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I don't care if it's been asked & answered already; I never read it: what is "CFO$" all about? What does it stand for? What's the dollar sign about? Is that just another way of denoting "WWE Music Group"? Is that a separate entity from Mr. Johnston—or is that his group of employees? Help a brotha.

Thanks!

This is what I've gathered:

They're 2 guys (or at least that we know of) that have a basement home studio and they live there eatin chips and making feemz trying to give out the least info of themselves as possible because, let's face it, it's the only cool thing that's ever happened to them.

No but seriously, just 2 guys that WWE liked and are now working for WWE. They're CFO$ now, but they were known as Kromestatik before going under WWE (a fact which they try to play it out as a big mystery which just isn't). Apparently, they've been around for a while. It's been known that they were doing stuff for them long before The Night and Lightweight, just uncredited.

So now, it seems like they're on par with Jimmy, 50/50. Johnston has written stuff for them to produce too (Bo Dallas). So we can assume they're been groomed to take over someday.
In my opinion, they're not great at composing. That the only good structured with good melody song that's come out of their studio is Bo Dallas' tells you something (and that isn't a loop... sigh)

They've done a couple of Q&As on their channel (beware of their dickish tendencies) and normally answer to stuff on Twitter, so you can check that out.

CFO$ means Chief Financial Officers making cash, or in this case, themes. Something like that.

Leaf wrote:CFO$ means Chief Financial Officers making cash, or in this case, themes. Something like that.

I always thought that CFO$ stood for "Can't Figure Out $hit"

CFO$ are more then just John and Mike. It's a bunch of composers that work for Wind-Up Records.

PaddyDragon23 wrote:CFO$ are more then just John and Mike. It's a bunch of composers that work for Wind-Up Records.

What you mean?

That are all people behind the name CFO$ so far.

John Alicastro
Michael Lauri
Ian Driscoll
Lenard Skolnik
Thomas Saltman
Todd Clark
Michael Walpole
Gregg Wattenberg

PaddyDragon23 wrote:That are all people behind the name CFO$ so far.

John Alicastro
Michael Lauri
Ian Driscoll
Lenard Skolnik
Thomas Saltman
Todd Clark
Michael Walpole

That's interesting. Where did you get that?

JeanL wrote:

PaddyDragon23 wrote:That are all people behind the name CFO$ so far.

John Alicastro
Michael Lauri
Ian Driscoll
Lenard Skolnik
Thomas Saltman
Todd Clark
Michael Walpole

That's interesting. Where did you get that?

On ASCAP The names are link to the different Songs, in a variety of combos
Couple of Examples:

The Second Coming : Thomas Saltman & Gregg Wattenberg
Break Away : John Alicastro; Ian Driscoll; Michael Lauri; Thomas Saltman; Gregg Wattenberg
Stars of the Night : John Alicastro; Ian Driscoll; Michael Lauri; Lenard Skolnik; Gregg Wattenberg

You kind of where I'm going - With all the Tracks so far (& unreleased ones)

Ben did a list with all the CFO$ Songs and who composed them.

Whoa! I just read all these replies now. Apparently I forgot to ✓ off "Notify me when a reply is posted" … oops.

Thanks so much for this insight! So apparently what "CFO$" stands for remains guesswork? -ha-

EnjoiIsGood, your avatar is aaaaaawwwesome!

Everytime that I go searching for new ASCAP entries, I search in Gregg Wattenberg's name, because I think all songs are there

I always just guessed it stood for 'Chief Financial Officers.' And the dollar sign is there, just because. Or am I just being stupid?

That's the best guess to date & I'd probably guess the same. Was just wondering if there was ever a decisive statement from them about it, ha.

And "CFO$" and "WWE Music Group" is the exact same thing?

Also: are the CFO$ members all American? Would their works be considered "American music"?

There are more members than that.

Johnston himself was a part of CFO$ for Anything. "in fact it ended up being listed under his own name, dispite it being by a larger CFO$ cast with him in it, it still counts has him being a member for a theme."

Former Empertic guy "Gregg Steven Wattenberg" is also one of the big guys of the CFO$, which isn't even listed in Paddy's setup for them.

Ryan Baharloo and John Charles Monds, joined the ranks lately as well for Amazing and Big Summer.

Christopher Michaels Walters joined them for Around The Way. "If it's the name of the shitty Blake and Murphy dubstep track though, it could be a credit to have his theme playing as the background sample ie. the "Now You See it" BBC IPlayer recording I did, so might be a 1 off to credit a background sample by somebody else which they pumped up, but this artist still counts, even if it is for a dubstep backings, Around The Way does sound dubstep like as a title."

Anyway, can't be bothered looking at anymore listings for anymore CFO$ only artists, but I do have a set of complete Screech aka WWE Music on ASCAP listings, more than only the CFO$, this is the pure WWE Publisher.

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... CH%20MUSIC

And I guess I also have a Egg Songs II aka CFO$ only complete ASCAP listings as well now as well, so you know exactly the whos who of the CFO$ only artists as well, for those who really want to know everyone in them and every title they did.

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... PUBLISHING

For those interested just in case any of these were used in WWE also, the early formation of the CFO$ tracks as well, pre the EGG Songs II WWE Exclusives.

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... PUBLISHING

Hope those give you guys everything you want to know about them, now that you are able to search every track by a publisher on ASCAP, it does makes things a lot easier for sure, finding new ASCAP infos.

TEOL wrote:There are more members than that.

Johnston himself was a part of CFO$ for Anything. "in fact it ended up being listed under his own name, dispite it being by a larger CFO$ cast with him in it, it still counts has him being a member for a theme."

Former Empertic guy "Gregg Steven Wattenberg" is also one of the big guys of the CFO$, which isn't even listed in Paddy's setup for them.

Ryan Baharloo and John Charles Monds, joined the ranks lately as well for Amazing and Big Summer.

Christopher Michaels Walters joined them for Around The Way. "If it's the name of the shitty Blake and Murphy dubstep track though, it could be a credit to have his theme playing as the background sample ie. the "Now You See it" BBC IPlayer recording I did, so might be a 1 off to credit a background sample by somebody else which they pumped up, but this artist still counts, even if it is for a dubstep backings, Around The Way does sound dubstep like as a title."

Anyway, can't be bothered looking at anymore listings for anymore CFO$ only artists, but I do have a set of complete Screech aka WWE Music on ASCAP listings, more than only the CFO$, this is the pure WWE Publisher.

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... CH%20MUSIC

And I guess I also have a Egg Songs II aka CFO$ only complete ASCAP listings as well now as well, so you know exactly the whos who of the CFO$ only artists as well, for those who really want to know everyone in them and every title they did.

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... PUBLISHING

For those interested just in case any of these were used in WWE also, the early formation of the CFO$ tracks as well, pre the EGG Songs II WWE Exclusives.

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... PUBLISHING

Hope those give you guys everything you want to know about them, now that you are able to search every track by a publisher on ASCAP, it does makes things a lot easier for sure, finding new ASCAP infos.

I've listed Gregg Wattenberg, yeah some new guys recently worked with them. Christopher Walters does Music for Bruton and West One Music.

i got one question missing what did they do pre wwe?

Oh, good one!

Also: same question I have for Jim Johnston compositions: does CFO$ simply compose the music and have various artists actually perform it? Or do they do both? … Are we listening to an actual CFO$ vocalist in Paige's entrance theme?

Wind Up Records

https://mobile.ascap.com/aceclient/AceC ... PUBLISHING