Heather Henderson, Author at Level 77 Music

Discover the Mesmerizing “Systems” Album Featuring Invoke

The world of music is constantly evolving, but some compositions manage to break through the noise with their unique beauty and emotional depth. One such album is Systems, a stunning collection featuring the string quartet Invoke, known for their performances at Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, and NPR’s Tiny Desk.

The Essence of Systems

Systems is not just an album; it’s a musical voyage that captures the intricate and mesmerizing patterns found in nature and the universe. From the rhythmic ocean currents on coral reefs to the vibrant pulse of urban environments and the celestial rotations of the cosmos, this album is designed to accompany breathtaking visuals and epic storytelling.

Invoke’s live orchestral performances seamlessly blend with ambient synthesizers, pianos, and driving percussion. This combination expands simple musical patterns into dynamic crescendos, creating an immersive and emotional experience for the listener. Whether you’re looking for music for documentaries, music for film and TV, or licensed music for advertising

Meet Invoke

Invoke is a genre-defying, multi-instrumental string quartet known for blending classical, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and other styles into a unique contemporary repertoire. They have held prestigious residencies, won numerous competitions, and performed at renowned venues like Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Invoke is also dedicated to educational outreach, conducting workshops and masterclasses nationwide. Their innovative approach and artistic excellence continue to break boundaries and resonate with diverse audiences. To read more about Invoke visit their site here

The Composer Behind the Magic

The genius behind Systems is composer Will Van De Crommert. Known for his ability to craft emotionally charged and evocative music, his use of ambient synthesizers and pianos, driving percussion, and live orchestral elements results in an intricate and expansive soundscape.

Will’s music has been featured in numerous film, TV, and commercial productions worldwide, from Saturday Night Live to the Soho and Sedona International Film Festivals. His compositions have appeared in programming for NBC’s Peacock, Netflix, Hulu, CBS, and BET. Will is known for his versatile blend of classical and popular influences, making him a go-to composer for directors, producers, and creative agencies. His film scores have been featured in movies distributed by Saban (a Lionsgate partner), FilmRise, and Gravitas Ventures. End of the Rope, his latest feature, premiered in California at LA’s historic Chinese Theater.

Perfect for Visual Storytelling

Systems offers many opportunities to enhance visual storytelling for music supervisors, documentarians, film and TV creators, and content creators in advertising. Whether you’re capturing the awe-inspiring beauty of nature or the hustle and bustle of city life, this album provides the perfect soundtrack to elevate your narrative.

For more information on how to license music from Systems, contact us today and bring your storytelling to life with unmatched musical quality.

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Level 77 Music Places Eight Songs In the 2024 Rose Parade

Level 77 Music is excited to announce that eight of our tracks were chosen to be placed in the 2024 Rose Parade, a long-standing tradition that brings together thousands of viewers and showcases some of the most incredible floats and performances in the world. A large part of the broader Tournament of Roses, we are thrilled to be a part of such an esteemed event.

The tracks selected are diverse in sound and genre, ranging from upbeat and lively to more mellow and contemplative compositions. Each track showcases the talent of our award-winning composers, producers, engineers, and songwriters.

For those unfamiliar with our work, Level 77 Music is a boutique, independent production music company focusing on innovation and creativity. We bring a fresh new sound to the world of music licensing and exploring musical concepts that challenge traditional boundaries and ideas of what production music can be. Our team of seasoned professionals has decades of experience, and our music has been featured everywhere from the big screen to the smartphone.

To listen to the tracks showcased in the Rose Parade, please click the link here. Whether you want to pump up the energy or unwind after a long day, we have a track for every mood.

We are incredibly proud to have been chosen to participate in the 2024 Rose Parade and look forward to sharing our music with the world!

Navigating Music Streaming Money: How Artists Get Paid

Digital streaming platforms (DSPs) have transformed not only the way people listen to music, but the way artists earn income from their listeners. While platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Tidal provide a low-cost entry point to distribute and monetize music with global reach, making money on these services can be complicated. As a result, many artists are missing out on their fair share of streaming revenue. Here is how artists get paid from music streaming platforms:

Direct streaming – DSPs operate primarily on a per-stream payout model whereby artists/labels receive a small sum for each stream of one of their tracks. The payout per stream varies per platform but usually ranges between $0.003 and $0.008. In general, the more streams an artist generates, the higher their payout. However, many factors influence streaming revenue, such as region, play time, and user behavior. Artists need many streams to generate a reasonable income.

Mechanical royalties – These are royalties paid to songwriters for the use of their compositions by streaming services. DSPs typically pay mechanical royalties to Performing Rights Organizations (PROs) that collect and distribute them to songwriters. PROs like ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, monitor millions of streams to ensure songwriters receive their fair share. It is essential for artists to be registered with a PRO to collect mechanical royalties.

