Studios best / worst jobs of securing music rights

Steve_Z · 02-13-2006, 10:22 AM

Who do you believe does the best and worst jobs of securing music rights for DVD releases.

The best job in my opinion is Sony, unbeliveable how they were able to clear all of the music for Seinfeld so far, including a Beach Boys song.

The worst job is 20th Century Fox, 21 Jump Street and In Living Color has had music changes because FOX is to cheep to clear the music.

Scott_J · 02-13-2006, 10:49 AM

Quote:

The best job in my opinion is Sony, unbeliveable how they were able to clear all of the music for Seinfeld so far, including a Beach Boys song.

I don't know about that. They've replaced theme songs on at least 2 shows (Married with Children and Dawson's Creek).

And BTW, 21 Jump Street is licensed to Anchor Bay, who has been releasing the DVDs - not FOX.

Gord Lacey · 02-13-2006, 12:02 PM

The best would be Warner Bros; 2 songs replaced out of all their sets. 1 is the theme song for "Life Goes On" and the other was a song on La Femme Nikita Season 2 that held up the release for months.

Sony has replaced multiple songs in Dawson's Creek, even editing out some of the episode when characters performed a song.

Anchor Bay didn't edit anything out of 21 Jump Street, Cannell did (they put the sets together for AB to distribute).

Gord

Joseph DeMartino · 02-13-2006, 12:50 PM

I don't see this as a "best/worst" thing, since securing music rights isn't something the studios can do or not do as they choose, and since the contracts for each show (many of them negotiated by producers or production companies, or by other studios from whom the show rights were purchased) are different.

Who does a "better job" of chopping down trees, the one with the chainsaw or the one with the hand ax? Chainsaw boy may cut down a heck of a lot more trees, but the guy with the ax could be doing an extraordindary job given the limitations he's working under. Given his advantage, chainsaw boy damned well better be chopping down a lot more trees.

"Which studio happens to have ended up, partly through blind luck, having to replace the fewest songs in its DVD releases?" might have been a better (though longer) thread title.

Regards,

Joe

Stephen Lilley · 02-13-2006, 12:58 PM

I think being unable to clear a very memorable opening theme song on a show a lot of people were into back in the day (MARRIED... WITH CHILDREN) probably takes the cake.

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Steve_Z · 02-13-2006, 01:22 PM

By the way, little off topic but as far as DVD set as far as extras, different versions of episodes, original music, the Seinfeld DVD sets are great.

Paramount does for the most part a very good job on their releases. After not including about half of the musical guests on season 1, they included almost all of the musical guests on season 2 of Chappelle's Show.

They also to my knowledge, included all of the original music on season 1 of Happy Days. I just got season 1 and 2 of Ren and Stimpy, and all of the original music is there, and since a lot of the music on R&S is classical music, I assume it is expensive.

todd s · 02-13-2006, 02:36 PM

Kudos to Universal for being able to keep all the music intact on Miami Vice. Something I didn't think they would be able to do.

Joseph DeMartino · 02-13-2006, 03:02 PM

Quote:

...and since a lot of the music on R&S is classical music, I assume it is expensive.

Did you mean "I assume it is inexpensive"? Classical music is generally much cheaper than contemporary music. Nobody is paying Bach, Beethoven or Mozart royalties, after all. The payment would only be for the particular recorded performance of the orchestra and unless an especially famous recording by a major orchestra is used, chances are that wouldn't cost too much.

Quote:

I think being unable to clear a very memorable opening theme song on a show a lot of people were into back in the day (MARRIED... WITH CHILDREN) probably takes the cake.

As if either a song's being memorable or a show's being popular would somehow make it easier to secure the rights. If anything that would make the rights-holder inclined to hold out for the highest possible price, and the studio less likely to be able to pay what was asked (based on anticipated sales of the series.)

Regards,

Joe

Kenny Neal · 02-13-2006, 03:31 PM

Quote:

I just got season 1 and 2 of Ren and Stimpy, and all of the original music is there, and since a lot of the music on R&S is classical music, I assume it is expensive.

Not necessarily. Ren & Stimpy used, to great effect, "program music" which was largely music written independently for needle-drop insertion into a wide variety of projects, often industrial and educational films. It's cheesy and meant to sound that way. In his own way, John Kricfalusi was paying homage to low-budget limited animation and canned music.

There was quite a bit of classical used, but since composer copyrights don't exist for most pre-20th century composers, studios can just purchase a library of no-name orchestra recordings (created for this purpose) and use them however they want.

ElijahS · 02-13-2006, 04:01 PM

Buena Vista used to be bad at securing music rights (see Felicity), but they've gotten better. When there was controversy over Scrubs S1 having replaced music, they made sure to promote Season 2 as having all of the original music. They've managed to not replace music for Alias, which is loaded with external music. All in all, Buena Vista is currently under Warner Bros. in my opinion in terms of excellence, though in the first years of TV DVD, Buena Vista wasn't.

TravisR · 02-13-2006, 05:03 PM

Quote:

The best job in my opinion is Sony, unbeliveable how they were able to clear all of the music for Seinfeld so far, including a Beach Boys song.

Don't quote me but I believe on the text commentary it says that the Beach Boys song is actually a cover that they bought to save money when the episode was originally produced. Cover or not, the DVD has the song the way it aired.

Mary_P · 02-13-2006, 05:12 PM

Quote:

The payment would only be for the particular recorded performance of the orchestra and unless an especially famous recording by a major orchestra is used, chances are that wouldn't cost too much.

Which prompts me to ask, because maybe one of the knowledgeable folks here knows: On the "Moonlighting" S1 & 2 set, as far as I know, the only piece of music that was replaced was a recording of "The William Tell Overture," which was used in "The Lady in the Iron Mask." Why on earth would they be able to license all the other music in the show -- a range of music from Motown to The Pet Shop Boys -- and *not* be able to license this? The chase scene at the end of that episode wasn't nearly as funny with the generic chase music that was substituted.

My vote for best: Warner. Amazing that they were able to put out "Murphy Brown" without sacrificing the music, and still delivered it at a very reasonable list price.

My vote for worst: Universal. I'm being vary wary of Universal TV products after being burned by music replacements in their sets, especially in "Quantum Leap." Most offensive was that they blamed the release schedule, not the cost of licensing, for necessitating the replacements.