NBC Entertainment Marketing Preditor Chad Mallam says he found a “gold mine of music” at NARIP’s SOLD OUT Pitch Session last week. This will be useful since “music is the most important thing we do,” he says, “it’s the foundation of everything.”
Walking us through a day of his fast-paced, high-octane job working on NBC’s top television properties we learned, for example, that Simon Cowell’s hit show America’s Got Talent has line feeds with 20 camera angles in each shot that Chad must distill into bite-sized promos to entice people to watch. And this all has to be done fast. Very fast.
Every producer, he says, seeks that “white whale,” a terrific song that everyone agrees is perfect, hot and fresh-sounding, and will identify with a show. “When I send something up the chain and my bosses like it, that’s a big win for me, and I search for those moments a lot.”
He has a constant need for new material and was delighted to find so much high-quality music at NARIP’s session that will fit his purposes. Stand-outs include Tamara Bubble’s “You Got That (je ne sais quois),” Renald Francoeur’s epic hybrid orchestral trailer music, Jared Jones’ “Running Through My Mind” and Thayod Aussar’s hip hop.
“Do you know how hard it is to find authentic hip hop? Almost impossible,” Chad told us.
He and his team need music for literally thousands of spots across the entire network every week. “The numbers are in your favor,” he told NARIP members, “I work on more than one show… we are always hunting.”
He also discussed the future of television and opportunities in Over The Top (OTT) which are mushrooming with platforms like Ooyala, Real.me, Applecaster, Disney Plus, Hulu and others, all of which are competing for eyeballs during this time of great change and streaming wars. And they all need great music with which to hook viewers.
Good news: the entertainment industry is changing fast with opportunities for great music more abundant than ever.
Thank you for making time for our session Chad!
Full session video available to stream soon at NARIP.com.
Photo, L-R: Dan Dunn, Christopher Smith, Thayod Ausar, Chad Mallam, Tess Taylor, Arash Haile, Ian Vargas and Brent Barker. Not pictured: Tamara Bubble, Jon Murray, Kurt Bordeaux, Gail Vareilles, Scott Moses, Jessica Holmick, Jared Jones, Meggi Pack, Tasso Zapanti, Renald Francoeur.
@NARIP #NARIPSessions @ChadMallam