So You Want To Be A Music Supervisor

After receiving another e-mail yesterday from someone wanting advice about how to become a music supervisor, I decided to make this the topic of this week’s blog. I get e-mails, MySpace messages and letters in the mail from aspiring music supervisors from all over the world. Many even live in big music and film cities such as New York and LA where there are many music supervisors at their disposal. I guess I can’t complain.

The first thing I’ll say is, “don’t quit your day job.” If you are just getting started, you have a long road ahead of you. If you are involved in some aspect of the music and film industry, you at least have some idea of how these industries work. It will be a long time (many years) before you’ll see enough money to make a living. This means you’ll have to work your day job and then carve out time to work your music supervisor job in the evenings, on your days off and the weekends. This can impact your family life, your social life or anything else you do when you’re not working your day job. What you’ll need is drive and perseverance and support from your spouse/partner, your kids and your friends.

I’m going to take the approach that you are completely new to this field. The first thing you should do is sit at your computer, go to google.com and type in one or all of these search terms: “Music Supervision,” “Music Supervisors,” “Music Clearance,” and “Music Rights.” Any of these will get you started. You’ll get a lot of hits. Start reading and as you learn more, use Google to research new terms and other bits of information that you find. Go to a book store or your local library and read. There are a lot of books out there about Music Supervision, Music Clearance and other topics within this field.

A good resource to read that will get you started is the book, Music Supervision: The Complete Guide to Selecting Music for Movies, TV, Games and New Media. This book has an associated website called Music Supervision Central and a Yahoo Group called supervisingmusic. I’m one of the moderators of the Yahoo group and we are trying to get group up and running again. I’m in the process of revamping it and making it a place where you can go to learn more about how to licenses music for your films or licensing your music for placement in films. Click on the link above and join if you’re interested…and you should be if you are serious about getting into this fascinating field.

There are other resources out there that you can find on-line at Amazon or at Barns & Noble. You just have to do some homework.

If you live in a city where the film and music industry is alive, you need to start networking. Introduce yourself to filmmakers. Let them know that you are just starting out as a music supervisor and you are looking for work. With your research and studies, you should be able to talk halfway intelligently with your “potential employer.” Don’t mislead anyone by making them think that you are an experienced music supervisor. Tell them upfront that you are just getting started and you’re looking for an opportunity to work on films to learn more.

These early job opportunities will most likely be non-paid positions. That’s why you should not quit your day job. Don’t worry about making money at first. Most of these films will not have a music budget and could not afford to pay you anyway. Those that can will expect you to know what you are doing in order to earn the fee that they will pay you.

While you’re out networking, you’ll want to introduce yourself to musicians and songwriters. They are always looking for an opportunity to license their music in films and TV. Do the same with them and let them know that you’re starting out and most of the film opportunities will not be able to pay a license fee. If they are unsigned, independent artist, then they should be happy to get one of their songs in a film.

Working on these low budget films is the best way to get started. However, you will have to prepare yourself for the bigger movies that have music budgets. They will most likely need you to clear songs from upper tier artist. This is when you’ll be submitting your license request forms to the big publishers and record labels such as Sony, EMI, Warner Bros. and Universal. This is when you’ll learn a lot about how things work.

As you progress in your pursuit to become a full fledged music supervisor, you will need to know the ins and outs of music licensing, music rights, copyright laws, license agreements, cue sheets, filling out and submitting synch and master recording license request forms, synchronization (or synch) licenses, master recording licenses, negotiation licensing fees, build relationships with major and independent publishers and record labels. These are many of the tasks that fall under the administrative side of music supervision. These are also terms you can use when searching on Google.

On the creative side, you’ll find music that is creatively and financially applicable to the film or show you are working on. You’ll work with the director to spot the film for potential music cues. You’ll work with the director and composer to map out the musical score for the film. Facilitate the recording of original music written specifically for the film or show.

If this is a field you’re truly interested in getting involved with, get started now. There’s a lot to learn. If you really want to be a full blown music supervisor, you’ll need to learn all aspects of the field. Once you get to the point where you are hired on a film that has distribution, it will be your job to insure that all of the music clearance deliverables are accurate and ready to be handed over to the distributor. You don’t want to be the cog in the system that brings the production to a halt.