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Going To Air with Mike Ladman (Droga5, McCann)
Metadata
- title
- Going To Air with Mike Ladman (Droga5, McCann)
- description
- If you watch ad-supported streaming or TV, you’ve heard Mike’s work. From the Super Bowl to multi-year global campaigns, he’s the guy behind the musical storytelling for the world’s best brands. Find out what actually makes a top music supervisor tick. How he discovers. What he loves. And also learn what goes into this wild job!
- status
- complete
- date
- 2025-07-08
- kind
- guest
- guestSlugs
- mike-ladman
- listenUrl
- https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lovemusicmore/episodes/Going-To-Air-with-Mike-Ladman-Droga5--McCann-e357gku
- lmwUrl
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuKeBGf9_qw
- appleUrl
- https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-to-air-with-mike-ladman-droga5-mccann/id1567355195?i=1000716290722&uo=4
- spotifyUrl
- https://open.spotify.com/episode/4VJamT4TQgdIy8swTkgpQj
- youtubeUrl
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6ZX5-8OuKs
- topicsDiscussed
- The music business
- Scoring for picture
- Radio and broadcast
- The internet
- Collaboration
- Genre
- Memory and nostalgia
- Music supervision for advertising
- Licensing and campaign briefs
- hostNote
- **Mike Ladman** is a music supervisor who's worked the agency side at **Droga5** and **McCann**, picking the songs behind Super Bowl spots and multi-year global campaigns. We start where he did, discovering music behind a record-store counter, a sponge for everything that came through. Mike walks us through what a supervisor actually does day to day: matching a song to a brief so it tells the story and supports the visuals, the licensing tangles that come with working across brands, and how the job has changed as streaming reshaped discovery. His working rule holds through all of it: better to lose a pitch with work you loved than win one with work you hated. He closes on why he's still doing it, that specific high of hearing a song for the first time, one he says never really goes away.
- selectedMoments
- label
- Welcome to the show
- startSec
- 156
- note
- Mike introduces himself and shares his background.
- label
- Music discovery at the record store
- startSec
- 323
- note
- Mike discusses his early influences and experiences working in a record store.
- label
- Changing landscape of music supervision
- startSec
- 727
- note
- Mike explains how the role has evolved over time.
- label
- The Super Bowl commercial
- startSec
- 1775
- note
- Mike reflects on his experience working on a memorable Super Bowl ad.
- label
- Navigating licensing challenges
- startSec
- 1091
- note
- Mike describes the complications of music licensing in advertising.
- label
- The importance of creativity in briefs
- startSec
- 829
- note
- Mike discusses the balance between creative ideas and meeting client expectations.
- excerptQuotes
- text
- I think a music supervisor's job is to make sure that whatever plays is going to tell the story and support the visuals.
- startSec
- 1010
- reviewed
- true
- text
- When you hear a song you've never heard before, it almost unlocks an emotion that you didn't know you had.
- startSec
- 4399
- reviewed
- true
- text
- It's better to lose with work we loved than to win with work we hated.
- startSec
- 4222
- reviewed
- true
- text
- I feel like I'm a sponge when it comes to music because I want to absorb as much as I can.
- startSec
- 570
- reviewed
- true
- text
- You can use that same energy to seed your future success or the next thing that you're going to work on.
- startSec
- 3324
- reviewed
- true
- text
- I love music because there's nothing like that high of hearing a song you've never heard before.
- startSec
- 4411
- reviewed
- true
- faq
- question
- What does a music supervisor do?
- answer
- A music supervisor oversees the selection and licensing of music for visual media, ensuring the music complements the storytelling.
- question
- How did Mike Ladman start his career in music supervision?
- answer
- Mike began as a guitarist in bands and transitioned to music supervision after working in a record store and exploring advertising.
- question
- What are the challenges faced by music supervisors?
- answer
- Challenges include navigating licensing agreements, meeting client expectations, and staying abreast of new music trends.
- transcriptPublished
- false
- draft
- false
Content
No body content; see metadata above.