I really love my job. Most people can’t say that, but I’m proud of what I do for a living. I work for a company that does music composition for commercials, but we have a small music licensing department, for which I’m one of three music supervisors. We work on commercials as well as a TV show. We’re hired by advertising agencies to put music in their ads — so our job is to complement their creative vision using our own creative vision.
Although I’m a music supervisor, I don’t really supervise much of anything. That’s okay. I get to listen to music all day. Here is a portion of my listening pile.
That’s all stuff I haven’t gotten to yet. There’s more where that came from.
We get around 5 or 10 CDs per day, sometimes more. It can really add up fast. Eventually, the CDs all get sorted, added to our database, labeled, and finally filed away in our library.
That’s what interns are for.
It’s interesting to see how a piece of music can change the feel, message, and concept of a visual idea. Sometimes we’re asked to find the music before the spot is even shot or fully fleshed out, but often I get to put music up against the pictures and see which songs work and which ones don’t. When a song works, you can really tell — it falls right in the pocket. It’s really exciting when this happens, especially when the song seems to line right up with the edit, as if the pictures were cut to the music.
Before we start doing music research, we have a phone conference with our client and talk about what they’re looking for. Since many of our clients aren’t musicians, they don’t always have the musical language to describe what they want, but they manage to communicate the feel and idea nonetheless. Some clients know a lot about music, some don’t, so it’s our job to dive in and get as much information as possible about what they’re looking for. Here are some keywords that often come up:
upbeat
anthemic
bubbly
happy
unexpected
quirky . . . but not too quirky
mid-tempo
Coldplay
hip
indie
well known
unknown
aspirational (no, not “inspirational,” “aspirational” — I’m still not sure what this means).
“See and say” is another term we use and hear a lot. It means having a song in an ad that describes exactly what’s going on in the picture. (In TV they call it “putting a hat on a hat.”) Our clients never want this. We are never asked (with very few exceptions) to put a song about driving in a car commercial, or a song about drinking in a beer ad. Sometimes they want a song that describes the feeling that they’re trying to get across, or perhaps refers to some sort of situation similar to what is going on in the ad’s story, but not directly. Sometimes they want a well-known song to get people’s attention; other times they want a completely unknown song so as not to distract from the message.
I also deal with record labels and publishers on a daily basis. It’s my job to find out how much it will cost to license a song and negotiate the terms and fees. I deal in large amounts of money (on paper, of course) — sometimes more money than I will make in my lifetime. On a few occasions I’ve dealt directly with the artists. A few months ago I spoke to Doug Ingle, the guy who wrote “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Very nice man. My favorite phone page ever was “Sir Mix-A-Lot is on line 1 for you.” My co-workers got a kick out of that. So did I. Mix is a really smart guy, so don’t be fooled by “Baby Got Back.”
Another cool thing about my job is that our offices are in a former art gallery. There is still art on the walls from one of the artists who used to show there, and it’s all for sale. This one hangs above my desk.
We also have a recording studio in the building.
And, of course, there are perks: t-shirts, tickets to shows, a trip to SXSW. This is my favorite swag of the year.
Elvis lights my way when things get tough.
My work can be stressful, but I rarely tire of it. The biggest downside is that at the end of the day, the last thing I want to do is listen to more music, so I hardly ever put on a record at home. It’s also taken a toll on my own music, but I think it’s just a matter of working around the long hours. Besides which, I get to make money for other musicians. My favorite part of this job is placing an independent artist in a commercial or TV show. It makes me feel really great to know that I’m giving other musicians a way to keep on doing what they should be doing — making music.
That list of adjectives is hilarious. Do you add keywords to your database? “unexpected/Coldplay/aspirational”
Weird. I came over here to comment on Stephanie Well’s “Straddling Offense,” which is TGW entry that showed up on bloglines this morning. Creepy (but thoughtful) entry about a creepy student’s response to a creepy story, made extra extra creepy by not being the featured entry here.
