We were lucky to catch up with Carita Miller recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Carita , thanks for joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Music Supervision for me to date has been self taught, using several different avenues including online webinar, several online classes (free), reading different books, and I even picked up a “mentor” along that way that I could ask different questions for clarification if needed. Knowing what I know now, I’m not sure that I could have sped up the learning process. Its not the song selection thats the real skillset here, its knowing all the business tactics that come with placing a song in a feature film, tv series, commercials etc.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have been deep in the roots of music from the early stages of my life to the present. I wear several industry hats from Music Supervisor to A&R Rep for Groove-Ment Records/Blk Night Music and Artist Manager for several acts, Music Editor for Beautiful Machine Magazine, Head of Music Video Placements for MuuzicTyme Video Streaming Service & EVP of MuuzicTyme Distro Services. My industry life started as a young dancer on a local Detroit TV show & appearances in several Radio/TV commercials. I knew at a young age that I was gifted with the “golden ear” when I introduced the R&B group H-Town to their first national TV appearance on BET. My mother, Montez Miller, worked at BET as Producer of two of the networks major shows and she produced several of their promo commercials! I served as assistant to Promotions Manager, Lisa Coleman at Arista Records and interned at one of Detroit’s top urban radio stations, WJLB, as the Producer of the mid-day Kris Kelley show. After having. my first child, I decided to jump careers and take on a paying job In the customer service field, after enough of that I started to explore other possibilities never really going back to my true passion which is music. I started to study real estate and played around a bit on Facebook with a good friend of mine, Dave Tolliver, from the 90’s Rob group, Men at Large. We started a Facebook live titled “Music Monday’s” where we were joined by a live audience and I was responsible for introducing artist that I thought were really good but that a lot of people are not familiar with. That’s where the name “The Lady with the Golden Ear” was given to me. From there, one thing lead into the roles that I am in today. It’s my goal to be the epitome of a classic role model: a fierce force, with the competency and capacity to balance my career, other’s career, and my home life as a mother!
I hold a degree in Video Production from Specs Howard School of Broadcast Arts and I currently attend Berklee College of Music in pursuit of a degree in Music Business. My role as Music Supervisor has allowed me to bring scenes to life in movies such as Dennis L. Reed II’s blockbusters – He Said She Said and First Lady 3…giving myself the right to be called “The Lady with the Golden Ear!”
As a professional Music Supervisor, I know that being passionate about my work has helped me advance and succeed in this competitive field. I have learned the importance of paying attention to the story that each project is trying to tell, a valuable lesson that has led me to find quality work in diverse projects and gain experience working alongside incredible collaborators.
Motivated and committed to my craft, I am capable of transforming footage into a creative production that leaves an impact on the audience.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
As crazy as it may sound, I never knew there was a such thing as a music supervisor or even a music business degree. Had I known of these things early on, I likely would have pursued both. I always knew I wanted a spot somewhere in the entertainment industry but I could never pinpoint my spot. I considered A&R for a while, which I do now as well, but I had no clue as to what a Music Supervisor was until I was asked to do the job. It’s been a true game changer for me and I absolutely love what I do. It’s actually almost equal to A&R in the aspect that you can actually assist in breaking an artist career with sync placements. The music business degree, which also comes also with a course in Music Supervision, is just the added bonus to solidify my role. An important aspect of being a Music Supervisor is handling music clearances and all the legal aspects of securing song rights, which includes overseeing completion of mountains of paperwork. The job requires a full understanding of how music publishing, sync rights, and music licensing work. I wasted time dibbing and dabbing into different degrees and schooling all the while I could have been pursuing a music business degree.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
To be able to say that I’m pretty much self taught is kind of a bargain point for me lol. Considering I’ve only been doing this a short while (since the start of COVID 19), I’m extremely proud of the progress I see being made in each project that I work on. To date I’ve Music Supervised 7 movies streaming on TubiTv and there are 4 more to be releases soon. Music Supervisors occupy a powerful position in the music and entertainment business, because getting the right music cues for a show or movie can elevate it to greatness, and having a song placed in a highly successful movie, show, or video game can push a Songwriter or performer into the public eye and help them to achieve fame. To see the final project and how the music placements mesh so well with the scenes they’ve been placed with is what makes me most proud. The music in film is very important even more important is the placement of that music it need to be a perfect fit for a scene and create the perfect mood.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theladywiththegoldenear.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caritamontezmiller/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLadyWithTheGoldenEar
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carita-miller-7224668a/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/caritamontez213
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCATu4XcYiWN3paECNLE0gSg