On a recent Tuesday in New York City, a contingent of ambitious songwriters, artists and composers packed into a screening room in Hudson Yards to learn about music in the worlds of TV and film. The day-long symposium, Beyond The Notes: The Business Of Music In Hollywood, was designed to pull back the curtain on the often intimidating, and sometimes secretive, process of getting a song into a TV show or movie.

“Sync and song placement and composition for film and TV is always such an important topic for our members. It’s also a great source of revenue, especially in the streaming era,” said Nick Cucci, Senior Executive Director of the Recording Academy’s New York Chapter. 

“I think the most important part is, as songwriters, as composers, how do our members navigate this system? Which is a little bit secretive, in a way, right?” he added. “How do they reach music supervisors? How do they get placement? How do they get paid? What are the right fees for a song that is used?”

In order to answer those questions, the Recording Academy partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery to curate a full day of programming featuring moderated panels, presentations, networking opportunities and more. The conference featured expert advice from industry leaders including music supervisors Stephanie Diaz-Matos and Sue Jacobs, composer Marcelo Zarvos, and post-production executives like Gena Desclos and Susanna Schwartz of HBO Max, as well as Neophonic founder Evyen Klean.

“The music industry continues to evolve rapidly, and it’s crucial to create opportunities for knowledge sharing, mentorship, and connection,” said Grace Moss, Vice President of Warner Bros. Discovery Access Pipeline Programs. “This symposium reflects our shared commitment to fostering the next generation of creative talent across every corner of the music and media landscape.”

Below, dive into five lessons about the sync process, composing and a behind-the-scenes look at music budgeting from Beyond The Notes: The Business Of Music In Hollywood. 

Connect The Dots Across Platforms

In a streaming landscape offering a seemingly endless supply of music, the prospect of getting your music noticed by music supervisors can feel overwhelming. That’s why, according to Stephanie Diaz-Matos — the music supervisor for hit shows like “And Just Like That,” “Survival of the Thickest” and “Godfather of Harlem” — it’s important to craft an organized trail leading straight to your music.

“Build up your presence, connecting the dots between your socials and your Spotify and your Soundcloud, and your positioning,” Diaz-Matos  suggested. “Then if…someone whose taste I admire is putting it on their playlist, generally I’ll find you that way.”

Additionally, it’s just as important to have all your metadata, publishing splits and contact information accurate and up-to-date on platforms like Disco, where supervisors for film and television projects can search for specific queries like genre or time period. 

And while both Diaz-Matos and her fellow music supervisor Sue Jacobs weren’t too keen on receiving unsolicited submissions from artists in their email inboxes, both assured attendees that both streaming services and social networks are key to their methods of music discovery.

“I’m on Instagram. I’m on TikTok, I’m Shazam’ing and I’m following people who post. I’m following playlists. So I am out there looking,” Diaz-Matos continued. “And usually I’m looking for artists with a point of view, who have something cool that sounds like something that I need.”

Consider The Context (And Add An Intro)

Jacobs also urged composers and songwriters in attendance to consider how their music would fit into the larger picture of a film or TV show. After all, as she noted during the panel, any given song has the difficult job of doing “everything” in the context of a scene. 

“[Sometimes], you’re trying to say really conflicting things, like ‘I need power and warmth,’ Jacobs stated as a hypothetical example. “And those things are very hard to articulate to somebody musically. But…sometimes you’ll just come across a song and you know that it’s going to fit into scenes.”

The supervisor, who’s helmed the music for award-winning projects such as “The Jinx,” “Sharp Objects” and Little Miss Sunshine, also warned against the temptation to follow trends in the modern, TikTok-ified music ecosystem, which often make sync placement close to impossible.

“Right now, we get these lyrics that are, like, little books. They’re so specific. And that is a much harder chance to get in,” she said, while later adding, “It doesn’t really allow for people to have dialogue or it’s pushing a scene around too much. So space, space, space, space, space. And intros! We lost intros. Every pop [song] is like, bang! Right at it…If you don’t have an intro, it’s really hard to slide in.”

Do The Job That Gets You In The Door

The final panel of the day, Budgeting for the Beat: Maximizing Your Music Budget, assembled a who’s-who from the world of post-production, including moderator Lysee Webb, founder of Van Pelt Management; Gena Desclos, Executive Vice President of Post-Production at HBO; Susanna Schwartz, Rights and Clearances Director for HBO Documentaries; and Evyen Klean, the founder of music supervision firm Neophonic. 

In between demystifying the process behind creating realistic music budgets, debating licensing tracks versus investing in original compositions, breaking down the formula for stretching a project’s music dollar and explaining insider terms like “most favored nations” (MFN), the trio provided worthwhile advice about how up-and-coming composers and songwriters can get their foot in the door — and it all starts with the basics of sacrifice and dedication to build your resume.

“Work for whatever works for the production,” Desclos advised. Klean added, “It’s hard to get a gig as a composer with no credits…Do whatever you need to do to establish some relationships. Do that small project.

“If I thought about my first film projects, I literally could’ve worked at McDonalds and made three times the amount of money that I got paid for doing it,” the latter concluded. “But that person ends up being a trailblazing showrunner or director, and the next project they have is a $3 million movie.”

Relationships Are Everything

Composer Marcelo Zarvos kicked off his presentation, Building The Perfect Score, by discussing the importance of building relationships within the creative industry. 

“Relationships are everything in this business,” he shared. “So, whoever you get to work with, for, whoever works for you eventually, this all becomes a giant web of people that you’ve known.”

This principle has played out time and again in the composer’s career, including in the project he gave attendees a behind-the-scenes look at during his presentation: What’s My Name: Muhammed Ali. The 2019 documentary for HBO Originals was helmed by director Antoine Fuqua, who’d previously collaborated with Zarvos a decade earlier on 2009’s Brooklyn’s Finest. The Muhammed Ali documentary also led to more work between the pair, including the 2019 Netflix vehicle The Guilty, 2022’s Emancipation starring Will Smith and 2023’s The Equalizer 3 starring Denzel Washington.  

“And of course, the name of the game is do your absolute best for everything. No matter how big or small, everything should get your full attention,” Zarvos noted. 

Go Behind The Story

Over the course of his presentation, Zarvos walked attendees through two different cues from What’s My Name: Muhammed Ali, offering fascinating and valuable insight into topics like temp scores, final dubs, timing and the art of scoring action sequences. 

For all the composers in the room, he also honed in on the critical importance a score plays in the overall experience of a film, and challenged them to think outside the box when it came to writing their own themes.

“Don’t hit the nail on the head. And remember, what’s on the screen might not be necessarily what needs to be emphasized with the music,” he said. “Music has this power of showing what somebody’s thinking as opposed to what they’re doing, or what somebody’s feeling. And that is really powerful stuff. So it’s important to allow yourself to go beyond the surface, go behind the story.”

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