Music Supervisor, Dominique Preyer is an experienced music clearance and licensing professional with a background in music publishing, songwriting and film production. He has served as music supervisor on over 35 films and is the owner of
Hear It - Clear It Music Supervision.
Dominique has music supervised films by some well know directors. Films such as Misunderstood, directed by Clark Johnson (S.W.A.T., The Shield, The Wire), MANchild directed by Rawson Marshall Thurber (Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh), Bitter Memories directed by Joshua Marston (Maria Full of Grace, New York, I Love You) and Secret At Arrow Lake directed by Brad Keller who directed the TV movie and series Inspector Mom.
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May 27, 2009
I’m constantly reminded that many filmmakers (and the general public) have a misunderstanding of what the role of a music supervisor is. Many think that a music supervisor sits back and listens to CDs all day making musical selections for the films and TV shows they work on.
Some of the music supervisors on popular TV series such as Alexandra Patsavas (Chuck, Gossip girl, Grey’s Anatomy), PJ Bloom (Nip/Tuck, Glee, CSI Miami), Lindsay Wolfington (Ghost Whisperer, One Tree Hill, Smallville) and Madonna Wade-Reed (Castle, Smallville, One Tree Hill, Las Vegas) spend more time listening to music. Keep in mind though; they have a staff of one or more interns or assistants that help weed through a lot of the music they receive. They also help catalog the music in their libraries giving the music sups more time to deal with paperwork. Since they are ultimately responsible for the proper clearance of the songs the use, they have to put the administrative side first.
In an exclusive interview with Buddytv.com Alexandra Patsavas said, “When people wonder about music supervision, it’s not just about the creative choice, it’s also about responsible budgeting, clearance, you know, budgeting your time. It’s definitely, like, it’s not only a creative task, but a very business-oriented task as far as pulling the rest of it together. The business of music supervision is essential to its success.” Full Interview
I’ve heard so people say that they want to be a music supervisor because it would be a dream job to listen to music all day. These folks or wannabe music supervisors will have a rude awakening if they ever get the chance to work on a film or TV show. The filmmaker’s that feel they can do the job as a music supervisor are really doing themselves a disservice by not hiring someone with the skills, knowledge and experience to do the job right.
I’ve worked on close to 30 films. I’ve had the luxury to find the music on only seven films. On the other 23 films, the director had already picked all of the songs before I came on board. My role on these film were to clear the rights to the songs to include a ton of calls and e-mails to publishers, record labels, artist management, and songwriter and musicians, draft license agreements and/or reviewing those that are issued, negotiating licensing fees, reading scripts, creating cue sheets and any other administrative duties required. On several films it was my job to create the music budget.
Jacqueline Marmo, of Imprint Magazine, interview One Tree Hill music supervisor, Lindsay Wolfington. Lindsay talked about music in TV shows and what’s involved on the creative side. She went on to say, “It’s not only matching the song to a scene, it’s going to the labels and publishers and getting permission to use the song and keeping the episode at or under budget. It’s also knowing good unsigned artists who are easily clearable at an inexpensive price,” she said. “A typical day for me includes clearing songs for one episode, listening to cheaper alternatives to replace an expensive song in another episode, and reading a script and sending music for a third episode!” Full Interview
Building relationships is an important part of the music supervisor’s job. If you can’t talk intelligently about music clearance and licensing with publishers and record labels you’re not going to get the job done. After working with major and independent publishers and labels over the last five years, I have build great working relationships that have been very instrumental in negotiating licensing deals.
If you can’t do the administrative side of music supervision, don’t call yourself a music supervisor. To more accurately paint a picture of the workload, the creative side takes about 30% of the time and the administrative side takes about 70%.
I do get my share of CDs. I wish I had the time listen to them as they arrive. I have several CDs that have been sitting on the shelf for a few months. I’ll get to them, but not any time soon. The CDs that I listen to right away are the one’s that I request of if I heard the band play and really like their music.
The job of a music supervisor can be a dream job if you can handle all aspects of it. If you can’t, it can be a nightmare job.
September 10, 2008
After a semi extended escape from blogging I’m back. I didn’t take a break from my music supervision work as this is my job and main source of income. I did have to endure many disruptions with moving my family back to the Austin area. Several films kicked into high gear during this time leaving me with very little time for many of my other projects to include my consultation services.
