Goodnight Kiss Music

Goodnight Kiss Music: An Early Platform for Indie Songwriter Information
Goodnight Kiss Music began in the early 1980s as a BMI music publishing company, but quickly realized the need to educate many of the songwriters who approached them for publishing deals. In the years before the commercial/consumer web, they became an early resource for teaching the skills of songwriting combined with a knowledge of the working music industry. They did not sell any product, or ask for donations, but held education as its own reward. They held classes at the SGA in LA, coffee shops and personal homes.
In the next following years, they expanded to Goodnight Kiss Productions, where they produced special collection music packages representing a few icon songwriters like Jay Livingston & Ray Evans, and Jack Segal; and Goodnight Kiss Records, which first concentrated on compilation records, was created. The purpose was to honor those songwriters who had not only had success on a commercial level, but cherished the skill and art of great songwriting. Goodnight Kiss set up an "invited writers" series, whereby up and coming writers could meet with successful writers and get some insight into which area in their writing that improvement was needed.
At that time, the film industry was worried about licensing unreleased material in demo form, so Goodnight Kiss Records created complilation disks, to illustrate a commercial release of songs so directors and music supervisors felt more protected in using the label's work. They opened the ASCAP side of their publishing company, Scene Stealer Music, in the early 2000s. The company never charged a writer or artist to participate, but was one of the first independent labels to pay the standard Harry Fox mechanical royalty to any participant.
When the company went online in 1992, the focus of the website was to provide songwriters with tools that would help them approach the music industry in a rational way. Their articles were placed to educate and encourage musicians and songwriters, and they sponsored various events at the Songwriters Guild in Los Angeles, as well as presentations for other groups such as Los Angeles Women In Music, NSAI, West Coast Songwriters Association and many more. They still promoted great writing skills and worked on connecting great indie composers with great indie lyricists and vice versa, and again, no fees were ever charged to indie writers and artists by the company.
Goodnight Kiss also released a compilation book, "Music Horror Stories," giving independent musicians and writers a place to air their crazed experiences pursuing careers in the industry. Again, writers were able to submit their entries for free, those selected were contracted to earn future royalties, when and if the book did well in the commercial market.
Goodnight Kiss Music has, as of 2009, over 90 songs placed in film, television shows, and ads. The films and shows are as diverse as the music itself, including "Good Luck" (James Earl Jones, Gregory Hines & Vince Donofrio); "Quake" (Steve Railsback); "Dune Warriors" (David Carradine), etc. Goodnight Kiss Productions is the exclusive music provider for Ronzio Corp, providing ad music for all the commercials for their campaigns, including their work on KRCA, Channel 62 in Los Angeles.
In the late 1990s through the 2000s, the Goodnight Kiss record label released two solo artists, and the late 2000s, they added several singles. They also have eight compliation albums, and average about one release per year. Their focus is still on great songwriting and indie artists, and they still maintain an active newsletter and website that dedicates itself to ongoing education for songwriters and indie artists.
Angster (talk) 17:56, 10 July 2009 (UTC) Janet Fisher

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu