Meet the Guys Who Make "The Hills" Rock

Besides that, what song or artist has the best conversion rate from appearing on the show to seeing an effect on sales?
JC: That's a little hard to quantify. The newest story would be "Pocket Full of Sunshine" with Natasha. Sales of Marie Digby's cover of "Umbrella" shot up 1,000 percent on iTunes the week the show aired. The Carolina Liar story is the most obvious because we were the starting point, as opposed to being in rotation on a radio station. It was unavailable and unheard of before the show and then sold 3,000 copies of the single ["I'm Not Over"] right after. It's affirmation for us that people are watching the show and discovering music.

Would you ever consider using Heidi Montag's own music on The Hills?
JC: I think we are most concerned with characters as they are on the show. We really want to experience Heidi as her character on the show and not necessarily any other aspects of her life. Although ? good for her.
JE: I don't think it's out there as something I can license right now, but I certainly wouldn't hesitate if it was available for that. The quality of her music certainly stands up. She's been involved with some top-notch producers.

Can you tell me where, amid all these breaking artists, the idea to use Frente's cover of "Bizarre Love Triangle" came from?
JC: That was Jon. I thought that was genius because the song just really worked and then many of us, who are not 14, had a pre-existing relationship with that song that brought a whole different weight to the scene.
JE: Especially for the ends of episodes, we're always battling to find the perfect song that says everything. When that one fell into place it was really cool.

Do you look specifically for female artists to tell these stories?
JE: Sometimes. It really depends on what we're trying to say. When you use a female voice, you automatically are transported into that character's head, so a lot of times you want to tell a story without pointing out whose point of view it's from. A male vocal over a girl's thoughts can work wonders.