For Andreas Dahn, a friend and recently graduated movie director (congratulations!), I produced the music for the trailer of his upcoming diploma graduation film “Der Sandmann”. The trailer has been shown first on the Berlinale film festival and is starring Bela B, a German rockstar from the popular Band “Die Ärzte”.

01 MODULES5 sirens call by MarkusS

02 MODULES5 ghost frequency by MarkusS

Anno_2070_industrial_landscape by MarkusS

Anno_2070_ world _beneath_the_surface by MarkusS

My main concern as a composer in France today is not piracy or the Internet, but the market situation with respect to the SACEM. I have been working in various markets over the years, producing music for over 50 games soundtracks, for industry films and for web sites. As I am very passionate about film making and movies in general, I wish to work in this market. The problem is that to be paid moneys earned by the diffusion of my work in theaters, on television, on radio and as DVDs , I have to become a member of the SACEM. It is a private society which collects royalties paid for the diffusion of the music of its members (i.e. a PRO – Performance Rights Society). The SACEM in a situation of monopole, which means that there is no other way to access my earnings than by becoming a member. Hence, why not become a member then? Because the membership agreement is so restrictive and exclusive that all markets I have been working in until today would be fenced off to me (especially the video game market). Worse, agreements I have concluded with clients over the years might be attacked by the SACEM, since the SACEM membership is retroactive. In other words: Should I join the SACEM, my agreement with them would dictate the way I have to do business with my clients. Thus, to me (and any other working composer), the market is split into two halves: The “exclusive market” (offering payment a single fee, also called work for hire or buy out in American) and the “royalty based market” (offering less upfront payment but a supplementary revenue for each public diffusion of the work).

To be competitive in today’s international market, where it becomes harder and harder to make a living, you have to be flexible and able to adapt to very different products and situations. Thus, my question is: Will we, European composers, be offered an agreement by the SACEM (or any alternative structure) which would allow us to strive for our passion in a legally adapted and secure way?

But is this a real problem or a personal concern of mine? What is the situation on the “down to earth” market today? Having spoken to many professional composers in Europe, I can assure the reader that this is a problem for all of us (except those who can afford to work in one market only , but they may very well run into same the problem later on in their career), forcing creators into an illegal situation, where many of us are hiding their names, in order to be able to get what is rightfully ours. Game composers working in the TV industry using accounts of people who are not the author of the music (creating a complicated and insecure “black” market for royalties), SACEM members hiding their names when working on game titles or industry films (putting into danger their clients and missing out important professional references). One of the world’s hugest game publishers and developers, the French Ubisoft, categorically refuses to work with any European composer, only on account of the risk, that such composer may someday sign a retroactive agreement with a society like the SACEM and the SACEM attack them legally (which has happened before, for example to the game publisher Cryo). Hence, publishers like Ubisoft will work exclusively with American composers, who offer a legally satisfying contract to game publishers, while the composer is still make a good living out of his art. The SACEM membership is not protecting us, but making an already very difficult situation worse for content and culture creators. Here is what we are asking for, plain and simple:

We want an agreement with the SACEM (or any other European PROs) allowing us to offer any kind of license to any kind of client. Meaning that if we composers chose to exclude the mechanical rights for our client in a specific agreement – allowing the client to physically reproduce our music without additional fee (as it is standard in the game industry) – we want to be able to offer just this. A point very often made by the Forum was that this is our music, our “intellectual property”, so why can’t we decide such a basic aspect of a prosperous business?

When we discuss how we can protect intellectual property today and how we can allow our highly talented European artists to make a living and to continue to offer wonderful films, music and games for all of us, can’t we also raise the following question : How can we adapt legally to a market which has changed in so many ways in the numeric era?

This is my unheard question to the forum of Avignon. Thank you for reading – please get in touch if you have any additional information about the subject or just want to share your experience or opinion with me.

Markus Schmidt.

Kyotonn Games Studio and Atlus USA present the first trailer of The Cursed Crusade,
a beautiful (and bloody) journey in the steps of the Medieval crusaders, with just the right shot of otherworldly elements to it – my music was produced specifically for this trailer..

To create a basis for weird alien sound FX in the new title from Crytek – Crisis II I played my violin in ways my teacher would have never allowed. Dive into a seaside like athmosphere, with whales singing and seagulls calling – just one violin take, a bit of reverb and a tad of delay :

Watch the trailer of Trailer of Faery : Legends of Avalon from the very talented young game developer Spiders Games, released by Focus Home Interactive. The musical score is light and “floating”, inspired by classical composers such as Tchaikovsky – listen to it while discovering an enchanted miniature world full of legends and tales.