RIP ~ Real Music

[imin]

Hey Guys,
      You have probably noticed that the local is currently using only two pieces of canned, branded music from some catalog.  Not good.

     There's a guy named Jeremy Jones at the Weather Channel in Atlanta who has been put in charge of content.  I sent him an email and left a VM regarding the music situation.

     I'd welcome your support.  I'd like to be assigned as their in-house music coordinator (which includes music discovery, acquiring overall licensing deals for labels, artists, publishers and artist representation) or at the very least compose new music for them.   The goal is  to develop and curate their Weather Channel -sound and brand- for all productions (regular programming: pilots, series, specials and promotions, etc. , the whole enchilada).

     My degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, the variety of music that I've scored for several films including 'Assassination Tango',  combined with all of the music that I've written for them in the past ~ should be enough of a background to easily qualify to write ANY style of music that they need, not just 'Smooth Jazz'!

     I want to encourage them not to take the easy way out and just use a third party music service but, instead have a steady flow of original music written specifically for their audience.

     Anybody with me?

~JR

[cc17926]

Good Afternoon Miss Ricks,
I would be happy to petition what you are requesting, especially since you are experienced in this area. Working with TWC of today may be an up-hill battle that may not yield much. They appear to have an attitude with their current line up that delivers content to a 'general audience'. They believe what they are doing is working, however running long-form programming during prime time and rushing a 1 minute local forecast is pushing the audience away.

I believe you may make more of an impact if you connected with these folks who are doing a start up planned for Oct 2014 - http://www.networkweathercompany.com/

Best of luck!
Brian

[weatherfan_2013]

Hey Guys,
      You have probably noticed that the local is currently using only two pieces of canned, branded music from some catalog.  Not good.

     There's a guy named Jeremy Jones at the Weather Channel in Atlanta who has been put in charge of content.  I sent him an email and left a VM regarding the music situation.

     I'd welcome your support.  I'd like to be assigned as their in-house music coordinator (which includes music discovery, acquiring overall licensing deals for labels, artists, publishers and artist representation) or at the very least compose new music for them.   The goal is  to develop and curate their Weather Channel -sound and brand- for all productions (regular programming: pilots, series, specials and promotions, etc. , the whole enchilada).

     My degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, the variety of music that I've scored for several films including 'Assassination Tango',  combined with all of the music that I've written for them in the past ~ should be enough of a background to easily qualify to write ANY style of music that they need, not just 'Smooth Jazz'!

     I want to encourage them not to take the easy way out and just use a third party music service but, instead have a steady flow of original music written specifically for their audience.

     Anybody with me?

~JR

I would love to have your music back on the forecast. As for cc17926, your right TWC has been having that attidude toward their programming. But it would be a good idea to give it a try imin! Let's see what happens. If TWC doesn't take the offer well as cc17926 said you can always try network weather. They said there talking with jazz artists on their facebook page! Well it was in the comments on one of there posts.

[twcclassics]

I want to encourage them not to take the easy way out and just use a third party music service but, instead have a steady flow of original music written specifically for their audience.

I think that's a great idea! I believe someone posted here awhile back that TWC will be swapping out the two production tracks soon. Though that was awhile back, so who knows what "soon" really means.

[Localonthe8s]

Hey Guys,
      You have probably noticed that the local is currently using only two pieces of canned, branded music from some catalog.  Not good.

     There's a guy named Jeremy Jones at the Weather Channel in Atlanta who has been put in charge of content.  I sent him an email and left a VM regarding the music situation.

     I'd welcome your support.  I'd like to be assigned as their in-house music coordinator (which includes music discovery, acquiring overall licensing deals for labels, artists, publishers and artist representation) or at the very least compose new music for them.   The goal is  to develop and curate their Weather Channel -sound and brand- for all productions (regular programming: pilots, series, specials and promotions, etc. , the whole enchilada).

     My degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, the variety of music that I've scored for several films including 'Assassination Tango',  combined with all of the music that I've written for them in the past ~ should be enough of a background to easily qualify to write ANY style of music that they need, not just 'Smooth Jazz'!

     I want to encourage them not to take the easy way out and just use a third party music service but, instead have a steady flow of original music written specifically for their audience.

     Anybody with me?

~JR

I would love to have your music back on the forecast. As for cc17926, your right TWC has been having that attidude toward their programming. But it would be a good idea to give it a try imin! Let's see what happens. If TWC doesn't take the offer well as cc17926 said you can always try network weather. They said there talking with jazz artists on their facebook page! Well it was in the comments on one of there posts.

I was the one who inquired about smooth jazz on their FB page, they said they were talking to a 'fantastic jazz composer' but it seems Network Weather Channel is really looking for a music composer, which I believe Ms. Ricks would be an excellent candidate for provided many of the NWC staff used to previously work for TWC.

Miss Ricks, I would be more than happy to support you. Please let us know what else we can do next. TWC said the two obnoxous production pieces would be gone soon, though by 'soon' they probably mean early half of 2014 or something..

[imin]

Real Big Thank YOU for the thoughtful and encouraging responses.  I just emailed the only contact (Randy Davies) that I could determine from the Network Weather Company site.  Will post should I get a productive response.  Thank you also for any outreach attempts you make to Jeremy Jones at The Weather Channel.

~JR

[Matt "Trance" Fury]

I got a similar note from Brian pointing me to Jeremy. I was afraid we were heading in this direction due to the costs of royalties, etc. It's cheaper and easier to pay someone to be an on-board writer. While I don't agree with it, I can see where they are coming from. We'll see. I'm going to stay on top of it in case things change.

