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Sony BMG Eyes Book Soundtracks
September 02, 2008
By Kamau High, N.Y.
To coincide with today's publication of Brad Meltzer's new book, "The Book of Lies," Sony BMG Music Entertainment is releasing a digital companion soundtrack. Should the soundtrack prove a success the company will look to make book soundtracks an additional revenue stream, said John Ingrassia, president, Sony BMG's Commercial Music Group.
Previous book soundtracks have run the gamut of style and quality. When L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth book was released in 1982 Applause Records put out the LP "Space Jazz" which was billed as the soundtrack of the book. The audio book to Augusten Burroughs' 2008 "A Wolf at the Table: A Memoir of My Father" included music from artists such as Patti Smith, Ingrid Michaelson and Sea Wolf between chapters. And for Nikki Sixx's The Heroin Diaries, the Mötley Crüe rocker issued a soundtrack by his own band Sixx:AM.
The difference, said Ingrassia, is that Sony is looking to pair its vast catalogue with other authors if Meltzer's soundtrack is a success. "I would love for it to be successful enough to prove that it's something other writers and publishers would want to do," he said. "We've tried in the past to do various promotions with book publishers but the emphasis is on try."
Part of the problem, Ingrassia said, in the past is that pairing a physical CD with a book has proven difficult and expensive. By going digital those problems are eliminated.
The soundtrack to "The Book of Lies" is mentioned in the book, listed on iTunes and Amazon, and called out when Meltzer does readings across the country. Bookmarks referring to the soundtrack will be handed out during Meltzer's tour.
Meltzer, who in addition to writing novels writes comic books, said that he choose the songs on the soundtrack to reflect the subject of the book, which deal with a conspiracy surrounding the creators of the comic book hero Superman. While a majority of the songs on the soundtrack are from Sony's catalogue, several are not.
"This was a real beautiful lesson for me because I didn't know anything about the music business," Meltzer said. "I just thought I would call up my favorite artists and they would just give me their songs."
Ultimately Meltzer found his way to Sony's Ingrassia and they were able to work out a deal.
"I called up John, told him what I wanted to do, and he said we should do it," Meltzer said. "It's a different experience when a major music company does something like this. My book publisher can put out a CD tomorrow, but having the full weight of Sony do that is such a different experience."
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