We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ron Wasserman a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ron thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

A.I. it’s probably one of the major things that will change part of the music business in the near future. Mostly in the creation of songs, not scoring, doing the background music to picture, for a movie, TV etc.

Additionally, there are so many people with bedroom studios now. This is created a tremendous amount of competition on people entering the business. I think it would be more difficult for a young person to get into my business now then it was 20 years ago.

Ron, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After being in several bands in the 1980s that really didn’t go anywhere, I ended up at a company engineering for a composer one evening in 1989. That production company created children’s television and direct to home video projects.

I was fascinated with the thought of writing theme songs and doing the background music for television. So, as I worked at an engineer full-time for that company, I continually submitted compositions to the producers and they helped direct me on how to properly score a project as opposed to the traditional songwriting format.

My first big break came in 1992 with the theme for X-Men. Then in 1993 with the theme and score for Power Rangers. After that I’ve had a constant flow of work come to my door. I’ve scored nearly 3300 episodes of television, written for EDM producers, have done a few video games and films, and around 300 commercials.

Can you share one of your favorite marketing or sales stories?

In the 1990s I also had a band called “Fisher”. We played all the LA clubs and could not get a record deal to save our lives. So, I started my own record company and signed us. As silly as the sound it it got the attention of the bigger record labels and one day Atlantic records called and said they wanted to license one of our songs for a film called “Great Expectations”. After that, I felt for sure we would get a record deal, but still, that dream alluded us.

When mp3 music files had just been invented and we’re floating all over the Internet. I decided to take some of our material and upload it to a site called mp3.com. After two weeks we shot up to the top of their pop charts and stayed there for over a year. The major news organizations, CNN, NBC, etc. started coming to us to do stories as did time magazine. Shortly after that, the offers started to come and left and right and I was in the driver seat to negotiate the best terms. Although ultimately, we didn’t become a huge band, we did have a few years of a great adventure. And all those songs from back then continuing through to 2015 still get licensed constantly. But luckily, I own all the rights.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

The music business is very small. This includes the record side and the television side. It’s incredibly important to keep your word, always be nice, always be punctual, and realize that none of your work is precious so if you are asked to make changes there’s no reason to take that as a personal insult as some people tend to do.

Also being consistently, innovative, and delivering more than what was asked has worked out very well for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ronw.com

Image Credits

Ron Wasserman