I’m back now and will start my regular blogging again. I plan to expand beyond the filmmaker side and blog about the music side as well. This is a huge part of what I do and there’s a lot of songwriters and musicians eager to get their music into films. The music world reads my blog as well and I want to bridge the gap!
More blogs to come…
July 23, 2008
I am a member of many film and music groups and forums. If frequent several Yahoo groups such as Music Supervision for Film & TV, The Budgeting Group, Doculink and Film Finance & Investing. Other forums that I’m a member of are the Composer’s Forum, filmmaking.net, and ReelGrok where I am a Tutor/Consultant.
I reply to a lot of post about music clearance and situations that pertain to music in films. I find it very interesting how I rarely get a reply or have other members join in the discussion. It appears to me that once I chime in, no one wants to discuss the subject as I might call them on their music use.
It’s the same thing that happens when a state trooper pulls onto the interstate and everyone slows down and follows all of the driving laws. Some drivers exit because their inspection sticker has expired or they have no insurance. They want to avoid any chance for the officer to pull them over with probable cause.
I know there’s a lot of probable cause going on in the film industry. I’m not going to pull anyone over, if you will, if I find out that they have not cleared the music in their film. I just point out the fact that they are supposed to clear and license the music and offer a few words to help them understand what needs to be done. I inform them that music is property owned by someone and it’s not free to use without permission.
I’ve taken it one step further and offer consulting services for those who just need an hour or so of my time to consult them in the right direction. I can also be hired as the music supervisor to do the music clearance and licensing for the project as well as all of the administrative task that most filmmakers are not aware of. This is a very important service and can be invaluable. Getting the job done right from the start will alleviate a lot of headaches and frustration down the road.
When I hear people talk about how they don’t think they have to pay to use music, I have to turn the table on them. I ask how they would feel if they found out that someone use footage from their film and didn’t bother to clear it with them first. They don’t like it and they say it’s different when it comes to music. People think music is free because you can record it off the radio or the Internet. It’s readily available. What they don’t understand is these radio stations have to pay ASCAP, BMI and SESAC an annual license fee to legally broadcast the music you hear. This is the same for any business that play music to the public. Internet use has to be cleared also.
I have a lot of publishing and record label contacts that I work with everyday. I don’t need to tell them that their music is being used with out their permission. They already know. They have a team of attorneys that take care of this.
I want to hear from anyone about their music clearance needs. I’m not going to report anyone. I’m just going to help. I’m a music supervisor not a police.
July 16, 2008
Most things are really not free even if the name says free. There’s always a catch in the fine print or you have to pay something to get the so called “free item.” That free toy you got out of the box of cereal when you were a kid was not free. Even thought the big letters on the box said “Free,” you had to buy the cereal before you could get the toy.
In the case of Royalty Free Music, it’s not free either. The term “Royalty Free” is a misnomer as you have to pay something to get to use the music. It doesn’t really matter if you pay the fee upfront as a buyout or on the back end as a licensing fee; you are still paying the copyright owners of the use of the song.
If you Google “Royalty Free Music,” the first hit you’ll get is royaltyfreemusic.com/. Go figure, Google Royalty Free Music and your first hit is royaltyfreemusic.com. When their home page comes up, the first thing you see $35.95 for individual tracks, $99.95 for compact disks and a $299.95 subscription.
Aside from the free issue, there are other things that you need to be aware of when using library music. It’s extremely important that you read the license agreement, terms and conditions or any disclaimer they have posted on their site.
If your distribution plan includes a major theatrical release, you should be careful. The Music Bakery’s fine print states,
“Use in major theatrical releases or in mass-market retail distribution (3000+ units) is licensed separately by contacting Kelly Atkinson at 800-229-0313 or kelly@musicbakery.com”
You would not want to use this music if you have a theatrical release planned or if you think your film has a chance of selling over 3,000 units. You’ll have to negotiate some other deal. This is not true for all library music companies. You must read the fine print for each and then determine if it’s right for your film.
You should also know that you will be issued a license for the music you use. This license that you are granted covers a wide range of rights and is issued directly from the company that provides the music to you. Some companies are an extension of a larger publishing company and there may be more restrictions.
