New Article on Music Clearances (1 Viewer)

[WillG]

That is a valid point. I remember reading somewhere that the reason that classic rock bands like The Who and Led Zepplin, who supposedly had "no sell out" policies, are now starting to allow their music to be used in Television commercials is because nowadays it's one of the only ways to get their music out to a wide audience (although I'm sure a little extra $$$ doesn't hurt either)
But like posted up above, often many parties have to agree and all it takes is for one party to say "No" to kill the possibility.

 

[MarkHastings]

A lot of the songs are used for the transitions between scenes (i.e. where they show the kids jumping around in that laugh-in style)


p.s. It's amazing how the music industry's greed has been such a rabid topic of discussion for the past 5 (or so) years. :frowning: Something's gotta change.

 

[PienSavaca]

With aggressive sale pricing, it only comes down to a few dollars in the end. Freaks and Geeks's list price was $70, but the set could be had for $45 (circuit city price). With popular shows like Friends for $30 or Alias for $40, F&G isn't that hard on the wallet.

I wish Shout factory many years of success, and hope that more companies license their 'tricky' material to them.

 

[Mark To]

I know I'm going to get grief for this but I want to reiterate something. Using real songs for a show that is not a period piece, is stupid. Why do all of these teen shows do this? There's no reason for it and I'm sorry but, good, they deserve this problem they stuck themselves with. The shows I grew up on had scores written for them. They didn't feel a need to stick the latest pop songs in every episode. So, I'm sorry that this isn't done anymore but hey, the producers made this problems for themselves. Too bad. Should have hired an arranger instead of plucking music off the radio.

 

[WillG]

Easy, to promote new music to the teens that watch the show.

I remember watching something about Beverly Hills 90210 and they said that one of the big reasons the wrote in the Peach Pit After Dark was so that the show could showcase music from hot new artists.

 

[Carlos Garcia]

I think a big part has to do with major record companies trying to make a fast buck on DVDs, because of declining sales of CDs. They probably figure if everyone is stealing their songs on the internet with Mp3s and such, then they'll make it back, and then some by overcharging the companies trying to release these shows on DVD. In the end, if the rights are paid for, and the show DOES get released on DVD, it'll be the consumer who gets stuck with the pricetag. So I suppose the only answer will be that the same way people have been downloading mp3s, they'll have to start recording their favorite shows when they air on cable stations, before they release these shows on DVD sans original songs.

 

[Sam Favate]

There was just an independent study released that found no correlation between downloading songs and lower CD sales. The result, the study said, was "indistinguishable from zero." This is significant because it is the first such study not funded by the recording industry, which has been perpetrating the lie that downloading hurts sales.

That said, I do agree that they are squeezing DVD and movie companies because their sales are down. It's the reason for sales being down that I take issue with.

A quote on the study (which was featuring in the New York Times last week) and a link to it:

"".......the first extensive economic study of the effect of
peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing has begun to circulate. Felix
Oberholzer of the Harvard Business School and Koleman Strumpf of UNC
Chapel Hill have completed an extensive empirical analysis of p2p
sharing), by monitoring a massive quantity of data about what was
being downloaded on p2p networks, and what effect that had on the
sales of the albums being downloaded. Their conclusion: "Downloads
have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from
zero." Or again, "even in the most pessimistic specification, five
thousand downloads are needed to displace a single album sale."


The study itself is at:
http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/Fil..._March2004.pdf

 

[Jason Seaver]

"...and these scores were performed live as the show was broadcast because they didn't have magnetic tape back then. And we liked it! We were grateful to have sound at all!"

Using pop songs on the score's just another tool for the producers to use; that they're having trouble with music clearances isn't an indication that it's a dumb idea, but of just how unexpected home video sales of television were even five years ago when some shows were being made without pre-clearing the music for video.

It'll get sorted out; this was a big issue for movies 20 years ago, too, but now getting video rights cleared is standard operating procedure.

 

[Randy A Salas]

I'm not sure how many different ways this can be said, but let me try again:

The record companies are not the ones controlling the rights to these songs. It's music publishing companies.

