Sweden-based film music record label MovieScore Media was founded by well-known film music journalist Mikael Carlsson in November, 2005 out of pure passion for the film music area. Carlsson, mostly known for his writer / reviewer duties at Music From The Movies since (1994-2005) and film music journalism for Film Music Radio (currently) has been an area professional since 1990 while working on various newspapers including Metro.
MovieScore Media has enriched the genre with a fabulous array of soundtrack releases since its establishment, by being devoted to make high quality film music available and through the particular goal of finding and releasing interesting and original film scores by lesser-known composers where the quality of the music, rather than commercial properties of the film itself, is the only priority. As a result, numerous quality scores have seen the light of day through MSM, beautiful film music that would have otherwise and quite possibly remained unreleased (for a full list of MovieScore Media’s catalogue, visit the label’s releases’ list at: http://moviescoremedia.com/catalogue.html
Following the high demand by the film music buying public and the label’s supporters, MovieScore Media’s founder Mikael Carlsson has decided to take the label to the next level by printing and releasing their future releases under the regular audio COMPACT DISC (CD) format as well as simultaneously retaining the already-known quality online electronic format which escorted the company since its creation.
We recently had the chance to chat with him about this exciting development; join us through the new Mikael Carlsson mini-interview to find out more.
Mikael, you’ve been around with MovieScore Media for almost 1 year now, offering a wide variety of quality and truly worthy film scores that would otherwise result in some drawer collecting dust and of course not available to the film music fans. In addition, you brought forward and to the film music lovers’ attention some very talented young composers. How would you describe your first year with the label?
It has been a fantastic year and I’m sincerely moved by the response I’ve been getting – both from fans and composers. I read an interview with Scott Glasgow earlier today and he was really enthusiastic and said very nice things about MovieScore Media. It’s really a passion for me: to search for, discover and promote the work of very talented composers! And that is going to be the core of the label’s business in the future as well.
What reasons finally pushed you into printing regular cds of your commercial releases instead of relying solely on electronic formats, as you did during your very first year.What reasons prevented you from doing this right from the very beginning?
Simply money. I didn’t have the financial muscles to take risks, and I really felt that online distrbiution was a terrific way to do what I wanted to do. Now, a lot of soundtrack collectors still express an interest in our albums but refuse to buy them because they’re not released on CD. With the success I’ve had during the first year, I feel I’m ready to reach out to these collectors and give them what they are asking for. However, distributing music online is still something I believe in and all of our forthcoming releases will be available both online and on CD. Due to the nature of most of the scores we release – small films, fairly unknown composers – the numbers of CDs we press will, of course, be very limited. The first release is coming out in mid April and features a very original score by Christopher Slaski for the arthouse movie ”The Pianotuner of Earthquakes”, which also includes four stunng tracks composed by the late British composer Trevor Duncan. It’s a truly unusual and very special soundtrack. In addition to this I should mention that we will also look into releasing scores that are a few years older but was overlooked by the soundtrack industry for various, usually commercial, reasons. This wil be our ”Discovery Collection” and our first volume will feature an absolutely adoring score by Dario Marianelli called "I Capture the Castle", written for a film that came out in 2003. Anyone who likes his Pride and Prejudice score will love this one!
What are the significant differences between the two procedures and what are their advantages / disadvantages?
Oh. It’s much more work doing CDs! There is more paperwork involved, the artwork is different, the whole process takes longer time. I can get a recording out on the internet within a week, but producing and manufacturing a real CD takes a month.
How do you see the music business in general and particularly the film music area five years from now, as far as official cd releases are concerned, quantity and quality-wise? Do you see electronic formats – or any other formats - taking over or has your experienced showed you that the buying public isn’t ready for such a big change yet?
Downloads is, no doubt, the future of music distribution. In fact, it’s the future of any media distribution. But I have acknowledged the fact that a lot of collectors, the film music connaisseurs who really appreciate the kind of music I release, do want CDs. So yes, in a way and to a certain degree, it is a bit too early to only distribute stuff online. That said, I personally feel that distributing music online is a wonderful way to make any music available and it’s still my priority! Our 320kbit mp3 webshop will hopefully expand in the future to include scores and albums produced and released by other labels than my own as well!
Thanks a lot for your time Mikael, wishing you all the best for the near future!
More info about MovieScore Media:
http://www.moviescoremedia.com
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