Shining a Light On Music Supervision in the Indie World
Things I’ve learned standing at the music and film crossroads: a blog series.
Music is the love of my life. I probably sang my first word, as opposed to speaking it. Don’t worry, this article won’t be about my life story. But I will start with a brief rundown of my background so you can understand the context of my experience as a songwriter branching out into music supervision. One of my hopes with this blog is to help demystify the field of music supervision, and offer a fresh perspective on the value of its place in the independent film industry by sharing what I’m learning on my journey.
I’ve been a singer/songwriter for most of my life, having started performing live and recording albums back in my teenage years. I knew from a very early age that music was my passion, but in the same vein, I also knew that if I wanted to be successful as an independent artist, I needed to treat my passion as a business. In college, I majored in Communications and minored in Business with the distinct goal of learning marketing and business practices that would assist me with my objectives in making music a sustainable career. I used a lot of the things I learned in school for my career, like building my own website from scratch (ah, the good ol’ stressful days of needing to know HTML code!), writing press releases to promote shows to local media, and creating business plans for each album release. While in school, I played shows on nights and weekends, and after college I did a lot of touring, covering wider territory, and have continued to record and release my music.
Meanwhile, I maintained my education in the ever-evolving music industry by attending conferences for indie artists, including the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) Expo, Sync Summit, NARIP (National Association of Record Industry Professionals) events, NAMM (National Association of Music Merchants) and later, events hosted by Women In Music, the Americana Music Association, the Recording Academy, the Guild of Music Supervisors, the Music Business Association, and more.
Terms like “music supervision,” “sync licensing,” and “song clearance,” became very familiar to me over these years. I gained an increasing understanding of the process of placing music in film and TV, and how all the moving parts worked. I met panelists like music supervisors, sync agents, and publishers — all stars in the constellation of music in media, many who I’ve kept in touch with over the years. On these panels, they explained their duties as well as the importance of a songwriter’s role in the sync process, things like making sure to have proper metadata embedded on tracks and the types of music files to have on hand.
I’ve always been interested in music supervision, as I’m passionate about the power of music in storytelling and creative expression. For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved imagining movie scenes that could pair with whatever songs I was listening to. And while watching films, I would usually be thinking things like, I wonder who wrote this song, and what a great song placement!
My music career eventually trickled into the film world through the achievements of my music videos. I’ve attended many film festivals internationally in support of my video screenings, and I’m grateful to have received over 150 film awards for my music videos, alongside wonderful film crews I’ve worked with and have learned a lot from.
While attending various film festivals over the past few years, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting tons of filmmakers and creatives in the film community, including directors, producers, writers, actors, editors, etc. It soon occurred to me though that I rarely met music supervisors at these film fests and screening events.
I’d also sit on the edge of my seat to watch the ending credits for films, anxiously awaiting to see who music supervised them, but many times I felt let down when a music supervisor wasn’t listed. Of course this wasn’t for every film (and some films pass on using song placements and instead solely hire composers to create original scores), but I noticed that a music supervision credit was far and few between. For films that did have song placements, song titles/artists might be credited, but I often wondered, who was the music supervisor?
During these great networking opportunities at film fests/screenings, filmmakers would talk to me after seeing my music videos, asking to keep in touch in case they ever needed to use my music, or asking if I could recommend artists/songwriters/composers for their future projects. I was more than happy to offer my support in bridging the two creative worlds together.
I’d occasionally ask filmmakers who music supervised their film, and I came to discover that many directors and producers didn’t use a music supervisor, opting to take on the role of placing the music themselves. Or in some cases, they weren’t even aware of what a music supervisor was.
In these instances, I’ll admit I was pretty surprised. Music supervision has always been quite a significant topic of discussion at all the music conferences I’ve attended, where supervisors have talked at length about their roles and how intricately they directly work with the film or series director/producer/showrunner.
