The Real Job of the Music Supervisor

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.