2019: A Year Review

Where do I even begin? This year has offered me so much, from new opportunities to memories that I will cherish for many years to come. But let’s start at the beginning - 2019 started with letting go of a bad professional relationship with a publisher that went back on their word and didn’t respect the deal we’ve set. As a result, there is still a lot of music I have with them that is still up in the air regarding licensing rights and artist shares. Lesson learned, so never, ever go into a deal without written agreement or terms agreed in writing beforehand.

The trailer music releases continued as per usual schedule in January with the release of the “Clockers” album, to which I contributed a few tracks, released by Frontier Trailer Music and distributed by 5Alarm.

In early February, I have signed with a new label from Germany, which I’m now writing quite a lot of music for, as they work with the regional customers in Germany a lot, and are a fantastic partner to work with. So happy to be with a publisher where everything is super clear, workflows are established and return on investment is great! Looking very much forward to more work with them in the future.

After a few months of work on various albums for this new publisher and a few smaller projects for other labels, I’ve received confirmation of my music being used in a web series for the first time, via one of my US publishers, Score a Score. Thank you so much for pitching my music! Looking forward to giving them more music in the future.

As the summer came closer, it was almost time to leave for my first ever trip to the US. But before that happened, I was lucky enough to be recommended by one of my composer friends to a very respectable publisher in Los Angeles, Ghostwriter Music. We’ve decided to work on a holiday release together under their label Astral Music Publishing, so that happened after I got back from my summer holidays.
The highlight of 2019 was my friend and I’s trip the US, visiting Los Angeles, but also going out to Las Vegas and Grand Canyon for a week. During this time in LA, I was able to meet many friends, many of which I’ve only known online beforehand, but the highlights of the trips were a visit to the 20th Century Fox studio lot, where I sat next to the orchestra as they recorded orchestral sections of the new The Who album, “WHO”, at the legendary Newman Scoring Stage. It was a real privilege and a once in a lifetime experience to be part of such a legendary band’s project. The very next day I also got to visit the Universal Studios studio lot and meet some great people there as well, and see where the magic happens - what a place! Here’s to all my friend in the US and I’m hoping to be back soon!

After the return, it was time to start working on the holiday orchestral album. With the deadline set in mid October, there was enough time to get it out in a few months, so while I worked intensely on that album, I also had to write a number of tracks for other publishers and some smaller pitches and helping out some friends with their projects. Once the album was finished, I was asked to do a few trailer versions for a few tracks as well, so we delivered those as well, to give Ghostwriter a chance to pitch those as well. It was a bit late to pitch for industry as most projects had already been cut for the season at that time (November), but the album was still released for the industry, as well as for the general public, but with 3 tracks being trailer versions rather than the orchestral ones on the public release. I very much enjoy writing this kind of music and every second of working on this album was a pleasure and an opportunity to push myself a bit further. After this release, called “The Night Before”, was finished, I also did a few orchestral documentary pieces for a winter release for my German publisher. In total, I have written 55 tracks for the industry in 2019, which lines up perfectly with my yearly goal of approximately 1 track a week (as I don’t compose full time), so very happy with the amount and quality of tracks that were done this year. Very high acceptance rate (almost 100%) confirms that the publishers seem to value this music suits the needs of the industry as well. My sole goal of writing remains the same - that every track I write, to be my best work to date.

Right after these were finished, I received an email to join and contribute to another trailer music publisher, Jolt Trailer Music. So I wrote and contributed my track “Hypervortex” to their hybrid orchestral album “Ruination”, which is now available to the industry via BMG Production Music.

It was at this time in late November and early December that I started noticing that there were some terrestrial TV placements that started showing up in my TuneSat account. Needless to say that it was (and still is) a very exciting moment to see that after year and a half of writing for the industry, the placements had started coming in! I take this as a confirmation that my music has value not to just listeners, but also to the clients, and I am happy to be seeing results and am very much looking forward to what the new year brings.

​Thank you for being amazing 2019, and here’s to a very happy new year 2020!