Listen to this articleTransition is the exclusive music provider for more than 26 television series and 9 channels & networks, resulting in more than 1M global broadcasts annually. Below is our recent interview with Donna Ross-Jones, the Founder and CEO at Transition Music Corporation:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to Transition Music?
A: Transition is the exclusive music provider for more than 26 television series and 9 channels & networks, resulting in more than 1M global broadcasts annually. Our team includes award-winning entertainment industry innovators & supported by GRAMMY® and EMMY® Award-winning artists and we are ranked as one of the top 100 Music Publishers in the United States.
Transition is a service provider and an owner of music rights. TMC owns both a production music library and music publishing catalogs, representing more than 30,000 combined vocal and instrumental tracks from all genres. TMC’s digital online production music library has more than 300 genres and sub-genres, which are available for global licensing via our website. Our music is infused in all forms of visual media including; Film, TV, digital content, games and commercials.
Most important of all is that we are dedicated to helping creatives make a living doing what they love! Whether we are helping artists and musicians make money through licensing or supporting media producers with exciting music solutions, we are dedicated to making a difference in the media space!
Recommended: Q: How does it work? Can you walk us through your process?
A: For composers, songwriters and artists our process is simple because we are one of the only publishers in the industry today who accept unsolicited music. We will consider any style or genre of music, provided the submission is master, broadcast quality. Music creatives can visit https://transitionmusic.com/#submit.
On the operational side; All visual media; films, video, television shows, commercials, games and records use music. The right to use all music has to be granted by both the Music Publisher and Master Owner.
Music publishers and master owners control the rights of all the music in the world. The master owner is often the record label, or whoever paid for or acquired the recording. The publisher is the company or person who manages the song and acquired the rights from the songwriter or composer who created the music. I’m often asked the difference between these two rights, and the easiest explanation is, we have all heard more than one version of the same song by different artists. The song is always the same and is controlled by the publisher. The recordings are different and they are controlled by the master owner(s). No one put a song in the media without permission from the publisher and the master owner.
Our team has deep expertise in managing all aspects of the music process, resulting in a one stop space where our clients can enjoy music supervision, access to top recording artists and leverage a skilled team to execute a variety of administrative activities all in one place.
The short version of the process is; A client calls us for music, they describe the type of music they are looking for which could be anything from scoring a film to a small clip of music for their TV show. When they are looking for a composer, we make recommendations based on their budget and the type of score they want. When they are looking for songs, we either identify one from our library or music catalogs, create a new song, or get the rights for them to use a song we don’t control. This process is a combination of music supervision and music licensing.
Because we control both master recordings and the music publishing rights, we are able to easily promote and license our music to be used in all media including; film, TV, digital content, games and commercials.
Another ongoing part of the process is that we are constantly acquiring new music, hiring songwriters to create new songs, and composers score original music for our clients.
Q: You’ve been delivering consistent results for media companies for over 20 years. Who are your clients?
A: Our clients are major studios including; Paramount, Warner Bros, NBC Universal and large independents including Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios.
We license music to all content creators. Our core focus is building partnerships with mid to large sized independents who have a steady need for music and creative services. For example, we are the exclusive music provider for Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios who are the largest producers of syndicated TV in the US, the owners of ES Motion Pictures, Freestyle Digital, the Weather Channel, 14 Television Stations and 9 Networks. We also operate a complete music department providing music supervision, licensing and clearance.
Q: What is the key to your success?
A: It would be so simple if there was one key, there are so many key factors! The fact is that entertainment is a high-risk business where less than 10% succeed. That being said, instead of following along with the popular direction everyone else was going…where the competition was most intense, Transition always focused on filling the less “sexy” niche’s where we could distinguish ourselves and offer tangible value to our clients. For example, every publisher in the world competes to get their songs in the Hollywood blockbusters. These huge budget movies are the big “sexy” where there is a potential of great success, but the odd’s of getting these slots are very small and rare for independent publishers. Our strategy has been to focus on who is looking for us, where can we bring value. For the most part that has been smaller but growing production companies. Using this strategy we have gotten more placements which, in the end, generate a great financial result delivered in smaller installments instead of one big hit. It’s always been about dedicating the time to understand where we fit in, and where there is a need…not just following the crowd.
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Q: How did you get to where you are today?
A: Top of the list would be by understanding who I am and operating in a way that is true to me, which creates confidence. Followed by determination, commitment, a willingness to learn equally from my successes and failures, valuing people, luck and opportunity. This is not an easy business to succeed in. What I tell people who are looking to get into this business is, make sure you really want it and are willing to make the sacrifices necessary to position yourself or success. This can mean anything from taking internships, to starting pay lower than you want or used to make because for most of us it’s about starting at the bottom and working your way up. I did, and most of the successful people I know and read about have done the same thing.
Q: What are the company’s plans and goals for the future?
A: More of the same but bigger and better! We are forming more win-win partnerships where we are managing the entire music process for growing media companies. In this role we guide content creators through the best music strategies which includes the use of our music which guarantees our music will continue to generate revenue.
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