Music Publisher Finds Niche Market, to the Tune of Profits

The big record companies may be losing customers. But 79-year-old former band conductor Milt Okun and his tiny music publishing firm have figured out where America is really listening:

At stock car races. On the gridiron. And during cartoons.

Filling such nooks and crannies with musical themes has become a major business for Okun's New York-based Cherry Lane Music, a privately held firm that has found cash where the conglomerates of the entertainment world sometimes haven't bothered to look.

Cherry Lane has secured a stake in the orchestral scores accompanying the National Football League's programming, including today's Super Bowl with its more than 80 million expected viewers. And when young hordes tune in to "Pokemon" on the Cartoon Network, they too are listening to Cherry Lane -- as will fans of NASCAR telecasts, under a just-concluded deal to provide musical theme songs for the auto-racing circuit.

Music publishers typically make their money by licensing songs from their catalogs to advertisers or other customers, as well as by collecting royalties from albums that include their tunes. But Cherry Lane's catalog of older songs is relatively small, so it has staked its fortunes on creating original music for TV shows and films.

With album sales on the decline, music giants such as AOL Time Warner Inc.'s record division or EMI Group, which has rights to an estimated 1 million songs, increasingly have relied on their publishing units to provide a cushion. In terms of library size, Cherry Lane is minuscule, with about 50,000 copyrights.

But the company's growth in recent years suggests that a music industry dominated by a handful of behemoths still can learn from hard-driving entrepreneurs such as Okun and Cherry Lane's chief dealmaker, Aida Gurwicz.

"They've carved out a niche by being clever, nimble and by uncovering opportunities that others might overlook," said John Frankenheimer, a veteran music attorney who represents stars such as Vince Gill and Diana Ross. "When they see the true value of something, they're prone to be as competitive as any company, large or small, in the marketplace."

Once known as the quiet repository of John Denver's folk song catalog, 43-year-old Cherry Lane has made its mark by targeting untapped -- and often low-brow -- outlets. It acquired a position in the music of professional wrestling broadcasts and recently cut a deal to have its composers write songs for televised bull-riding contests.