A complete run through of the latest and greatest in sync licensing and music supervision in in film, tv, gaming and much more over the past fortnight, courtesy of Synchblog.
Film and TV
Who will win best song at The Oscars? Popularity helps (The New York Times)
When choosing best song, does the academy have a preference for fan favorites, or a bias against certain film genres? The New York Times examines the numbers behind the musical numbers.
Guild of Music Supervisors Awards: The complete winners list (The Hollywood Reporter)
The awards recognize outstanding music supervisors in 14 categories, representing movies, television, games and trailers.
How Hans Zimmer became a rock star (The Atlantic)
Hans Zimmer is about to embark on a national tour that will include performances at Coachella, the California music festival being headlined this year by Radiohead, Beyoncé, and Kendrick Lamar.
An ode to the Girls soundtrack and millennial ennui (Nylon)
Manish Raval, Girls′ music supervisor, has soundtracked the millennial experience with confidence and a keen ear for the old and the new.
Underground season 2 trailer premieres new John Legend song (Entertainment Weekly)
WGN America’s Underground has always had an intense relationship with music. The use of relevant modern music will continue into season 2. The new trailer, in fact, premieres a brand new John Legend song, “In America.”
Debate: When is film music ‘classical’? (Gramophone)
Classical composers Philip Glass and John Corigliano have both had success scoring for the big screen. They debate that relationship with Jed Distler in New York.
14-time Oscar nominee Thomas Newman on scoring space drama Passengers (Variety)
The composer behind such iconic scores as The Shawhsank Redemption and American Beauty finds himself back in the race with sci-fi romance Passengers. Newman speaks to Variety about the unique challenges of composing the sound of outer space.
How This is Us crafted William’s perfect soul song (TV Guide)
The soundtrack of William’s youth and subsequent death was a powerful ballad titled, “We Can Always Come Back to This,” penned by the show’s composer Siddhartha Khosla and Chris Pierce.
How Elysium’s director found the film’s composer – on YouTube (Wired)
A few years ago, musician Ryan Amon was living in Santa Cruz and working on scores for movie trailers when he got a single-sentence message out of the blue with a very cryptic question — “Is this you? — and a YouTube link.
Mica Levi’s intensely unconventional film scores (The New Yorker)
The composer of the Oscar-nominated score for Jackie makes music that refuses to accompany the action. Her score – intensely new, intensely different, intensely felt – will be competing against Justin Hurwitz’s score for the musical La La Land, a work of diamantine pastiche.
Bob’s Burgers Music Album features St. Vincent, the National, and more (Pitchfork)
Bob’s Burgers, the Fox TV series that’s previously teamed up with artists including the National and Sleater-Kinney, is releasing an album on Sub Pop. The Bob’s Burgers Music Album, out May 12, features 112 short songs from regular cast members such as Kristen Schaal, H. Jon Benjamin, and John Roberts.
The 59th Annual Grammy Awards: Winners & Nominees (Grammy)
Miles Ahead (Miles Davis & various artists) wins Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media, Star Wars: The Force Awakens (John Williams) wins Best Score Soundtrack For Visual Media, “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” (Max Martin, Shellback & Justin Timberlake, songwriters) wins Best Song Written For Visual Media.
Hear how Moonlight got its sound: Violins, chopped and screwed (The New York Times)
How composer Nicholas Britell chopped and screwed instrumental music and wove it into a film whose three chapters take its hero, Chiron, from boyhood (when the character is nicknamed Little) to manhood (when he’s known as Black).
The 20 most memorable music moments on The O.C. (Nylon)
While the plot of The O.C. was a big draw for viewers, the music that narrated key scenes fostered quite a following for the show. In honour of the show’s 10th anniversary, Nylon takes a look at the most iconic musical scenes from the series.
Gaming
Indie Insider Podcast #23: Danny Baranowsky, video game composer (Black Shell Media)`
Logan Schultz sits down with Danny Baranowsky, composer of the soundtracks to games such as Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac. They chat about Danny’s journey from his parents’ basement to hiring his own manager, learning how to develop a contract, and more of advice for aspiring composers.
GDC 2017: How video game composers can use music to build suspense (Gamasutra)
Video game composer Winifred Phillips shares her ideas on how music can be used to build suspense ahead of her talk at the Game Developers Conference.
