Organized Sound

Someone once told me that music was organized sound. I think that is what we’ve built here.

At MPO we are connected to nearly a half million musicians and individuals that work in the music industry. I have been told by many that this system of organized sound may be the most needed music service in decades. The hours you spend writing, re-writing, adding, updating, and deleting elements of your music … all of that … that’s your legacy. I’ll bet most of it is in boxes (your manuscripts), tapes and on a variety of storage devices … virtually inaccessible except by you … and even then?

For the past several months I delved into the world of a wonderful composer, arranger and orchestrator. An artist, like many of you, that spent a lifetime in music; Jimmie Haskell. I am amazed at what I found and I am wondering if you may find yourself in the same situation.

I don’t know how many of you know of Jimmie Haskell. I call him the Composer to the Greatest Generation. His work earned him several GRAMMY’s and EMMY’s. No doubt, you would recognize his music. In pure happenstance, I moved next door to David Haskell. Dave is the son of Jimmie Haskell.

Jimmie Haskell passed in 2016 and left behind an enormous collection of music. While talking with Dave, I realized that a lifetime of written and/or recorded music may never see the light of day. And, my friends, these are not just memorable elements of our culture and our history, but they are also teachable elements that have intrinsic value to everyone with a desire to learn music from music. He was the musical voice of a generation.

A Life’s Work

Dave had 190+ boxes of manuscripts, photographs, tapes and over 50,000 media tracks – all original compositions, arrangements and orchestrations. Some of it as far back as the 1940’s. The reason we don’t hear more if it is because it is in an old school format; paper, tape and virtually unavailable. Sound familiar?

Dave gave me access to everything and carte blanche to review, vet, verify and produce a virtual knowledge management collection of his father's music. Personally, I have never seen anyone convert a music library into knowledge system with access to the assets (music tracks, contracts, copyrights, etc.) … and I have been in knowledge management since the early 90’s.

That First Little Gem 

During my discovery, I found a review of Jimmie’s work from 1958 where the critic had found a sweet little snippet; a guitar riff. I found it in the collection (after some work) and he was right. It sounded great. I’m not a critic, but I know what I like. It was from the mind of an artist and placed into a music selection that became part of a song. I could hear the riff throughout the song. It was like a gem of creation.

The riff was fun. It perked the ears of a critic in 1958 and to me in 2018. I thought it could possibly find a home in our current culture, but probably never would. Dave (and the world really) knew that Jimmie Haskell had something to share.  Hearing that first little gem convinced me.

The Library

Getting everything organized into a single library opened a world of opportunities. There were quite literally over 86,000 records gathered from our discovery. Many cross-references and (see if this sounds familiar) versions of work. We located over 5,000 unique music titles in his library - many unpublished. We isolated them individually and categorize them for future use; like which ones we want to get from the boxes and convert, link up with media users, future projects, etc. We found “Unlabeled”, unidentified music. Day, even week-long sessions with tracks laid down, hand-written manuscripts; more gems. We can identify the work. Define musical elements of the work. Now, we can hear the work; instantaneously. The library becomes a resource.

I know thousands of you out there. Besides our connection here with LinkedIn, MPO is connected with many composers, teachers, performers … you. Like Jimmie Haskell, a great majority of your work, your art, is virtually hidden from the world. Most publishers won’t give you the time of day. The idea of getting your music in the public air is less likely than a high-schooler making the pros in Basketball. You must get it organized and it has to be available. And you have to get it there.

It’s a Process

We have created a process that converts a heretofore paper and inconsistent method of identifying artistic assets in the music community into digital formats. (Sounds like an Elevator Statement) Our results include and a provenance of the work, a virtual library (data and media) and all made available for consumption by a worldwide audience; parsed out as you want and to whomever you want.

Once the conversion is complete, you own a digital version of the sheet music for any type of publication and online sales. More importantly, a digital copy of every media element used to produce the music (all of the individual tracks) can be made available to media companies for their productions. A riff, some percussion, that little ditty you wrote can find its way into a long-term paid asset.

For many years to come, Jimmie Haskell music, the artists that worked with Jimmie Haskell and companies that use his music still require access to these assets. If you do it as we did for Dave, you process (convert) your music, vet it and protect it. All of your assets are converted into an accessible media library, a knowledge management system, which protects your work while making it available. 

This process helps you build relationships with music tracking associations, media companies, music use and royalties associations. While you work on your craft - from this day forward – put them into your library. Placing your work into a knowledge management system builds your legacy.   Make your music – Organized Sound.

Music Professional Organization

If you find yourself in this same situation, write me: [email protected]