Since being promoted to vice president of music, Ray has been
involved in numerous Spelling television productions, including 7th
Heaven, Any Day Now, Charmed, Kindred, and Pasadena. She also served as
music coordinator on the feature The House of Yes.
Job Overview
Responsible for obtaining clearances for all music used in film and
television projects and trailers produced by the company.
Special Skills
A background in music publishing or knowledge of music licensing is
required. "You have to be able to handle multiple tasks at the same time,"
say music clearance executive
Julie Butchco. "Literally, you're
talking on the phone, research-
ing a song, making notes as
you're going along, and think-
ing about what your next step
is as far as clearing or finding a
song. You have to be orga-
nized. You have many different
projects at different junctures.
You're working on movies that
are in postproduction and
movies that are done, from the
initial clearing of songs, to
writing up the cue sheets and
registering copyrights. You
really have to be resourceful,
as far as tracking down the
owners of songs and the artists
that recorded them, and who
owns the master rights."
JOB TITLE: MUSIC CLEARANCE
What do you like
least about your job?
"All the paperwork that
lingers on for months on
end, sometimes after a
film is done. I wish things
could be wrapped up as
quickly as they are started."--Julie Butchco
What do you love most
about your job?
"I love the feeling you get when you can
finally clear a song with an artist or the
songwriter. A song that your director really
wants and you know it's going to be great for
the film, but it's a really hard clearance, or it
might be particularly expensive. Just
knowing that in the end you got the
approval, and you got it at a price that you
thought was fair, and you know that every-
one was just waiting for that song to clear
because they really wanted it in their movie.
It's a really great feeling to know you
helped."--Julie Butchco
VOICES OF
EXPERIENCE
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