Music Supervisors for Films & Commercials: How do you become one? How do you get them to listen to your band?

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let's make a practical thread with lots of links and hopefully some comments from people who actually do this for a living.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:34 (twenty years ago)

interview w/ alexandra patsavas of The Chop Shop (The O.C., etc):
http://www.themusicedge.com/moxie/news/spotartist/alexandra-patsavas-on-the.shtml

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:36 (twenty years ago)

I just started assisting in this capacity with a television show... It seems to be a world of people who know other people, sorta thing. It's immense fun, though.

― Jay Watts III (jaywatts), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:41 (twenty years ago)

http://www.goodnightkiss.com/licensingmusic.html

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:42 (twenty years ago)

I used to be a video editor at an ad agency and bands and labels would send stuff to me constantly. If it was any good, I might throw it on a rough cut to show the creatives, but it wasn't my job to make those decisions. Usually, if we liked a track we'd just hire a composer to rip it off for us.

― [tuvan throat singer's profound lyric sheet-must read again] (nordicskilla), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:42 (twenty years ago)

it's my dream job, though i guess it probably entails a lot more than sitting around sipping chanpagne and saying "you know what would would be good here? some claudine longet" from time to time, as i imagine it

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:44 (twenty years ago)

that person, as you describe them, simply does not exist.

― [tuvan throat singer's profound lyric sheet-must read again] (nordicskilla), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:45 (twenty years ago)

yeah, i know... just daydreaming

anybody out there ever sell a song to a movie or commercial?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 6 January 2006 23:46 (twenty years ago)

That's how I kinda imagined it too.

"Gentlemen, we need a song to go along with our teenaged hero solving his inner conflict aand kissing the girl as the credits roll"

"But sir, who could have such an extensive knowledge of quirky music to go along with our quirky scene!?"

"Only one man could be up for such a task. Bring me...Indie-Man!"

And yes, I still believe in "movie magic" as well.

― Cunga (Cunga), Saturday, 7 January 2006 00:02 (twenty years ago)

read the first line of this then
http://www.bobthompsonmusic.com/music_supervision_10_principles.html

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Saturday, 7 January 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

I tried to do this for a minute, met several times with a company who does this, they said they wanted me but I just had to wait a little while. Then they went under. Anyhow, it's not as glamorous as you might think. A lot of times, at least where I was going to work, it's indie films with tiny budgets who want to use Beatles songs and are like "We have a $1000". You're the guy who lets them down by sending them Apples in Stereo, who are too expensive anyway.

But yeah it does seem like the perfect job for music geeks, doesn't it?

― mcd (mcd), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:20 (twenty years ago)

This company is awesome. There was a New York Times article about them way back when: http://www.agoraphone.com/ Fritz maybe you could intern.

― mcd (mcd), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:26 (twenty years ago)

http://www.agoraphone.com/nytimes.html

― mcd (mcd), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:30 (twenty years ago)

I do this for a living (for a french production company that does mainly ads), and it is of course quite a good job for a music geek.

The good part (I mean, the morally satisfying one) is that you have to investigate areas of music you're not really supposed to be interested in (ie Gnawa music, music for mickey-mousing, etc...), and i love it.

The bad side is that the whole process of audio post-production is dominated a lowest common denominator finding philosophy : Dido often wins in the end.

― snowballing (snowballing), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:39 (twenty years ago)

why not just skip the middle man and offer your face for a tin of baked beans already?

― Good Dog (Good Dog), Saturday, 7 January 2006 16:40 (twenty years ago)

OMG! I would ROOL at this job:

Guy gets a promotion at job
CUE: "I Feel Good" by James Brown

Woman is told on the phone she is the most beautiful
CUE: "You Make Me Feel (Like A Natural Woman)- Aretha Franklin

People in an office party get drunk and rowdy
CUE: "Tequila" by The Champs

Kid gets A+ on test
CUE: "I Feel Good" by James Brown

Dude gets wailed in the nuts
CUE: wah-wah-wah sad french horn noise

I could go on for days.

― titty sanskrit (sanskrit), Sunday, 8 January 2006 01:08 (twenty years ago)

paging mike appelstein to thread. he did some music stuff for "the adventures of pete & pete", i believe.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 8 January 2006 01:12 (twenty years ago)

ha. This thread is excellent. I think every time I watch any tv show and any vaguely interesting song comes up I wish that was my job.

― Stephen C (ihope), Sunday, 8 January 2006 02:34 (twenty years ago)

For Pete & Pete, it was really just a matter of meeting the producers (my roommate and I worked at Viacom with them), making them some mixtapes that seemed to fit in with their stated needs, and letting them handle the actual licensing end. I got a nice end credit, but no actual $$. (Which is fine. I'm looking forward to showing my kids that end credit someday.)

It's really cool knowing that those mixtapes inspired some young viewers learn more about Apples in Stereo, Magnetic Fields, etc. I'd love to do more of this. Won't someone else hire me?

― mike a, Sunday, 8 January 2006 19:38 (twenty years ago)

dude, pete & pete is where i first heard bands like apples in stereo! so i am forever indebted to you.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 8 January 2006 20:02 (twenty years ago)

That's what I mean, Maria - those two Pete & Pete seasons were far more influential than my 14 years of zine publishing.

― mike a, Monday, 9 January 2006 03:25 (twenty years ago)

Heh. You're gonna make me go over to the YSI thread looking for Polaris, aren't you?

― js (honestengine), Monday, 9 January 2006 03:28 (twenty years ago)

This is a great thread, keep it coming. By the way, my face is available for baked beans tins if anyone's interested.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 9 January 2006 16:37 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

does anyone have links to any good articles about this subject?

― titchy (titchyschneiderMk2), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 16:32 (sixteen years ago)

big george wrote a fair bit about this for sound on sound magazine, i think you can access some of the old articles online

― Crackle Box, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 18:58 (sixteen years ago)

ack sorry music supervisors, not writing music for tv

― Crackle Box, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:02 (sixteen years ago)

The band I used to be in got a song in a movie trailer (and several other songs in ads for AMC) because we allowed a service called Rumblefish to license our songs.

― Hoisin Murphy (jaymc), Wednesday, 13 January 2010 19:07 (sixteen years ago)

I was offered a chance to interview for one of these jobs but I was also told you have to move to LA (i.e. in general), which I would consider but can't do... It helped that I knew the person in charge. ;-) I also envisioned it as you did, by the way!

― Saxby D. Elder, Wednesday, 13 January 2010 21:21 (sixteen years ago)

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