These Days Soundtracks Can Be Sweet Music to Movie Marketers’ Ears

You’ve seen the movie. Now, have you heard “Men in Black: The Album”?

Never mind that almost none of the songs are in the movie. The recording debuts at No. 2 on the Billboard charts this week, the second-biggest debut ever for a soundtrack album, closely following that of the Howard Stern movie “Private Parts” earlier this year. Both sold about 177,500 units, with “Parts” edging out “Men” by fewer than 150 albums, according to SoundScan.

Movie soundtracks are hot these days. Although there are as many misses as hits, soundtracks are considered a plum for music labels looking to gain marketing exposure and promote their artists. Labels from MCA to Def Jam are boosting their investments in soundtracks and bidding against one another to get them--up to $1 million per soundtrack.

Film companies look to soundtracks mainly for added marketing. “Dangerous Minds” became a textbook example in 1995 of how a song (Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise”) can propel a movie to much greater success. Soundtracks can generate healthy profits for studios. But they’re relatively small compared with the millions more that can be made at the box office.

The development of the “Men in Black” soundtrack is a case in point in how soundtracks and movies support each other.

A large part of the album’s--and possibly the movie’s--success owes to the fact that Will Smith’s “Men in Black” music video was in heavy rotation for several weeks beforehand on MTV. For the record label and movie studio, that may represent several million dollars’ worth of free publicity.

Says Patti Galluzzi, senior vice president of music and talent for MTV: “We will not accept a video that’s just a trailer, that’s just footage from the movie. We’re looking for really good artists and new footage that makes it compelling for our viewers.”

The Smith video, which shows him boogieing with aliens from the film, is all original footage. Parent company Sony’s investment in the video--estimated at less than $1 million--paid off handsomely.

Ironically, people who work on film soundtracks will tell you two things: One, they don’t like “inspired by” albums of songs not in the movie, and two, they don’t think every film should have a soundtrack album.

So why are record stores packed with soundtracks, filled with songs that get no screen time, from virtually every movie? The success of a “Men in Black” album helps to explain the phenomenon.

“We started with Will’s single and video and built a very good album around it,” says Glen Brunman, executive vice president of Sony Music Soundtrax. The newly formed division is releasing “Men in Black” in conjunction with sister company Columbia Records. Both are owned by Sony, whose Columbia Pictures is releasing the movie.

While Brunman and others express some reticence about “inspired by” (i.e., music not in the movie) albums, Brunman says: “We’re giving people an album that really holds together, that they will really like. The vibe of the movie is carried throughout the album.” He points to the compilation albums popular in Europe as an example of consumer demand for such products.

Five years ago this summer, a trio of movie soundtracks re-energized the soundtrack business, which has gone in cycles since the 1950s. “Singles,” “Boomerang” and “Honeymoon in Vegas” were all pictures with somewhat limited niche appeal at the box office. That was their soundtracks’ strength: They appealed to a young, record-buying audience.

Unlike previous boom periods in soundtracks, this one shows no signs of fading. Everyone in the business stands to gain something from it. Record labels, stung by flat sales and a seeming inability to nurture new talent, have created intense competition to land soundtracks. Soundtracks allow labels to plug their artists without taking on the risk and expense of developing an act over several albums.

Look at which label put out the recording, then look at the copyright and credit lines for each song. It’s no accident that on the “Men in Black” album, the overwhelming majority of songs are copyrighted by Sony.

Movie companies are looking for any way to gain more marketing exposure, as budgets balloon and the number of releases spirals upward.

“Filmmakers more and more really want a soundtrack album,” says Kathy Nelson, president of film music for Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group. “Sometimes it’s a way to cover the music budget. The music budget gets used last, and if it gets dipped into as the film goes over budget, you may be left with nothing.”

In other words, the music you hear in the movie may be paid for by the advance money paid to the studio by the record label. Each use of music, whether in the movie, on the soundtrack or in ads, must be contracted for and paid for separately.

Fortunately for the studios, there are plenty of labels vying for their business. MCA, Capitol and Atlantic are just three of the major labels that have juiced up their soundtrack departments in the last couple of years.

(Craig Kallman, who co-executive-produced “Space Jam,” was just promoted to Atlantic’s top creative post.) Although it’s still rare, labels are now spending $1 million and up to acquire the most sought-after soundtracks.

Top acts are becoming choosier, but performers can jump-start or build careers with the right soundtrack songs. Witness Celine Dion, Seal and R. Kelly.

While some predict there may be a pullback in the number of soundtrack releases, Sony’s Brunman thinks they’re here to stay. “Music is more a part of movies than ever. On the whole, the quality of soundtracks is better than it’s ever been. Unless those two things change, I don’t see any end to this.”

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Movies Sell Music

This week’s list of the 10 best-selling pop music albums, released Wednesday, has two movie soundtracks, including that of “Men in Black.” It debuted at No. 2--neck and neck with Fat of the Land, one of the hottest debut albums of the year.

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Rank* Title Artist 1 Fat of the Land Prodigy 2 Soundtrack: Men in Black Various 3 Spice Spice Girls 4 Middle of Nowhere Hanson 5 Everywhere Tim McGraw 6 God’s Property God’s Property 7 Butterfly Kisses Bob Carlisle 8 Bringing Down the Horse Wallflowers 9 Soundtrack: Batman & Robin Various 10 Carrying Your Love With Me George Strait

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* For the week ended July 5

Hot Tracks

Record labels prize movie soundtracks because they have built-in awareness and advertising. A good soundtrack can be even more successful than the film. Below are revenues for the top-selling soundtracks of 1996, compared with the movies’ box-office performances. Retail soundtrack sales are based on SoundScan figures multiplied by an average $12.50-per-album retail price.

Keep in mind that the studios spent tens of millions of dollars to make and market these movies, and they split up to half the box-office take with theater owners. Record companies spend a small fraction of that, enjoying much higher margins, and therefore make back their money much more quickly on a hit.

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Rank Soundtrack Album: label/1996 revenue 1 Waiting to Exhale Arista/$32.5 million 2 William Shakespeare’s Capitol/$16.3 million Romeo & Juliet 3 Space Jam Atlantic/$15 million** 4 Set It Off EastWest/EEG/$12.1 million 5 The Preacher’s Wife Arista/$12.1 million

Film: studio/ Rank 1996 revenue 1 20th Century Fox/ $64.2 million 2 20th Century Fox/ $43.8 million 3 Warner Bros./ $81.9 million** 4 New Line/ $36.0 million 5 Disney/ $27.9 million***

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** The Space Jam soundtrack, released late last year, now has a total of $43.8 million in sales and is the third-best-selling album of 1997 to date. Total film revenue is now $90.4 million.

*** Box-office revenue to date for The Preacher’s Wife is $48.1 million.

Sources: Baseline, SoundScan