Licensing agreements – Some artists undertake the daunting task of negotiating direct licensing agreements with streaming platforms to bypass major labels and distribution services like TuneCore. These agreements usually require significant negotiation and legal background, but have the potential to offer more control and lower commission fees.

A final note: clean and well-organized metadata is essential for digital music distribution. Metadata is the information embedded in a digital music file or an online platform that identifies it based on unique information like release date, artist name, album title, cover art, composer, copyright, and distribution information. DSPs have music distribution guidelines that need to be followed, and they usually require accurate metadata to verify the artist’s identity and audio playback correct information.

Level 77 Music Sponsors The Choose Georgia Event at The Sundance Film Festival

The Choose Georgia event showcases why filmmakers should choose Georgia as their filming location. It featured presentations that discussed why Georgia is an ideal place for filming projects with its diverse locations, production infrastructure, talent pool, and competitive incentives programs.

As a proud Georgia-based company, Level 77 Music was honored to sponsor this year’s Choose Georgia event at Sundance Film Festival. Our CEO, Patrick Avard, and Senior Film Composer Mark Kueffner were both in attendance and had the opportunity to network with other industry professionals from all over the globe. Patrick Avard said, “It was an exciting experience attending Choose Georgia at Sundance Film Festival 2023! We were able to meet some incredibly talented people who are passionate about bringing their visions to life onscreen and equally passionate about growing the film industry in Georgia.”

The success of events like Choose Georgia demonstrates how vibrant and forward-thinking Georgia’’s film industry is becoming. With access to competitive tax incentives, diverse landscapes across the state for filming locations, and a growing talent pool behind the scenes, it’s no wonder many filmmakers have chosen Georgia. We look forward to seeing more films come out of this great state!

Introducing Vivid Pop- A New Label Added to the Level 77 Music Library

There are a lot of things happening in the company that we can’t wait to share with you, but here is some great news that we can deliver right now! We are proud to announce that we have signed an agreement with Vivid Pop, a young label focused on music for ads, TV, film and other media. As the exclusive sub-publisher worldwide for the up-and-coming label, we couldn’t be more thrilled to be representing industry stalwarts Dan Luedke and Stephen Helvig, who founded the company.

Minneapolis-based Vivid Pop has 13 albums to their credit. Each of their releases has been thoughtfully composed and meticulously produced, running the gamut of contemporary sounds through dance, pop, and rock. They make top-notch dramatic and tension-filled film scoring and underscore work as well. Helvig is a producer, engineer and writer with a dozen years of serving local artists in the always-diverse Twin Cities music scene, while Luedke’s work as a guitarist and writer has seen his music featured around the globe, and on the likes of CBS’s Thursday Night Football and The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

We asked them what they were most looking forward to about being involved with the company:

“We are thrilled about the new partnership and feel like Level 77 is a great fit for the Vivid Pop catalog,” says Luedke. “Both our companies are young, but Level 77’s leaders are experienced, well-connected and have a proven track record of success in the industry, so we have the utmost confidence in them and look forward to growing together.”

Vivid Pop’s catalog lends formidable diversity to our catalog, especially for film scores and TV. The synergy between us stands to produce exciting soundscapes for a vast array of projects.

“We are so honored to be working with top-tier composers such as Dan and Stephen,” says Level 77 Music Executive Producer, Jason Rudd. “Their label will elevate our Level 77 product offerings!”

The best part? You can find their tracks RIGHT HERE and right now live at Level 77 Music!

Interview with ProTunes Brendon Mulvihill

Brendon Mulvihill is the Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for proTunes, one of the largest music and licensing platforms in the world. Brendon’s experience in business development and strategy across a variety of media, content, and technology applications is extensive. Focusing on revenue-generation and direct sales, he has pioneered business-to-business e-commerce for global enterprise sales teams. While he has excelled in a myriad of business enterprises, his passion is for start-ups. He enjoys the process of building new companies and relationships, and he was kind enough to sit down with Level 77 to discuss the music industry, advertising, and the importance of developing fresh and unique content.

For the readers who don’t know you, can you tell us a little bit about your background and your position at proTunes?

For the past 12 years, I have been in the business of managing, monetizing, and protecting media intellectual property, particularly when it is used as a raw material in creative work on TV, in film, and in advertising. That’s mostly a fancy way of saying I’ve licensed images, video, and music to television shows, movies, brands, advertising agencies, news programs, etc. The vast majority of that time has been licensing video on behalf of the likes of Sony Pictures, MGM, Paramount, NCAA, US Soccer, Big Ten, GoPro, and everyday people with great videos on their cell phones. proTunes is my first time in the music business, and I currently oversee sales and marketing for the company. Many of the ad agency and brand clients that I have worked with in the past are also customers of proTunes or potential customers of proTunes.

