Joe Rudge is an established music supervisor based in Brooklyn, NY. An experienced licensing professional and music fanatic, he works with film, TV, commercial, and multimedia directors to enhance the moving image with sound.

Joe started as production assistant at MTV & VH1, but soon found himself music supervising for The Disney Channel. 2006 was a breakthrough year for Joe, when he music-supervised the cult hit Brick, directed by Rian Johnson, for Focus Features.

Recent music supervision highlights include Blue Valentine (directed by Derek Cianfrance), Terri (directed by Aza Jacobs), Margin Call (directed by J.C Chandor), and the Martin Scorsese documentaries Public Speaking and George Harrison: Living In The Material World.

Upcoming is the much buzzed about Sundance award winner Beasts of the Southern Wild (directed by Benh Zeitlin), released by Fox Searchlight.

Music Supervisor Profile is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady where we interview the top supervisors in the business to learn their secrets and get valuable advice on how to break into world of music supervision. Some of our previous interviews have been with such heavyweights as Thomas Golubic, Liza Richardson, Andrea von Foerster, Scott Vener, Michelle Kuznetsky, and Gary Calamar.

This month we interviewed Chris Mollere, one of the rising stars in the music supervision business. Mollere runs the Los Angeles based firm, Fusion Music Supervision, which fulfills musical visions for Film, Television, Documentaries, and Video Games. When sourcing music, he draws from a lifetime of influences, including childhood travel around the world and his days as an undergraduate in Austin, Texas. Honing not only is tastes but also his business acumen, Chris has served in managerial, production, and promotional capacities throughout the music industry and since he moved to Los Angeles, has combined his interests in music with a passion for film. Over the past six years Mollere has supervised many television projects including The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, Greek, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Kyle XY. His films include The Box, The Haunting of Molly Hartley, and I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell. Chris also put together the soundtracks for Season One of The Vampire Diaries and Season One of Pretty Little Liars.

He does an excellent job of using Twitter a tool to promote artists on the shows he is supervising. You can follow him at @cmollere.

Music Supervisor Profile is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady where we interview the top supervisors in the business to learn their secrets and get valuable advice on how to break into world of music supervision. Some of our previous interviews have been with such heavyweights as Thomas Golubic, Andrea Von Foerster, Liza Richardson, Scott Vener, and Gary Calamar.

We recently interviewed the extremely talented Michelle Kuznetsky. Over the past fifteen years, Michelle has handled music supervision responsibilities for both television and film. She was the supervisor for Prison Break, and is currently working on JJ Abrams’ new sci-fi thriller, Alcatraz, and co-supervises the critically acclaimed FX series Sons of Anarchy with Bob Thiele Jr. Her feature film credits include The Station Agent, Happy Gilmore, Cop Land, Clay Pigeons, Kill Bill:Vol. 1, to name a few.

At first glance, Ian Rogers doesn’t look like the CEO of a cutting-edge music technology company. He has long blond hair and tattoos on his fingers, is an avid skateboarder, and loves hip-hop music. Rogers happens to be one of the music industry’s brightest visionaries and one of the most passionate people I’ve spoken to regarding the future of music and marketing.

He runs the Los Angeles based company Topspin Media, a direct-to-fan marketing and retail software company founded by Peter Gotcher and Shamal Ranasinghe in 2007. Rogers joined the company in 2008, the same year Topspin was named Indie Visionary of the Year by Billboard Magazine. Prior to working at Topspin, Rogers was the GM of Yahoo Music for five years. In the 90s he managed the Beastie Boys and eventually became the President of New Media for their label, Grand Royal.

Rogers practices what he preaches: the direct-to-fan CEO is also direct-to-critics. He is not afraid to defend his company on message boards, in person, and on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and blogs. He recently interrupted his family vacation in Hawaii to explain the company’s decision to shut down the San Francisco office.

I caught up with Rogers to discuss the Topspin platform and its popularity with over 4,000 artists, which includes diverse acts such as Odd Future, Drive-By Truckers, Paul McCartney, Blitzen Trapper, Neon Indian, Sigur Ros, Lil’ Wayne, and Gillian Welch, to name a few.

Music Supervisor Profile is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady: we interview the top supervisors in the business to learn their secrets and get valuable advice on how to break into world of music supervision. Some of our previous interviews have been with such heavyweights as Thomas Golubic, Liza Richardson, Scott Vener, and Gary Calamar.

We recently interviewed the brilliant and insightful tastemaker Andrea von Foerster of Firestarter Music. Over the last decade, Andrea has handled music supervision responsibilities for both television and film. She was the music coordinator for hit television shows Grey’s Anatomy, The OC, Rescue Me, and Roswell. She is best known for supervising the Fox Searchlight film, 500 Days of Summer. The movie’s eclectic soundtrack included Black Lips, Doves, The Smiths, Feist, and Hall & Oates. During our conversation, she made a point to tell me that she feels blessed to have the best job in the world.

Music Supervisor Profile is a recurring feature on Rollo & Grady where we interview the top supervisors in the business to learn their secrets and get valuable advice on how to break into world of music supervision. Some of our previous interviews have been with such heavyweights as Thomas Golubic, Gary Calamar, and Scott Vener.

This month we interviewed the super talented Liza Richardson. Her resume boasts Hawaii Five-0 , Parenthood, and Friday Night Lights. Richardson selected over 600 songs in the 5-season run of Friday Night Lights. Some of the artists she included were Pearl Jam, Wilco, White Denim, Ryan Adams, TV On The Radio, Explosions In The Sky, Black Keys, and Bob Dylan. Her film work includes The Italian Job, Lords Of Dogtown, and Y Tu Mamá También, which was nominated for a Best Soundtrack Compilation Grammy.

In addition to her work in television and film, Richardson worked on an IPOD commercial. The Texas native has also DJ’d for Southern California radio station KCRW 89.9 FM since 1990 and she was tapped to be the first DJ to spin for the Academy Awards ceremony in 2007.

[By Dave Kusek]
For slightly more than $2/mo everybody will soon have access to all the music they can find, steal, share, rip, produce, morph or buy using iTunes Match. Is this amnesty for all the music pirates? I hope so.

You put on your new eyeglasses, which contain a networked audio headset, letting tiny earbuds slip into your ears. You switch on the power, and the mix that your friend made for you starts to play. Music pours into your consciousness. It becomes yours. Continue Reading

Related Posts:
Rollo & Grady Interview with Dave Kusek (click here)
Rollo & Grady Interview with Gerd Leonhard (click here)

[By Antony Bruno]
Watching the race between Apple and Google to see who launches a cloud-based music service first is kind of like the children’s fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. Except they’re both Tortoises.

As for Google, the Reuters story speculates that the company keeps changing its plans and that complicates the licensing talks. Google also has completed work on its music service, as reports surfaced a few weeks ago that employees are already testing it internally and there have been leaks of the app in various outlets. So it’s fair to say both Google and Apple have completed work on their music locker services, and all that remains is the licensing element. Continue Reading…