Has anyone watched "The Lake House" yet? I am curious (maybe kt knows) how getting the rights for her song went... especially when they only used the instrumental portions of the song.
And yes, it took my breath away when the song came on. My Mom (who I was watching it with), asked me what was wrong
yes, any use of material under copyright requires the permission of the label, music publisher and artist. generally folks are happy to do it because everybody gets a cut, except for an unrecouped artist of course. maverick would say yes because they want to milk whatever they can get for meshell's catalogue; i don't know if meshell signed a new publishing deal or retained her own copyright, but whoever owns the copyright for the composition would then get a cut; lastly, what would otherwise be meshell's cut goes to maverick towards her unrecouped balance. typically an unrecouped artist is happy to cut into the deficit-- the sooner the artist is out of the hole, the sooner the artist (and anybody with points on the album, like producers) can start to receive their royalty on record sales. with all that said, a use like this in this show is typically pretty cheap, maybe 2k or 5k depending on the budget of the production.
when trying to answer these questions for yourself, just think about how litigious this society is and whether someone making a film or television show would risk being sued and losing their whole project just to use a particular song? always assume something becomes a big hit and there is lots of money to be made; would you throw that away instead of simply asking and paying a little for permission? it is just another form of insurance (risk management). kt
when "freaks & geeks" was canceled, people were worried that the show would never see the light of day on dvd due to the music rights. thankfully it did. one of my top 3 shows ever to air on television.
"sons & daughters" (not to be confused with "brothers & sisters") is having that same problem. it was canceled last year (unfortunately). among the musical selections were the rolling stones, grateful dead and black sabbath. the creator of the show (fred goss) has told those waiting for the show to be released on dvd that the music rights were agreed for the show, but nbc/universal isn't willing to pay for the rights to last forever for the show. it's sad because it was a hilarious show... and it wouldn't be the same if the music was changed.
it's disappointing to know that meshell still owes money to maverick and people like david gamson aren't getting royalties for sales.
it's sad to know that i probably receive more if someone buys a cd through freemyheart than meshell does.
I don't think she's under any obligation with Maverick anymore, other than she can't make any money off of the work she created while under contract with them until the debt she has with them (music videos, promotion, etc) is paid off.
they used Bitter in that huh? cool...