Music has a huge influence in the advertising world, can you tell us some trends you are seeing this year with the songs getting placed?

We are coming out of, and in many ways are still in, a very interesting time in America. Creatively, it feels like ad agencies are getting back to feelgood and happy themes while still being conscious of the overall environment of any given moment. Matching that feeling in the scripts and tone of the creative with upbeat, fun, and inspiring music seems to be driving a lot of the placements that we are seeing. Additionally, sounds that are trending on social media, particularly TikTok, are guiding a lot of the digital-first creative, which has become the vast majority of work being done.

How does proTunes stay at the forefront of advertising music?

We really look to create conversation between our ad agency clients and our library partners. We rely heavily on the discussion between those two parties to drive the frontend of creative development. We see ourselves as connectors in that environment and really learn from both sides. As we create more conversation and drive more learning, I think proTunes can become more instrumental in displaying what type of music is culturally relevant at any given time.

From your point of view, how does music most affect the audiences in advertisements?

Music can play several different roles in advertisements depending on the creative needs and the distribution outlet. 80% of the time music is an important background character. Particularly on social media where sound off is a very real consideration for building creative assets. 20% of the time, music is taking center stage as the main character in the creative. And it’s that 20% that brings out all the feelings. It connects you with memories from your youth, family moments that you’ll never forget, and major life accomplishments that change who you are. We all have that soundtrack to our lives. When it’s time for music to stand front and center in the creative, it can be the most powerful part of the entire project.

How does your team at proTunes handle the demand for content and constantly keep things fresh for its clients?

It’s all about the people who work at proTunes. When I joined proTunes I did two things – I hired absolute experts in licensing, customer service, and account management, and organized our team so roles and responsibilities were clearly defined. If I can be so bold, there isn’t a team in the world that has more knowledge of creative licensing and rights management than we do. And that ranges from name, image, likeness all the way through music royalties. There isn’t a scenario we haven’t seen. So with that expertise comes the ability to manage any situation very efficiently. If you need a certain type of music, we have 150 partners to direct you to. If you need help with creating custom music, we work with hundreds of providers. If you need a major label track cleared, we know who to call. If you run into a problem, creatively, legally, or process-wise, we’ve seen it and we know how to manage it. At the end of the day, you can count on us and I think that’s all that anyone wants when you are doing business.

How does ProTunes help boutique catalogues like Level 77 Music?

Our mantra is “rising tide lifts all ships.” By creating a platform that makes the process of music licensing easier for everyone, we can introduce the world to more music more efficiently. Many of our partners are 3-5-person businesses. Investing in sales and marketing for those businesses is a tough decision. We can be a supportive sales and marketing backbone to those businesses in the world of music. Our team spends hours and hours reaching out to existing and new ad agency and brand clients. Our core competency from a personnel standpoint is getting in front of brands and agencies. And we take our responsibility to introduce boutique music to those clients very seriously. As we continue to build, I’m very confident we can all grow together.

What do you currently have going on at ProTunes that you’re really excited about?

The pipeline for tech development is always most exciting to me. That means pushing our similarity search to the next level, introducing AI into our music search and discovery, and enhancing and refining our segmentation search. It’s a lot of behind the scenes, under the hood type work that takes time but could be game changing.

Is there anything else you’d like to add that we didn’t mention?

We are so appreciative of partners like Level 77 Music that work hand-in-hand with us and see the vision. It’s a process, but your support means everything to us and we will pay it back in spades in the future. So thank you!

A huge thank you to Brendon from us on the Level 77 team! His energy and enthusiasm is infectious, and his insight into the complicated dynamics of music, advertising, and technology should be at the forefront of any creator’s thinking.

Level 77 Music Expands Representation in Japan and Israel

Level 77 Music has recently announced partnerships with Japanese music publisher Sakura Notes, and Songs To Your Eyes, one of Israel’s most esteemed music publishing companies. They have already forged agreements with publishers in Europe and Korea, and Japan now joins with Israel in expanding the library further beyond the borders of the U.S.

Sakura Notes

Sakura Notes is an independent music publishing company based out of Tokyo, Japan. With over a decade in the industry, Sakura Notes boasts some of the best domestic musicians in the country. Specializing in music for Japanese broadcast programs, Sakura Notes has spent recent years extending its reach into the world music space.

Level 77 Music’s partnership with Sakura Notes will allow the library to reach an entirely new audience and listenership. By adding their four diverse labels to the already robust library represented by Sakura Notes, more Japanese companies will have access to the epic tracks from the Level 77 library.

Their expertise in connecting with consumers in Japan guarantees that Level 77 Music will be heard in many projects in the coming years throughout this vast market.

