Music makes the picture work. Without music, you cannot create powerful drama, comedy, suspense, pathos, or any other emotion in film, TV and ads. The song or music cue tells the audience subliminally or overtly — feel THIS emotion, and feel it NOW. The truth is music is at least 50% of the impact of any scene. If you’ve ever seen a scene stripped of music, it usually feels flat. So the truth is, anyone trying to tell a visual story needs your music.
And so we must not undervalue our music and the impact it makes. Our music needs to get paid as well as any actor, director, producer or camera man for that matter. We will continue to battle to have music paid what it’s worth — or at least make this point loud and clear to film, TV producers, studios and networks.