Advertising
How Subaru uses music and emotional messaging to help drive sales (Forbes)
For the last eight years, Subaru has capitalized on the incredible power of consistently tasteful music to help drive their business. With emotional messaging at the forefront of their marketing, Subaru exemplifies how music is the quickest way to your heart.
Story behind Nike’s controversial 1987 ‘Revolution’ commercial (Rolling Stone)
Nike’s black-and-white 1987 Air Revolution TV ad is full of iconic sports imagery, yet it had one huge difference from all its predecessors: the Beatles’ 1968 song “Revolution” blasted as the soundtrack.
UK Top Shazamed Ads: Littlewoods reclaims the top spot, followed by Bupa (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.
The most Shazamed ads of the week (US): Feb. 6 – Feb. 12 | Feb. 13 – Feb. 19 (Clio)
Every week, Clios.com, in partnership with Shazam, rounds up the most Shazamed ads of the previous week. These are the top spots from the last fortnight.
Why I decided to license Starship’s music to Chick-fil-A (Forbes)
Fans of Starship frontwoman Grace Slick were likely surprised to hear her 1987 single “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” scoring an ad for the fried chicken restaurant chain Chick-fil-A.
Business
Spirit Music Group hires Angie Maggini as VP, Film and Television (MBW)
Maggini will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Peter Shane, Senior Vice President, Creative Services, Spirit Music Group. She will work with the film, television, and trailer communities to create opportunities for Spirit’s writers.
Degiorgio’s Cymba lands 150 synchs worldwide (fyi music news)
Synchtank client Cymba Music, which stands for Crushing Your Music Business Apathy, has landed more than 150 synch licenses for such film and TV properties as Chimpanzee, Agent Carter, The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Degrassi: The Next Class, Mr. D, Pure and Crash Gallery.
Universal Music Group revives Polygram label for film and TV production (Variety)
Universal Music Group is reviving the Polygram Entertainment banner as the music giant seeks to expand its film and TV production activity.
Spotify adds 3 original music business focused podcasts (Hypebot)
One of the shows, titled Showstopper, will be hosted by The Fader’s Editor in Chief Naomi Zeichner, and aims to provide a pop culture analysis of our favorite music moments in TV through interviews with music supervisors.
Artists making money from music: sync, brands… and gin! (Music Ally)
Sync and brand partnerships are increasingly important sources of income for musicians, but there remains some tension around brands working with artists directly, rather than arguing over fees with their labels. That was one of the talking points at the FastForward conference in Amsterdam last week…
Tips and Tricks
How labels can “greatly improve their income stream” via sync – Nora Felder (midem)
Synchtank client SynchAudio is the partner of Midem 2017’s Global Sync & Brands Summit, and in the lead up to the event they’ve conducted a series of insightful interviews. In this second installment, they chat to multi-award winning music supervisor Nora Felder (Californication, Stranger Things).
How to get a job composing music for movies (Collider)
composers Jake Monaco and Sebastian Evans, both of whom were recently mentioned among the top composers in the animation industry, provide a crash course in composing for TV and movies.
How to maximise the value of music in a commercial (Hypebot)
Music Audience Exchange’s George Howard gives some tips and recommendations for generating the most value from music in campaigns.
Events
ALL ABOUT: Sync & Brands (London, February 27th)
Join the Featured Artist Coalition (FAC) for a night of discussion on sync licensing and brands later this month. Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap will be chatting with Phil Cummings (A&G Sync), Liz Williams (Felt Music) and Nick Ryan (sound designer).
NARIP Film/TV Music Supervisor Pitch with Billy Gottlieb (LA, February 28th)
Join NARIP and Billy Gottlieb, music supervisor on projects such as Lethal Weapon, The 100, Bones, Fringe, for a this session on Film/TV music. Not in LA? You can pitch remotely or via Skype.
AIMP 2017 Creative Panel Sessions (NYC, March 8th)
Have you ever wanted to try your hand at music supervision? For this two-part, Synchtank sponsored AIMP creative panel, you’ll be able to select the perfect soundtrack to a particular tv scene or advertisement. Synchtank CEO Joel T. Jordan will also be participating in the panel.
Looking for a more comprehensive breakdown of events? Check out our list of key worldwide music industry and sync events in 2017.
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