Music Supervisor Jen Malone Breaks Down How Songs Land in TV Shows

If you have ever wondered how the perfect song ends up in a scene on a show like Euphoria or Atlanta, music supervisor Jen Malone is the person with the answers. In a recent Billboard On The Record interview, Malone, founder of Black and White Music, pulled back the curtain on one of the most misunderstood roles in the entertainment business.

Malone's credits speak for themselves. Beef, Love Story, Creed II, Wednesday, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, and more. Across all of them, her job is the same: find the right song, clear it, and make it feel inevitable on screen. She works from pre-production through post, collaborating directly with showrunners to build a series' entire musical identity, not just pick a few tracks.

What Music Supervisors Actually Do (And Why It Matters for Artists)

One of the most useful things Malone clarifies is the difference between a composer and a music supervisor. Composers write original score. Supervisors source, license, and place existing music. Both shape how a project sounds, but the paths to each are completely different.

The licensing process is where independent artists should pay close attention. Malone described clearing Beyonce's "Hold Up" for Season 1 of Euphoria as a monster undertaking, with 15 to 16 writers and nine producers all needing to sign off. Her team wrote a letter directly to Beyonce. That level of effort is standard when a showrunner locks in on a specific song.

For lesser-known tracks, the process is often smoother, and the opportunity is very real. Malone noted that after the pandemic, artists who once avoided sync deals are now far more open to them. Sync fees have risen, but so has the appetite for fresh, lesser-heard music that fits a mood or character without feeling obvious.

The character-specific approach Malone described for Love Story, a show about real people with limited archival material, shows how deeply supervisors think about music as storytelling. Each character can have their own sonic world. That kind of thinking is an opening for independent artists whose sound does not fit mainstream playlists but absolutely fits a specific emotional moment on screen.

What This Means for Independent Artists

Sync licensing remains one of the most direct paths to real revenue and discovery for independent artists. A placement on a prestige TV show can do what years of playlist pitching cannot: put your music in front of millions of people who are already emotionally invested in what they are watching.

Malone's interview is a reminder that music supervisors are gatekeepers worth understanding and worth building relationships with. They are not looking for the most famous song. They are looking for the right song. That distinction matters.

If you are an independent artist who wants to get your music in front of the right people, start by making sure your catalog is properly registered, your publishing is in order, and your music is easy to license. Then get it heard. [Submit your music to our network](/submit) and stay tapped in to where the industry is moving.

As Hollywood continues consolidating and streaming platforms compete for prestige content, the demand for distinctive, well-placed music is only growing. The supervisors who shape those soundtracks are worth knowing.