Southern California native Jennifer Smith is the founder the of the LA based music supervision company RAT DANCE PARTY. Jennifer specializes in music supervision services for all types of media including new media, podcasts, live television, scripted and unscripted projects including documentaries.
Jennifer’s recent work can be seen in films such as Netflix’s “Deadly Illusions”, Showtime’s American Christmas (Tara Reid), Amazon’s The Transcendents (Award Winning), and Bad Kids Go To Hell (based off a cult comic book) , as well as the scripted TV shows CBS’s “Why Women Kill”, Slut, and Humor Me. Prior to her work for Rat Dance Party, Jennifer worked with the teams at Dancing with the Stars and American Idol ABC Season 1, where she was in charge of clearing the rights for hundreds of songs.
Prior to founding RDP, Jennifer joined Kobalt Music as part of the synchronization team. At Kobalt, she collaborated with music supervisors on finding music for their projects, negotiated rights for Kobalt’s catalog and artists, and worked closely with songwriters and artists on the Kobalt roster. Her time at Kobalt gave her full-circle experience in the synchronization world, dealing with all stakeholders in the creative process including record labels, songwriters, publishers, musicians, managers and marketing teams.
Media rights are a tremendous undertaking and her experience and expertise can help a production avoid costly delays or mistakes. Jennifer is well-versed in US Union Guidelines for Music and Media Rights, experienced with budgeting and working to strict deadlines. Through her industry network and experience, she is able to negotiate effectively in her client’s best interests while keeping their creative vision’s integrity.
Jennifer is a member of The Guild Of Music Supervisors (Board Member), Woman In Film, The Television Academy, The Recording Academy, and Woman In Media.
BBB BACKGROUND INFO:
The Build Back Better plan was just passed by the House and now faces a battle in the Senate.
Time Magazine breaks down seven of the current bill’s most significant provisions.
$555 billion to fight climate change
The biggest sum of money in the bill is set aside for climate-related provisions, towards the goal to halve carbon emissions by 2030. The bulk of clean energy spending—$320 billion—comes in the form of tax credits for companies and consumers that install solar panels, improve the energy efficiency of buildings and purchase electric vehicles. The Administration says the tax breaks could cut the overall cost of installing rooftop solar panels by around 30%, as well as lower the cost of electric vehicles by $12,500.
The bill also provides financial incentives for U.S. manufacturing of clean energy technologies, with the goal that more wind turbines and solar panels will be made domestically through a combination of grants, loans and tax credits. Spending also goes towards the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps that would provide some 300,000 jobs to restore forests and wetlands and guard against the effects of rising temperatures—similar to the New Deal-era Civilian Conservation Corps, which was championed at the time as an economic development and environmental plan, but criticized by organized labor groups.
$400 billion for universal pre-K
The bill directs money to providing free universal preschool for all three and four year olds, which the White House has dubbed the largest expansion in education programs since the creation of public high school.
Under the universal preschool plan, parents will be able to send their children to a public school or childcare program of their choice. Families that earn less than $300,000 annually, for instance, will pay no more than 7% of their income on child care for kids under age six, according to the bill.
$200 billion for child tax credits
The bill grants a one-year extension of the pandemic-era child tax credit, which provides parents with $300 every month per child under age six and $250 every month per child ages six to 17. Families that do not earn enough money to qualify for income tax liability will be eligible to continue receiving the full child tax credit beyond the one-year period.
$200 billion for 4 weeks of paid leave
The bill creates a permanent, comprehensive national paid leave program that gives employed workers—including those who are self-employed—four weeks of paid family and medical leave, which can be used for caregiving or personal illness. If this provision becomes law, workers who request paid leave starting in 2024 will receive a percentage of their income starting at about 90% and scaling down for higher earners.
Currently, the U.S. is one of few industrialized nations without a national paid leave program for new parents. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of March 2021, just 23% of civilian workers in the U.S. had access to paid family leave and 89% had access to unpaid family leave.
$165 billion on healthcare spending
The spending bill reduces health care premiums under the Affordable Care Act and expands Medicare coverage to include hearing benefits. Premiums for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplace will be around $600 less per person each year, so that a family of four earning $80,000 annually would save roughly $246 per month on health insurance premiums.
Officials hope the savings will make it easier for those who are currently uninsured to gain health insurance. The spending plan also closes the Medicaid coverage gap, allowing uninsured people whose states have locked them out of Medicaid to receive health care coverage without paying a monthly premium.
The Build Back Better bill also delivers a compromise for taking on Big Pharma over rising drug prices: It would restrict how much drugmakers can increase their prices each year and set an annual limit on out-of-pocket spending, but only after those drugs have been on the market for about a decade.
That means drug companies could still charge an enormous amount for new drugs, with price regulation taking effect nine years later for most common medications and 13 years later for more complicated drugs. Out-of-pocket costs for insulin—a protein hormone used to treat diabetes—would be capped at $35 for a 30-day supply, significantly lower than current costs, starting in 2023.
$150 billion to expand affordable home care
The plan provides funding for a Medicaid program that supports in-home health care, helping to reduce a backlog of people waiting to receive subsidized home care and improve wages for providers. Thousands of seniors and disabled Americans have been unable to receive care they need, including more than 800,000 on state Medicaid waiting lists. Many home care issues have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
$150 billion for affordable housing
Increased spending on housing affordability will go towards building more than 1 million new rental and single-family homes. The bill aims to reduce cost pressures by providing rental and down payment assistance through an expanded voucher program.
According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, around 70% of all extremely low income families pay more than half their income on rent, and over 580,000 Americans currently experience homelessness.
ACTION:
Write a letter to your senator asking them to support the Build Back Better Bill or make a donation to the Center for American Progress.
Here’s a sample letter to your senator:
Dear Senator [name],
I’m a constituent from [zip]. Thank you for the work you do to represent our state.
I care deeply about climate change, health care and and making life more fair and livable for middle class families.
Please vote to pass the Build Back Better bill and do everything in your power to encourage Kyrsten Sinema, Joe Manchin and other Democratic senators to do the same.
Thank you for listening.
[your name]
RESULTS
26 letters written to senators
11 donations made
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