Founder/CEO of Ghostwriter Music Group
Web: ghostwritermusic.com
Contact: Mike Gowen, [email protected]
“I used to work at a publishing company that specialized in theatrical trailers. I wanted to do more custom work, and they thought that wouldn’t take off and that there would be no market for it. Turns out, there was,” says Chris Bragg, founder and CEO of Ghostwriter Music Group, which since 2015 has placed music in film campaigns, advertisements, video games, TV promotions and more.
Ghostwriter was one of the first companies to offer custom music composition for trailers, and has since worked on titles including Cruella, Borat 2, Forever Purge and World of Warcraft, and earned a 2020 Mark Award from the Production Music Association for Best Use in a Theatrical Trailer, among other accolades. Staff collaborates with a project’s music supervisor, going back and forth with ideas and workshopping the track, whether it’s an original or an overlay to a preexisting song. “A lot of the job is translating what non-musical people are asking for into musical terms, and relaying that to the composers in a way that makes sense,” Bragg says. “I really enjoy working on original masters. It’s fun to breathe new life into older music.”
Most recently, the company has expanded from its LA origins and opened new offices, a mix stage and full post-production capabilities in Nashville. “Moving forward, we’re trying to bust more into film and TV, and the goal is to have a library of material, and Nashville made sense because it’s such a musical city,” Bragg says. “The goal is to get more artists on the roster to do custom and preexisting cues for film, TV and advertising.”
Bragg says independent composers and artists can appeal to companies like Ghostwriter and get their music licensed starting with one of the most obvious places: social media. “That’s where a lot of communication starts these days,” he says. “Join trailer music forums and groups like that. There are a lot of new guys in those kinds of forums asking questions, and veterans that are there to keep an eye on what’s going on. For the most part, people in this industry are very receptive.”
