Why We Started Media Music Now Conversations

There’s a lot of content out there about the music and media industry. Courses, guides, YouTube explainers, LinkedIn posts telling you the five things you need to do to get your music placed in film and TV. Some of it is genuinely useful. A lot of it is surface-level or optimistic in a way that doesn’t quite match the reality of what working in this industry actually feels like day-to-day.

What there isn’t much of, or at least what we couldn’t find much of, is people just talking honestly about it. Just a real conversation between people who work in the industry, about what it actually looks and feels like right now.

That’s the gap Conversations is trying to fill.

What Conversations actually is

Media Music Now Conversations is a podcast. Each episode is a long-form, unscripted conversation with someone working in the music and media industry. Composers, music business owners, editors, publishers, and anyone else whose work involves music and media.

There’s no script and no agenda beyond having a genuine conversation with someone interesting and seeing where it goes. Both sides know the subject well, and the conversation goes where it goes, rather than where someone planned it to go beforehand. In practice, that tends to produce more honest answers, more unexpected moments, and a much more natural listen.

The podcast is hosted by Lee Pritchard, co-founder of Media Music Now, who has worked in the music and media industry for over 25 years.

The first episode — Jack Hughes, Northern Film Orchestra

The first conversation is with Jack Hughes, co-founder of Northern Film Orchestra. Jack co-founded NFO at 25. From one string quartet session, he found he enjoyed the logistics more than the recording itself, and followed that instinct.

The conversation covers what it actually takes to run a professional orchestra in the UK. The Musicians’ Union agreements, the realities of session costs, what composers tend to get wrong when they book their first session, and what it means to be competing at the level of the major London studios when you’re based in Manchester. We also get into the wider industry: the royalty-free model that served composers well for years and then didn’t, what subscription libraries did to income almost overnight, and why sync licensing has become the only realistic path for most independent composers working today.

It’s a long one. And it covers a lot of ground. But that’s the point.

Who it’s for

Conversations is for anyone who works in music and media. Composers, musicians, producers, editors, sync executives, music supervisors, and library owners. Anyone who lives and works in that space every day.

It’s not a beginner’s guide, and it’s not an industry overview. It’s for people already working in it, who know what the work involves, and who’ll recognise the conversations we’re having because they’re having similar ones themselves.

More episodes coming

We’re planning to keep the conversations going and expand the range of guests and topics as we do. If you work in the music and media industry and you’d be up for a conversation, we’d like to hear from you. No formal pitches needed. Just head to the Conversations page and let us know a bit about what you do.

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