David Israelite (Photo courtesy National Music Publisher’s Association) and Mycheal Danna and Jeff Danna (Photo courtesy Walt Disney Pictures)

The Production Music Association hosts its fourth annual Production Music Conference Oct. 4-6 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel. The event kicks-off the evening of the fourth with the Mark Awards, now in its third year of honoring the best in production music.

PMA co-chairman Joe Saba told Variety the group’s internal research sizes up global production music as a $1 billion a year industry, couching that as a conservative estimate for 2017, when the PMA pegged  U.S. production music revenue at “at least $500 million.” Because of its economic importance, and the scope of the enterprise, which supports tens of thousands of songwriters, composers and musicians, as well as studios and other infrastructure and support services, Saba is confident the 2017 event will be a big draw.

The event will feature dual business and creative tracks, with 80 speakers across 16 panels in addition to the Mark Awards, recognizing excellence in 28 categories.  National Music Publisher’s Association CEO David Israelite will keynote the business track from 10:45-11:45 a.m. on Oct. 5, with Academy Award-winning composer Mychael Danna (The Life of Pi) and his brother, BMI award-winner Jeff Danna (Storks), headlining the creative keynote from 2-2:45 p.m. on Oct. 6. For a full schedule visit pmc.pmamusic.com/schedule. The agenda includes panels on dealing with global rights licensing and talent development, among many subjects.

Among session highlights:  at 2:30-3:30 p.m. Oct. 5 the “Music Supervisors Demo Derby, ” with participants including Millennium Media’s Selena Arizanovic — who helped engineer the score for the recent No. 1 box office sensation The Hitman’s Bodyguard —  and political popmeister John Houlihan, programmer of tunes for former President Barack Obama’s 2012 campaign. Later that day, movie promo music pundits Bobby Gumm of Trailer Park and HitHouse’s Sally House will old forth at 5:10 p.m. as part of the “Trailerizing Your Music” session moderated by Immediate Music’s Ali Pistoresi. 

On Oct. 6, at 11:20 a.m., “4 M’s: Music, Metadata, Marketing and Money” will feature BMG Music U.K.’s John Clifford and Five Alarm founder Cassie Lord. From 3-4 p.m. Lord will lead a one-on-one discussion with Italy’s production music pioneer Romano di Bari, recipient of the PMA Mark Hall of Fame Award.

With every major label now involved in the production music space as well as a thriving independent scene, Saba is convinced there is a need for the sort of dialogue an annual conference can foster. Saba’s own VideoHelper production music firm was one of the founding PMA companies in 1997 when the organization launched. Since then the industry has grown dramatically, fueled by an estimated 1,000 music catalogs and everyone from Hans Zimmer to Chuck D getting in on the game, working with the top notch musicians and orchestras to record original libraries that clients can drop in to their projects.

PMA chairman Adam Taylor, president of production music firm APM, whose investors include Sony/ATV and Universal Music Publishing, says its an exciting time to be in a business sector that, while typically behind the scenes, has been a technological leader in areas like search engine development, monetizing videos, integrating fingerprinting with rights societies, and deploying digital detection and monitoring.

The Los Angeles-based PMA now has more than 40 member companies.