Gaudie

If you watch MTV’s “Real World” or “Road Rules,” chances are you’ve heard Ryan Gaudie’s music.

The Fort Collins musician has his music licensed through television producers Bunim/Murray, and songs such as “Voodoo Love Song” and “Augur” have been featured on their shows, including “My Sweet 16” and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.”

“I’m not necessarily a big fan of all of the shows, but it’s still really exciting to have your music playing on TV,” Gaudie said.

The paycheck isn’t bad, either. Each quarter, Gaudie receives a check for anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, or ASCAP, a performing rights organization that licenses and collects royalties for musicians. Recently, his band, The Echo Chamber, also licensed its music to the production company.

It’s a move that more local bands are making, partly because it’s an easy way to make money in an increasingly difficult industry, and partly because Fort Collins bands are becoming a hot commodity.

“A lot of the bands in the Fort Collins scene now are running themselves more like a business. They are LLCs and they have operating agreements and it’s just becoming more of a professional-looking scene,” said Nick Duarte of Fort Collins band Post Paradise, which is currently in talks to license its songs via a publishing company.

Duarte credited musician support groups such as SpokesBUZZ with helping artists learn more about how to broker smarter deals. The Fort Collins music organization, along with the Fort Collins Musicians Association, has hosted educational sessions for artists looking to tap into those increasingly hard-to-find revenue streams.

“Knowledge is power, and we’re trying to do all we can, given our experiences as business owners, to make sure musicians have access to knowledge,” said SpokesBUZZ’s Julie Sutter. “On the other end, as a business person, you’re looking to work with professionals, so the more that we can create educated and knowledgeable musicians, the easier it is for these (publishing) groups to find (local) music and musicians.”

This spring, one of Fort Collins’ best known bands, Fierce Bad Rabbit, signed an exclusive three-year licensing agreement with Round Hill Music, a boutique publishing company based out of New York with offices in Nashville and Los Angeles.

“For us, it was a no-brainer,” said the band’s frontman Chris Anderson.

The band already had some success with a commercial spot last year for New Belgium Brewing Co. The commercial only ran a handful of times, but, in addition to getting money for allowing use of their song “Everything is Alright” in the ad, the band saw an uptick in its popularity, particularly on social media.

“It was gradual, but we saw an increase in conversations,” Anderson said. “People were excited about the commercial and the song.”

As for a downside, Anderson doesn’t really see one at this point. The band still can say no if an opportunity comes up for a product that the band doesn’t support. There is the potential for a backlash a la 1990s band The Rembrandts, which was branded a one-hit wonder after its song became the theme song for the TV series “Friends.” But the hope is that things will go the route of Denver’s The Lumineers, which exploded after its song “Ho Hey” was used for the trailer for the hit film “Silver Linings Playbook.”

It’s a solid business move for a band, and one more groups should be exploring, noted the group’s former manager, Gregg Adams, who handled the deal with RHM.

“In this day and age, if you can find a reputable publishing company to work with you, your chances of getting a synchronization deal are great,” Adams said. “If bands really feel they are ready to step up to that next level, then they need to find themselves a suitor.”

RHM founder Josh Gruss said the reason the company looked to ink a deal with Fierce Bad Rabbit was simple: “We like their songs.”

Now, they’re hoping others will like their songs as well. RHM is pitching the band to many of the new pilot shows hoping to find a place in the new fall television season, said Mallory Zumbach, who markets bands for RHM. Fierce Bad Rabbit’s indie-sound also seems a good fit for indie films, she added.
“And a lot of times, having a song in a film or TV show is the launching point for a band’s career,” Gruss said.

That’s what happened with Fort Collins metal band Immortal Dominion when a lucky break got it featured heavily on an indie-film soundtrack for the 2007 horror film “Teeth.”

“At first, we thought it was just a B movie and then it got into Sundance and won a juror’s prize and just took off,” said the band’s frontman Brian Villers.

“In a way, it legitimized us as a band,” Villers said. “We’d been playing for a long time, but then it became real.”

Being on the soundtrack led to interviews with publications from around the world and introduced the band to producer Sterling Winfield, who also works with metal acts like Pantera. Now in the middle of a Kickstarter campaign for its next album, the band hopes that lightning will strike twice, bringing more film, television and video game opportunities, along with fans.

“It was like our music went on tour for us and we didn’t even have to leave the house,” Villers said. - Coloradoan