IT'S ONLY ROCK & ROLL, BUT I £IKE IT
In a previous series of blogs back in the depths of 2012, I looked at the use of rock and pop music in the movies - and increasingly, in TV shows.
It seems that this trend is exploding and providing another stream of income in these tough days of declining albums sales. As with all things, it's good news for some, not for others. The real action is in the use of songs in advertising, computer games and internet trailers - and whilst it's pretty obvious that established acts get a big look in, it does appear that *breaking artists* are being considered too.
It all comes down to a fine balance between economics and recognition: is the song or artist affordable in licensing terms? Is the performance going to deliver?
There's even a process by which all this happens - Synchronization Rights, the means by which music is married to specific visuals or promotions. The rights tend to be managed by the relevant song publishing company and the whole concept is generally thought to have been developed some years back by Andrew Ludwick of Warner Chapel Music. As with all things, there's a value to the copyright of a song and it's either the actual original studio recording or, increasingly, the composition and lyrics themselves. The Sync Process - as it's often called - is simply the means by which, say, an advertising agency will buy the rights to a song or content from the publisher.
Recent figures from the BPI show that in 2013 alone, something like £19m was generated for the British music industry using Sync, an increase of 3.2% compared to 2012. However, that's small beer when compared to the US market where every TV show, every advert, every on-line promotion needs to have the *right* song for their product. Some TV and film studios have been known to pay anything up to $250,000 for a song that fits perfectly with the soundtrack in a movie or big feature television advert. Clearly, many songs cost a lot less than that - and certainly in the UK, there's a growing market in getting promising new artists' work such exposure where perhaps little if any actual money changes hands: it's all about gaining recognition and trying to increase record sales.
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| Capitol Records HQ - Los Angeles |
This coming week over in Los Angeles at Capitol Records' round tower HQ, Sync Summit are running an industry beanfeast whereby prospective musicians and artists can pitch their wares to a battery of Hollywood TV, film, advertising and music moguls. From the days when many acts frowned upon their music adorning a TV advert, it's clear that increasing numbers see this as a route to viability and thus allow the chance to continue recording, writing and touring. Leicester indie rockers Kasabian have, for example, made quite something out of the way in which they decided they had something worth marketing - and that something was using their music to promote Premier League football when it was being shown in countries outside the UK. Their new album - 48.13, released this week, was actually made available to a Sync team from Sony/ATV Music some time before release in order that the deal could be negotiated.
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| Kasabian - They like football |
It's not all one-way traffic either: artists can - to some extent - choose the media or message that their music is attached to and thus underpin their own beliefs and views: it's no longer a case of a song being taken by, say by a Political Party for an election campaign, and the artist having no say over whether or not they approve.
Of course, at the end of the day, it's business and whilst bands and artists need to live, there is still something of a sell-out feeling when their music is used to make money for someone else.
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| Forty Years On - and still in demand |
So, the next time you see any ads on TV or on-line where familiar music is used, it's all about the Sync. And as a parting shot, for fans of the landmark TV series Breaking Bad (and Mad Men too), a single song in such a show can create huge demand for an artist: indeed, the producers on Breaking Bad were so keen to have the classic 1972 hit by America - Horse With No Name - in one of the episodes, that the script was rewritten to accommodate it.
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| Actually, pretty good for a whole range of artists whose songs were featured across the shows' five series |
Alan Dorey
1st June 2014
To some extent, I personally find this flabbergasting. But then again, I am probably the "animal in between" or whatever the expression would be, since I am both a film fan (having been raised by two parents both working in the film industry) and a music fan (that was my own doing).
ReplyDeleteI try to think of even one song or, more pertinent, artist or group that I began liking from having heard their song in a film or a commercial, but I can't come up with even one. I mean, yes, I do really like the Anton Karas theme to The Third Man, but when I think about it, I have not heard any other tune by the man, ever, although there has to be some. I was/am not not interested. Because The Harry Lime Theme is the *film* for me, not the music as such.
I also find, for example, that even though I am a great fan of Simon & Garfunkel, I found the use of their songs in the brilliant film The Graduate, featuring Dustin Hoffman, rather irritating. They didn't fit, they sort of distracted me from the film as such.
I prefer to hear music as music, so to speak. If I am to be introduced to a rock band or an artist I haven't heard before, I prefer to just hear the songs, as such. Not in tandem with a film, where I am basically concentrating on the film.
Well, so it goes. I probably am "the animal in between". And that's not even an expression in English, I know, but I think the import is probably obvious.
All the best,
Bellis
Thanks Bellis: I don't disagree - my route to music is always through the artist except in very rare circumstances when I hear something and need to go off and check it out. I guess the piece was prompted by the very real difficulty that musicians and artists I know have scratching a living these days - and seeing the BPI figures and the Sync Summit in LA next week, it felt useful to write about it. But there we have it - the days of TV shows and adverts using library music are gone - and it's the real thing they demand.
DeleteGreat comments - much appreciated.