Disney Music Supervisor on Placing Music for Trailers

My guest today is Brian Vickers. He is a music supervisor at Disney. Yes, thee Disney; Walt Disney Studios. He works on the in-house trailer department, which they call "The Hive." He's going to talk more about that. He's worked on a number of Disney films, including The Avengers, Star Wars: The Last Jedi & The Rise of Skywalker, Black Panther, Soul, Hamilton, Frozen II, Black is King, and many, many more.

He has worked at other trailer house and music supervision companies. He actually got a start as a performer. He performed on The Sing Off, believe it or not.

We dig into all things sync licensing, specifically in the trailer department because that is Brian's current specialty. But we talk about getting the sync licensing on both sides, so as an artist of course (always my angle). We spend a significant amount of time on how to become a music supervisor yourself. Brian gives some great tips for how to do that.

Quick links:

3:11 - Working as a music supervisor for Disney since COVID-19 hit and quarantine started

12:38 - "Custom spots" and what the conversations look like between music supervisors and musicians

17:41 - How to find reputable trailer music production companies

20:13 - Do these trailer houses have in-house composers or producers that they work with?

23:10 - Clearing tracks / staying away from samples and making supervisors' jobs easier

25:35 - Placing a song because it is perfect and then it doesn't work out when it 'goes up the chain'

28:39 - Breaking down the song placement process

33:59 - Brian's musical background

42:28 - Music supervisor and sync licensing community

45:40 - How to reach out to music supervisors

50:30 - How to become a music supervisor