So, in the example I previously gave for the song Nights in White Satin, it wasn't Universal Music Group (the record company that distributes the Moody Blues' back catalog) or Threshold Records (the Moody Blues' own label) that held up the song for inclusion on the Wiseguy DVD; it was a music publishing company called The Richmond Organization (administering the rights for Tyler Music, Lonnie Donegan's company). End of story.

Poor music sales certainly don't help the situation. It's possible that the music publishers are hitting DVD companies hard because they aren't cutting the deals they used to with record companies and sheet-music companies (which also have to pay to reuse music). It's much more likely that they simply know DVDs are hot and that they can demand a lot of money.

But it doesn't help in these threads to continually misstate how things work.

 

[Dave Miller]

IMHO, poor music sales are a result of poor music. There is very little today that is engaging in popular music today. In terms of talent, Brittany spears can't hold a candle to people like Aretha Franklin, the Beatles, Elvis, etc. I know, I sound like an old fogie, but I'm not. I think I can accurately say that Brittany has very little vocal and musical talent. Just one example.

For those of you in the know on this legal stuff, how is Moulin Rouge at an advantage over WKRP? Have you seen the music portion of the credits rolling at the end of MR?

Peace,

DM

 

[Charles Ellis]

On a related topic: sometimes it's not just the publishers but the composers and/or the estate of the songwriter that holds things up. This is why it's only been in the past few years that the 1950 film version of "Annie Get Your Gun" was finally released on DVD and VHS. The same with another Irving Berlin musical, "Call Me Madam" which is being released by Fox this month on DVD. As a kid I always looked forward to seeing the '59 version of "Porgy & Bess" starring Sidney Poitier and Dorothy Dandridge on TV once or twice a year. That film hasn't been on TV in over 20 years, and still has yet to be given any kind of video release. Why? Simple- the George Gershwin estate had held it up in limbo for ages. Hopefully this "lost" film will once again see the light of day....

 

[Jason Seaver]

I can't claim to be "in the know", but I imagine that since studios have been making money selling theatrical films on home video for twenty years now, the licenses with the music publishers are taken care of for theatrical, television, pay-per-view, and home video purproses at the start. I seem to recall in the mid-eighties that this wasn't the case, and that a lot of videos were released with replacement music then (and even later - Wayne's World was, what, 1988, and had clearance problems on VHS).

 

[MarkHastings]

that was my thinking too. I'm sure the licensing fee is larger in that respect with movies. The TV shows probably have a cheaper licensing fee to use them just for broadcasting purposes.

 

[Randy A Salas]

Jason and Mark, you're largely right. For the past few decades, film companies have had a better system in place to clear songs all the way through home-video release than the TV side, although the latter has caught up thanks to DVD. That's why you can hear the song Nights in White Satin on the DVDs for Shattered and Casino but not on Wiseguy.

In previous years, TV producers didn't even clear songs farther than the original broadcast or same-season reruns. That created problems for the shows even in syndication. That's what happened with the Sonny Bono song I mentioned earlier. The song had to be recleared for a showing on Nickelodeon, but the co-publisher wouldn't do it. And that's why there's odd editing around songs in current broadcasts of WKRP.

 

[Marty M]

I'm not sure there will be much of a music rights for these shows. As I recall they didn't use much original recordings in these shows. Happy Days even changed the theme song from Rock Around The Clock to a new song.

 

[TheLongshot]

That was certainly true of "Birds Of Prey", since they listed the artists and albums of the songs that were played during the episode at the end.

Jason

 

[WillG]

I remember in a lot of teen shows, there was a feature artist bumper who had a song in the episode that played at the beginning or end. Didn't some shows even play part of a music video over the end credits?

 

[MarkHastings]

I can just imagine the ordeal "American Dreams" will have to endure if it ever goes to DVD.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Likely Dick Clark and Universal have already secured those clearances (isn't Season 1 planned for later this year). That's likely to be the case with anything that premiered within the past three years or so.

 

[Dave Miller]

I have not noticed that. So you're saying that even in the current broadcasts they are editing to cover songs that may have rights issues. Very sad for such a great show.

Peace,

DM