I work on behalf of my producers to supply and oversee anything that has to do with music that’s going into their productions. Arpix Media is a three-person operation with 39 years of combined music supervision experience [involving things like music searches, contract negotiations, licensing, music editing and soundtracks]. I’ve been doing this for almost six years.
I took music business management at Durham College, where I graduated top of my class with honours. I was fortunate that, while trying to stay busy and immerse myself in all things music and music business, I met Arpix’s founder, who was looking for someone with my skill set.
An experienced musician, I also was familiar with copyright and music publishing through my schooling, as well as with music editing, which is now a big part of my day. I was nominated for a Motion Picture Sound Editors award for music editing on the TV series Flashpoint and handled all the music editing on TV shows The Listener and Killjoys. I work on Murdoch Mysteries and Heartland, which are both in their ninth seasons.
Immediately upon graduation, I diversified. You have to wear a few different hats and have your hands in a few different things. I was handling tour management for the band Holy Fuck and doing grant writing for multiple artists. I was also interning at SOCAN. You do whatever you can.
I grew up just outside Oshawa. I played in bands and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, so I thought a music business course might help me figure this out.
The number-one, most relevant course I took at Durham was music history. I’ve worked on such varied shows, and having a deep knowledge of different genres plays a big part. I can spend my morning working on something that’s set in 1901 and my afternoon on something set in 1941 or in the future in outer space.
The music history course covered the swing era, ragtime, disco – it was really comprehensive. The other two courses that made a big impact on my life as a music supervisor were entertainment law and copyright, and music publishing. So much of my job involves negotiating copyright and clearing publishing rights for use in TV.
The best part of my job is listening to music. The hardest part is listening to music. I aim to listen to everything that comes in, but when you think about giving one artist five minutes of your time when hundreds of albums come in every week, it becomes quite difficult to manage.
There are very few of us doing this job in this country. There is not a lot of opportunity per se – but those of us who do it are good at what we do. You could work with licensing companies, publishing companies, ad agencies – you have to be creative. There’s more than one way to do that.
Film and music are two things I love, but I never envisioned putting them together. At school, I saw that it was possible.
I’ve also come to realize how connected film and TV is to technology. Although technology might’ve helped end the record industry as we knew it, it also opened up a lot of doors. My ability to find bands, music and songs now is greater than it’s ever been. That’s had a direct impact on my career as a music supervisor. It’s also easier than ever to interact with my clients and producers.
