What does a music supervisor do, and how does it differ from a composer or artist?
A music supervisor’s role is to work with film directors, producers, and creatives to identify the appropriate music for a given project and negotiate licensing agreements with record labels, publishers, and other rights holders. This is different from a composer, songwriters, or artist who writes and creates the music. Music supervisors work with record labels, publishers, producers, and composers to find the right music for a film, TV show, or advertising campaign. They handle the licensing and legal issues and ensure permission is secured from all appropriate parties, and that royalties are paid to the songwriters, composer, performing artists and any other parties. A music supervisor can negotiate a sync license for their clients for either the entire original song (so the master and publishing copyright) or just the publishing copyright (i.e. the music score and lyrics only) which could be used for a rerecord. A Music Supervisor would also negotiate and get approval for any lyric changes an advertiser might want to make to the song lyrics to re-record for their campaign.