The Role of a Modern Music Supervisor with Emily Richardson

Emily Richardson started her career in-house at labels and publishers specialising in creative sync licensing, forging strong relationships with global sync teams and gaining solid experience in the clearance and licensing process, fee expectations and negotiations, and the intricacies of IP and copyright law.

Emily transitioned to music supervision in 2020 and has worked on some of the biggest films of the last few years including ‘The Batman’, ‘Barbie’ and ‘Magic Mike’. In 2023 Emily spearheaded the launch of 515, the first dedicated composer agency for female and gender minority composers. Emily set up LALA with Hannah Merrington in June 2025 and now runs the music supervision team as ECD.

Emily’s experience as a music supervisor spans film, TV and advertising, having worked with Netflix, Amazon Studios, Warner Bros. and the BBC, and brands including John Lewis, Magnum and Debenhams. Her experience in the music production process, in-depth repertoire knowledge, and global network within the music industry means she works with agility across all budgets and creative needs.

Emily is a passionate advocate for women in music having sat as UK director of the renowned women’s music network She Said So. Emily has chaired various panels including the Abbey Road Equalise event. Emily was also a founding member of The Composer Wellbeing Collective – a much needed resource for film and TV composers during lockdown.

Emily sat down with LBB to chat about the women who laid the foundations in music supervision and starting successful businesses as well as the future of AI in advertising and music.

LBB> When you’re working on a new brief or project, what’s your typical starting point? How do you break it down and how do you like to generate your ideas or response?

Emily> I’m a ‘big picture’ thinker. When presented with a brief I’m immediately imagining at least a concept of a finished product. It’s then a case of working backwards to figure out how we get there.

Who’s the best composer for the job? What sort of instrumentation could we use? Could any of it be recorded live at our studio? Could we film it for some BTS footage? Is there an opportunity to bring in some signed talent? Could we build it out with Dolby and create an immersive experiential product?

I like to think holistically and open the job up to as many possibilities as possible, hopefully in ways our clients hadn’t considered yet.

LBB> Music and sound are in some ways the most collaborative and interactive forms of creativity – what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to work solo or with a gang – and what are some of your most memorable professional collaborations?

Emily> Music is subjective and music supervision, by its nature, is a collaborative role both in defining the brief with our client and then interpreting that brief with our composers.

My most memorable and enjoyable collaborations are the ones where you just click with the team and everyone is on the same page. I also love introducing creative people who I know are going to really ‘get’ each other which then results in an amazing finished product.

LBB> What’s the most satisfying part of your job and why?

Emily> Sometimes the music industry can seem overwhelming and slightly impenetrable to people who aren’t actively ‘in it’ so I really enjoy opening up our clients' horizons to really cool artists and musicians who wouldn’t have otherwise been on their radar. I also take a huge amount of pride in platforming underrepresented composers and artists and bringing opportunities to them.

LBB> As the advertising industry changes, how do you think the role of music and sound is changing with it?

Emily> The creative industries are navigating a constantly evolving landscape. The use of AI is inevitably going to impact both advertising and music, but it’s how we harness AI to benefit us as opposed to replacing the human element that is integral to protecting our craft- How can we utilise AI to enhance or streamline what we already do?

The role of a music supervisor is to act as the tastemaker, the curator and the juggler. There are so many more nuances to creating and/or licensing music for visual media than just ‘find me a track that sounds like this.’ It’s not just a creative role; things like budget, timelines, label and artist politics, historical precedents amongst many other aspects have to be considered when choosing music, along with human connections and relationships that make these negotiations work.

LBB> Who are your musical or audio heroes and why?

Emily> Very niche to my corner of the industry but I obviously have a lot of admiration for the women who have come before me and laid the foundations in music supervision and starting and running successful businesses – Karen Elliott, Maggie Rodford and Abi Leland amongst many others.

LBB> And when it comes to your particular field, whether sound design or composing, are there any particular ideas or pioneers that you go back to frequently or who really influence your thinking about the work you do?

Emily> I always love to see an ‘out of the box’ idea especially when it’s something you can’t quite believe got signed off and the team clearly had a lot of fun making. The 2019 Ikea Christmas ad using D Double E was one of those moments you think, ‘I wish I’d thought of that!’ Ikea has done some really boundary pushing campaigns with great musical concepts.

LBB> When you’re working on something that isn’t directly sound design or music (lets say going through client briefs or answering emails) - are you the sort of person who needs music and noise in the background or is that completely distracting to you? What are your thoughts on ‘background’ sound and music as you work?

Emily> I listen to so much music both in and outside of work. When I listen I like to be present, especially if it’s new music that’s been sent to me by the record labels. I feel like it’s part of my job to really listen analytically so I’m able to refer back to it on future jobs. When I’m answering emails it will be in silence!

LBB> I guess the quality of the listening experience and the context that audiences listen to music/sound in has changed over the years. There’s the switch from analogue to digital and now we seem to be divided between bad-ass surround-sound immersive experiences and on-the-go, low quality sound (often the audio is competing with a million other distractions) – how does that factor into how you approach your work?

Emily> I think my previous answer applies here but it is interesting that listening to music has now become so accessible that people seek out ‘listening experiences.’ It’s a luxury to go and listen to something properly with a good sound system. We’re excited for the potential of our Dolby edit suite; I’m looking forward to listening to things in there!

LBB> On a typical day, what does your ‘listening diet’ look like?

Emily> I’ll try to use my commute to listen to new music, although depending on my mood it might just be a favourite comfort album.

At work it’ll be a mix of listening to music submissions from composers who want to work with us and carrying out creative music searches for client briefs whether to be cleared and licenced for a campaign or to be used as reference tracks for a new composition.

When we’re working on a job there will be a lot of intensive listening to the tracks in production and working on feedback with the composers. On Thursday evenings we make a point of sitting down as a team with a beer or two and listening to all the new music we’ve been sent that week by the record labels!

LBB> Do you have a collection of music/sounds and what shape does it take (are you a vinyl nerd, do you have hard drives full of random bird sounds, are you a hyper-organised spotify-er…)?

Emily> I’m afraid to say I’m a Spotify girl. As a millennial who grew up with a CD collection and then an iPod, I still get excited about the fact I can listen to literally anything I want, whenever and wherever I am. We do get gifted lots of lovely vinyl by the record labels though, and I’m a big fan of ‘the album’ as a holistic product that you can hold and look at and listen to as a body of work, I really hope we never lose that.

LBB> Outside of the music and sound world, what sort of art or topics really excite you and do you ever relate that back to music?

Emily> I studied art all the way through school and it was on the flip of a coin really whether I went on to do that or music as a career. I have what’s called synaesthesia so sound has colour to me and colour has sound. They are one and the same in my head.

LBB> Let’s talk travel! It’s often cited as one of the most creatively inspiring things you can do – I’d love to know what are the most exciting or inspiring experiences you’ve had when it comes to sound and music on your travels?

Emily> The full body sensory experience of Space, Ibiza. The whole island has an energy I’ve not experienced anywhere else, and music is truly at the heart of it.

LBB> As we age, our ears change physically and our tastes evolve too, and life changes mean we don’t get to engage in our passions in the same intensity as in our youth – how has your relationship with sound and music changed over the years?

Emily> I definitely seek out more challenging music now, the weirder and more complex, the better! I also trust my judgement now when I hear something I think is either really good or really bad, which I wasn’t confident to do when I was younger.

When I was a teenager my dad told me exactly this – your music taste evolves like your taste in wine – you start with the fruity sweet rosé and the hooky pop and rock, and end with the full-bodied merlot and a tenor singing an opera by Wagner.