The new radio? More fans finding music on TV

By Louis Hau

updated 11:20 a.m. ET July 19, 2007

Kevin Edelman gets a real kick out of introducing the public to new music.

He played Vonda Shepard before she got her gig on “Ally McBeal.” He played Maroon 5 before they hit the big time. And he recently gave thousands of music fans their first exposure to British rockers Kasabian.

Is he a radio DJ? Nope. A concert promoter? Not even close.

No, Edelman’s a member of a different and increasingly influential breed of cultural tastemaker. He’s a music supervisor for hit TV shows, including “Dirt” on FX network, “John From Cincinnati” on HBO, “Boston Legal” on ABC and others.

"To get actual ears to hear a record, I don’t think there’s ever been a better way than a TV show with 20 million viewers,'' Edelman says.

Viewers are all ears
Not since the early days of MTV have so many people found themselves discovering up-and-coming artists on the tube. The impact on music sales can be massive. Snow Patrol’s song “Chasing Cars” peaked at No. 5 on the “Billboard” pop charts and sold more than 1.8 million digital downloads after it was used in last year’s season finale of “Grey’s Anatomy.”

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The same series’ use of the title track from The Fray’s 2005 debut album “How To Save A Life” helped push U.S. unit sales of the Denver band’s album to 2.1 million to date, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

Both songs ended up on the show thanks in large part to music supervisor Alex Patsavas, whose long list of credits includes high-profile work for “The O.C.” on News Corp.’s Fox, where she featured a host of fresh music talent and debuted previously unreleased tracks by Coldplay, The Beastie Boys and U2.

“It’s gratifying that fans are finding new music in ways that they haven’t before,” Patsavas says.

The new radio?
So how did TV become the new radio, turning music supervisors like Patsavas and Edelman into tastemakers for a nation?

Radio can blame itself. While radio exposure remains essential for recording artists to notch platinum-plus sales, much of the FM dial remains mired in the nostalgia of classic rock and “Jack” programming formats or conservative playlists of new releases by mostly proven hitmakers. Those seeking musical discovery look elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the sharp decline in the sale of compact discs has pushed record labels and music publishers to seek new revenue sources and has left them more than happy to cooperate with TV shows looking to license their music. It’s also helped that many recording artists have dropped their previous aversion to licensing their songs to movies, ad agencies and TV shows. They’re no longer “selling out” —they’re “gaming the system.”

Perhaps the most important force behind the boom in the use of pop music on TV shows has been that the shows themselves have changed. The emergence of more adventuresome TV fare, led by critically acclaimed programs like HBO’s “The Sopranos” and “Six Feet Under,” has resulted in a proliferation of hour-long dramas willing to take creative risks.

And while much has been made of the decline of the sitcom, many that remain don’t use laugh tracks. That simple change has lent a different rhythm to shows like “Scrubs” and “My Name Is Earl” on NBC, opening up more room within their tight, half-hour runtimes for the incorporation of music for comic or emotional effect.

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