Songs To Your Eyes

Songs To Your Eyes is an established music production company in Israel, representing over 750 musicians, disk jockeys, sound designers, and composers. Their web-based portal allows for one-stop licensing and copyrighting. The effortless interface lets customers to see not only their unique production music offerings, but also allows for the custom scoring of tracks.

Their entrepreneurial spirit is demonstrated clearly in their focus on creating high quality production music for filmmakers and digital streaming projects. Hiring local Israeli musicians from independent bands helps them create epic tracks that elevate and proliferate. Their dedication to supporting local talent is truly inimitable.

Their experts have curated an astounding catalogue of tracks designed to add the perfect sound for a commercial, podcast, film score, and more. Their prowess in marketing to and understanding the demographics of Israel guarantees that music from Level 77 will be utilized in their work for years to come.

The addition of these companies as well as the recent contract with Modoocom in Korea has helped extend Level 77’s outreach to the international community. These prestigious sub-publishers will work with Level 77 Music to expand their creative reach and help solidify their standing as an international production music company.

Level 77 Music Partners with South Korean Publishing Company MODOOFIND

Level 77 is committed to helping its clients maximize their outreach into different demographics and international markets. One of the latest business partners helping Level 77 attain its strategic goal is Modoofind.

They are one of South Korea’s first music publishing companies, originating in 1991 as Kirin Music Rights Publishing Co., Ltd. Under that name, Modoofind became South Korea’s first music rights company and has been central to the expansion of Korean music not only throughout Southeast Asia, but into other markets outside the continent. From publishing department team leader, Seyoon Jung:

“Modoofind is very happy and excited to be the sub-publisher of Level 77
Music in Korea. Level 77 puts out the highest quality of production, and we
feel users in Korea will find the diversity of their library a valuable
resource in producing video content in the industries of broadcasting and
advertising.”

Seamless Digital Cataloging

They have now established themselves as one of the top music publishers in South Korea. Their fully interactive website provides clients an intuitive and easy-to navigate catalog via the Plotick Production Music Platform. The digital shopping experience through Modoofind has made it an expedient way for production music customers from all over the globe to access the latest South Korean production music releases.

High Quality Music

As impressive as Modoofind’s digital music library and catalogue interface is, perhaps the most remarkable thing about this new partner is the reliable monitoring, high quality sound, and innovative platforming which has made it the vanguard of Asian music publishing. they partner with over 80 major global music publishing companies, and this extensive reach and collaboration has made it a one-stop-shop for all Korean digital, advertising, streaming, and film projects. The commitment to high-quality production music tracks and the collaborative business relationships has afforded them unprecedented growth in Korean market.

Experts in Korean and International Copyrighting

As the originator of music libraries within the Korean production community, Modoofind has developed a seamless audio curation service for brand development. They have become the premier publisher for broadcasting and advertising as well, capable of meeting clients’ various expectations with their fully developed music eco-system. Their library exports copyrights of domestic Korean artists to over 49 countries, helping to extend Level 77’s reach as one of the most widely broadcast production music companies in the United States.

This exciting partnership expands Level 77’s outreach significantly into Southeast Asia. Their expertise in both the legal and artistic character of South Korea makes them a welcome addition to Level 77’s stable of sub-publishers, and further extends Level 77’s reach throughout the global production music space.

Level 77 Music Featured in Hulu Trailer “The Great: Season 2”

Do you love “The Great,” one of Hulu’s most successful new shows? “The Great” is a comedic reinterpretation of the rise of Catherine the Great from an Austrian Princess to one of the most powerful rulers in the history of Russia. The long-form historical fiction imagines the conversations and interactions between young Catherine, only recently betrothed and moved to Russia, and her husband, Emperor Peter III.

The show does a delightful job of balancing the grim nature of usurpation, as Catherine takes the power from her husband and makes herself the new monarch of Russia, with the curious happenings of the Russian court. The result is both hilarious and occasionally disturbing.

While the acting, costuming, and production are superb, what really makes the trailer work is the use of authentic Russian folk dance as the background music. The music was taken from the Level 77 library, and is an excellent example of how using premium music for video production can transform a project. The Russian dance track is titled “Russian Folk Dance” by composer David Burk, and was produced and distributed through Level 77’s The Vault label, specializing in instrumental music for traditional and specialty genres, some of which are difficult to source.

What is striking about the “Russian Folk Dance” track from “The Great” is its authenticity. Russian folk music was exclusively vocal through the 12th century, and the use of musical accompaniment for folk music was outlawed in Russia until the Bolshevik revolution. The use of a three-stringed fiddle, called a gudok, a double pipe called a rozhok, and a winged auto-harp called a gusli all define the traditional musical elements of Russian folk music, and all three are featured heavily in the trailer for “The Great.” That sort of authenticity is the hallmark of Level 77 Music.

Author Heather Henderson