Effective Music Supervision

If you are working as a music supervisor, you have an obligation to ensure that all music and media smoothly coincides to make a brilliant production. You may be responsible for managing a team of musicians or music directors and so face double the pressure. Whether you work for a major film studio or a small ad agency, you are expected to deliver the same result: perfection. You have been hired to select and license the best music for the production.

This is as much a creative job as it is a logistic job. You must not only choose the appropriate music for the project but also have to negotiate for licensing, and this is not always an easy process. Remember that if you are working in television or movies, you should be emphasizing the story and the emotion of what is currently happening. You must also choose music that is appropriate for the time period and the cultural location. Give your audience credit. They will be able to tell if the soundtrack or score is inappropriate for the fictional “world” being presented. Ideally, you want the music to help intensify the themes of the production. Make the movie stand out, not the music.

Another aspect of music supervision is establishing communication between the production and distribution entities as well as the performing rights groups. These groups exist to ensure that all rights are properly negotiated and artists are not cheated out of their royalties. This presents some challenging obstacles. One of the most common problems in music supervision is when a director falls in love with a piece of music (or a song) that is too expensive to license for the production. How can you address the situation? The director is counting on you to come up with a workable solution.

If you cannot legally use the music then have music custom made to resemble the original piece. This is sometimes known as a sound-alike. The challenge then is to describe the essential details of the music. Two pieces of music can be technically similar and still have very different feels. And vice versa, two pieces of music can convery the same feeling even if they are made with completely different instruments and techniques. The Music Genome Project stores vast amouts of information about popular music. If the song you like is represented (search for it with Pandora), you can extract some information that way.

There are always workable solutions if you have the drive to succeed!