Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Eames.
Hi Michael, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I moved out to LA from the East Coast in September 1989 to pursue being a film/TV composer and songwriter as that had always been my love. I had graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelors Degree in Music plus an unofficial minor in Business Management. So upon my arrival in LA (also the first time I had lived on my own outside of being in college), I ran out of money quickly and needed to work to pay the bills. I started temping through various agencies but it had to be entertainment- or music-related – plus at the same time I was pursuing the Film/TV Scoring Certificate from UCLA Extension.
My first official job in the music business (I answered an ad in the classified ads of The Hollywood Reporter) was in 1990 with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys as he had an office and recording studio in West LA. That job was my first exposure to music publishing. They handled the publishing for Brian’s solo works out of the office and then while I was working there (which was only 7 months) he got a semi-annual royalty check from Rondor Music (now Universal Music Publishing Group) for all The Beach Boys songs’ royalties and it was a healthy six figure check and I was amazed how much money it was for songs that at that time were 20-25 years old plus it was only for a six month period. And I was like, what is this? Music Publishing?
I quit that job when I couldn’t take Eugene Landy any more who was Brian’s psychologist/manager/etc. but quickly found another job (via The Hollywood Reporter classified ads again) where I was the assistant to Derek Power and Seth Kaplan who separately managed film/TV composers and Derek music supervised independent films. Derek had a publishing deal with Virgin Music at the time (same Virgin brand as Richard Branson) so it was another exposure to what music publishing was. Then their office manager gave notice and I didn’t want to take her place so I also gave my notice. And conveniently, I got a call from a woman I’d met while temping at City National Bank (before the Brian Wilson job) and she said she knew a music publisher who worked out of his house and needed help and he looked after the Jimi Hendrix catalogue. So I met with him (Don Williams of Don Williams Music Group) and worked for him for the next 3 years (1991-1994). It was a great experience as I got to wear all the hats a publisher has to wear but at the end of the 3 years when I saw how much money he was making from Jimi Hendrix (and everything else) and I was being paid $22 an hour, I took Don out to lunch to try to negotiate a higher salary for myself and I did not succeed. So I gave my notice because at that point I had developed friendships with some fellow music publishing colleagues and we decided we wanted to start a company together so PEN Music Group, Inc. (“PEN”) was born.
For the last 31 years, PEN has been a full-service independent publisher whose reputation has been developed on efficient administration worldwide and a heavy focus on synchronization licensing (the placement of songs in film/TV projects, ads, trailer and promos, etc.). I have had to build it brick-by-brick without investment money behind me but I don’t regret the journey. Along the way, I became the Vice President and then the President of the Association Of Independent Music Publishers (www.aimp.org) and became heavily involved in advocacy for songwriters and independent music publishers around the world which I continue to do to this day.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It has definitely not been a smooth road. First, we had no money. I had to learn to solve problems by bootstrapping and not throwing money at them. I’ve had to wear every hat a business owner has to wear but I embrace that – I’ve learned how to be my own IT department, my own accounting department, how to code software, how to delegate, how to automate – and the list goes on. And the music business has been impacted generally not only by the advance of technology but by the economic downturns that affected everyone (i.e. 2008 recession, COVID pandemic, entertainment industry strikes that impact production, etc.). The music business is now dominated by streaming services which pay songwriters and music publishers a pittance per stream – the economics have changed drastically from when I started in 1994. But one learns how to adapt.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about PEN Music Group, Inc.?
PEN Music Group, Inc. is a leading full service music publisher – we represent songs and songwriters/composers/artists. There are 2 aspects of what any music publisher does: 1) the Administrative and 2) the Creative. On the Administrative side, we: a) register songs/compositions at various organizations and societies around the world who pay all types of royalties based on those registrations; b) negotiate and issue licenses when someone wants to use a piece of music that we represent; and c) we collate, process and distribute worldwide royalties and license fees collected on a calendar quarterly basis. On the Creative side, we pitch music for use in film/TV projects, commercials, trailers and promos. We also try to pitch our songs to be recorded by other artists but this has become harder and harder to do as artists tend to gather “their people” around them to do all the writing and producing and if you’re not “one of their people”, it’s hard to get in that door. We also set up our clients on co-writing sessions where they collaborate with other songwriters, producers and artists to create new songs for artists to potentially record/release and for us to pitch those same songs for possible Film/TV/commercial use. And both of these aspects are internationally focused – not just U.S. only.
We try to be a boutique, family-vibe of company where any time any client has a question they can get answers quickly and get a hold of whomever at the company they need to answer their questions. We typically don’t provide advances to work with people as we haven’t had that discretionary cash, but we are soon to enter a new chapter where we will start to be able to compete more in that arena. But in the meantime, we continue to spread our message of the positive experience that can be had with an independent music publisher as opposed to the larger multi-national publishing companies (the “majors”) like Sony, Universal, Warner, BMG and Kobalt.
Everyone on the team is a musician and/or songwriter/artist and we all love music and being involved with talented people. We never tire of placing someone’s song in a project (however large or small) and hearing that song on screen knowing that it wouldn’t have happened without our involvement.
We represent both known songs and lesser known songs ranging from “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” and “Hungry Eyes” from DIRTY DANCING, the NBA on NBC theme written by John Tesh, the classic song catalogues of both Johnny Mercer and Harry Warren, the videogame music owned by Bethesda Softworks/Zenimax Media (franchises like THE ELDER SCROLLS, FALLOUT, DOOM and many others), the classic R&B songs from Brandy’s debut record co-written and produced by Keith Crouch, and countless other songs and artists.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
I started going down this career path to be a songwriter and composer and in 1985 I wrote what became the theme song to the Atlantic Public School system and I also scored a few short films, one of which was done by Doug Pray who has gone on to become a well respected director and producer.
Pricing:
- Contact info@penmusic.com for details
Contact Info:
- Website: www.penmusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/penmusicgroup/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PENMusicGroup/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pen-music-group-inc-
- Twitter: https://x.com/penmusicgroup
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thePENYCsessions
