The Business Journal occasionally checks in with L.A. executives and asks them to describe their day. This week, Mara Schwartz, senior director of creative services, film, television and new media for Bug Music/Windswept, discusses her routine.

I usually get up around 7:30 or 8 a.m. in order to have time to check Web sites music-related Web sites such as PitchforkMedia.com, StereoGum.com and Idolater.com just because I need to keep up with what bands are getting attention from blogs.

I get in to work around 10 a.m. and check my e-mails.

Almost all major TV shows have a music supervisor in order to pick the music for those shows and commercials. The way that it works is I’m in touch with these music supervisors all day whatever needs that they have, I try and figure out what I have from our catalog that will fit.

It’s also important that it fits into their budget. A lot of films, such as indie films, don’t have big budgets, so they need something that fits as well as being in their price range.

I go out to lunch a lot with clients they usually have questions about publishing, about royalties and just any type of questions so they come to me.

In a lot of cases, if I were to place a client’s song for them not only on the roster, but in a deal, it could make a huge difference for their career kind of how the Shins are related to the movie “Garden State.”

I spend all day listening to music. A lot of times it’s music that I’m testing out. I’m listening to it in order to see if it fits into a particular genre or project that I’m currently working on.

Sometimes when we’re hired to work on a new project the film company or the commercial company will be really tightlipped about what the commercial or movie is going to be about. So then it’s my job to try and get as much information as they will tell me. Sometimes I can get it out of them, but sometimes it doesn’t matter. If they know what they’re looking for and they know their budget, it works.

I usually end up leaving work around 7 or 7:30 p.m. Sometimes I go home first, sometimes I go out and see live music. That usually happens at least three or four nights a week. A lot of that is seeing potential clients. But I do go out and see music for fun as well.

I have a lot of friends who are in the music industry who like to go out and see live music. They’re all in the industry so they don’t find it weird that I want to go out to Spaceland or the Echo in order to see a band. My friends are usually already at the venue or they’re on the list.

Mara Schwartz

Senior Director of Creative Services, Film, Television and New Media

Bug Music/Windswept

Cheers: I like both red and white wines

but my drink of choice is vodka and soda

with a lime.

Munchies: For breakfast I usually eat oatmeal and a grapefruit. I love coffee and can’t live without it. For lunch I usually try to eat something light so I don’t fall asleep. There’s a lot of good food places in the Sunset-Fairfax district.