"Supervision"--Placing Music in a Movie or TV Show, Part I

When TuneCore first began, we called George: few people understand the music business as deeply. George Howard is a professor of management at Loyola University, New Orleans. He is the former president of Rykodisc, and founder of Slow River Records. He is the senior editor for Artists House Music, and a board member and advisor for a number of companies including Wolfgang's Vault and Daytrotter. He has written two books on the music business for Berklee Media. Check out his personal blog at www.9giantsteps.com.

Supervision

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. A 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 just at 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 the director had.

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.

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 flood gats. 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. Of course, 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. 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 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 not set fee for this, it’s completely negotiable. If you’re an unknown artist who likely benefit from the exposure of having your music used in a film, the music supervisor is unlikely to offer you anything more than a very nominal sum. Of course, 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. Also, it’s 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 said above that you typically have to clear both the publishing rights and the master-holder rights, but not always. 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.

Part of the negotiating process of clearing the songs is the extent of use. You may, for example as a music supervisor, 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 a soundtrack album, or 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.

To continue on to Part II, please click here.

Comments

[george Howard]

@Christopher Alpiar

Christopher,

I have long been a proponent of the idea that music is undervalued in our culture. I don't blame downloading for the current state of the music industry; instead, I feel it was the fault of the labels who caved in to the demands of retailers and began lowering CD prices.

This resulted in a reduction of the perceived and real value of music in the consumers' eyes.

A similar thing has happened in the placement world. Because the supply so outstrips the demand, a buyer's market has been created, where those looking for music can pretty much name the price they are willing to pay (however embarrassingly low this may be), and will still have to beat off those willing to take their price with a stick.

My obligation to my students and to companies for whom I work is to help them build sustainable assets. What those assets are changes. Even with these changes, I am only interested in educating those students, and aiding those companies whom have the desire to impact the culture in a positive manner over the long term. Doing so requires a deep cognizance not only of the market, but also of the value propositions as they change. More importantly, it requires a deep cognizance of the value of work itself.

George

[Bobby Perry]

hi;
My name is Bobby Perry owner of BLUE BOBBY PRODUCTIONS. This article was most informative. I have two Cd's out at this time and plans for more. Check out my music. I would like to work in this industry on-line to create music. I compose, arrange, mix, and master. Contact me by e-mail or Idabamusic.com..

BOBBY PERRY
BLUE BOBBY PRODUCTIONS
Akila Records

[Christopher Alpiar]

I understand there is a misconception by a LOT of artists who subsequently get ripped off for the one thing of value they have - their art. And so what you do by teaching that it is the norm is to enforce that is what people should expect. The only reason why any composer ever gives up their (c) is because they are weak or because they have been *educated* that it is the only way. As a professor of music business one would expect you to be hyper-sensitive to this and we could only hope that you would do the best you are able at teaching your young generations of musicians, composers, songwriters and business people, that in order for our business to stop degrading and once again to flourish, music creators must stop themselves from being trampled on.

Especially today as more and more music for underscore is taken directly from libraries, more sample libraries are used instead of live orchestra, the sync fees paid for scoring is going down and down. It is very usual today to get asked to complete a score for a full length feature where the composer pays for all the production for $40k or less! 2-3 months of complete focus and paying for the live orchestra which is required. So we have to use some Eastern European orchestra to meet the budget in some crazed recording in 3 days produced over the internet and still barely ending up with enough money to pay for your bills. Meanwhile your life force and creative ideas that will never be there again are gone, gone gone. Copyright turned over so some production company suit can put his name on the cue sheet and collect your royalties...

Its beyond out of control today and the place it must start changing is in education. We have a responsibility to teach film makers to support the art fairly and justly - and to teach the music creators to stand up and know we have worth! Not everyone can write for 80 piece orchestra and make it work for the picture being viewed...

Thanks for your reply, I hope you agree with my sentiment

[Gregory Perkins]

I was very informed in this letter. I know these things already but it was informative. Thanks a lot for clearifying that for me.

[George Howard]

@Christopher

Christopher,

Thanks for your comments. My intention here is to make people very aware of the landscape that is out there. Works for hire are *very* much a part of that landscape, and sadly people only realize exactly what this means after the fact.

Perhaps my definition of scoring is overly broad, but I have personally been in the middle of any number of deals where the writer has been asked to relinquish her (c) in exchange for a fee. This is work for hire at its most basic, and I see it in all areas of the industry.

GH

[Christopher Alpiar]

I cant understand how in today's world you can consider that score is work for hire?! Other than the top 10 composers who can garnish massive fees, there is no such thing as work for hire in this industry for composers. That ended in 1939 when the DOJ forced the big 5 film companies to dismantle their empires to the tune of the Sherman Act. Consider how the industry is today for anyone other than the top 10 composers and you will see how ridiculous it is to say scoring is work for hire

[King Casey]

Heyya to all my musical brothers and sisters. King Casey checkin in to shout out from Chi-town

Be sure to check my greatest shits
Tunes like TOO FAR, Wyatt lil Warrior, Badge of Honor, Waterside, Bitch, or even KEEPIN IT REAL

The music is genuine! Enjoy

Clanken@aol.com
www.myspace.com/kingcaseyband
www.hittmusicgroup.com/kingcasey

[RatherBros]

I'm on the edge of my seat reading. Protocal material for ALL of us that have music and ambition.

[J-Pimp]

Thanks for posting this. I'm an indie Hip-Hop artist and publishing company in Miami, FL and this is a lot a relevant info. I wonder how many indie artist like myself have managed to juggle the role of music supervisor and artist?

Check out my music at
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001C7OAGA