MUSIC
FILM
MUSIC LIBRARY | ORIGINAL SCORING | FILM CRAFT | SCENIC BURROWS | ABOUT SCENIC
WELCOME
We’re so glad you’re here. We created Scenic Music to open revenue opportunities for indie artists like yourself, through curated licensing and creative collaborations with filmmakers, show runners, agency creatives, editors, producers, music supervisors, and select brand teams. We simply believe the world is a better place when independent musicians, songwriters, and bands are making a fair living.
THE SCENIC VIEW
The music industry and streaming platforms are increasingly not viable for artists with a personal vision. That’s why we’re building Scenic from a different landscape. In all transactions, we will always put you, the artist, first. Our unique blend of experience gives us insight into how to prioritize your integrity in licensing and creative partnerships. We won’t ask you to contribute or create work with commercial pressure, or ask you to give up ownership or creative control over the career you’ve nurtured since you first dreamed of making music.
HOW YOUR INDEPENDENT AGREEMENT WITH SCENIC IS STRUCTURED
Within our Representation Agreement, you’ll find pricing tiers that are scaled to usage requests. Scenic's fee is added to your licensing rate and scales down as your fee increases. With each licensing request, we communicate who, what, where, and how much, subject to your approval. Full transparency, no nonsense. And you have the final say.
YOU APPROVE LICENSING REQUESTS
If, for any reason, you don’t feel comfortable with a person or company requesting to use your music, you have the right to decline usage. We fully support your autonomy in this decision. And we will always run requests by you first.
HOW SCENIC PROMOTES YOUR MUSIC
We have long-standing relationships with a large audience of global, front-line creative professionals. They’re seeking better, more soulful and emotionally engaging music to elevate their narrative and commercial creative projects than they can find in generic stock or AI. We have the experience and industry knowledge to connect with them through channels where they work and listen, including email newsletters, creative and design blogs, and artist-friendly music and video platforms, to name a few.
HOW CUSTOM COLLABS WORK
Scenic also offers custom projects to clients. We often invite artists to collaborate with us directly on original scores, elements for editing, and projects with brands who share our values. Custom project engagement is separate from the Representation Agreement associated with our library. Each project is negotiated upfront, with deliverables, estimated timing, creative expectations, and ownership terms clearly established, along with how your writing, performances,and publishing splits (if any) will be compensated.
PRODUCTION SUPPORT
Scenic operates from Scenic Burrows, a historic recording studio in Vancouver, Washington, just 10 minutes from Portland. We’d love to have you at our space to collaborate. We’re also fully capable of supporting you remotely with production support for your library contributions.
STEMS, VARIATIONS, REMIXES
We love ‘em if we can get them! Many of our clients appreciate the flexibility that stems can offer. But we understand spontaneity sometimes means burning it all to tape! So they’re not a requirement or deal breaker.
SCENIC FOLKS
John Morgan Askew
music director, producer, composer, engineer
John is an award-winning music producer, composer, musician, and mixer based in Portland, Oregon. Over the last 25 years, John has contributed to more than 50 albums and composed and recorded original scores for feature films, documentaries, television, and advertising.
Cindy Wade
managing director, executive producer
With 30 years of creative branding, agency operations, and production, Cindy is a Wieden+Kennedy alum who served as the managing director & executive producer at Mutt Industries, as well as North. With deep C-suite level experience managing commercial content creation and client marketing plans, Cindy has a prolific vision for building unified teams and producing outcomes for clients, creatives, and artists alike.
Mark Ray
creative director, composer, producer
Mark co-founded Midwest based Undertow Music Collective in 1996, one of five indie record labels invited to launch Apple iTunes. In 2006, he co-founded North, a creative agency in Portland, Oregon, where ethical partnerships between musicians and brands were a feature of North’s approach. Prior to his two decades as North co-owner and chief creative officer, Mark was a managing partner, and executive creative director for Boston-based Arnold Worldwide. His 30 year career his highlighted by building creative unions between musical artists such as Joe Pernice, Lifesavas, Kesha, Magnetic Fields, Jane's Addiction, Flaming Lips, Luke Combs, Aminé, and Paul McCartney with global brands, including Jack Daniel’s, Volkswagen, Fidelity, ACA, and Columbia Sportswear.
Cory Gray
producer, composer, engineer, mixer
Cory is a composer, multi-instrumentalist (keyboards, trumpet), and audio engineer who has been on stage and in studios with bands and projects including The Delines, Carcrashlander, Old Unconscious, Graves, and The Dandy Warhols. Cory also has extensive experience scoring for film, television, and brand work.
QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS?
We love to chat one-on-one. Feel free to reach out anytime to John at 971-645-7122 or John@TheScenic.Co.