Berklee Valencia Grads’ Work Featured on Netflix Hit Show

Two graduates of Berklee Valencia’s Global Entertainment and Music Business program recently put their education to the test–and their efforts were featured on the Netflix Spanish original hit show Elite.

Marie Owyong MM ’24 and Christelle Bovin MM ’24 achieved their success through Berklee Valencia’s Publishing and Music Supervision course.

In class, students were treated to a real-world music supervision scenario when guest course instructor Paulina Marquez, Elite’s music supervisor, offered the class a special assignment. Students had the opportunity to pitch two song options for scenes from previously aired Elite seasons. For each scene, they had to explain their song choice and creative reasoning behind each selection, play a 30-second to one-minute relevant clip, and outline the rights holders, splits, and necessary contacts for licensing.  

Later that night, professor Grace Puluczek, the course’s instructor, teamed up with Marquez to present an even more true-to-life experience: students were given a last-minute task to submit by midnight and pitch the next day in class as part of their assignment. The only details offered were: find a tense, dark, epic track with a build-up that conveys pure revenge and female empowerment—in either English or Spanish.

“This specific task was used to recreate the urgency that music supervisors sometimes face and how to deal with a limited brief," Puluczek explained. 

Owyong and Bovin submitted the song “Feral Love” by Chelsea Wolfe, and their selection was featured on the final episode of Elite last July.

"It was really unexpected!” Bovin recalled. “However, when we selected it, it clearly felt like it was the one, so we are happy that our instinct was right!”

This Spanish teen drama, which follows three working-class teens enrolled in an exclusive private school, remains one of Netflix's longest-running original series and has been a global TV success ever since its premiere in 2018. 

“I was already a fan of the show, so finding out that ours was the one that was picked was just insane,” Bovin continued. “It reaffirmed my decision to pursue music supervision as a potential career and I owe it all to Grace’s class and this assignment.”

The Publishing and Music Supervision course, newly renamed for this academic year, is taught by professor Puluczek, who reimagined its curriculum with a clear objective: to design a course that simulates real-life scenarios while adapting to the industry’s ever-evolving trends, pairing top guest speakers with assignments that can have real-life outcomes.

Students in this course gain practical knowledge and skills to become music supervisors, working in film and television studios, advertising agencies, or music publishing companies. From scouting songwriters to understanding synchronization and creative music use in TV, film, video games, and ads, the course covers it all—even how to start your own business. Instead of traditional exams, course assignments replicate industry challenges. “I wanted to provide students with creative and real-life assignments, such as creating your own publishing company to understand the pitching as well as the brief process to music industry professionals,” explained Puluczek. 

The outcomes that arise from the class work have opened up new career horizons for students. "The Music Publishing course I took at Berklee Valencia helped me see more career opportunities when it comes to my interests in back-catalog marketing," Owyong notes. "Initially, I only thought back-catalog reinvigoration was the work of labels through reissuing and the very popular sample culture we live in. However, there’s equal opportunity to reinvigorate back-catalog through synchronization. Now, not only am I pursuing a career in catalog project management, I’m also a music supervisor."

As of this year, the newly revamped Publishing and Music Supervision course will have an even stronger focus on music supervision, aligning with the rising demand for skilled music supervisors. According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI) Global Music Report 2024, sync income surged by 4.7 percent to $632 million last year, underscoring the booming demand for music placement across growing subscription-streaming platforms, video games, and social media content. As the music supervision field continues to grow, the course positions graduates at the forefront to seize the growing number of job opportunities in this dynamic field. Building on this momentum with the upcoming academic year in sight, professor Puluczek observes: “The future assignments will be very in line with the practical work done this year, and we will count on great guest speakers to be a joint jury of the students' work.”