On today’s episode of the “Daily Variety” podcast, Variety’s Michael Schneider breaks down the final laps of Upfront Week, which was hosted by Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix, and YouTube. And Variety Music Chief Jem Aswad delves into the music of “Rivals” in a session with showrunner Jacob Tierney, composer Peter Peter and music supervisor Scotty Taylor. The song was recorded on May 7th at Toronto’s Departure Festival for Music Creators.
For the biggest platforms, the upfront rite of spring has changed significantly in the post-corona era. As covered extensively by Variety this week, the main themes were sports, streaming and a host of technology-related stories that industry leaders see as essential to bringing the traditional TV business, rooted in advertising and subscription revenue, into the modern era.
The somber effects of industry consolidation were made clear this year at the Warner Bros. Discovery event, held May 13th at the Madison Square Garden theater. The presentation began with a tribute to Ted Turner, the late broadcast mogul who created CNN. It created a gloomy atmosphere that was never uplifting. At the same time, Schneider noted that the biggest players rely on star power to charm Madison Avenue.
“Amazon had a presentation full of big stars, including Oprah (Winfrey). They also spent some money opening the show with a performance by Kacey Musgraves. And Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up, too. Shabzi performed at the afterparty. So Amazon spent some money, and then Disney spent some money too. In fact, they ended the show with Olivia Rodrigo performing three songs,” says Schneider, Variety’s editor-in-chief. of television. “Netflix had a lot of stars. They opened up with[Jennifer Lopez]and Brett Goldstein.”
In conversation on “Heated Rivalry,” composer Peter cites influences on his scores, ranging from techno to Handel. Peter, a Montreal-based singer-songwriter, put a lot of thought into the sound design of Shane and Elijah’s romance.
“I wanted to create something noble for them, because for me, when I read the script, I thought it was just an exploration of love. So I just wanted something noble,” says Peter. “And the whole world of Rivals is really connected to the Renaissance and everything. So we wanted something very elegant as a theme for the two souls.”
(Photo above: Jennifer Lopez and Brett Goldstein at Netflix’s Upfront presentation on May 13 in New York)
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