While an increasing number of compilation soundtracks are generating big bucks, a score album is generally considered a success if it sells 50,000 copies. Most sell far fewer than that. Enter Sony Classical's "Titanic," which has sailed to 8 million units sold in a record 19 weeks. While in past years such score albums as "Braveheart" and "Chariots of Fire" have caught the music industry's ear, the "Titanic" phenomenon is causing labels to take a second look at film scores and their potential to generate big sales.
"Every couple of years, there is usually a romantic epic with a wonderfully emotional score that sells between 1 million and 1.5 million albums in America and a similar amount overseas," says Glen Brunman, executive VP of Sony Music Soundtrax. "One of the reasons we so confidently acquired 'Titanic' is we had the feeling that 'Titanic' would be the next album in that line of succession." However, Brunman is quick to note his company's long-standing interest in score music. "We've always done score albums," he says. "We didn't need 'Titanic' to pique our interest in score albums."
But "Titanic" might just pique the interest of some labels that had not considered score albums to be a particularly viable aspect of their repertoire, according to Michael Solomon, a VP at newly established soundtrack-marketing and composers' agency Soundtrack Music Management in Los Angeles. "If any single event would change their thinking, 'Titanic' would be it," he says.
Sony Classical (U.S.) president Peter Gelb agrees that the album could have a domino effect. "One advantage of the success of ‘Titanic,' at least in the short term, is that a lot of directors and producers and movie studios are so impressed with it as a score album they are trying to think of ways of emulating that success themselves," says Gelb. However, he is quick to caution that copycat schemes rarely pay off. "It's also been proven in the past that there are no formulas for success, and when you just try to copy things that have been successful, it rarely works."
Gelb says Sony Classical has become increasingly involved with film-score music because it provides an ideal opportunity to introduce classical music to a broader audience. "Because I run a classical record label, I think of composers of symphonic film music as composers of classical music. And I think of films as a vehicle for exposing new classical music to a broad audience, as well as an end to itself in terms of the individual project," he says. "A lot of classical music today is written without an audience in mind. My interest is in working with composers who are interested in writing for an audience, who are delighted with the opportunity of having a film or television show."
As such, the label has been working with a growing number of composers who are not generally known for contributions to film. For example, the label has high expectations for the upcoming "The Red Violin," which is being scored by John Corigliano, who scored Ken Russell's "Altered States" back in the '70s but is not widely known as a film composer. "It is an opportunity for his very serious but highly accessible and emotional music to be heard by a large audience," Gelb says.
An Aging Audience
Among other factors in the rising interest in score music is the aging of the baby boomers, according to Soundtrack Music's Solomon. "The same people who were into rock 'n' roll in the '60s and '70s are gravitating to soundtracks and are open to interesting styles of music," he says.
Solomon also thinks "Titanic" is going to increase the instance of labels mingling a single with score music. "People are going to look to have vocal songs on score albums, not only from the marketing and creative point of view, but there are a lot of composers out there who would like to write songs, and who come from a songwriting background," he says. "Instead of just writing a score for the end title, why don't we take the theme for the end motif and collaborate with an artist and make something we can get on the radio?"
Toby Pienick, COO of Milan Records, which releases primarily score albums, says he would prefer to work score albums with "at least one or a couple of songs on them." He cites the label's "Ghost," which has sold 3 million units, and "Bed of Roses" scores as examples of albums where a pop song has helped generate more exposure.
Nevertheless, some label executives are wary that "Titanic" could lead to unrealistic expectations on the part of a record label or film company. "This is a lemming business, and 'Titanic' might make some new deals less do-able," says Charlie D'Atri, marketing director at Hollywood Records. "It will elevate some people's idea about what their score project can do, and, realistically, unless the people in the business of picking up these projects are careful, somebody is going to get burned."Some Composers Still Leery
Yet, despite the general enthusiasm on the part of the labels, some longtime Hollywood composers paint a less rosy picture of the score-album sensation. "Mysterious" is how composer Carter Burwell describes the process of whether or not the score music from a film makes it onto a commercial album. "It is very difficult to predict whether a score is going to get onto an album," says Burwell, who has scored all of Joel and Ethan Coen's films, most recently "The Big Lebowski". "There are so many factors involved that have little to do with the music. It is one of the darker mysteries of the industry."
Burwell does acknowledge, however, that the business is opening up. "The fact that there are more record labels [releasing score soundtracks] does make it easier," he says. "It partly has to do with demographics. There's an older record-buying public and baby boomers that might want to hear instrumental music, but not the same music their parents listen to."
Composer Elliot Goldenthal, whose recent scores include "Butcher Boy" and "Sphere," says little has changed in terms of getting score music out to the public. Goldenthal cites his instrumental score for "Batman and Robin," which never made it onto an album, as a case of a label – in that instance, Warner Bros. – not letting the score rise to its potential. "There was not even a score album for that movie. All they were willing to put out was a song collection," he says. "The only time [the major labels] seem to use scores is when there's a pop star involved, when they think they can go ahead and sell a lot of records."
"Ultimately, the movie company is in the driver's seat of what music goes into a film," says Sony Classical's Gelb. "We are only interested in albums that are completely score or mostly score. One reason serious composers might be particularly interested in being on a classical record label as opposed to pop labels is that they don't have to worry about losing in favor of a popconcept album."