Meet Brooke Ferri of Match Maker Music in Mar Vista

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooke Ferri.

Brooke, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Born to an artist mother and physician father, I have spent a great deal of my life balancing the logical and artistic sides of my personality. I spent her teen years taking piano lessons and writing journals full of song lyrics as well as taking AP classes and preparing for college. I went on to receive my BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and then my JD from Southwestern Law School.

Knowing that I wanted to pursue a career in the music industry, during Law School I interned in the Music Department of Sony Pictures Entertainment, for the General Counsel of Lionsgate and for the General Manager and EVP of Lionsgate Music. After passing the bar I went on to become Creative Manager at Black Toast Music where I pitched music to top Television shows such as “True Blood” and “Treme” as well as many others. While there, I also oversaw the launch of Black Toast Records, signing indie artists whose music went on to appear in countless films, TV series, and commercials.

I left Black Toast Music to start a family but when my son was 6 months old I heard the music calling again and began working on the A&R team at Taxi Music. Working at Taxi introduced me to hundreds of amazing artists and really helped me get immersed in film and television music. I was at music convention when an artist I had sort of “discovered” the year before asked me when I was “going to do my own thing,” meaning, when I was I going to begin representing artists for film, TV and advertising licensing. Not long after that encounter I met an amazing Pop Singer/Songwriter and when I asked her what publisher and label she was with she told me that she didn’t have one because she couldn’t get anyone to listen to her music. I was flabbergasted because she was so great. It was there that I decided I was going to start my own high-end music licensing company promoting the most interesting, relevant and talented indie artists I could find.

Once I decided to create the company, the music just flew in. It took me 4 months to put the catalog and website together and in March, 2016 I launched Match Maker Music. I have continued to grow the catalog and we now have about three times the music we started with in March. I am proud to say that our catalog includes songs from both artists who inspired me to take this journey.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I was worried about whether or not I could get artists to trust me with their music. I said that if I could get the music, then I would be able to make the company work. It turns out that that was the easy part. Luckily because of my background and having worked with so many artists already I was able to amass a good amount of music and be able to be super selective about what I decided to sign. As one of my artists said, “damn she’s picky!” And I am because if it’s not great it’s not going to get licensed and if it doesn’t get licensed why should I bother having it in my catalog. It doesn’t do anyone any good.

I was more worried about signing great music than I was getting clients to listen. I had the contacts and believed that if I had the product, had it expertly organized and had a gorgeous website that was easy to navigate I would have no problems getting clients interested. The fact of the matter is that it has been harder than I expected. We’ve recently had some success getting through those doors but music supervisors are used to working with the people they are used to working with and, well, I’m realizing that it just takes a lot of knocking when you’re the new kid on the block, even when people already know you. Luckily, I have a very strong (but very friendly) fist.

Please tell us about Match Maker Music.
We represent Singers, Artists and Bands for Film, TV, Advertising and Trailer licensing. Basically, we our song agents. We listen to music (lots of music) and if we think something is appropriate for “sync,” meaning we think it is the type of song that could be placed in a scene, advertisement or trailer, we contact the songwriter and make an agreement with them to let us pitch the song. There are a lot of companies that do this, they are called Film and TV Music Publishers, Music Libraries, and Third-Party Music Licensors. There are subtle differences between them but the overall concept is the same.

What makes us different from “Music Libraries” is that we don’t represent everything. Lots of libraries represent everything from retro classic rock songs to the type of instrumental tracks you hear on News shows. As far as our songs go, minus just one exception, we only represent contemporary music. We also focus on particular genres, mainly Singer-Songwriter, Indie Folk, Indie Blues-Rock and Pop genres as we find those to be the most marketable right now. We also focus mostly on songs rather than instrumentals and we keep our instrumental catalog focused more on Advertising and, recently, Trailer music.

Since I have been involved in almost all aspects of Film and TV music including writing, producing and recording music I really know what type of song is going to help make a scene great. I know that a song might be awesome on the radio but that doesn’t mean its necessarily going great for licensing. I also know that music supervisors are rarely given very much time to find music. Because of that, I make sure we deliver songs as quickly as possible, usually within the hour. Often faster than that. We know there are a lot of other companies out there and we want to be the easiest to work with. We also want to have the best music (which we do).

What I believe makes our company special is that every single song is carefully picked for licensing and everything is really well organized so that it’s easy for a client to find just what they are looking for. I also believe that visuals are important and as such, I have, I believe, designed our website in a very visually appealing way.

Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
One key childhood memory is listening to “the rabbit” song on my mom’s tape player in her 1978 VW station wagon. Even in the 80’s, my mom was still all about classic rock and I loved “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane and would make her rewind it again and again and again. Don’t worry though, in a couple of years she had a CD player and was listening to Nirvana. You’re welcome, Mom.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.matchmakermusic.com
• Email: info@matchmakermusic.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/matchmakermusic/

Image Credit:
Dylan Strickland

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