Seven Seas Featured Music
For filmmakers, advertisers and television and digital content producers, the search for fresh, distinctive sounds to accompany their visuals can be a creative challenge and legally arduous task. Seven Seas Music provides a turnkey solution with the launch of its new content platform for creatives that is just coming out of beta.
Based in San Francisco, Seven Seas Music is a web-based platform where media professionals can listen to – then begin licensing with a single click – curated sounds from an astounding array of emerging and established artists in more than 40 countries. Seven Seas Music’s unique platform is powered by a proprietary interactive map, which allows users to scroll over a region or country to select songs, then build, save & share playlists. Once the songs are auditioned, users can begin the process of licensing these tracks for use in film, advertising, television and digital content with a single-click.
At soft launch in November of 2014, Seven Seas Music included nearly 5,000 tracks from musicians around the world (The Wagi Brothers Bamboo band from Papua New Guinea, Brazilian diva Monica Vasconcelos, renowned African drummer Tony Allen and the stunning cello work of Hildur Gudnadóttir) and Academy Award nominee and Golden Globe winner Johann Johannsson.
Since the soft launch of its beta phase, Seven Seas Music has been the conduit to a prestigious list of placements for world musicians. The list includes films such as the upcoming Terrence Malick romantic fantasy drama, “Knight of Cups” (with Christian Bale and Natalie Portman); the comedy drama, “Loitering with Intent” (with Marisa Tomei, Sam Rockwell and Natasha Lyonne); the action thriller, “The Coup” starring Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan; the documentary, “Meet the Patels” directed by first-generation Indian-American siblings; the documentary, “City of Gold” which follows Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold; and the ski movie from Red Bull Media House and Matchstick Productions, “Days of My Youth.”
While many of the tracks in Seven Seas Music’s database have been secured directly from the artists themselves, Seven Seas has also recently confirmed partnerships with leading record labels specializing in international artists including the David Byrne-founded Luaka Bop and Germany’s Piranha.
The company and its rich and fast-growing content is overseen by two respected names in world music and licensing, Brooke Wentz and Maryam Soleiman.
In 2002, Ms. Wentz founded The Rights Workshop, a music licensing and supervision firm with film credits including Bully, Melancholia, Don’t Stop Believin’: Everyman’s Journey, and Bill Cunningham: New York. Prior to founding The Rights Workshop, Brooke spent six years leading the music department of ESPN. She also served as an A&R Manager at Arista Records and produced many records with leading global artists, including the 3-CD set “Global Meditation,” which won honors as the Best Selling International Album of the Decade at the Billboard Awards.
Ms. Soleiman is a music licensing professional with over ten years business & legal affairs experience administering musical copyrights for independent music publishers, labels, as well as other intellectual property assets of major music and entertainment companies like Live Nation. She joined Ms. Wentz at The Rights Workshop in 2008. In addition to heading up business affairs, Ms. Soleiman negotiates music rights for early stage ventures, ads, and traditional film & television productions.
“Music licensing has become an increasingly important component of an artist’s financial well-being not to mention their promotion,” begins Ms. Wentz. “At the same time, creative storytellers face a real challenge when it comes to discovering and licensing quality, authentic world music. Our mission is to provide a simple, expertly curated platform, one that the creative community can turn to to find and license the best, most evocative sounds the world has to offer.”
“What we’re creating is a unique bridge between international musicians and audio-visual producers,” adds Soleiman. “The site is a tool for both content creators and music creators to thrive in the global music marketplace.”
As proof of concept, Seven Seas Music recently received honors and angel funding from the Pipeline Fellowship, a unique angel investing bootcamp for women-owned businesses. Since launching its first angel investing bootcamp and competition in April 2011, The Pipeline Fellowship has selected and trained over 80 women entrepreneurs and committed more than $400,000 in investment. Seven Seas Music was among the first companies selected for funding by the Bay Area chapter of the Pipeline Fellowship.