This Fortnight in Music Supervision and Sync (21/08/20) – Travis Scott Drops New Song From Christopher Nolan’s ‘Tenet’, UMPG China, Riot Games Host League of Legends Songwriting Camp & More

Film and TV

Travis Scott Drops New Song ‘The Plan’ From Tenet Soundtrack (Rolling Stone)
Ludwig Göransson-produced cut “became the final piece of this puzzle,” director Christopher Nolan says of the song, which appears in the film and its soundtrack.

The secret weapon behind I May Destroy You’s greatness? The coolest music on TV (LA Times)
Sam Miller, who co-directed the series with Michaela Coel, said they explicitly avoided “underlining emotion with the music.”

40 Years Later, Country Owes a Lot to Urban Cowboy: Here’s Why (Billboard)
Forty years ago, the soundtrack to Urban Cowboy made the genre a pop phenomenon — and paved the way for its modern hitmakers.

Songs For Screens: Raphael Saadiq on Creating HBO’s Lovecraft Country Score (Over Zoom) and Upcoming Aretha Franklin Doc (Variety)
HBO’s Lovecraft Country has already made history for its entirely online orchestral score, co-composed by Laura Karpman and Raphael Saadiq.

Calum Scott, ‘Stargirl’ Claim No. 1 Spot on Top TV Songs Chart For July 2020 (Billboard)
Calum Scott’s cover of Robyn’s “Dancing on My Own” debuts at No. 1 on The Hollywood Reporter’s Top TV Songs chart, powered by Tunefind, following its appearance in the 10th episode of the first season of DC’s Stargirl.

Kurt Farquhar, the King of Black-Sitcom Music, on His Best Theme Songs (Vulture)
The brains behind more than 30 legendary Black-sitcom themes and scores, from Moesha to Sister, Sister — and even ones you may have forgotten, like Sinbad and Cousin Skeeter — a sizable chunk of the childhood memories of many Black people wouldn’t have a soundtrack without Farquhar.

Watchmen, This Is Us, Euphoria Tunesmiths on Defining Character Through Songs (Variety)
Emmys’ song category (officially original music and lyrics) embraces a wide spectrum of tunes, from amusing late-night trifles to powerful concluding anthems.

How “(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” Saved Dirty Dancing (The Ringer)
The Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey–starring movie was just an indie that no one believed in—until a song came along that lifted it to legendary status.

Before Umbrella Academy’s showrunner writes the fight scenes, he picks the songs (Polygon)
The newly arrived second season doubles down on the music, filling the episodes with songs that really shouldn’t work over their respective scenes, but somehow totally do.

Secrets to Successfully Scoring a Hollywood Blockbuster or Major TV Series — From a Legend in the Game (Songtrust)
During our seventh Happy Hour livestream event, we welcomed famed director and producer Jon Turteltaub, whose especially well-known projects include Cool Runnings, The Meg, and the National Treasure franchise.

Drag Race’s Resident Composer Is Bringing a Queer Sensibility to TV Music (Vulture)
When “Break Up Bye Bye,” a song performed by the Frock Destroyers, became an unlikely U.K. top-ten hit late in 2019, it felt like a watershed moment for Leland, one of its co-writers.

Chemical Hearts: Here’s the Haunting Song From the Film That You Can’t Get Out of Your Head (POPSUGAR)
As Henry and Grace drive around in her car throughout the film, “Take Care” by Beach House constantly plays in the background.

Gaming

UMPG China Hosted a League of Legends Songwriting Camp With Riot Games (Billboard)
As the music industry continues to invest deeper into the lucrative esports space, Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) China and Riot Games China have concluded a songwriting camp focused on promotional songs for the game publisher’s upcoming 10th League of Legends World Championship.

Facebook’s Beat Saber VR game adds Linkin Park music pack (Music Ally)
Virtual reality music game Beat Saber, now owned by Facebook, is continuing to explore premium artist packs of levels and tracks.

In The Last of Us Part II, music often speaks louder than words (The Washington Post)
In The Last of Us Part II, which launched earlier this year to astronomical commercial success, musicality encompasses live performance, intricate instrumentation, layered orchestration designed to deliver tension and much more.

EA UFC 4 Soundtrack Revealed With Tracks From Eminem, J. Cole, Stormzy, And More (Forbes)
As a part of the release of all information associated with the game, EA unveiled the game’s soundtrack on Thursday. Here is a look at the 30 tracks that are included.

How To Score a Video Game (Talkhouse)
Asy Saavedra (Chaos Chaos) talks creating the Trover Saves The Universe soundtrack.

Madden NFL 21 Soundtrack Includes Anderson .Paak, Rick Ross, Denzel Curry and More (Hypebeast)
EA Sports has released the official soundtrack of Madden NFL 21 ahead of the game’s August 28 release.

SyncTalk: Amanotes and the Key Role Music Plays in Gaming (Songtrust)
In this episode of SyncTalk, we spoke with Vietnam-based global app publisher, Amanotes, on their innovations in the hyper-casual games space and the key role music plays.

“Pre-Clearing Your Catalog for Sync at Fair Prices is the Way to Go” – Bopper’s Phil Messier Talks Simplifying the Music Process for Brands (Synchblog)
Bopper is disrupting the music for advertising space with its pre-cleared platform for sourcing and licensing commercial music. Co-founder Phil Messier tell us more.

Charlie Davis – BMG VP of Synch (Music Biz 101 & More Podcast)
In this episode, Charlie Davis, VP of Creative Synch for BMG, talks about the market for songs in TV commercials. It’s fun and extremely interesting, like scaling Mount Everest naked. Give it a try. We’ll make a mountain climber out of you yet!

K-Pop collabs: how brands are buying into one of South Korea’s greatest export (The Drum)
As the hugely popular world of K-Pop continues to rack up millions of views online, brands are rapidly realising that they need to get involved. Here, we take a look at some of the most interesting collabs so far.

Songs for Screens: How ‘Welcome Back’ Became a 2020 Advertising Anthem – Check Out New Version by Aloe Blacc (Variety)
Like many people, John Sebastian, a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee for his years as a founding member and vocalist for the Lovin’ Spoonful, was getting ready to write off 2020 as a wash.

Business

JioSaavn’s Artist Originals partners with licensing startup SyncFloor (MBW)
India-born JioSaavn’s in-house label and artist services division Artist Originals has partnered with Seattle-based music licensing startup SyncFloor to bring South Asian music to the sync licensing marketplace.

Universal Music China announces launch of new label dedicated to soundtrack/scores (Music Week)
Universal Music China has announced the launch of Magic Muses, created to support China’s global film and TV industry. An official press release stated it is, “China’s first label dedicated solely to film soundtrack and score”.

Amos Newman, WME’s Head of Music for Visual Media, Pivots to Endeavor Content (Variety)
Amos Newman, who has spent the past decade as head of WME’s music for visual media department, is joining sister company Endeavor Content in the newly created role of senior vice president, music.

BMG and TV production company Freemantle extend global partnership (MBW)
The extended deal includes a global music publishing and administration agreement for Fremantle’s catalog, as well as an agreement with BMG’s production music business which, in addition, has been expanded to a now global partnership.