Commercial music and sound design powerhouse JSM recently announced plans to open satellite offices in Auckland, New Zealand, Southern California, the UK and Paris before years end. Meanwhile, bicoastal music house Face The Music has recently hooked up with Traxx, UK. Amber Music, originally of London, took the initiative and opened a New York shop last year.

While the Face The Music/Traxx deal is a talent sharing venture, Joel Simon, president, exec producer and managing partner of JSM says that company's expansion is part of a strategy of growth across several fields.

"The creative we have in house dictates we should be doing more films and records," says Simon. Another move on the expansion tip is an agreement with Nile Rodgers' Sumthing Records and talks with major labels like Columbia and RCA. "We don't only want to do records or commercials, we want every single means of delivery possible," Simon says.

Simon envisions JSM's composers and producers spreading their work across advertising, record production, joint ventures with producers and artists, and the launch of an independent record label. Soundtracks for the Internet and films (like Camouflage, a film directed by Donovan Leitch) arealso part of the package.

"It's incestuous in the non-hillbilly way," says Simon. "It's about creating an asset and an entity that'll be utilized by all these different aspects of entertainment - content."

As for the new offices, Simon says New York will remain the business hub for the network, but each office will be part of the local creative fabric.

The intention is to attract top composers in each new market, with the new studios offering the current composers opportunities to work abroad and absorb local sound textures. SH

WEB.FILES

JSM> www.jsm.com

Face The Music> www.ftm-nyla.com