A list of music supervisors might look like the Holy Grail to the uninitiated. But having a music supervisor directory is only part of the puzzle when trying to pitch your music for film and TV. Knowing what the people on that list are currently working on, and what kind of music they’re looking for at the moment is the true key to success..

Music supervisors aren’t just looking for good music, they’re looking for great music that fills a need. And more often than not, what they need is music that supports the central emotion of the scene. They also need the music to enhance that emotion without getting in the way of the story the script and dialog are telling.

What Music Supervisors Are Not Looking For…

In other words, they generally don’t want a song that tells a story of its own. More than likely, that would conflict with the story already being told. Obviously, instrumental music doesn’t have the issue of conflicting lyrics, but the mood, texture, or overall vibe of just the track could also conflict with the mood.

Imagine a scene showing family and friends mourning at a grave site with a happy, uptempo track playing in the background. Incongruous, unexpected, and probably un-cool!

A music supervisor might also be looking for music that puts the viewer in a physical place or location like an elegant restaurant or a redneck bar. Can you imagine that redneck bar scene with classical music coming from the jukebox? How about the elegant restaurant scene with death metal blaring in the background?

A Music Supervisor List Isn’t Much Help On Its Own

So having a list of TV music supervisors or a directory of the top music supervisors in Hollywood in your hot little hands won’t help you much if you don’t know what they need! How do you find out? Do your homework. Watch TV! Make a list of songs or types of instrumental tracks that particular music supervisor uses on that specific show.

Get Inside the Music Supervisor’s Head

Most shows that use a lot of music have what I would call a musical signature or “sound.” Some of that signature sound is determined by the time period the show takes place in. For instance, Mad Men is going to need a completely different type of music than a show like NCIS. One takes place in the 1960s, and the other is current.

Mad Men sometimes uses 60s-sounding songs to act more like what a score would normally do, while NCIS is more likely to use source music—meaning that it comes from a source like a car radio in a scene where a character is driving somewhere.

Beyond how the time period or types of scenes can dictate the music used, many music supervisors like to be on the cutting edge of cool. They want to be known for using music that’s fresh and new. They want to impress the producers they work with by staying ahead of the curve.

That can be critically important, especially when licensing music for a film. The film might not be released for several months, maybe even a year ahead of when the music is selected and mixed into the movie. If they load the film up with music that was on the charts six months prior to completion, then it could easily be out of fashion when the film is finally viewed by the public.

Music Libraries. Friend or Foe?

While music libraries are arguably being used less these days by music supervisors, I don’t think they’ll ever go completely away. They serve a purpose—providing pre-cleared music at a reasonable price. And many of today’s libraries include songs with lyrics, not just the canned instrumental music found in the libraries of yore.

As a parting thought, you might find it more productive to get your music placed in libraries or repped by a film/TV music agent rather than buying a directory of music supervisors, doing all the research yourself, and trying to contact them on a one-to-one basis to pitch your music. You might be smart to give up a piece of the income in exchange for increasing your odds of success and doing much less of the leg work.

After all 50% of something is always worth more than 100% of nothing!

Film and TV Music Licensing Opportunities For Independent Musicians

Running opportunities for Film and TV placements in our Music Industry Listings back in 1992 made me the laughing stock of the music business. It was unheard of for Indie artists and songwriters to get their songs placed in network TV shows or better yet, feature films put out by major Hollywood studios back then.

Nobody seemed to know much about Production Music Libraries (which are Film & TV music publishers) – what they did, how they worked, or what kind of music they needed to license to TV or Film productions. I knew because at one point in my career I managed the largest audio post-production studio on the planet, and we used tracks from the best Production Music Libraries every day.

We used them for background music on TV shows and commercials. We used library tracks under voiceovers for radio spots. We licensed music from Production Music Libraries for Industrial Videos… you know, those cheesy videos that widget manufacturers and big pharmaceutical companies put out.