A requirement that all royalty free music libraries demand is that you properly create and file a cue sheet with performance rights organizations such as ASCAP and BMI. Your license agreement will cover which organization you will be responsible to file with. It may be both.
There are several advantages with going the royalty fee music route. The first is one-stop shopping. You can clear both the sync and master rights with the same company. Going this route is fairly quick. Many licenses can be granted over the Internet and you do not have to deal with a licensing rep. Just click and pay. Getting music that fits your music budget is another reason filmmakers choose royalty free music.
There is always a downside to anything that seems to be a good thing. Royalty free music will limit you in your creative expression within your film. There’s no doubt that using authentic music by artists that create music with a passion is more conducive to setting the mood of a scene. If your music budget is tight, you can search for independent, local artists/bands for good music.
All in all, royalty free music will cost you. Nothing is free here. If you have zero dollars in your budget, don’t make the mistake and think royalty free music is the answer. It can work in your favor to some degree and limit you in others. Do your homework and read the fine print. Contact the company and ask questions. I prefer e-mailing them so you can have a written record of anything they tell you in the event you find yourself in a licensing bind.
July 4, 2008
Do you remember the lyrics to the song by Digital Underground, “Okay, stop what you’re doing, ’cause I’m about to ruin the image and the style that you’re used to.” That’s my goal in the blog posting. I want you to stop production, take a moment to think about the song choices you have in your film right now. Can you really afford the licensing fees? Do you even have a clue as to how much it will cost to license these songs? Have you even given the owner of the song the right to decide if they even want their song your film?
I don’t mean to ruin your musical vision. I just want to prevent you from having to deal with the stress and headache down the road. As a music supervisor, I deal with this everyday. I hear the frustration in the filmmaker’s voice when we discuss the clearing and licensing issues that have surfaced. Actually these issues didn’t just surface, they were just being ignored.
My point is, no one is listening. No one is taking the time to question the music that’s being edited into their film. It’s insane! Who’s in charge during filming when music is picked up (incidental music) and no one says we can’t afford that songs, let’s re-shoot. Who’s in charge during post? Who was in charge when the script was being broke down and the budget was prepared.
Why do I always rant and rave about this? Because (as I’ve stated several times before) I keep getting the calls and the e-mails from desperate directors and/or producers who need to clear this ridiculous list of songs that they’ve allowed to get placed in their film. Now they have a distributor who has told them that they cannot move forward with a distribution deal unless they clear all the songs in their film.
Now I get the list of music cues and the music budget they want me to use to clear these songs. It’s like going to the grocery store with $100 in your pocket and you fill you shopping cart with $5,000 worth of groceries. It’s not going to work. You wouldn’t walk into the equipment rental store and grab a HD camera, a lighting kit and sound equipment and just walk out? No! You have to pay for it.
So why do you think you can just pick a handful of songs and throw them in your film without getting permission first and then paying the fees you’re quoted? Someone owns the music just like the groceries, camera, lighting kit and sound equipment. Nothing is for free. Someone had to pay for it at one point.
You’ve been making the festival rounds with music you have not cleared and no one has said a word. You think you’ve gotten away with something. You haven’t. My question to you is, “how serious are you about the future of your film?” Why put yourself in the position of having to come up with thousands of dollars to clear these songs and the expense to remove the songs that you can’t afford.
Right now while you’re still in post you should ask yourself, “how much money do I have for music?” “How much money can I raise?” Be brutally honest here. There are a lot of songs that will work just the same that are more affordable.
You know, when I bring this subject up, no one seems to want to comment. I really wish I could get some feedback from filmmakers that fall into this category. I would really like to know the thought process that goes on while sitting there editing the film and you can hear music that’s obviously a very popular song by a very well known artist. These are the songs you should stay away from unless you have a fairly large music budget.
So have you stopped what you’re doing and really put some thought in to the music you have in your film right now? Let me hear form someone who’s in this situation right now. Just post a comment or send me an e-mail.
One last thing to remember, aside from the financial issues, is the fact that you must clear the rights to use music in your film. That’s right! You must get permission first. Then if permission is granted, you can then deal with the licensing fees that you are quoted.
Remember, “If you can hear it, clear it…and then pay for it.”
