We run through the latest and greatest in sync licensing and music supervision over the past fortnight, including the latest industry news, advice, and deals.
Film and TV
Josh Groban records new Beauty and the Beast song ‘Evermore’ (Entertainment Weekly)
The pop singer has recorded a version of the new Beauty and the Beast song ‘Evermore’ that will play over the film’s end credits and appear on the soundtrack, Disney announced Thursday.
Why The Young Pope‘s score chooses to embody ‘musical promiscuity’ (Vulture)
“Leaving aside the difficulty of rationalizing a creative process that is the product of intuitions and of chance, I would define the score as a sort of musical syncretism,” Young Pope music supervisor Lele Marchitelli tells Vulture.
Native and The Premier League: Music Strategy (Native Soho)
Late in 2016 Native were approached by RKCR/YR, Dixon Baxi, Robin Consulting and Design Studio to develop and inform the Premier League’s global music strategy. Native’s Managing Director, Dan Neale and Music Supervisor, Rachel Menzies discuss the project and how they got involved.
Singles Soundtrack reissue to contain grunge-era rarities (Rolling Stone)
A new, deluxe edition of the soundtrack to Singles – Cameron Crowe’s look at Generation X living in early Nineties Seattle – will feature previously unreleased songs by Mudhoney, Chris Cornell, Paul Westerberg and Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, among others. The album is set for release on May 19th.
Tim McGraw, Kelly Clarkson, Lady Antebellum, Skillet and more contribute new songs to The Shack soundtrack (Billboard)
The soundtrack, out on Atlantic Feb. 24, features 14 original, exclusive songs, including a new McGraw and Hill duet, “Keep Your Eyes On Me,” as well as the new single from Dan + Shay, “When I Pray For You.” Clarkson and Blacc duet on “Love Goes On.”
La La Land, Justin Timberlake among Guild of Music Supervisors Awards 2017 Nominees (Billboard)
Among the supervisors receiving multiple nominations are Steven Gizicki, Julia Michels, Julianne Jordan, Joel C. High, Dave Jordan, Lindsey Wolfington, JoJo Villanueva, Becky Bentham, Heather Guibert, PJ Bloom and Manish Raval, Tom Wolfe and Jonathan Leahy.
Sundance cues up a chorus of music docs (Variety)
From Once to 20 Feet From Stardom, Searching for Sugar Man, and Whiplash, Sundance has long been a key launchpad for music features and docs, and this year’s edition is primed with a slew of music-infused entries, from documentaries to features.
How Gloria Estefan & Norman Lear rebooted the One Day at a Time theme song for Netflix (Billboard)
Lear knew that the music for his latest take on One Day at a Time, which originally ran from 1975 to 1984 and has a new version on Netflix, would be just as important as it was the first time around.
Can I have your job? Interview with music supervisor Rob Lowry (society6)
Rob Lowry is currently working on about 8 films and 3 TV series, and just wrapped up Dirk Gently and Man Seeking Woman. In this Q&A, Lowry delves into precisely what a music supervisor does, how to get started in the business, and what is most necessary for the job.
Oscars: Sting, Justin Timberlake, La La Land, Moana vie for best song (Rolling Stone)
Justin Timberlake is nominated for “Can’t Stop This Feeling,” his song from the Trolls soundtrack. Sting is up for “The Empty Chair,” a song that he and composer J. Ralph wrote for the HBO documentary Jim: The James Foley Story. Lin-Manuel Miranda’s song “How Far I’ll Go,” from Moana is also on the list. They will be going up against two songs from La La Land – “Audition” and “City Of Stars.”
La La Land, BFG, Hidden Figures and more tune up Original Score Oscar race (Variety)
At present, the presumed frontrunner in the field is Justin Hurwitz, whose lively La La Land music only really had one hurdle to clear: the mercurial nature of the branch. It might have easily been decided that the abundance of songs overwhelmed the interstitial scoring, but happily, that didn’t happen.
How The Mary Moore Show got its theme song (CBS News)
“Who can turn the world on with her smile?” Millions of TV viewers were asked that question each week when they heard “Love Is All Around,” the theme song of The Mary Tyler Moore Show.
Gaming
A conversation with Sean Beeson: Video game composer (CultureSonar)
Beeson has worked on both console and mobile games of such heavyweights as Disney and Wizards of the Coast. CultureSonar sat down with him recently to find out more of this truly unique career.
Classic FM to host weekly show on orchestral video game music (endgadget)
It’ll be hosted by Jessica Curry, co-founder of British game studio The Chinese Room and composer of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, and focus on symphonic video game music in particular.