Jen, this sounds like a really fun job. I share Dave’s interest in the database. What kind of information do you store about the artist/track/album? Do you store the actual sound file along with the metadata? How big is the database (how many entries?) That is potentially a really bad ass collection of information – something that could help power tools like Orpheus or MusicMesh.
It also occurs to me that you could probably make use of data coming from places like Last.FM or Freebase to augment the info you store.
Jesus, I’m a geek…
that elvis light could lead someone through the darkest night. damn straight. fine piece of swag.
have you ever thought of doing music direction for film, jen?
Sometimes I think I have a pretty cool job, and then I’m reminded of some of the really cool jobs out there.
My friend, Sara Lov, of The Devics, is this amazing musician in a fairly well-known band. She’s toured the world, etc. But after meeting Jen for the first time, Sara was all, “I was so nervous. Meeting a music supervisor is sort of like meeting a rock star… She was so down to earth, though.” I got a kick out of this role reversal. The person who listens to the music is supposed to be in awe of the person who plays the music, not the other way around.
Also, Jen’s a pretty kick-ass musician herself…
(Incidentally, the scheduling snafu was my fault. Steph’s post will be forthcoming in a few weeks…)
Do you ever have people writing to complain because their favorite song was ruined for ever by an ad?
(No, really, I’m not bitter that This Mortal Coil’s Song of the Siren was in travel company’s TV commercial last decade in the UK. My therapist helped me through it.)
when i was in LA a couple summers ago, i overheard someone say (of the band sea wolf, whom we were watching play a show with great northern), “Wow — these guys are one car commercial away from making it.”
the comment struck me as funny. here, the folks i know who make music generally talk about “if this record makes it,” or “if this tour makes it,” or “if pitchfork gives it a decent review” as the sorts of things that will make a career. not sure what to make of it, only that the LA folks may have a clearer sense of how to break out (sell out?). i do know that one of my music-making friends just relocated to LA on the heels of a fairly successful album (at least by pitchfork score standards) in order to try to write for commercials.
Yeah, several of our musician friends out here are writing for commercials, even writing some incredibly beautiful songs, like this lovely Dustin O’Halloran piece in an Audi ad. (Jen, you work with Dustin sometimes–were you involved with this ad?) Most of the musicians I know make zero money, so I’m always elated when one of them sells something for a commercial or TV show. Jen, actually, has been instrumental (ack, bad pun) in helping some of my friends actually make money writing music.
Incidentally, the aforementioned Dustin O’Halloran piece has spawned a myriad of imitators on Youtube, which is also kind of interesting.
Dave and Brooke: I have 67,000 songs in my itunes alone, and I categorize them as much as possible. I make full use of the folder/playlist features, so I keep folders for specific jobs, as well as keyword playlists. Most of my song searches rely heavily on keywords. And yes, I have a playlist called “Coldplayesque”.
Jeremy:
1. Thanks for the props!
2. I think that Sara Lov and I were equally nervous about meeting each other – I was thinking, “she’s this cool musician who is actuallly able to walk the walk, and I’m just this dorky music supervisor nipping at her heels”.
3. Yes, we use Dustin O’Halloran all the time! He’s fab. I don’t think we worked on the Audi commercial, but I’d have to double-check. We use singer-songwriters all the time to write original stuff for commercials. That’s one of the best parts of this job that I failed to mention.
Jen, this was fun to read! I’ve been wondering what exactly you do all day…
A friend of ours, Inara George, has had her songs on Grey’s Anatomy, so I always watch to see who else they play (of course, I have no interest in who’s sleeping with who).. It always drives John nuts how they play the entire song through– and have al this dialogue going on over the top of it. Me, I’m a big fan of the montage at the end of every episode.
I know Inara! We’ve pitched her stuff alot, actually. She did a live show at an agency a couple of years ago for us. Yeah, the end montages are the coveted spot on TV shows. The dialogue is bothersome, but amazingly, people still hear the songs and clamor to know what they are.
