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Extreme Music/Bleeding Fingers
IndustryMusic production
Founded1997
FoundersRussell Emanuel, Dolph Taylor (Extreme Music)
Hans Zimmer, Steve Kofsky (Bleeding Fingers)
HeadquartersLondon, England
Creative operations, Santa Monica, CA, USA
Area served
Worldwide
ParentSony/ATV Music Publishing
Websiteextrememusic.com

Extreme Music/Bleeding Fingers is a production music company. The production arm of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, the company creates and licenses music for use in television, film, advertising, and online media. Their library includes music from artists and composers such as Quincy Jones, Hans Zimmer, George Martin, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit, and Junkie XL. Extreme Music is headquartered in London, with its creative operations based in Santa Monica, California.[1][2][3]

Extreme Music was founded in London in 1997 by Russell Emanuel and Dolph Taylor. In 2013 Extreme Music partnered with composer Hans Zimmer and his business partner Steve Kofsky to found the joint-venture Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop. Bleeding Fingers focuses on creating show-specific libraries and scores for unscripted, reality, documentary and light drama television shows.[4][5]

History

Extreme Music

Extreme Music was founded in London by Russell Emanuel and Dolph Taylor in 1997. Emanuel had played bass with a punk band, Class Ties, and worked a day job as a studio assistant at MCA Music Publishing and Abbey Road Studios. After leaving MCA, Emanuel worked at Bruton, a production music library which produced sound-alike music that was recorded, produced, and licensed inexpensively. He recorded one sound-alike album for Bruton, and financed his band’s touring through the royalties the album generated.[2][6]

Emanuel also managed bands, including Stiff Little Fingers. After beginning a job at a third production library, MatchMusic, Emanuel and Stiff Little Fingers drummer Dolph Taylor began to compose music for MatchMusic together. They built a MIDI suite, and when not on tour, they recorded original tracks that reflected their own musical sensibilities. "We were forever knocking our heads against old-school attitudes and being told that 'This is what the marketplace likes.' But we were seeing a new generation of editors coming into the industry and going to clubs and hearing all these thumping records, and they wanted to know why production music didn't sound like that," Taylor said in a 2003 interview. Taylor and Emanuel decided to approach commercial artists, some of whom they already knew, and ask them to record production music tracks.[6]

With a $100,000 investment from angel investor Mark Levinson, Extreme Music was founded in 1997. The company was positioned to reflect the punk rock ethos of its founders; for example, they mailed condoms to 1000 music industry executives with packaging that read "Extreme Music: The Only Safe Thing You'll Ever Get From Us." With a focus on production, they "upped the industry ante by using professional recording studios and top-notch musicians." By keeping the library's emphasis on quality over quantity, they streamlined the process of selecting music for advertising agencies and music supervisors.[2][6]

By 2005, Extreme Music had built one of the most profitable production music libraries in the UK. In August 2005 it was bought by Viacom for $45.1 million, and in 2008 it was acquired by Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The terms of the sale were not disclosed.[2][7][8][9]

In January 2013, Extreme introduced Customix, the first web application created specifically for music supervisors to quickly customize songs from its library. It offered complete control to users, allowing the manipulation of individual stems of a track, including the ability to adjust the volume of or mute individual elements, modify tempo without changing pitch, and edit the length of a song without first cutting it into segments. The Customix software was developed in conjunction with Menlo Park technology company UJAM.[1][10][11]

Extreme Music tracks have been licensed by editors, music producers and music supervisors at production companies, networks and advertising agencies, including A+E, Fox, BBC, HBO, the NFL and Apple. Among other productions, music from the Extreme library has been used in Mad Men, Ray Donovan, Dancing with the Stars, Birdman, Creed and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.[2][12][13]

Bleeding Fingers

In August 2013, Extreme partnered with composer Hans Zimmer and his business partner, Steve Kofsky, to found Bleeding Fingers, a joint venture. Originally focused on creating original music for use in light television drama, documentaries, animated features and reality television, it later expanded to include film scores. Prior to announcing the company, Bleeding Fingers experimented with the concept. Their early work was successful, with the score for the History Channel's Mountain Men winning ASCAP and BMI Awards. Emanuel serves as Bleeding Fingers' CEO and Kofsky its chairman.[1][14]

The company works with both established and new composers, and has created original music for productions including the BBC’s Planet Earth 2, Alaskan Bush People,[15]American Grit, and Survivor. Its 21 studios are located at Zimmer's Santa Monica campus, known as the "Stanford of Score." In an interview on NPR, Zimmer said: "For me, it's always been interesting to find new voices and develop new talent."[3][5][16]

References

  1. ^ a b c Gray, Tyler (August 9, 2013). "Can Hans Zimmer Make Reality TV Music Suck Less?". Fast Company. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d e Aswad, Jem (November 19, 2012). "Russell Emmanuel: Taking It To Extremes". Billboard. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  3. ^ a b Matthews, Christopher M. (July 28, 2015). "When Things Get Real on TV, Music Pays Real Well". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  4. ^ Galo, Phil (August 12, 2013). "Sony/ATV's Extreme Music and Hans Zimmer Form Joint Venture: The Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop". Billboarrd. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  5. ^ a b NPR Staff (May 4, 2014). "Hear Hans Zimmer's Bid For The Next Great Screen Composer". NPR. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  6. ^ a b c Inglis, Sam (June 1, 2003). "Russell Emanuel & Dolph Taylor Of Extreme Music". Sound on Sound. Retrieved 18 July 2016. {{cite news}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help)
  7. ^ Butler, Susan (April 28, 2007). "Famous Price Could Hit Half a Billion". Billboard. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  8. ^ Mair, Bob (June 14, 2011). "Music Libraries: From Last Resort to Power Players". Film Music Magazine. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  9. ^ BMN staff (May 22, 2002). "Technology & facilities - EXTREME MUSIC VENTURE". Broadcast Music Now (subscription required). Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  10. ^ Berkman, Fran (January 23, 2013). "New Web App Customizes Music for TV and Movies". Mashable. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  11. ^ Jarvey, Natalie (January 23, 2013). "Extreme Music Launches Music Editing Tool". LA Business Journal. Retrieved 5 July 2016.
  12. ^ Morris, Christopher (April 21, 2011). "Timbaland and Mike "Daddy" Evans make Extreme pact". Variety. Retrieved 18 July 2016.
  13. ^ "Extreme Music". imdb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  14. ^ Frazer, Bryant (December 12, 2013). "Hans Zimmer Goes in with Extreme Music on Bleeding Fingers New Service Offers Custom Production for Time- and Budget-Strapped TV Programming". Studio Daily. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  15. ^ Grieving, Tim (24 August 2016). "Bleeding Fingers Stretches Its Grasp With 'Planet Earth II'". Variety. Retrieved 21 September 2016.
  16. ^ "Bleeding Fingers Custom Music Shop". imdb.com. IMDb. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
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