The point is, it just wasn’t cool to license your music for anything but records. Indie musicians and major label artists all turned up their noses at the very thought of having their music in a TV show or movie.

Funny how all that’s changed! Now, even the Rolling Stones and the Beatles will license their music for film, TV and video game projects. Major labels are more than happy to license music from their acts for TV shows, simply to get some exposure.

And who do you think was one of the earliest pioneers of helping Indie artists, bands and composers license their music? Yes, TAXI, the company that everybody in the music business laughed at. Trust me, they are definitely not laughing any more.

As a matter of fact, hundreds of companies have tried to imitate what TAXI does, but they all lack one very critical element – human ears. TAXI filters the music companies ask us to find. We use industry experts under our roof to find the very best. While the music supervisors like using music from Independent artists and songwriters, they don’t want to search a database full of less than wonderful music.

It takes more than a website and a database full of mediocre music to get the job done well.

That’s exactly why I created TAXI, and that’s why we are still the world’s leading independent A&R company. People from the TV, Film and Music industries don’t have the time to filter. We do it for them. We give them what they ask for. We give them what they need. We give them top notch music from the very best Indie artists, songwriters and composers.

The irony in all of this was best demonstrated when I asked an A&R person from Interscope Records this question during our annual, members-only convention, the Road Rally, last year, “What do you think is the best thing the people in this audience can do to get on your radar? Where do they start getting your attention so you’ll sign them to a record deal?”

The answer he offered up? “The best thing you can do is try to get your music placed on a TV show or in a movie!”

Wow, seventeen years later and TAXI is finally cool. That A&R person was right of course. Getting your music placed in TV shows and Films is just as much about the exposure as it is about the money. And if you do it persistently, and for a period of years, you’ll be able to turn it into a full-time gig because the money can really add up over time.

More specifics about how to make money by placing your music in Films and TV shows in a future blog!

I recently had a member of TAXI’s forum ask what the difference was between a production music library and a music publisher. Great question! Here’s the answer I posted:

Production Music Libraries and Publishers are both publishers, and it’s my observation that the best music libraries get most of their best placements by doing hand to hand combat — meaning that they develop relationships and actively pitch. Another observation is that Film and TV music supervisors really don’t like to search databases for music. They’d rather email or call a human, have them cull a few tracks they think would work and pitch them, whether by email or in some cases, in person. The world’s biggest and best music libraries have sales forces all over the world.

A straight up music publisher like Warner Chappel or Universal Music Pub might have as many as 250,000 (or more) titles in their catalog (spanning decades) and a staff of creative people who act kind of like TAXI, in that they tell their writers which songs are best, give their writers some creative advice and hand-holding, sometimes in the form of pairing up co-writes, as well as pitching their songs to artists, and yes, even film and TV opportunities.

A couple of major differences are that publishers like Universal typically don’t sign single songs. Instead, they sign songwriters, give them an advance against future income, and the songwriters need to turn in a song or two per month (that meet the pub’s standards), depending on the number of co-writers they will be splitting the income with.

To get a staff songwriter deal, it typically takes having a song that’s already been cut to get the publishers interested. Once they know there’s an income stream, they’re much more interested. They often want a piece of the existing cut. Another way to get a pub deal is to get a record deal and be the songwriter in the band, or for yourself if you’re a solo artist. Once you’ve inked the record deal, a publisher will often offer you a pub deal because there is some probability that the record will generate mechanicals, and with tons of good fortune, performance income as well through airplay, etc.

A big difference with libraries is that they typically don’t give advances (unless you’re creating custom projects/CDs they commission you to create to order), and many of them offer non-exclusive contracts on single songs. I think it will be quite some time before the majors do non-exclusives, as they’re interested in building equity. Exclusive rights build equity, much like equity in stocks or real estate. Eventually, they cash in their chips and sell off the entire catalog for what is called a multiple, similar to selling a business for X times net profit.

Gotta stop now before I write a book. Hope this helps,
Michael