Film and TV
A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody Among Guild of Music Supervisors 2019 Nominees: Exclusive (Billboard)
The awards season is heating up for A Star Is Born and Bohemian Rhapsody, which earn nominations for next month’s Guild of Music Supervisors Awards in Los Angeles.
Golden Globes: Lady Gaga, Justin Hurwitz Win Music Awards (Variety)
To the surprise of absolutely no one, Lady Gaga and her co-writers won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for “Shallow” from A Star Is Born. The song beat out “All the Stars” from Black Panther, “Girl in the Movies” from Dumplin’, “Requiem For a Private War” from A Private War and “Revelation” from Boy Erased.
So you want to be a… music supervisor (Creative Review)
Being a music supervisor involves much more than finding the perfect track. We spoke to Catherine Grieves – music supervisor on Killing Eve – about the demands of the job and her route into film and TV.
Music supervisors: Best albums & songs of 2018 (Rollo Grady)
As the year comes to the end, Rollo Grady asked sixty music supervisors, music producers and music coordinators to list their favorite albums, EPs and songs of 2018. To hear tracks from their favorite albums please check out the Music Supervisors: Best Songs of 2018 Spotify Playlist click here.
Music+Sound Awards 2019 opens for entries (M Magazine)
Calling all screen composers and music publishers – the Music+Sound Awards is calling for submissions for its eighth annual ceremony. The event is now taking entries for best composition and best sound design in categories including short films, feature films, branding and trailers, online, TV and more.
Memories of Music’s Prime Time (WSJ)
The man behind two of the most memorable American songs of the past half-century died last month. Norman Gimbel composed lyrics for “The Girl From Ipanema” and “Killing Me Softly.” But if you grew up in the 1970s and ’80s, you may be more familiar with his less prestigious songs: the themes to Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley.
The 10 Most Popular Synchblog Articles of 2018 (Synchblog)
As 2019 approaches, we count down our 10 most popular blog posts of the last year, from interviews with music industry heavyweights, to analysis of the key issues and trends that shaped the business in 2018.
Music supervisors step into the spotlight with new Grammy eligibility in soundtrack category (LA Times)
This is the first year in which supervisors are eligible to win Grammys in the compilation soundtrack album category. In a time when music curation plays an ever-more important role in film and TV, the Recording Academy is finally acknowledging the importance of this job in the dialogue between music and visual media.
Roma Music Supervisor Talks Soundtrack to Golden Globe-Winning Film: ‘All of the Music Is Embedded in the Story’ (Billboard)
From Juan Gabriel to ‘Jesus Christ Superstar,’ the music in Roma recreates the music and mood of Mexico City in the 1970s.
Mowgli, Buster Scruggs and Beyond: Streaming Cinema Is Enlisting A-List Composers (Variety)
Carter Burwell and Danny Elfman are among those whose scores elevate the profiles of Netflix and Amazon.
Uncharted Music Supervision Territory: Maggie Phillips on Homecoming’s Score of Scores (Synchblog)
For Amazon’s latest project Homecoming, creator Sam Esmail took a rather unique musical approach. Rather than hiring a composer, he decided to use only pre-existing scores for the show’s musical accompaniment. To delve into the difficulties presented by this score of scores, we spoke to music supervisor Maggie Phillips about her work on the show.
Composers Behind A Quiet Place, Crazy Rich Asians and More on Capturing “Emotion of the Characters” Through Music (Hollywood Reporter)
The pros behind the 15 shortlisted original scores for films such as Vice and Mary Poppins Returns talk creating music to inspire love, angst and action.
Oscars’ Music Shortlist: 7 Song and Score Surprises (Variety)
For many years, Oscar “shortlists” narrowed down the choices in a preliminary round that would eventually lead to the five nominees for original song and score. Academy executives discontinued that practice after the 1979 awards, but have brought it back for the 2018 honors.
BAFTA Awards 2019: Music and soundtrack nominees announced (Classic FM)
From Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs to Bradley Cooper’s debut A Star Is Born, here are the film soundtracks selected for this year’s shortlist.
Alfonso Cuaron’s Mystery Roma Album Gets an Inspired Billie Eilish Teaser (Variety)
Alfonso Cuaron has curated a companion album for Roma titled “Music Inspired by the Movie Roma.”
The Favourite soundtrack: trailer music, tracklisting and credits (Classic FM)
For harpsichord and all-round Baroque music lovers, the soundtrack to The Favourite is a breath of fresh air after the pop-musical scores we heard in 2018. Here’s everything you need to know about the film’s music and credits.
How Happy Pop Music Makes a Sad Film Even Sadder (Noisey)
State Like Sleep is a new movie that demonstrates how pop music deceptively underscores the most devastating moments in film and TV.
Greatest Showman Rules the Soundtracks Chart for 2018… And All Album Sales, Period (Variety)
In a music world where streaming services now overwhelmingly rule the market, who still actually bothers to buy albums? One obvious answer: people who also buy movie tickets.
