The Music Supervisor

Lately I have been learning more about leadership and project & team management. I began to think about who the leader of the audio post-production world would be. It didn’t take long for me to come up with the answer.

If you've stayed long enough through the credits at the end of your favorite movie, you may have noticed the position of Music Supervisor scrolling up the screen. Depending on the type of film, whether it be independent, documentaries, blockbusters, etc., the tasks this person takes on varies greatly. However, the consistent duty this person has is to obtain the rights and licensing permission to legally use certain songs in the projects or films they are working on.

In my search to learn more about this position, I came across an article on filmindustrybloggers.com that spoke to a few industry professionals about the role and responsibilities of a music supervisor, primarily in television. If you’re like me, then my basic knowledge of this position was thinking they simply chose the right songs for the film, the placement for these songs, and worked with the composers to set the right tone and vision for the film. According to Dominique Preyer, they can expect to “clear rights to the songs, make calls and e-mails to publishers, record labels, artist management, songwriters and musicians, draft and/or review license agreements, negotiate licensing fees, read scripts, create cue sheets and more.  On several films…create the music budget” (¶5). Let’s just say I was on the right track, but it goes much farther in depth than that.

That being said, I always thought they were a hands-on person on the creative end of things, sitting in the sound booths and mixing rooms giving direction. That may be a part of it, but I tended to ignore the “supervisor” part of the title. As I learned more about leadership and team & project management, I realized how vital this part is in the title; it changes everything. It takes on the duties of planning, leading teams within the audio realm, creating budgets (a key part of any production), and overseeing the execution and assuring customer (director) satisfaction in the end. Preyer advises, “If you can’t do the administrative side of music supervision, don’t call yourself a music supervisor.  To more accurately paint a picture of the workload, the creative side takes about 30% of the time and the administrative side takes about 70%” (¶8). You may read more about Preyer's accomplishments here.

So if you were thinking what I was, that the role of Music Supervisor was something mainly creative that you could work in every part of the audio aspect toward the film, you’re mistaken. If you are, however, interested in a more business end of things while still having a major impact in the soundtrack for films, this may be something you should read more into.