Sega adds a ton of their classic soundtracks to Spotify, including Sonic (Destructoid)
Right now the “popular” playlist is utterly dominated by Sonic music, including “Sonic Boom,” (the one from Sonic CD, not the ill-fated new franchise) the Pumpkin Hill rap, and “Stardust Speedway.”
Advertising
Lil Buck hypnotizes throwing shapes to Sia in new Lexus Super Bowl Ad (Fast Company)
Lexus has pulled out all the stops for its Super Bowl LI commercial—the soundtrack is Move Your Body from Sia’s new album, the voiceover is Minnie Driver, and it’s directed by multiple Grammy winner Jonas Åkerlund, whose most recent work includes a section of Beyoncé’s Lemonade.
How Frank Sinatra made Jack Daniel’s into a rock star brand (Forbes)
In 2013, Jack Daniel’s sold more than 11 million cases of the company’s iconic Black Label Tennessee Whiskey bottle. According to the company’s historian, Nelson Eddy, that would never have been possible if not for Frank Sinatra.
Sync of the Week: January 16th | Thomson Holidays | Moments (adbreakanthems)
If, as some media pundits predict, 2017 is going to see a growth in specially commissioned syncs by modern classical composers, then you can expect to hear more of Biggi Hilmars, the young Icelander responsible for the score to Thomson’s eye-catching, freeze-frame Moments spot.
Apple sued over sample in synced Jamie XX track (CMU)
Jerome Lawson, previously frontman of American a cappella group The Persuasions, has sued Apple over its use of Jamie XX’s ‘I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)’ in a TV ad for the iPhone 6.
Music in advertising must have purpose says music man Joel Simon (Forbes)
Do we really appreciate the importance of music in advertising? Forbes chats to one of the go-to “music guys” in the advertising business, Joel Simon, president and CEO of JSM Music.
UK Top Shazamed ads: Jan. 24 | Jan 16 (The Drum)
The Drum’s Shazam chart is based on the number of times each ad has been Shazamed over the past week using the music identification app.
White Stripes’ ‘Seven Nation Army’ leads top TV commercials chart for Dec (Billboard)
There’s a new No. 1 on Billboard & Clio’s Top TV Commercials chart, powered by Shazam, for the second straight month, as The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” leads the tally.
Business
Women in Sync: The Manners McDade Sync Team (Synchblog)
For the first instalment of our ‘Women in Sync’ series, in association with global Women in Music network shesaid.so, we chat to the all-female Manners McDade sync team.
Atlantic Exec Kevin Weaver explains why movie trailers are the best marketing bet for artists (Billboard)
Veteran film and TV music executive Kevin Weaver is competing against himself for a Grammy at the Feb. 12 ceremony, scoring nominations for best compilation soundtrack in the visual media category for his work as a producer on both Suicide Squad (Collector’s Edition) and Vinyl: The Essentials Season 1. He chats to Billboard about sync, recent projects and more.
Sync licence requests: Approval chains (Resilient Music)
Brands looking to license commercial catalogue music often come unstuck as they fail to appreciate the timescales needed for clearance. Why? They don’t understand the number of parties involved in the approval chain. In this post I share how it works…
How Sync can be a “humbling & inspiring experience” – Leland Music’s Ed Bailie (midem)
In the first in a series of interviews with world-leading music supervisors, Synchtank client SynchAudio chats to award-winning Director of Leland Music Ed Bailie.
Tips and Tricks
Mastering Music Supervision: 7 pitfalls for the over-eager indie moviemaker (MovieMaker)
Supe Troop founder Laura Katz provides indie filmmakers with seven essential “Don’ts” when approaching music for a film.
Sync licensing advice from Hitcher Music (ReverbNation Blog)
ReverbNation sits down with Chase Misenheimer of Synchtank client Hitcher Music to learn about the latest developments and trends in sync licensing, the biggest misconception artists have when dealing with a licensing company, tips for approaching sync licensing, and more.
“A Music Creators Sync Workshop” with Music Supervisor Mary Ramos (SynchAudio)
Earlier this month Synchtank client SynchAudio hosted an exclusive workshop for artists and music professionals with music supervisor Mary Ramos. This round-up article features some great tips for getting a music supervisor’s attention.
Getting Sync Placement (Music Consultant)
John Sepetys, Senior Vice President of A&R of Synchtank client North Star Media, chats to Music Consultant about the qualities music supervisors are looking for in music to sync to film, television and advertising in the current climate. He also offered up some tips for artists looking to approach music supervisors, publishers and others.
Events
Music Sync: Evolution Towards Internet TV (Los Angeles, February 7th)
Is internet television the new synchronization frontier? Join the California Copyright Conference (CCC) and leading sync professionals for a discussion about production cycles, the pitch process, licensing rights and terms and how these differ from those in traditional media, and most importantly how to make money.
