/songwriter, Holly Conlan, from the Hotel Café scene: Kevin Edelman who supervises Jane the Virgin on the CW had a situation where they needed to replace a song in the pivotal season finale moment and Holly tailored a preexisting song to fit.
How has PEN Music adjusted to the new business climate?
I am born and bred independent. In this new music business, self-help is a myth––independents need to band together. I am always looking for opportunities where the whole might be greater than the parts. We’ve just teamed up with the placement company, Secret Road, replacing BMG in administration. This is an example of two indie companies banding together to help each other do what we’re best at.
What future challenges do songwriters and publishers face?
As we are careening into a world that is all streaming, we need to stand together in figuring out what the streaming rate can and should be increased to. For writers and publishers it’s too low. Record labels are in some cases making 10 times the amount of money off a stream than the writers and publishers are, which is completely unfair. Mechanical income is consistently dropping and the digital income never made up for the decrease. Now everyone wants the subscription or cloud model where it’s access all of the time. That’s great, but let’s monetize it in a way that’s fair to everyone.