Listen To The Music In Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch Movie (Magnetic Magazine)
Set in the 1980s, the film embraces the era in terms of its music with tracks by Tangerine Dream, Depeche Mode and more.
How Bradley Cooper, Rami Malek and Mahershala Ali Mastered Music for the Screen (Variety)
Music pros were tasked with teaching the stars of A Star Is Born, Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book all the right moves.
The 20 Best Classic Soundtrack Albums of 2018 (Variety)
Vintage scores from Bernard Herrmann, Lalo Schifrin, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams found fresh life in new editions from indie imprints — many released in their full form for the first time.
The Latest Trends in Trailer Music and Sound for 2018 (Synchblog)
Trailer music research group Trailaurality take us through the key trends and developments in trailer music over the past year, from the increasingly clichéd use of cover songs, to the new sonic devices and techniques designed to captivate and engage audiences.
The 10 Best Movie Scores of 2018 (Vulture)
Cinema is the rare art form that allows an almost entirely separate art form to exist within it — which is why sometimes you get terrible films with awesome scores (and, rarely, vice versa).
How I wrote the music for Stan & Ollie (Gramophone)
Composer Rolfe Kent reveals the creative process behind the score for the new film biopic of Laurel and Hardy.
Gaming
The Red Dead Redemption 2 Soundtrack Might Be the Biggest Album of 2018 (Rolling Stone)
How a blockbuster video game (which sold nearly 20 million copies in its first weeks on sale) is introducing players around the world to rootsy Americana sounds.
The 10 best video game soundtracks of 2018 (FACT Mag)
FACT picks 10 of the year’s best video game soundtracks, from the grimy, industrial synth backdrop to experimental first-person horror title Paratropic, to the blissed-out accompaniment for retro platformer Celeste and the big budget Old West sounds of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Spending five years composing a game: The music from Below (Polygon)
Capybara Games’ Below took six years to make, and in that period composer Jim Guthrie had an unprecedented amount of time to experiment and find the right sound for the game’s musical score.
Advertising
Music supervisor spotlight: David Bass (GMS UK & Europe)
This month GMS UK & Europe features an exclusive interview with David Bass, winner of Music Supervisor of 2018 in Advertising at the Sync Awards, founder of Theodore Music Ltd and director of Wake The Town, who shares insights into his career to date and what inspired him to pursue a career in supervision.
Business
What Netflix’s ‘choose-your-own-soundtrack’ paradigm reveals about the music industry’s future (MBW)
Cherie Hu discusses what a new, interactive Black Mirror episode on Netflix might mean for licensing, and the wider music business.
Female Composers Are Trying to Break Film’s Sound Barrier (NY Times)
“The numbers are bleak, but the landscape isn’t,” said Laura Karpman, a veteran film composer (“Paris Can Wait”) and a governor in the music branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “People are reaching out in a way that I’ve never seen it my whole career.”
Industry Innovator Spotlight: Russell Emanuel (Pop Disciple)
Visionary entrepreneur behind Extreme Music and Bleeding Fingers Music speaks on his punk rock beginnings, his uphill battle to change the industry’s impression of production music and build the largest grossing company of its kind, the genesis of his collaboration with Hans Zimmer, and his recent adventures in VR.
Jonathan Palmer joins BMG as Senior Vice President, Creative Synch (MBW)
BMG has hired music industry veteran Jonathan Palmer as Senior Vice President, Creative Synch. Based in Los Angeles, Palmer will lead the company’s creative sync teams in both New York and Los Angeles, while working alongside the US and international synch licensing teams.
How the Rolling Stones’ ‘She’s a Rainbow’ Got a Seven-Figure Synch Renaissance (Variety)
As far as Rolling Stones chart hits go, “She’s a Rainbow” is more of a cult favorite in the band’s canon, just missing the Top 40 of Mick Jagger’s biggest Billboard Hot 100 hits of all time. But by 2018 standards, it’s suddenly become a smash — based on how many high-profile sync placements the song has received in the fourth quarter alone.
Tips and Tricks
How to get into composing library music (M Magazine)
Alongside their Beyond Retro: Library Music’s Unsung Heroes print feature, which ran in their latest issue, M Magazine asked some of the scene’s aficionados to share their top tips for cracking the business.
Events
AIM Sync 2019 – January 28th (London)
Taking place on January 28th at the Barbican Centre, the full day global conference will feature future-facing topics, interactive sessions and expert insight on the latest developments in sync.
9th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards – February 13th (Los Angeles)
The 9th Annual Guild of Music Supervisors Awards will honor creative achievement in music supervision within the film, television, trailers, and games industries. 15 awards will be presented in the historic Theatre at Ace Hotel during an action packed ceremony complete with celebrity presenters and special music performances to be announced.
Subscribe
Want to stay up to date with the latest news in sync licensing, music supervision, and the monetisation of music copyrights? Subscribe to the Synchtank Weekly newsletter, out every Tuesday!
