Digital Home Thoughts: An Interview with the President of American Music Company

After writing a review of American Music Company's product offering, I asked Mitchel Greenspan, president of the company, if he would participate in an interview about himself and the company.

DMT: What is your background?
Mitchel: I started in the music industry in September of 1983 as VP of Sales for one of the largest and most established organizations in the music library industry. I was 23 at the time. Our New York office, Corelli Jacobs Recording/DeWolfe Music, Inc. was the exclusive representative for a London based publisher, DeWolfe Music Ltd. In just a couple of years, I had been promoted to Executive Vice President of Corelli Jacobs/DeWolfe Music, Inc. in the United States. I stayed with this firm until February 14, 2003. Almost 20 years. Then American Music Company, Inc. was formed.

DMT:What is the philosophy of American Music?
Mitchel: After serving this industry for over 20 years, I wanted to respond to what I felt the creative community needed most, a truly responsive music library service. I have heard all of the complaints regarding poor service and about the inflexibility of company policies when a small courtesy would have been all that was needed to fix a significant problem. American Music Company will always be immediately responsive to your needs. You can trust that with American Music Company you will always be treated well and that every one of our clients, large or small are all important to us. We will always be your port in the storm and your friend in the professional community. The simple niceties of life will be the rock on which we build our foundation. Of course our music is great too! Flexibility is the key and we will always do whatever it takes to bring you the best value and to put a smile on your face. Your success is our success! We just want to do what's right. I really mean that!

DMT: What motivated the creation of American Music?
Mitchel: The desire to be in control of my own destiny and to be able to follow my own dream. I really believe that I can bring that extra special something to the industry and to be able to provide a true level of honesty that will make clients feel special too.

DMT: How do you believe American Music's offering differs from other music libraries?
Mitchel: We provide the human element and we are the most fun company to deal with. There is nothing we will not do in order to make sure our clients are happy. We also offer original and custom music services, copyright research and arranging for permission to clear popular music. We are much more than a music library service as compared with other music libraries.

DMT: What is the process for starting a new album? Does a composer come to you with the album or do you ask for a theme?
Mitchel: Knowing the market and the clients the way that I do, I will formulate the ideas and the concepts for what I want to have in our music catalog. Once I know exactly what I want to produce, then I will go to the composer that I feel is best suited for the project that I have in mind, and we go from there.

DMT: What is the split of your customer base between the two music licensing plans?
Mitchel: About one third of our customer base is Annual Music Subscribers and the rest are A La Carte Music Users.

DMT: Your pricing focuses almost entirely on broadcast productions. Do you intend to offer lower pricing for, say, very limited copy runs such as a family or hobbyist video?
Mitchel: Actually that couldn't be further from the truth. If you look at both of our rate sheets, you will see that we offer pricing for non-broadcast productions as well as broadcast productions and many other areas of music licensing. I believe what you might be focusing on is do we offer our services only to the professional community or do we also offer our services to the individual or to the hobbyist. The answer to that is we are a business to business. We do not provide our services to "hobbyists" directly except on occasion and we are very happy to be of assistance. But mostly we offer our services to those in the professional community who in turn then offer their services to individuals and to the hobbyist. So in essence we provide music services to them indirectly, but through a professional resource.

DMT: Are the tracks recorded using orchestras and instruments, or synthesizers?
Mitchel: Predominately we use all real instruments, especially with solo, small group and even big band. With orchestras, however, we use real instruments blended with very high end samples. Synthesizers might only be used as a single instrument in combination with other instruments. There are no "cheesy" synthesizer arrangements in our catalog at all.

DMT: Thank you, Mitchel.