The art of the needle drop: how TV shows and films find the perfect song

Written by Kyle Mullin.

If this was a TV show, here's where you'd cue the dramatic music: Canadian music supervisor Kaya Pino (Sort Of, Alice Darling) was hurrying to secure a song sign-off from one of Toronto's hottest acts for Acquainted, a 2018 movie by director Natty Zavitz. There isn't exactly a hotline for her to call up in-demand musicians or a comprehensive music rights database for song clearing. Despite persistent pushes, it took an abnormally long seven months to hear back. Thankfully, she got the all clear for the rights just as the film's team worked on finishing touches. 

"It's not great for your nerves. But when it works out, it's very exciting," Pino, who currently works at King Lear, a self-described "bespoke sound design and music supervision agency," says of making a needle drop, an industry term for using a pre-existing song in a film or TV scene. These song cues can heighten the atmosphere, make the setting more authentic, speak to a character's personality, and much more.

Music supervisors like Pino are enjoying higher profiles and exciting opportunities as their successful needle drops become increasingly common. Veteran Vancouver music supervisor Natasha Duprey of The L Word fame says it's "no coincidence that the rise in popularity of needle drops runs parallel to the growth of digital media technology" that spurs virality. 

And yet, the online fervour for songs in blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy, series including The Bear and Euphoria, and especially the hit Netflix show Stranger Things — whose usage of the nearly 40-year-old Kate Bush song "Running Up That Hill" catapulted the track to 2022's song of the summer — is all partially due to a prior needle-drop wave. At least that's according to Cody Partridge, music supervisor for acclaimed Canadian comedy Letterkenny and this year's indie hit Blackberry (available as a limited series on CBC Gem on Nov. 9). He says his generation of creatives were influenced by the mid-2000s network teen dramas that set a new standard for song usage, adding: "Then I would hear Death Cab for Cutie on the radio, reinforcing the connection with The O.C. episode I heard them on the week prior."   

Being a music supervisor can be a collaborative and fulfilling job. Depending on the size of the project, music supervisors aren't only tasked with clearing the legal hurdles needed for a needle drop, or convincing musicians or their reps to sign off by describing how the song will be used in a proposal. Additionally, Pino says she sometimes meets with filmmakers or TV showrunners before production to discuss songs that might be used. The handful of music supervisors interviewed for this article describe a spectrum of situations. When Tiffany Anders worked on the Netflix series Beef, showrunner Lee Sung Jin had every needle drop carefully planned. But while overseeing FX's Reservation Dogs, Anders had to burst director Blackhorse Lowe's bubble because the acclaimed dramedy's budget was far too small for the Fleetwood Mac temp music he used in the rough cut. Thankfully, like any good music supervisor, she had already prepared numerous cheaper alternatives. 

"Sometimes having a limited budget is great," Anders says, "because you're being more resourceful and using more interesting songs."

But whether it's a budget-busting chart-topper or a hidden gem, getting songs cleared is rarely easy. Pino says rights can be split among a maze of stakeholders, so she sometimes has to sleuth for those disparate parties on social media to finally "find someone who knows someone to get this last two per cent of a song, because the filmmakers want to use it in four days." 

Even when the key players are reached, the work rarely ends there. Stranger Things music supervisor Nora Felder approached the reps for both Metallica and Kate Bush for needle drops on the widely watched Netflix drama. Both Metallica and Bush are "very careful about which types of stories they align their songs with," Felder says, adding, "some artists are not as precious, completely trusting their representatives to make decisions in their best interests." An additional challenge for Felder with the Metallica song "Master of Puppets" was that she had to persuade the band early: actor Joseph Quinn needed time to practise playing the complex song on guitar for the scene. Felder's ability to secure Bush's "Running Up That Hill" led to a 2022 Emmy Award for outstanding music supervision; she's now nominated again for the Metallica needle drop. 

Sometimes creatives have to fight for their own interests. In 1992, Mike Myers famously refused to cut the "Bohemian Rhapsody" sing-along from Wayne's World in favour of the trendier Guns N' Roses song executives wanted. The real winner? Queen, because the movie's usage helped that 1975 song rocket up the charts. Since then, needle drops have introduced several vintage acts to modern audiences. In 2007, The Sopranos' subversive usage of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'" spurred the 1981 power ballad's iTunes sales 482 per cent, making it the biggest-selling catalogue song on that nascent digital music platform (not to mention being covered on another hit series, Glee, in 2009 and becoming inescapable at karaoke bars and on talent shows). 

But the conceit is now often most associated with Felder's Kate Bush placement, which was popular enough to score the singer her first Billboard Top 10 hit as the 1985 song scaled back up the charts, along with making "Running Up That Hill" go viral on TikTok and YouTube. That is by no means solely due to the series' huge audience: Felder says the Bush and Metallica songs' "emotional impact were tied with characters in the story. I believe many viewers deeply connected with similar feelings of isolation that these characters were experiencing." 

Music supervisors have also played a significant role in launching or boosting the careers of musicians, especially in the past two decades. Alexandra Patsavas arguably led the charge by famously featuring the likes of Snow Patrol and the Fray in Grey's Anatomy, turning their songs into radio mainstays. In 2006, Duprey boosted then-Canadian indie darlings Tegan and Sara's profile by including their music on The L Word.

"In the early 2000s, the money for placements was massive," Tegan Quin said. "We toured Australia for the first time only because we had gotten a placement on a TV show." When it comes to actual revenue, Duprey admits that a Canadian indie movie pays far less than an American network show, but says even a few thousand dollars can ensure emerging musicians make rent. 

Another notable example was pop star Sia, who got a big break when Six Feet Under music supervisor Thomas Golubić used her song "Breathe Me" in the series' 2005 finale. Golubić went on to be the music supervisor for huge hits including Breaking Bad and Poker Face, and was nominated for four Emmys.

Even though Golubić has been working as a music supervisor for more than 20 years, and needle drops appear bigger than ever now, his outlook is startlingly bleak. He and fellow music supervisors recently petitioned Netflix to be recognized as a union, but were rejected (Netflix representatives did not respond to interview requests). Then there was the industry's treatment of talent during the strike, which brought Hollywood to a standstill. (While the writers' strike ended on Sept. 27, the actors' union SAG-AFTRA continues to strike.) Golubić frets about streamers and studios chasing profit instead of supporting creatives. He has precedent to worry, because studios nickel and dimed him despite his Emmy nominations. Even after his zeitgeist-rattling Sia placement on Six Feet Under, he struggled to find work for a year.  

"Needle drops have become so huge, so it's a very exciting time," Golubić says, but adds: "It's not really being rewarded by the people who are exploiting and benefiting from it."