-TF |/_ peace

Hey Guys,
      You have probably noticed that the local is currently using only two pieces of canned, branded music from some catalog.  Not good.

     There's a guy named Jeremy Jones at the Weather Channel in Atlanta who has been put in charge of content.  I sent him an email and left a VM regarding the music situation.

     I'd welcome your support.  I'd like to be assigned as their in-house music coordinator (which includes music discovery, acquiring overall licensing deals for labels, artists, publishers and artist representation) or at the very least compose new music for them.   The goal is  to develop and curate their Weather Channel -sound and brand- for all productions (regular programming: pilots, series, specials and promotions, etc. , the whole enchilada).

     My degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music, the variety of music that I've scored for several films including 'Assassination Tango',  combined with all of the music that I've written for them in the past ~ should be enough of a background to easily qualify to write ANY style of music that they need, not just 'Smooth Jazz'!

     I want to encourage them not to take the easy way out and just use a third party music service but, instead have a steady flow of original music written specifically for their audience.

     Anybody with me?

~JR

[twcfan68]

I wish more people who worked with TWC would read what we're saying. I mean, we're the community who cares a lot about TWC in the first place. Why cater to the general public's "desires" if they don't care one way or the other? They should listen more to us, in my opinion.

I'm in full support of your petition also, JR. I miss your music on TWC very much, and I wish they played more songs from Trance Fury on a regular basis too. I feel now is the time to push for change since TWC's changes are still new and fresh. TWC was successful for years with jazz. No reason why it can't still be successful with it, especially after straying away from it for a few years.

[Metarvo]

This sounds like a winning proposition to me.  There wouldn't be any royalty issues with music that could be composed specifically for TWC.

[imin]

Thank you again guys. 

You're right Metarvo there would be no royalty issues with music composed specifically for The Weather Channel and it would allow them to 'brand' their own sound.  People used to tell me that even though they had satellite radio, they'd leave their TV on the Weather Channel instead simply because they enjoyed the music.  But when they re-branded to playing pretty random selections - they lost that following too - there's nothing unique or special about their current music.  Now their production value is more like a very expensive power point presentation.

Hey, I haven't been able to find another person besides Randy Davies at the till awaited Network Weather Channel that everyone recommended that I approach - he doesn't respond to voice or email messages.  http://www.networkweathercompany.com/e-mail-us/

In the spirit of Christmas I've attached one of my favorite Holiday Weather Channel pieces,  inspired by an infamous Cee Lo Green song completely contradictory in nature.  Because of its length - they never used the ending which is my favorite part of the piece!

Happy Holidays!
~JR

[twcclassics]

People used to tell me that even though they had satellite radio, they'd leave their TV on the Weather Channel instead simply because they enjoyed the music.  But when they re-branded to playing pretty random selections - they lost that following too - there's nothing unique or special about their current music.  Now their production value is more like a very expensive power point presentation.

This was definitely the case for me in the 90s. We had a few radio stations and shows in town that played jazz and newage, but they never lasted. So TWC was (at the time) my primary source for that kind of music. That all changed in the early 2000s when they started moving towards rock instrumentals, more traditional jazz, and newage piano.

While the slow eroding of weather coverage, dumbing down of forecasts and analysis, and hiring of "pretty" weather presenters were my primary reasons for watching less and less (until it become nothing), the change in music selections definitely didn't help.

Sites like Youtube and services like Pandora have helped fill the void, but I still miss those days!

[gt1racerlHDl]

In the spirit of Christmas I've attached one of my favorite Holiday Weather Channel pieces,  inspired by an infamous Cee Lo Green song completely contradictory in nature.  Because of its length - they never used the ending which is my favorite part of the piece!

Happy Holidays!
~JR

Happy Holidays to you also JR, love the track! 

[texasstooge]

Good luck! That would be a great proposition.

'Til then, I can always mute the LOT8s segments and play my favorite jazz music.

[imin]

So, I've got a bit of an update.  Had a half hour conversation with the Gatekeeper at Network Weather Channel.  His name is Randy Davies and he's been working with them in the PR/Marketing end of things, but for now he's the only point of contact.  The founders actually own a few Newspapers ~ this is their only venture into electronic media.  He's been with them for over 15 years.

Your voices have definitely been heard.  He said point blank that based on what they've heard from fans of The Weather Channel; they plan to use a Smooth Jazz format.  He mentioned artists like Pat Metheny, Alan Holdsworth, Earl Klugh.

He's going to send me some clips of music in a particular direction, for me to work with in composing some experimental samples for them to consider.  They need a Music Coordinator/Sound Architect ~ and I'm campaigning hard that the musician for the job is me.

We'll see where this path leads.  Still need to get past the gatekeeper to the throne room ;o)
~JR

[TampaMillTWC88]

So, I've got a bit of an update.  Had a half hour conversation with the Gatekeeper at Network Weather Channel.  His name is Randy Davies and he's been working with them in the PR/Marketing end of things, but for now he's the only point of contact.  The founders actually own a few Newspapers ~ this is their only venture into electronic media.  He's been with them for over 15 years.

Your voices have definitely been heard.  He said point blank that based on what they've heard from fans of The Weather Channel; they plan to use a Smooth Jazz format.  He mentioned artists like Pat Metheny, Alan Holdsworth, Earl Klugh.

He's going to send me some clips of music in a particular direction, for me to work with in composing some experimental samples for them to consider.  They need a Music Coordinator/Sound Architect ~ and I'm campaigning hard that the musician for the job is me.

We'll see where this path leads.  Still need to get past the gatekeeper to the throne room ;o)
~JR

Yippee!!!  That would be awesome for TWC to return to smooth jazz! I wish you good success in your efforts, Jeanne. Hope you get that job!