And although “music supervisor” has “music” within its job title, it’s always been my understanding that music supervisors were more so identified as working in the film industry, rather than a position in the music industry. Yes, they’ve absolutely got one foot in the music industry because they’re working closely with artists, songwriters, labels, publishers, composers, and other music business professionals to secure the music they need for a project (and I think it’s imperative that music supervisors have a strong understanding of music and the music business). But essentially, they answer to the filmmaker. Their job is to bring his or her visual media vision to musical life. Why then, I wondered on many occasions, did music supervision panels seem to appear on every music conference agenda, but many indie film professionals that I met hadn’t seemed to work with music supervisors?
Obviously this isn’t always the case, and there are tons of inspiring collaborations happening between filmmakers and music supervisors, but I still see a big disconnect in the indie entertainment world. Oftentimes, music for a film appears to be an afterthought — something that’s only regarded in post production — and the last thing on the list (if at all) considered in the overall film budget. While I totally understand the challenges of funding an indie film on a micro budget, it pains me to see the value of music and the importance of music supervision being diminished in the process, intentional or not.
I’m sure all film creatives can agree that at the end of the day, music is a crucial component to the effectiveness of a film. It’s one of a director’s most important tools in communicating a story to the audience. A character can be sitting still with no dialogue, but the music can tell a story to the viewer of how that character is feeling — what’s going on in their head and heart. Just imagine your favorite film with all the music on mute. It most likely wouldn’t give you the same emotional investment as it does with the soundtrack turned on. You might even miss some important meaning to the story without the music telling its cryptic tale. Music supervisors can help create a significant gateway into the film’s emotional terrain and up the ante of any pivotal moment in its story with their song placement decisions.
Besides the creative aspect, it’s usually the music supervisor’s responsibility to handle all the licensing negotiations and paperwork, which involves “clearing,” or approving, a song’s usage in visual media, and what legal terms that entails (type of media, territory, fee, etc). This is an intricate job process that requires skills like organization, research, good communication, and an in depth understanding of music rights. If a song is not properly cleared by a supervisor ahead of time, a filmmaker can find him or herself in quite a pickle if a songwriter requests their song be pulled from a film, especially once it’s already been distributed.
I found myself explaining these concepts to indie filmmakers at festivals so much so, that eventually I started offering, “Hey, if you ever need help placing music in your films, just let me know!” This was my first official step into branching into music supervision territory in a more intentional way.
With a growing interest in the field, I attended the Guild of Music Supervisors ‘State of Music In Media’ conference in the Fall of 2019 in Los Angeles, and joined their community as a ‘Friend of the Guild’ member. I also went to the GMS Awards show in February 2020 in LA, and watched with heart emojis in my eyes at how impressively the Guild brought together both music and film professionals, and celebrated the craft of music supervision. The collaborative spirit of merging music and visual media was a joy to be surrounded by.
I’d love to see this supportive spirit reflected more widely in the indie film world. When I meet a new filmmaker and tell them I can help them with music supervision, it would be amazing to hear them say, “Let’s see if we can collaborate some time!” instead of “What is music supervision?”
I took a deep dive into studying music supervision in the virtual land of 2020 and I’m still learning so much. In writing about my observations and discoveries, I’m hopeful it can kindle some creative discussions, scooting us indies onto the same page when certain lingo is used in our industry. This will make sharing our experiences and communicating our needs to each other as music and film creatives much easier and exciting in order to better serve our artistic endeavors with like-minded professionals.
I’m going to continue to share what I learn on my journey and shine a light on the significance of music supervision in visual media because it’s a craft that’s often misunderstood or overlooked, and yet so wildly invaluable. I also want to do my little part in shrinking the gap that I’ve witnessed between the indie music and film industries. I love the independent entertainment world and as cheesy as it may sound, we are stronger together. I believe that the better we understand each other’s roles and strengths, the better work we will make. And there are so many beautiful things we can make together.
