This article provides an overview of the history of music supervision, the process of placing music in a movie or TV show, and a description of the relevant licenses and parties involved in this process. It is relevant to anyone interested in having their music used in movies, as well as those considering a career as a music supervisor.

Overview

     Before I begin, let me give you a quick overview of the important details of supervision. First off, music supervision is primarily concerned with connecting the right song with the right moving image; be that a TV commercial, a movie, or a TV show. The more accurate term for “connecting” in the sentence above is “synchronizing.” So, a “synch” or “synchronization,” is the act of taking a piece of music and connecting it with a moving image in a movie or TV show/ad. Given this, you should quickly realize that music supervision has a lot to do with music publishing. You can’t simply grab any piece of music you want and throw it in a film. There are a host of copyright issues surrounding synchronizations that, in large part, define the role of the music supervisor.

     First, the cool, glamorous part of music supervision. The music supervisor gets to work with the director of the visual content (movie, TV show, Ad, etc.), and help this person realize her vision by the addition of music. If you’ve ever seen a film where you have the option to turn the music off, you’ve seen just how important music is to making a film successful. Think, for example, what Goodfellas, would have been like without the coda to “Layla” coming in at just the right moment; consider any of the Tarantino films devoid of music; imagine any of the Hitchcock films without the phenomenal contribution of Bernard Herrmann. The music augments and often completes the vision of the director.

History

     Music supervision really came of age in the mid sixties, and it came from a surprising place. The creators of the television show The Monkees, Bob Rafelson and Bert Schnieder, were young and idealistic, and recently flush with money and influence from the unexpected phenomenon that was The Monkees. Being young and idealistic, the pair decided to use their money and influence to make what they deemed an important movie. Their attempt to catch the cultural zeitgeist of the late 60s resulted in Easy Rider.* Notable for many reasons—Jack Nicholson’s stand-out support performance, a pre-“Hey Mickey” Toni Basil, and a drug buyer played by Phil Spector, among other curiosities—it’s most enduring legacy is, I believe, its brilliant use of music to fully flesh out the visual elements. While most people associate the movie with Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild,” the music in the movie is fairly diverse. It includes songs from The Byrds, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Band, The Holy Modal Rounders, and others.

* For a fascinating account of the independent movie scene in the 60s and 70s, please do check out Peter Biskind’s book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-And Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood

     Certainly Easy Rider wasn’t the first film to use popular music to make a point—The Graduate, featuring the songs of Simon and Garfunkel, came out a year prior to Easy Rider—but it did it in such an emphatic way that it opened the floodgates. Directors like Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Mean Streets), Coppola (Apocalypse Now), Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy), Ashby (Harold and Maude), and many others redefined how music and images could be used together to create a meaningful experience. In the process, the role of the music supervisor emerged.

Role of the Music Supervisor

     It’s important to realize from the examples above, that while in theory the music supervisor is responsible for choosing the music to synchronize with the images, it’s really the director (particularly the auteur of the 70s, the last great era of American cinema*) who controls the vision. Often the director will “comp” (i.e. temporarily place) the music in a film, fall in love with the way this music compliments the images, and then task the music supervisor with “clearing” the music. On the other hand, there may be a relationship of trust between the director and the music supervisor, where the director sort of hands over the film to the music supervisor in order to fill it with music.

* It could be argued that the work of Wes Anderson, Noah Baumbach, Sophia Coppola, David O. Russell, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Rian Johnson, among others constitutes a sort of second wave of great American movies, but they’re all so clearly referential to the key directors of the 70s that it’s hard to call it a unique movement.  Maybe it is.

At that point, the music supervisor comps music in that she feels completes the vision of the director, and — once decided upon by the director — goes out and clears this music.

     You will note that irrespective of who chooses the music, the music supervisor has to go clear it. Clearing music is typically a two-step process (at least). In order for a piece of music to be used in a film, the music supervisor must get approval from, typically, two parties.

Music Clearance

     First, the music supervisor must negotiate with the publisher who controls the rights to the song itself. Of course, if you’re an artist who has not assigned any of your songs over to a publisher, you are the de facto publisher, and the music supervisor must negotiate with you directly. The music supervisor is trying to convince the publisher to grant him a “synch” license. Synch is short for synchronization, and this license gives the music supervisor the right to synchronize your music with the director’s moving images.

     There is no set fee for this, it’s completely negotiable. If you’re an unknown artist likely to benefit from the exposure of having your music used in a film, the music supervisor will be unlikely to offer you anything more than a very nominal sum. On the other hand, if you’re a popular artist, and your music is in large demand, the music supervisor is going to have to pay up to get you to agree to the synch license. It’s also important to note that a publisher can flatly deny this request; irrespective of how much money is offered. Some artists (believe it or not) don’t want their music used in films or TV (Neil Young and Radiohead come to mind*), and their publishers will simply turn down a request.

