Music supervision has become an increasingly important part of the movie and television landscape, particularly in our streaming era where many shows come fully loaded with songs from different musical eras. While some showrunners have a good idea of music they want to use, music supervisors also open them up to new ideas and songs they had not contemplated. They do an incredible amount of legwork to make sure all the legal paperwork and clearances are met before something can be included in a film or show.
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Over the last 15 years Los Angeles-based Jen Malone has built up an impressive resume and sterling reputation as a music supervisor with her company Black and White Music. She works predominately in television—series like The Equalizer, Yellowjackets, The Penguin, and The Umbrella Academy—and also has notable film credits that include Creed II, The King of Staten Island, and John Wick: Chapter 4. She has been nominated for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Supervision four times—for Euphoria, Atlanta, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Yet not everyone fully comprehends what her job entails. It’s a bit of a mystery for some, so American Songwriter asked Malone about her profession.
Getting Into the Nitty Gritty
“In general, people do not understand what a music supervisor does,” Malone remarks. “It is not just sitting around all day listening to music and putting together cool playlists. Our job is one of the most misunderstood jobs in the film and TV and music industry. Yes, when they’re doing the ‘Year Zero’ chant [in the Peacock series Hysteria!], that’s copyright, and you have to clear that. I’m convinced that nobody else who would have read that script would have known. But [the band] Ghost would have [said], ‘You’re using this, you need to license this thing.’”
Clearing music for shows requires music supervisors to contact the copyright holder of a song—the music publisher representing the people who wrote the music and lyrics, and the record label or whoever owns the master. Malone explains those people need to know what the show is about, how long a scene is, and where the music is going to be placed over or under. Plus there is discussion about the fee.
“They have the right, of course, to say, ‘No, we don’t want our song in this show or in this scene, orWe’re very precious about this song,’” Malone says. “There are so many artists over the years [with] a different story. Jimi Hendrix, for example, you cannot use his song over anything with guns or drugs or violence or sex.” Like many estates, Hendrix’s “is just very protective of how their music is used. We are very respectful of that. There are a million other artists that have caveats.”
Malone says she tends to work on darker shows like The Penguin and Euphoria. She likes working in that space, and she enjoys being able to place songs and artists that are personal favorites. On Hysteria! she placed Thin Lizzy and Judas Priest. On Wednesday, she got to put in The Cramps.
Making the Switch
A New Jersey native, Malone studied music business at Northeastern University in Boston. After that, she did an internship with Sioux Zimmerman at Formula PR in New York City before returning to Boston and starting Black and White PR. She worked with indie bands for a decade—she was The Hellacopters’ publicist during that time—but she eventually burned out in that profession.
“Then I saw the AC/DC placement in Iron Man [and thought] ‘that’s what I want to do,’” Malone recalls. “Music supervision is my second career, and I started from the bottom.” She studied music supervision at UCLA in 2009, then became “a thirtysomething intern. I really worked my ass off and just hustled, really meeting with anybody I could and just learning about the business as much as possible. Then just grinding it out until until [landing] some of the shows that I was lucky enough to work on. Atlanta and Euphoria really changed my life.”
Malone is an entrepreneur who was able to switch careers, but she swapped the PR grind for the music supervision one. “I’m an all-female music supervision company, and yes, I’ve had a lot of success here,” she says. “I’m so lucky and I am so proud of my work, but I’m still hustling—reading the trades every day, reconnecting with showrunners, and hustling to get shows. I don’t wait for anything to be handed to me.”
Setting the Stage for the Music
A lot of work can be put into individual scenes of a show. In the debut episode of Hysteria!, the teen band performs Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast” in a basement setting. The song was done live, and the setup required a lot of preparation and coordination with the show’s creator Matthew Scott Kane, co-showrunner David A. Goodman, and key crew people.
“I had to find out how big the stage was,” Malone recalls. “We had to make sure that all the equipment was period appropriate. So I’m working with locations. I’m working with casting. I’m working with a music contractor. With costumes. At one point you have to make sure that the drummer is not wearing a blazer, because how is he supposed to rock out with that? Even with the a capella group doing New Kids on the Block, I had to get that arranged. How many people do you want to see on screen? Matt, how big do you want this a capella group to be? What is the makeup? How many dudes? How many girls? Then I have to get it created—make sure the actors have the music, that sound has it for playback, working with editorial, organizing a budget, finding affordable music to put in a show to stay on budget.”
Some shows present challenges for acquiring the rights to license music. Some song usage necessitates reaching out to the estates of deceased songwriters. Other tracks have multiple songwriters who each have to be contacted.
“The first episode of Euphoria had 37 songs that all had to be cleared,” Malone elaborates. “There are other shows that I do that have hip-hop [tracks] with 20 different writers, and you have to find that person that has .5% [of the copyright]. I’ve had people in jail that I have to deal with getting a clearance. People just have no idea what the job is and don’t understand the hustle. Do the research. I think research is just so important, so that when you’re talking to somebody you sound like you know what you’re doing.”
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Photo by Alberto Rodriguez/IndieWire via Getty Images
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