Bryan: Ads and tv shows are the new record labels. (speaking of which, who is this friend you mention?)
She did a live show at an agency
I had no idea this sort of thing went on. But of course it does.
okay I now have to pitch my friend Eleni Mandell…she sang on the pornographic paris hilton commercial for was it Carls Jr? She’s also done some shows like Brothers and Sisters…
Sorry to burst your bubble, but we were the ones who did the Carl’s Jr. commercial – I’ve also known Eleni for years. Y’all will have to work harder to be cooler than me ;)
Just to clarify, we were the ones who put Eleni singing in the commerical. I think that last comment came out looking more obnoxious than I meant it to be. A little, anyway. :D
13: that would be this fellow.
This is fascinating, even when I haven’t been wondering exactly what you do all day.
Do you happen to know who did Qwest’s latest commercial that plays EVERY commercial break during the judge shows on Fox? There’s a transition there from song to voice-over that drives me crazy.
god, if i got paid for listening to music…. sigh. back to the books.
ZOMG I hadn’t seen that Comas video. Hilarious.
Great post jen, and glad you love the job.
Have you seen the camera commercial using the Bishop Allen song “Click Click Click Click”? It’s a hat on a hat thing. Jen, I enjoyed hearing more about what you do. I identify with translating the terminology the clients use to what I consider the correct way. An old boss of mine would use certain words in exactly the opposite way that he meant (like opaque instead of translucent). Eventually I just knew what he meant. If you need to waste some time here’s a video making fun of graphic design clients. It’s very well done.
6 degrees of separation…..i love that.
jen, your blithe optimism in the face of such a ghastly situation is breathtaking. so it turns out that the relationship between art and commerce is unproblematic, after all. business sets the parameters and framework for artistic production, artists stumble over each other to meet the specifications and get the crumbs thrown at them, and everyone goes happily on their way. apparently the only thing lacking in that description is the extra layer of middlemen needed to smooth the process of making artistic production ‘complement the creative vision’ of its corporate sponsors and their admen. congratulations jen on helping art to flourish, on having lots of songs and cute categories in your itunes, and above all on having a Cool Job. i’d say take a bow, but of course you’re way ahead of me on that.
Ray/Don: Your tone is rude, trollish, and tiresome. The issues you bring up in this comment are interesting and worth discussing, but the way you lay them out is merely annoying, not furthering the conversation. Cut it out.
hey — it could be worse. he could invoke denmark vesey and then insist that she deserves to be put to the sword, or robespierre and send her to the guillotine.
not even brownies from a box? trolls are so thoughtless when it comes to providing baked goods.
Wow, Ray (Don . . . Ponce), you’re a master of simplification yourself there. Everyone who gets anywhere is either a trust-fund baby or a tool. (Except Chuck Dukowski, of course.) How’s it feel to be the LAST HONEST AMERICAN, the vox clamante in deserto, hunched over a computer at your job in Secaucus?
Maybe you should take a walk over by the Meadowlands to clear your head and reflect on things. And while you’re out, pick us up some doughnuts.
Tim is highly susceptible to trolls.
His susceptibility is cute, though.
And I’m going to continue speaking about him as if he’s not around.
I’m most susceptible to trolls with doughnuts. Not Dunkin’, though, okay?
I love that we get such a gamut here: the songwriters, composers, singers, music supervisors, designers, advertisers and haters (er, um…Ray). It’s takes all kinds and I will always prefer some of each. Hats off to anyone who is lucky enough to wake in the morning and do work that interests them so they can go on in life creating and transforming our world. As a person involved in the arts (see: painting and sculpture) I feel fortunate that I can earn a good living working in my chosen field. YES, some of it is a bit of stroking to the wealthy elite; YES, some of it is helping assemble another old masters painting show, but sometimes, it is an artist I’ve always loved that gets their first show in a major gallery or museum. Sometimes, it’s a trip to a far off place to meet other art geeks. It takes all kinds and I find it really interesting to be invited to see the inner workings. Thanks Jen.