     The second party the music supervisor must get approval from is the “master holder.” The master holder is the company or person who controls the recording/download on which the song appears. This is typically the record label, but it can be the artist herself if she has self-released a record. Like the publisher, the master holder can negotiate whatever rate the market will bear, and, again like the publisher, the master holder can simply refuse any request.

     So, if you’re a music supervisor, your ideal scenario is what is called a “one-stop” license, where you can “clear” both the publishing and the master rights in one fell swoop. Typically this occurs when artists self release or when the label and the publisher are the same person.

     I stated that typically you have to clear both the publishing rights and the master-holder rights, but this is not always true. The exception is when you can clear the publishing rights, but not the master rights. At this point, you can choose to have someone re-record the songs so that you don’t have to deal with the master holder. This occurred on the soundtrack to the movie I am Sam, in which the entire soundtrack is comprised of covers of Beatles songs. In this case, the publisher had to agree to allow the copyright of the songs to be used in the film, but the music supervisor did not have to deal with the master holder (The Beatles’ label, EMI) at all.

* I know Radiohead’s music has been used, but it’s been under very special circumstances.

     Part of the negotiating process of clearing the songs is the extent of their use. As a music supervisor you may, for example, only be able to clear the song for use in the film. On the other hand, you might also get rights to the song for inclusion in a soundtrack album, to be aired in the trailer, or as part of the commercial. Home video is a whole other set of negotiations that the music supervisor must contend with as well. This is all, of course, great for the content holders (publishers and master holders), as it represents potential income and exposure. For the music supervisor, it represents work…and a lot of it. This is why they get their names listed pretty early on in the credits.

A note on score

     There is a difference between synchronization — taking a pre-existing piece of music and connecting it with a moving image — and the score. The score is music that is specifically composed for a movie. I mentioned Bernard Herrmann, and his work for Hitchcock is an example of a score. It doesn’t have to be symphonic or classical. Randy Newman, for example, has scored numerous movies, such as the Pixar films, and his work is largely piano and vocal based. I recently watched a documentary on the Pixies (LoudQuietLoud) that contained a very evocative guitar score performed by the great producer Daniel Lanois. As the director/music supervisor commissions these scores, they are typically referred to as “works made for hire.” This means that the composer is paid a fee for his work, which then becomes the property of the director (or the production company), as opposed to a synch license, in which the ownership of the piece of music never transfers.

Summary and Strategy

     Clearly music used in movies and TV shows is one of the most effective ways for musicians to gain an audience. Bands’ careers are often massively accelerated by a well-placed synch. This relationship between success and synch has of course made the process of getting music into a film or TV show a very competitive one. Music supervisors are the new gatekeepers of popularity in some ways. They are courted by countless artists and labels in the hopes that they will give them a spot on the OC or the new Tarantino movie. Conversely, the music supervisor is attempting to walk the delicate line of honoring the creative vision of the director while still bringing in music that might compel people to be interested in the film. It truly is the nexus of art and commerce. As we stir newer mediums, like video games, into the mix this line gets all the more blurry.

     As a musician you first have to determine your stance on whether or not you want your music used in movies or commercials. While we’ve quickly moved from an ethos in which using your music to sell beer (or anything else) was considered “selling out,” to a place where you’re viewed as out of time should you not leap at any opportunity that might generate exposure and cash, the long-term effects of using music in this manner (particularly ads) is not yet known.

     Once you have decided that you’re OK with allowing your music to be used, it’s a matter of getting directors and music supervisors interested in your music. Like anything else in the record industry, there are no short cuts. While there are services out there that claim they can put your music in front of music supervisors, think about that for a second given everything that’s been discussed in this article. Do you really think paying someone $100 a month to get your music in front of some music supervisor is going to give you a leg up over the intense competition coming from people who are out there selling records, and touring, and getting their music written about and played on the radio (particularly getting their music played on KCRW in Santa Monica, which many, many music supervisors listen to…hint, hint)? Of course not. Instead, get out there, get your music heard and written about. Try to connect with some local filmmakers and allow them to comp your music into their films. Who knows where the next Tarantino is coming from. Bring attention to your music in as many ways as possible, and you will soon get attention from music supervisors. Remember, these people view themselves as cutting-edge taste-makers, they like to feel they are discovering things on their own; pitching them isn’t going to work.

     If you’re thinking that music supervision might be a cool gig, go West, young man. Start connecting with people in the film community. Start getting to know young and upcoming directors (film schools would be a good place to start), and — all the while — cultivate a unique knowledge and point of view with music. A great music supervisor has an expansive understanding of music; both past and current. They can just as effortlessly pull from their mental library some obscure track from a 50s rockabilly band as they can draw on the most contemporary electronica. So, get out there and absorb, and then start showing your knowledge. This can be done via blogging, writing in a more traditional manner, and, of course, DJing. All the while, make those connections.

     Music and film are so deeply intertwined that we can’t imagine one without the other. However, as with all things in this business of music, there is a process that must be understood in order to operate at that high level of efficiency needed to compete. This article hopefully will give you a starting point.